Words I Write Crazy: Week 30 Reviews: The Witch of Duva, Shadow and Bone, The Tailor, Siege and Storm, The Too-Clever Fox, Little Knife, Ruin and Rising

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Week 30 Reviews: The Witch of Duva, Shadow and Bone, The Tailor, Siege and Storm, The Too-Clever Fox, Little Knife, Ruin and Rising

From Goodreads:
There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls...or so the story goes. But it's just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home.

From Goodreads:
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

From Goodreads:
New scene from Shadow and Bone told from Genya's point of view.

From Goodreads:
Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can't outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling's game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

From Goodreads:
In Ravka, just because you avoid one trap, it doesn't mean you'll escape the next.

From Goodreads:
In this third Ravkan folk tale from Leigh Bardugo, a beautiful girl finds that what her father wants for her and what she wants for herself are two different things.

From Goodreads:
The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she's fighting for.

My first review of Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm
My Review:
This was one of the best trilogies that I've read. It was fulfilling, sad, but what it's supposed to be. And the end brings everything together, explains things, and there's no real lose end, but how did Morozova make the first 2 amplifiers, amplifiers. I mean, did he kill them, and bring them back, or what?

I noticed the covers actually have the 3 creatures that they were hunting. I had thought for a long while that it was just the 2nd, and 3rd book, but nope, the 1st has the stag horns, which I didn't recognize at first, and yeah, that's just awesome, and I wish I'd seen it before, it really links them more together! Because they are all beautiful covers!

Loved how The Too-Clever Fox folk tale was mentioned in Siege and Storm, and how The Witch of Duva was mentioned in Ruin and Rising (I think) so it's only Little Knife that didn't get a mention in the full length novels.

I loved all the lines in this book, they were just hilarious, and the bantering, and the grousing, the teasing, and yeah, dealing with hard situations, like with the boy that lost his arm, looking at the pool of blood that he left, and saying that he didn't have to clean up because he couldn't use a mop. Good choosing laughing instead of crying! And it came up with a few hook ups, including Tamar and Nadia!

Things came together in this book. Like how she explained Mal's tracking as finding a rabbit in a rock, and how they found each of the other amplifiers, that Mal himself is an amplifier. And we find out what Morozova was wanting to do with the amplifiers because it happens! And how Mal is connected to both the Darkling (whose true name we got) and Morozova!

This was just an amazing series, and I absolutely loved it, especially since I know her next series is based in Kerch, so excited for that!

Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Geisha Trilogy #0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 2.6, 3
First Read: January 1st, 2012, May 2nd, 2012, June 8th, 2013, March 16th, 2013, June 8th, 2013
Read: July 23rd, 23rd, 23rd, 25th, 25th, 25th, 25th, 2014
Source: Online, Own
Reason Why: Rereading! And they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Books! And Ruin and Rising is a End of Series 2014 Book, LLFL Book, Reward Challenge Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Tor, Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), Holt Children's/Macmillan, Tor Books,
Published: June 5th 2012, June 5th 2012, May 23rd 2014, June 4th 2013, June 4th 2013, June 24th 2014, June 17th 2014

The Witch of Duva: