Siege and Storm

****

4 Stars/5

Alina and Mal are on the run from The Darkling after the events that happened in the shadow fold. However, when The Darkling manages to find them he makes it clear that he has big plans for the sun summoner involving Morozova’s amplifiers; also he has a new power to create shadow creatures that do his bidding. However, they manage to escape with the help of unlikely allies, a privateer called Sturmhond, and his unique crew. With The Darkling, The Apparat and Sturmhond all wanting something from Alina, is she able to help her country and keep the man she loves.

Siege and Storm is the second book in the Grisha series which has a really fast pace and a unique Russian inspired world, which is so different from other fantasy books I have read. However, while this book is still really enjoyable I felt it was not as good as the first book The Gathering Dark.

Alina has changed from the girl we first met in The Gathering Dark, as she is more self-sacrificing and sure of herself, but she has also has a growing darkness in her which I think will play a big part in the next book. I like the new characters but especially Sturmhond as he is arrogant and charming and I really did not see his twist coming.

However, there are two things I did not like in this book, Mal’s and Alina’s relationship was really annoying because if they had just grown up and told each other about their secrets and issues good they would had been fine, instead they decided to keep things for each other for what they thought was for the other persons good, which made it feel very juvenile and angst ridden. The second is that I missed The Darkling as he is my favourite character and such a big mystery but he is hardly in this book.

While this book did have a few things wrong with it, I still really enjoyed reading it and cannot wait to see what happens next in Ruin and Rising. I would recommend Siege and Storm to fans of the first book The Gathering Dark/Shadow and Bone.