Siege and Storm ~ Leigh Bardugo

Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Square Fish
ISBN: 9781250044433
435 pages
Source: Barnes and Noble

Bardugo has managed to do what few other writers have.

She has written a “book two” that is miles better than the first.

I felt a little lost through the entirety of Shadow and Bone but Siege and Storm managed to pull all of the random pieces from the first part of the story into an awesome mashup of adventure, love, trust, and betrayal.

Without giving too much away, the groundwork that was laid out at the beginning of the story morph and merge into a full-tilt rush toward survival. Alina, out fearless protagonist, has once again, gotten herself in way over her head, always with some dreamy but untrustworthy boy by her side.

Siege and Storm finds a much stronger and braver Alina, who is far wittier than her self-doubting, self-pitying attitude from the first book. There is a lot to be said for understanding and fearing the power we have the potential to possess and what we are will to sacrifice in order to save the people and places we love.

Another piece of the second book that took me by surprise was the humor. Again, this was a very different Alina than we met before and the dialogue showed that transformation. this time around, she was confident and witty, maybe a little bit bitter but far less timid. It had me laughing out loud which was pretty unsuspected.

I am hoping that the third book follows the trend of getting better and better as the series progresses. If you haven’t read this series or, if you stopped at the first book, I highly recommend giving it a chance, if mostly for the second book. Onward we go to Ruin and Rising!