Review: Princess Academy: Palace of Stone

Wow, that's a bunch of colons in the title. Oops?

Change is returning to Mount Eskel in the second book of this trilogy as the girls of the princess academy pack their bags and head to Asland for Britta's upcoming wedding to Steffan. Going along with them is Peder, who's to be apprenticed to a stonecarver in the city in the hopes that he'll be able to bring those talents back to the mountain when his year is up.

Peder's not the only one with plans, though: Miri's going to attend the Queen's Castle university, thanks to some strings Britta pulled. She's hoping she'll be able to learn everything there is to know in just one year, but once she arrives, she realizes that there's more knowledge in the world than she could have ever imagined.

She gets to work, though, making friends with a merchant's son named Timon. Timon hangs out with a bunch of reformers who want to help the "shoeless" peasants of Danland by ending the monarchy. At first, Miri really enjoys the discussions she has with Timon and his friends - their points make sense, and she's afraid of what might happen to Mount Eskel if some of the king's harsher decrees get enacted. However, she's also fully loyal to Britta, and is slow to understand that the rebels don't just want her off the throne - they want Britta dead. The way they see it, she stole the opportunity to be the princess away from the "real" Eskelite girls.

As tensions rise and riots start, Miri has to figure out a way to support both the peasants and the princess. She uses the tools she knows best: lessons from the princess academy, manual labor, and quarryspeaking, which has its own equivalent in the royal family, eerily enough. (There's a reason only royals get to live inside the linder walled portion of the palace, apparently.) Will she be able to support Britta without abandoning the shoeless? And is Timon a better choice for her than Peder?

(Spoiler alert: no.)

I actually really enjoyed this book during this reread. I'd read it back when it came out, and I remember feeling a vague sense of disappointment for whatever reason. That feeling didn't come back to me this time around.

I think it helps that I'm a bit older: Miri's struggles in a new place feel very similar to going off to college in the real world, and it's easy to understand how hard it is for her to wrap her head around all these new viewpoints and opinions she's being exposed to. She also begins to question whether she feels more at home in Asland or on Mount Eskel, which is also relatable for any new college kid. Her final realization about which place is home is such a good realization for all of us.

I'm always gonna hate Timon, though. He's very cocky and doesn't seem to get that Miri's upbringing was not like his own, so of course she's not going to understand some of his opinions or decisions. He also can't seem to wrap his head around the fact that Miri and Britta are genuinely best friends, which spurs all the trouble in the last quarter or so of the novel. He really needs to realize that the way he sees the world isn't necessarily the right way to see the world.

Overall, Palace of Stone is a good read for anyone who's just gone off to college, even though they're not the "intended" audience. Miri's new challenges and experiences resonate well, and it's lovely to see all the Eskelite girls learn new skills they can bring back to the mountain when their year's up. Five stars.

Review: Ruin and Rising

I was expecting to be infuriated by this book, and instead I'm just kind of....meh? I didn't hate it, but this isn't the ending I would have picked.

However, since I'm also not the author, that doesn't really matter, does it?

So, the final book in the Grisha trilogy opens with Alina stuck underground at the White Chapel, the Apparat's home base. He wants to glorify her as a saint to the faithful pilgrim army he's amassed, but there's one problem: she can't summon anymore.

Or, well, she can probably summon, but she's too far underground to call sunlight to her, and the Apparat's totally unwilling to let someone as important as her go back aboveground. At least, until Mal and her other friends stage a mock-revolt and blow a hole in the one room in the chapel that has aboveground access, allowing her to call on her powers and pull the rug out from under the Apparat.

He begrudgingly agrees to let them go in search of the mysterious firebird, which will hopefully be the third and final amplifier Alina needs. They have to be careful, though - the Darkling has been destroying access tunnels left and right, and they don't want to walk out of a functional one into an ambush. They also need to figure out who has to go along with them to find the firebird, and who they might be able to send over to West Ravka into safety.

Tolya and Tamar inform the rest of them about a somewhat nearby smugglers' post Nikolai used to use once they're on the surface, and they decide to stop there first, hoping that Nikolai is still alive and might be able to help them. After almost getting caught by the First Army, Alina's band is rescued by the man himself and taken to his new base up in the mountains.

They all reconnoiter there for a while, making plans and getting more training, and everything seems to be going relatively smoothly. (There are a couple minor bumps in the road, but they work themselves out with minimal damage.) This, of course, means it's the perfect time for the Darkling to attack, which he does. He transforms Nikolai into some kind of monstrous bird-like creature and does some serious damage to the rest of the group, prompting yet another last second escape.

Now a little more bruised and worn, Alina's group finally makes it to the mountains where they suspect the firebird lives, and they begin the expedition to find it. When the firebird finally reveals itself, only Mal and Alina are actually present, and it leads her to a shocking revelation - the firebird's not the amplifier. Mal is.

Baghra told Alina her life story back at Nikolai's base, informing her that she, Baghra, is actually Ivan Morozova's elder daughter. (Yes, that Morozova, the man who infused the stag and the sea whip with their amplifying powers.) She had a younger sister that died, and Morozova resurrected her, infusing her and not the firebird with the power. Alina puts two and two together, and realizes that Mal's descended from the younger sister, which is why he's so spookily good at tracking. She automatically refuses to kill him, but he makes her swear that when the time's right, she'll do it anyways.

The time becomes right soon after, once the band makes its way back to the Fold. They've managed to get word to the Apparat to send his army, but only a few came - they had to sneak out, because he wasn't actually permitting anyone to go. The whole group is planning on sneaking up on the Darkling's skiff once it's in the middle of the Fold, but he's expecting them, and soon their plans go too awry to be saved. Mal comes running up to Alina, and she does what she has to do, stabbing him in the chest-

-and then another unexpected event occurs. Mal dies, but instead of his death amplifying Alina's power, it releases it instead. Now all of the non-Grisha fighters can summon minor amounts of sunlight, and they figure out how to work together and dismantle the Fold once and for all.

Alina's powerless now, but she's still capable of wielding a knife, and she kills the Darkling herself. She also makes her friends promise that they'll claim she died on the battlefield, leaving the newly untransformed Nikolai to lead Ravka. The epilogue informs us that she and Mal moved back to Keramzin and began their own orphanage, where they're visited periodically by some strange, grand guests.

Like I said before, I don't know if this is the ending I would have wanted for this series, but it's the ending I got. Even though Alina's loss of power was much less voluntary than I'd heard, I still don't particularly like it. I get that she didn't like all the changes she had to make in her life thanks to the discovery of her power, but sometimes you can't just magically get rid of your problems and go back to your old ways. I'd rather she finally learned to deal with her new circumstances and accept that she can't just be the old Alina anymore rather than get this deus ex machina of an ending.

I at least learned to like Mal again in book three. He was kind of a brat in Siege and Storm, but he admitted to that in Ruin and Rising and tried to amend his ways, as did Alina. I'm still not a diehard Mal/Alina shipper, but I'm not so turned off by it anymore, either.

(Let's be real, though, Tamar/Nadia and Genya/David are the real masterpiece ships of this series. Canon lesbians! In a fantasy series! That don't just have angst all the time! Be still my heart!)

Overall, Ruin and Rising is really good to its side characters and only okay to its two biggest protagonists. They have each other now, yes, but I'm a little skeptical that they'll be totally satisfied with that for the rest of their lives. Four stars, because the writing was still A+.

Review: Princess Academy

Guys, I'll tell it to you straight: I want this to be required reading for like 5th or 6th graders everywhere. I just love it so much.

Miri Larendaughter feels useless. The only industry there is on Mount Eskel is quarrywork, but her father has never let her set foot in the mines, making her the only person (besides the very old and the very young) who doesn't help out with the linder. (Linder is fairly similar to marble, fyi.) The best she hopes to do is make good deals with the lowlander traders who come with food and supplies every season.

And then the bombshell drops: Mount Eskel has been divined as the home of the future princess of Danland, in accordance with the ancient tradition. Now every girl between twelve and seventeen will be forced to attend a year-long academy to teach them how to read, how to write, and how to behave, among other subjects.

None of the girls are pleased with this annoucement - how are their families supposed to mine enough linder to feed themselves if much of the workforce is gone? They comply with the decree begrudingly, though, and soon over a dozen girls are off to the old minister's house where the academy will be housed.

Their teacher is Tutor Olana, a snobby woman who's used to the finery of Asland, the capital city. She's very strict, too, and kind of a terrible teacher - she punishes a girl for speaking out of turn, and then again for not understanding the lesson she missed while in punishment. Miri studies hard, though, eventually learning more than just book lessons.

You see, the quarriers use what they call "quarry-speech" to communicate over the din of the mines. It's similar to mind-reading, and it's only ever worked in the quarry before - at least, until Miri unwittingly uses it one day in the academy. She figures out through much trial and error that it works via the linder itself, not the mines, and that the reason orphaned lowlander Britta couldn't hear it in the mines is because she doesn't have the lifelong proximity to the stone that the others do.

The tables turn on Olana once the girls put their newfound knowledge to use, and even the traders are forced to reckon with the girls when Miri realizes that linder is worth much more than the traders were giving them. Everything's going smoothly for once as the academy ball approaches, where the girls will meet the prince for the first time.

And then he leaves without choosing any of them to be his bride, leaving them stuck at the school until spring thaw.

Even worse? Bandits attack the girls a few days later, believing that one of them is the future princess and is just trying to keep it a secret. Will Miri be able to summon help from the village to save their lives? And who's the prince going to pick, anyway?

Like I said, I love this book, you guys. Miri is so relatable - she just wants to feel useful, maybe even important, and I think a lot of young teens (and maybe even twenty-somethings) can understand that. Also, everyone's sympathetic after a while. Olana's not an Umbridge-esque irredeemable villain, and Katar, one of the meaner girls, is shown to be dealing with problems of her own. I really love how Princess Academy humanizes everyone without treating the villains like special misunderstood snowflakes.

I'm also a huge fan of the writing style. The language is lyrical and reminiscent of old fairy tales without being hard to follow or overly purple. The chapters also open with snippets of lyrics from songs the characters know, which is a cute way of introducing what's going to happen, in my opinion. The one problem I have with more grown-up fantasy is that the language can get overly complex and fussy, so I love finding good children's books that tell mature stories with simpler language.

Another choice I love from this book is that - spoiler alert - Miri doesn't become the princess. The academy helps her figure out what she really does want from life, and it feels good - a nice blend of her pre-academy and post-academy lives. I appreciate that she didn't have to become royal to be happy.

Overall, Princess Academy is an amazing fairy tale. No monsters, sure, but there are plenty of "real world" problems that will keep you entertained throughout the book. Five stars.

(also, who do I need to call about making this a movie and getting cast as the lead? We are the same body type, you guys.) 

Seven Deadly Sins Tag

Saruuh tagged me in the Seven Deadly Sins tag, woo!

1. Greed - what is your most inexpensive book?

I got a bunch of books for free in high school thanks to my book club. We held these massive used book sales, and our advisor would let us take a few home for free if we worked them. I always had a bag full at least.

2. Wrath - what author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Oooh, this is hard. The most recent issue I've had is probably with Ann Brashares, because the first four Sisterhood books are great, but the fifth one was super disappointing for me.

I guess I tend to really like the authors I read, because I'm blanking here right now, guys.

3. Gluttony - what book have you devoured over and over with no shame?

I'm pretty sure I've reread Princess Academy by Shannon Hale like every year since I got it back in middle school. And the Harry Potter books, of course. I usually don't purchase a book unless I like it enough that I would read it multiple times.

4. Sloth - what book have you neglected reading due to laziness?

When I was working on Les Mis, I definitely had to force myself to keep reading through some parts. Same for the LotR trilogy. I finished them both eventually, though!

5. Pride - what book do you most talk about in order to sound like an intellectual reader?

Probably either Les Mis or some of the Shakespeare I've read? I try to read classics every so often so I sound like a good English major who doesn't just reread Anna and the French Kiss every month.

6. Lust - what attributes do you find attractive in male or female characters?

Guys, ever since I read Harry Potter way back when, my type has literally been Harry Potter. Dark messy hair, maybe not super tall, sarcastic, loyal, heroic, etc.

Cross-reference this with my celebrity/fictional crushes: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Daniel Radcliffe, Darren Criss, Nick Jonas, and Logan Lerman. We could probably chuck Robb Stark in there, too.

I have a problem, friends.

7. Envy - what book would you most like to receive as a gift?

Right now, maybe Percy Jackson's Greek Gods or e. lockhart's We Were Liars. I don't really have anything on my need-to-read list but things that haven't been released yet, so I'm in a bit of a lull currently.

Seeing as I know no other people who blog about books, I leave this open to anyone who may stumble across this post and want to do it too!

Review: Heroes of Olympus series

Warning: I'm probably going to get really emotional about this series once I hit the "personal thoughts" section of this post.

(photo cred here)

In this spin-off from Percy Jackson & the Olympians, we get a few unexpected revelations. One, Percy's missing during the first book - like literally missing. Annabeth's been on the hunt for him for months, but she has no idea where he is. This leads her to Jason, who ultimately provides us with unexpected revelation number two: demigods aren't only Greek. They've also got Roman counterparts.

Jason doesn't tell us this right away, though. You see, he's had his memory wiped by Hera/Juno, leaving him to wake up one day surrounded by a bunch of kids he's never met, two of whom claim to be his best friend and his girlfriend - Leo Valdez and Piper McLean, to be specific. After getting attacked by storm spirits, Leo, Piper, and Jason get sent to Camp Half-Blood, where they all learn that they're the children of gods.

Leo and Piper have their problems, but they do feel like Camp Half-Blood is ultimately the place where they belong. Jason's not so sure, especially since he keeps defaulting to the Latin names for creatures instead of the Greek.  That's not the biggest issue he's facing though: he, Leo, and Piper are subjected to a prophecy saying they need to go fight a giant to keep Gaea from rising and killing them all.

As they work their way west, Jason's memory slowly becomes clearer, and he drops this bombshell at the end of book one: he's actually a Roman demigod, and he's pretty sure that Percy's been sent to Camp Jupiter in his place.

Jason's entirely correct: book two is all about Percy's own journey through amnesia at Camp Jupiter, where he befriends Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang, two Roman campers with massive secrets about their lives. The three of them get sent on a quest to Alaska, where they also defeat a giant, and end the book by helping to save New Rome from Gaea's army.

Book three is where everyone finally meets each other, but things also get a little crazy. Percy, Hazel, Frank, Jason, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth know they're the seven demigods from the Prophecy of Seven that closed the original series, and they've got to get to old Rome quick or Gaea will successfully rise. However, Leo accidentally fires on New Rome, provoking the Roman demigods into declaring war on the Greeks. Now they've still got to get to the ancient lands - a place that's technically forbidden - and they can't rely on help from either camp.

They do make it eventually, though, but they're forced to split up. Annabeth's been given a harrowing solo quest from her mother; Jason, Piper, and Percy end up taking on more giants; and Frank, Hazel, and Leo make an exciting discovery in some of the underground catacombs. They manage to rescue Nico di Angelo, who had been imprisoned by the giants as bait, but then Percy and Annabeth are lost after falling into the pit to Tartarus.

Oops.

Book four switches perspective between all seven demigods of the prophecy as all parties make their way to the Doors of Death. If Percy and Annabeth can close them from Tartarus and the others can get to them in Epirus back in the real world, then the monsters they kill will finally stop coming back immediately. It's not particularly safe or easy for either group to get to the doors, though, and sacrifices are made all around to get Percy and Annabeth back aboveground.

So, let's talk about my feelings: I love this series so much. So much of it is about the power of teamwork and friendship, and that warms my heart down to its cockles. Sure, each of the demigods is exceptionally powerful on their own, but it takes at least two of them working together at any given moment to actually defeat their strongest enemies.

I also feel like I learn a little when I read these books. Riordan uses real Greek and Roman mythology to construct all his characters, so it's kind of like getting a little Classics lesson every time another new character appears. It's probably not entirely appropriate for academic use - the kids can get really snarky about the gods/creatures/etc - but the basics are all there.

Now, for the two things that make me ridiculously emotional: Nico di Angelo and the Percy/Annabeth relationship.

Ever since Nico lost his older sister Bianca, he's been moody and withdrawn, and he's made some questionable choices. He also never really hangs out at camp - either camp, seeing as we find him at Camp Jupiter when Percy arrives. A lot of the characters think it's because he's got a crush on Annabeth and he can't stand to see her and Percy together, including Annabeth herself.

Wrong.

He's got a crush on Percy.

There has been fandom speculation/daydreaming for years that Nico had feelings for Percy, and Riordan went and made it canon. He did it pretty respectfully, too - Jason's the only one who knows in canon, and he doesn't really change how he acts around Nico because of it. He treats Nico with a little more understanding, maybe, but it's not overwhelming or patronizing. I'm really hopeful that this development will get expanded on more in Blood of Olympus, book five.

And now for Percabeth. I'm gonna try to keep this as short as possible, because otherwise I'll be writing this all day: Percy and Annabeth have one of my top two favorite fictional relationships of all time. Literally the only thing Percy remembers when his memories are gone is the name Annabeth, pardon me while I cry forever. Percy and Annabeth are good for each other in a way that I don't really see a lot in middle-grade/YA lit. They're supportive of each other, they've got a good dynamic between them, and they protect each other without becoming smothering. When they get into yet another life-or-death situation, their emotions feel realistic to me (not that I'd know), but they're still able to function as individuals when it comes down to it. If I ended up in a relationship like theirs (minus all the potential for dying), I wouldn't complain.

Overall, the Heroes of Olympus series brings both the action and the romance without letting either overshadow the other, and I'm counting down the days til the last book comes out. Five stars and a box of tissues.

Review: Siege and Storm

Yep, it's official, I'm still all about this series.

Alina and Mal are across the True Sea after escaping the Darkling, disguising themselves and taking whatever work they can find so they can save up some cash and continue to travel. Alina doesn't particularly like it, but it's better than the alternative.

And then the alternative happens. The Darkling is waiting for them in their boardinghouse one afternoon, and he's got a new power: he can create shadow monsters, vaguely person-shaped and corporeal. One of them bites Alina, causing her to black out.

When she awakens, Alina's on board a ship heading back across the True Sea in search of the mythical sea whip, another creature that might be able to amplify her powers. Having more than one amplifier is supposed to end poorly for anyone who attempts it, but the Darkling believes that the storied history of the sea whip means it will be an exception.

The captain of this ship is Sturmhond, a notorious pirate. While Alina knows she can't trust him, she can't help but like him, especially when he promises he'll help her and Mal escape once they land. Sure, he was paid to get them back to Ravka - but he made no promises about delivering them safely to his patron.

The sea whip is found soon enough once Mal's forced to track it, and Sturmhond loads himself, his most trusted crew, Mal, and Alina on board a smaller boat to get her close enough to kill it for herself - she's not making the same mistake after the stag. Once Alina's killed the whip and taken its scales for herself, though, things take a bit of an unexpected turn.

Sturmhond fires on his ship and gets their little boat of the range of the Darkling's powers, leaving him to his fate and getting Alina and Company back to land. Another surprise? Sturmhond's boat can fly, thanks to some modifications he's made and the two wind-summoning Grisha he's got on his crew. After an eventful trip across the Fold, they run into a group of soldiers, which doesn't seem like it will end well.

And then Sturmhond reveals he's actually Grand Duke Nikolai Lantsov, younger son of the king.

When Alina heard he was off learning about ships at college, this wasn't really what she had pictured.

Nikolai takes the group back to the capital, staging productions about Alina's magnificent return as the Sun Summoner as they go and even proposing marriage. Naturally, neither Mal nor Alina is super thrilled about that offer, but he takes it in stride. He's much more politically savvy than he'd appear, and he knows they wouldn't be a love match.

Once they arrive back at Os Alta, Alina takes over as head Grisha and commander of the Second Army in the Darkling's place. She forces the different types of Grisha to work together to figure out ways they can defend themselves from the Darkling's inevitable attack, which actually seems to work out. She also tirelessly researches the third legendary Ravkan creature: the firebird. If she can manage to hunt down and kill it, she'll finally have more power than the Darkling.

Unfortunately, some things don't work out quite as well. Mal gets testy and restless, for one. He's now the captain of Alina's personal guard, but he's not cut out for court life and starts to resent much of what he's made to do. For two, Nikolai's spoiled older brother Vasily gets suspicious of Nikolai, thinking he's plotting to take the throne - which, to be fair, Nikolai is. When Vasily announces that he's made a treaty with Fjerda, Ravka's biggest enemy, he accidentally unleashes a battle royale on the palace, allowing the Darkling to basically massacre everyone around.

Alina and the Darkling have yet another showdown, and things aren't looking great for either of them by its climax. Will Alina become a martyr for the cause after all?

First things first: Nikolai/Sturmhond is possibly my favorite character in this entire series. He's funny, he's very adept at court life, and he genuinely does mean well, even if he's also looking to take over the throne. I'm really hoping that his fate being unknown at the end of Siege and Storm means he's not dead, because I might throw my copy of book three against a wall if I find out otherwise.

(Also, Alina/Nikolai might be taking over as my favorite potential couple of the series. Oops.)

Plot-wise, this book held up what Shadow and Bone put in place quite well, in my opinion. I loved seeing Alina develop as a smart leader, and I also liked Alina seeing that her actions have consequences, too. She's got so much power literally at her fingertips now that she's got a second amplifier, and she needs some reality checks every so often to make sure she doesn't go down the same corrupted road as the Darkling.

However, I'm liking Mal less as time goes on. He only seems happy when he's got more status/power than Alina, which is not at all a good sign. I can understand not liking court life, and it's fair to say that Alina didn't make a great decision in making him come with her to the Little Palace when she knew he wouldn't enjoy it. That doesn't excuse him being insufferable about Alina using her powers. We get it, Mal, you miss the days when you were the Big Man On Campus and Alina was your best buddy. Now grow a pair and get over it.

I think my only wish for book three is Alina finding an actually decent friend for once. Genya was being manipulated by the Darkling, Mal doesn't like her Grisha powers, and Nikolai and her other guards all have their own interests and beliefs, too. If Alina could find a trustworthy person at some point, that would be splendid.

Overall, Siege and Storm was a thrill from start to finish, with plenty more whiplash-causing plot twists and honestly funny sarcastic humor. I honestly feel like I'm in a bit of a rut now - I don't have Ruin and Rising yet, so what am I supposed to read? Five stars.

Review: Shadow and Bone

Not gonna lie, I'm not super disappointed I found this so late in the game, because at least now I won't have to wait for any of this trilogy to be released.

#winning

Alina Starkov is an orphan serving time in the First Army of Ravka, as all young citizens must do. Her profession is cartography, while her lifelong best friend and secret crush Mal uses his keen abilities as a tracker for the good of Ravka. Their unit is traveling west to the other side of the Fold, a dangerous, dark place full of people-eating monsters, aka the volcra. It's not incredibly likely that either one of them won't make the journey alive, but accidents happen, so they're both feeling wary.

Their unit is midway through the Fold when the unthinkable happens and Mal gets attacked. Already on edge from losing another friend to the volcra, Alina fights her way over to Mal in a seemingly futile attempt to save him.

Seemingly futile, at least, until she utilizes a dormant power she didn't even know she had and calls light down into the Fold, scaring away the volcra. Alina is immediately taken to the Darkling, the head of all the Grisha in Ravka.

What are the Grisha, you may ask? The Grisha are practitioners of the Small Science, capable of things like healing, manipulating the elements, or creating potent chemical compounds. The Darkling is their leader, a human amplifier also capable of calling down darkness as a weapon. They live in the Little Palace back in Ravka's capital once they're found as children, because all children in Ravka get tested for Grisha powers. So how did Alina escape?

Alina puts that question aside and tries to focus on learning how to channel her powers. Even though she's the only Sun Summoner the kingdom has, she can't seem to make her power come when she wants it. Once she figures out the key, though, she's releasing more power than anyone could expect - and the Darkling only wants to make it stronger.

The Darkling is suave and handsome, and he wants Alina, both for her powers and as a girlfriend. He claims that if they can find a mythical stag, its antlers will amplify her power so much that they'll finally be able to destroy the Fold and re-unite Ravka. Awesome, right?

So of course this is the moment when it's revealed that the Darkling is actually a power-hungry villain who wants to control Alina's powers so he can eventually take over the world. He'll use her gift to pick off all the volcra, then use his own powers to expand the Fold as a threat to Ravka and her neighbors. Alina manages to escape the palace, though, and meets up with Mal to find the stag herself and claim its antlers before the Darkling can claim them for her.

And then everything falls to crap again. The end of the book is looking pretty hopeless for Alina, but she finds a couple more tricks up her sleeves, pulling off one last daring escape as the first book in the Grisha trilogy comes to a close.

I adore this series, you guys. Alina reminds me a lot of Percy Jackson with her dry, uncontrollable sarcasm, and watching her banter with someone is a true gift. The characters are also fairly complex, acting for/as both the "good" guys and the "bad" guys out of pure self-interest. While we know that Alina's working for the ultimate good, we have to figure out alongside of her which of her friends are trying to do the same and which just want to work solely for themselves.

The Russian themes of this book are also fantastic, in my opinion. I've always loved reading about Russian culture and the Romanov dynasty, so having a whole fantasy series use Russian mythology as its basis is like Christmas Day for me.

I even don't really mind the love triangle aspect. Alina has always liked Mal, but the Darkling is attractive and captivating, and she believes Mal has given up on her. She feels a real, well-developed pull to each of them, and for a while it's unclear who the "winner" is going to be. (I mean, until the Darkling's true character is revealed, but even then it could still fall in his favor.) The relationship drama is definitely present throughout the novel, but it never feels like Alina's biggest struggle, which pleases me - she's got some real issues to deal with!

If you like rich fantasy universes and sarcastic heroines, then you definitely need to go read Shadow and Bone right now. Five stars.