Hello everyone! I'm hoping the weekend is starting right for you all!
I'm gonna be trying to sleep some before getting ready to attend the
wedding of one of my co-workers, but I'm leaving you all with the review
of a wonderful and heartbreaking book as this week's Saturday Pages entry!
As many others this year, it is also the final book in a trilogy and thankfully is one of those that has not disappointed at all! This book very much makes the series once again for me! And it also counts for my 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program challenge!
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ruin and Rising was one of those highly awaiting books of the year for me, and really there seems to have been a few already. But when so many amazing series end this year, how can you not be dying to read them all!?
I was a bit concerned about spoilers for this one since many bookstores seemed to be putting it up on their shelves early and my Kindle copy was the one releasing on Thursday instead of Tuesday, but luckily everyone in my Twitter feed was awesome and I didn't get the book spoiled! I have also to give a big thanks to Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction for being there for me while I was reading and DMing her like mad on Twitter!!
I will try my very best to keep this review spoiler free for the book, but you can expect some spoilers here and there for the previous books. Still, if you want to enjoy Ruin & Rising properly? Just go into the book as blind as possible! It's a brilliant book, with plenty of unexpected twists and revelations and the less you know about it all, the better! You've been warned!
Ruin & Rising starts where Siege & Storm left us, and the pacing at first seemed as unhurried as the one in Siege & Storm. I thought that Siege & Storm had a bit of a middle book syndrome since it was more of a slow book, but after finishing the series... all the build up done in Siege & Storm was necessary and I'm sure that when I do the re-read of the whole series I see in my future, I'll think differently about that book. Even with the slow pace of the first third of the book we were treated to plenty of surprises, character development and plot progression. Then everything changes as we near the middle of the book and I can only say... brace yourselves for Chapter 11! I just couldn't read fast enough! And then the final part of the book... prepare yourself for having your heart broken and fixed and broken and... well, it's a rollercoaster of emotions! I loved the ending even if my heart was left aching for a few characters.
Alina really shines in this book. She has to recover from the battle and the events at the end of Siege & Storm, and she has to find a way to wield her power and not lose herself to it. Her journey is quite a tough one, but luckily she learns that she doesn't have to undertake it alone.
Each three of the guys in this book, each three of plausible love interests can also be seen as each of the three different faces of Alina. Mal is her human side, the orphan that was unsure of herself but still didn't bow down easily and loved fiercely and loyally. Nikolai is power and responsability, the need to do what's right and lead the people of Ravka, he might be rakish and fun and a bit of rogue, but he would be bound by duty and honour. And the Darkling, well he's the siren song of her power and the lure of giving into it, letting it rule you instead of letting your human side win. If you want to know who wins... read the book, my lips are sealed! I'll just let you know I felt the Darkling at his most alluring and he's a fantastic villain, Nikolai was as sarcasting and amazing as ever, and Mal... I had disliked Mal in Siege & Storm, but he does redeem himself in this one, in spades!
All the other secondary characters are also present and important, and quite a few of them are also part of bigger or smaller revelations that shape the plot. I continue to be blown away by the way Leigh Bardugo makes us fall in love with not just the main characters but the secondary one. I simple adored Genya and David and the twins!
I'm gonna stop babbling now, I still have a massive book hangover with this one, and I feel like re-reading the entire series once my hardcovers arrive, cause I ordered them all once I finished this one! 5 shiny and well deserved stars!!
View all my reviews
As many others this year, it is also the final book in a trilogy and thankfully is one of those that has not disappointed at all! This book very much makes the series once again for me! And it also counts for my 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program challenge!
Ruin and Rising by Leigh BardugoMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ruin and Rising was one of those highly awaiting books of the year for me, and really there seems to have been a few already. But when so many amazing series end this year, how can you not be dying to read them all!?
I was a bit concerned about spoilers for this one since many bookstores seemed to be putting it up on their shelves early and my Kindle copy was the one releasing on Thursday instead of Tuesday, but luckily everyone in my Twitter feed was awesome and I didn't get the book spoiled! I have also to give a big thanks to Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction for being there for me while I was reading and DMing her like mad on Twitter!!
I will try my very best to keep this review spoiler free for the book, but you can expect some spoilers here and there for the previous books. Still, if you want to enjoy Ruin & Rising properly? Just go into the book as blind as possible! It's a brilliant book, with plenty of unexpected twists and revelations and the less you know about it all, the better! You've been warned!
Ruin & Rising starts where Siege & Storm left us, and the pacing at first seemed as unhurried as the one in Siege & Storm. I thought that Siege & Storm had a bit of a middle book syndrome since it was more of a slow book, but after finishing the series... all the build up done in Siege & Storm was necessary and I'm sure that when I do the re-read of the whole series I see in my future, I'll think differently about that book. Even with the slow pace of the first third of the book we were treated to plenty of surprises, character development and plot progression. Then everything changes as we near the middle of the book and I can only say... brace yourselves for Chapter 11! I just couldn't read fast enough! And then the final part of the book... prepare yourself for having your heart broken and fixed and broken and... well, it's a rollercoaster of emotions! I loved the ending even if my heart was left aching for a few characters.
Alina really shines in this book. She has to recover from the battle and the events at the end of Siege & Storm, and she has to find a way to wield her power and not lose herself to it. Her journey is quite a tough one, but luckily she learns that she doesn't have to undertake it alone.
Each three of the guys in this book, each three of plausible love interests can also be seen as each of the three different faces of Alina. Mal is her human side, the orphan that was unsure of herself but still didn't bow down easily and loved fiercely and loyally. Nikolai is power and responsability, the need to do what's right and lead the people of Ravka, he might be rakish and fun and a bit of rogue, but he would be bound by duty and honour. And the Darkling, well he's the siren song of her power and the lure of giving into it, letting it rule you instead of letting your human side win. If you want to know who wins... read the book, my lips are sealed! I'll just let you know I felt the Darkling at his most alluring and he's a fantastic villain, Nikolai was as sarcasting and amazing as ever, and Mal... I had disliked Mal in Siege & Storm, but he does redeem himself in this one, in spades!
All the other secondary characters are also present and important, and quite a few of them are also part of bigger or smaller revelations that shape the plot. I continue to be blown away by the way Leigh Bardugo makes us fall in love with not just the main characters but the secondary one. I simple adored Genya and David and the twins!
I'm gonna stop babbling now, I still have a massive book hangover with this one, and I feel like re-reading the entire series once my hardcovers arrive, cause I ordered them all once I finished this one! 5 shiny and well deserved stars!!
View all my reviews
