Review: Siege and Storm

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was really hoping to get an extra star out of this but, alas, it was not to be. The first book, Shadow and Bone, was a decent introduction with a little bit of action but where this one should have really taken off it actually slowed down with all the politics and strategies. I enjoyed it, but I'm not gonna lie: I was a bit underwhelmed.

Warning: This review may contain unhidden spoilers for the first book.

So. Man, has Mal turned into a whiny little kid or what?

He was so damn frustrating. He spends most of the book brooding. Spoiler alert: you will probably hate Mal by the end of the book. I know I did. I actually liked the guy in the first book - cocky, sure of himself, fun, cheeky, and totally endearing. And now we have this lil mopey guy who just wants to settle down and have his missus stay at home cooking and cleaning in between popping out 2 kids while he works hard at the factory. (I might be exaggerating that part but basically it's important to know that Mal is basically no fun at all.)

Plus, politics? *yawns* I HATE talk of war strategies and borders and troops and divisions etc just SLAY OR DON'T SLAY. I just didn't feel like there was any huge development in that area and it really didn't hold my attention all that well. I really more adventures and magic.

I'll take more of Nikolai also, please and thank you.

Now there's a fun character. Sorry Mal, but your place on the Alina ship has been taken by this handsome young fellow. He's much more charming and also cheeky and I guess it turns out that I have kind of a weakness for cheeky because it gives me insta-love every time. Nikolai was way more fun than Mal and I wish Alina could see that because she's a bit infected with Mal's mopiness and doesn't seem to have any fun at all. Unless she's with Nikolai. Girl, please. Do us all that favour. He'll treat you like a queen. *wink*

I also really liked the T twins whose names escape me currently but that's a little bit because they're all Russian names and so spelt weird and because I don't have to speak them out loud I don't really bother trying to figure out how you'd pronounce them. But the T twins were cool although very typical in the small-brains+big-brawn formula.

I also really appreciate the creatures in this series because they're colourful and different but they don't get nearly enough time between the pages. Like the big magic water serpent at the start - I wanted Alina to tame him so that she could ride him around and be secret Queen of the Sea or something but no such luck. The animals in this book are not very well respected.

The Darkling is ... dark? He's still got that shadow thing going only now he's an exile with demon bat sidekicks and a bad case of malnutrition. I miss the suave, seductive Darkling. Le sigh.

So there were kind of a few things that bugged me but I did overall enjoy it and it also had some moments that actually got me good! Like, below the belt, straight in the feels. So that kinda kept me on my toes.

I guess if you enjoyed the first book you might as well read this sequel, if only for Nikolai. Then hopefully we get a 4-5 star read out of the next one! *crosses fingers*

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