I fell in love with Bardugo's Grishaverse in Shadow and Bone, and found much to love in the sequel. It's not perfect, but it's a great sequel and continues a lot of the themes of the first one. Alina and Mal think that they are safely away from Ravka and the reach of the Darkling in a new land. But they find that they cannot run for long, and that the Darkling is far more powerful than they give him credit for.Brought back (largely against their will) to Ravka, Alina finds that she will need to summon new reservoirs of power to help fight against the Darkling and lead an army of Grisha against him. But the very power she needs also drives a wedge between her and Mal.
What I love about this series: I love the richly imagined world and the Russian feel of Ravka. And I love that Bardugo doesn't shy away from making Alina make hard choices. I love that Alina herself is complex: sometimes shy, sometimes driven by desire and longing, sometimes funny, often conflicted about what she wants for herself. I don't always love Mal (truth is, I secretly prefer the Darkling, immoral though he might be). And in this new book, I love the new character of Prince Nikolai.
This book is dark, though--and as the second in a trilogy, it definitely does not have happy ending. I really enjoyed it, even if I didn't love it as much as the first book. It's not a perfect book (the middle is slow in parts and sometimes the relationship drama is a bit much), but it has so many good things going for it that I can forgive those.
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