This is a spoiler filled book review. Please be aware that if you keep reading there will be information that you may not want to know if you have not read the book. For a spoiler free review of Ruin and Rising click here.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Stars
Quotes to Remember:
“Na razrusha'ya. I am not ruined. E'ya razrushost. I am ruination.”
“Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what's inside you? That's steel. It's brave and unbreakable. And it doesn't need fixing.”
“They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things-if love can ever be called that.”
“Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay.”
“Yuyeh sesh. Despise your heart. Ni weh sesh. I have no heart.”
“Suffering is cheap as clay and twice as common. What matters is what each man makes of it.”
"He did not see the moment the girl ceased to bear her weakness as a burden and began to wear it as a guise."
"In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach."
*This is your final spoiler warning*
*Continue with Caution*
My Review:
So, if you read any of my previous reviews you will know that I didn't like Mal. Like, at all. Gonna just put it out there that I still don't like him. I don't hate him as much as I did. With new developments in this book the relationship between Mal and Alina was just a bit too much. I think fate or soul mates in books can be really cheesy and is hardly ever done in a way where I am not left rolling my eyes at the couple.
Nikolai, however, is an amazing character and I absolutely can not wait to read King of Scars so that I can see more of his amazing personality. Nikolai really went through a lot in this book and I loved getting to watch his character handle all of the challenges thrown at him. Nikolai definitely should have been the one to end up with Alina. I'm sorry but he was a complete gentleman from the beginning. He always knew what to say to make her laugh and cheer her up and they had this connection that just screamed perfect couple to me. Especially when Nikolai was turned dark and the only person he seemed to recognize/care about was Alina. And she carried around that ring everywhere she went. I don't think that they were in love during this book but I definitely think that something would have quickly developed between them.
As for the actual book, I took issues with some of it. Mainly with Mal, but I also didn't like Alina in parts of the book. She was making skeptical decisions and she blew off Baghra in a moment that would have saved everyone a lot of trouble. There was a moment in the book where Baghra heard Mal's voice and said something along the lines of "He sounds just like..." but Alina interrupted her and blew her off. I'm sure that she was about to say that he sounded just like Morozova and good golly that would have allowed them to skip over a large chunk of the book which was pretty much pointless. There was also a lot about the third amplifier that I didn't like. I didn't like that it was Mal and I don't understand how they never realized before. She has experience with amplifiers. She knew how she felt when the Darkling, another human amplifier, touched her and she knew how her amplifiers felt, so why did she not understand that her powers were being amplified when she was in contact with Mal?
I will also say that I am not a fan of the martyr storyline. We've been set up for the entire series to see someone become a martyr in this book and I just find something so unsatisfying about that. Maybe it is because you get attached to characters only to see them sacrifice themselves for the greater good, but maybe it's because it just seems so unnecessary in most situations. It also just took a weird turn in this book. In this book, Mal ended up being the martyr which was a little odd, but how can you be a martyr and then come back. I think that he should have died (maybe that is my own dislike of him) and she should have ended up with Nikolai (maybe that is just my love of him). Even without my bias on who she should have ended up with, it was super predictable and super unsatisfying.
Overall, I enjoyed certain parts of the book but I didn't like it as much as the other books and I would have liked to see some different choices being made, but I am not an author and I never will be so that isn't my decision to make.
Publisher's Description:
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.
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