Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

3.75/5 stars

A part of me truly regrets not waiting to read Six of Crows until after I read Shadow and Bone simply because now I am comparing all of Leigh Bardugo's works to the masterpiece that is Six of Crows.

My central thought on this novel:

It was entertaining...enough.

Okay, so I definitely enjoyed this as I was reading it and I will 100% read the rest of the series however, once I was done reading and reflected a little I realized that this book -- that I initially thought would be a solid 4-star book -- actually turned out to be extremely flawed.

Having read Six of Crows beforehand I was already introduced to the Grishaverse, but going into this novel I was expecting a lot more explanation and world-building. Bardugo kind of throws you into the world and to some people that may not be a bad thing, but for me personally I needed more explanation.

Alina is our wonderfully simple main character (note my sarcasm). Our main character is a bit disappointing. She is the run-of-the-mill "kick-ass" protagonist with no personality traits besides what makes her different from everyone else. Really reminds me of Tris from Divergent in the worst way you can possibly imagine.

This love triangle. This love triangle is probably the biggest reason why this book did not get over 4 stars. So at first, *here come minor spoilers** when the Darkling was portrayed as one of the good guys and a possible love interest for Alina, their whole -- I can't even say love -- two kiss and dip type scenario was so strange to me. Their first kiss was so out of nowhere and she had feelings for Mal the entire time. It was just weird and gave me a lot of uncomfortable vibes. And then when Mal comes back into the picture after she fled the Little Palace, he just suddenly shows interest in Alina now that she's pretty and has a figure after all that Grisha training? LMAO.

I have a love-hate relationship with the beginning of this book. The main complaint I have about it is that it is SO GODAMN TROPEY. For instance, our main character: not very pretty, in love with her best friend, every girl in sight is attracted to him. And then she meets the Darkling. He broods! She was always beautiful underneath.

I am still and will continue to be in awe of Leigh Bardugo even if I didn't like this book as much as I thought I was going to. Writers' ability to create new worlds is a concept that I'll never be able to grasp and is something I will always be in amazement of. I would never advise anyone against reading this book because, despite all of its aforementioned flaws, it was super entertaining.

Count on my review of Seige and Storm.