~ 3.5 stars ~"I am become a blade"Writing is not that easy. But, Grammarly can help. This sentence is grammatically correct, but it's wordy, and hard to read. I know that line was purposefully written that way, but making fun of Mal is my passion, so I will take every opportunity I can get.This book was the best in the series. At least it was the one I enjoyed the most. ~ plot ~It was easy to follow and enjoyable for the most part. But that ending was horrible. It felt underwhelming and stupid a...

2 StarsOverview: Then he cupped my cheek, his thumb tracing my lip."You are all I've ever wanted," he said. "You are the whole of my heart.” ^My face right now. Let me preface this roast by stating-- my problem isn’t the love triangle. (If you can even call it that.) I’m not upset things didn’t turn out like I wanted, I’m frustrated the conclusion was a hot mess of nonexistent plot and unwinding character development. (Though I do obviously hate one of the love interests with all of my so

Holy shit. This was brilliant and terrible and I have so many feels I can't even begin to describe.Ok ok, listen. I know there are so many conflicting reviews on this book. But as for me? I literally could not choose how I wanted it to end.I know, I might be a terrible person but I was totally OK with all three ending scenarios. At the beginning of this book, I was literally rooting for Alina to save the Darkling (or turn dark herself), Alina with Nikolai, and Alina and Mal (though this was my l...

I AM SO PISSED. I AM SO PISSED.Please allow me the indulgence of using an extended metaphor to describe this series.The first book is the first stages of love. It's not true love, but infatuation. You are ensnared by his looks, enamored by everything he does. His quirks are adorable. His faults are overlooked because it's a part of who he is. It's part of what makes him special. So what if he has a habit of scratching his ass in public? It's cute.The second book is the "settling in" stage of the...

may 2021 updatei still haven’t finished the show yet but i’m writing darklina/alarkling fic hi: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310...february 2021 updateanyway the shadow & bone trailer kinda slaps why lie 😭 all my besties make some mfing noise 🌘✨ about to get baited and clowned again but oh welljanuary 2021 updatei caved & am now anticipating the s&b show for no other reason except annoying nostalgia and my love for darklina... (also i love the casting for the darkling & alina? 😭)anyhow, i’

"You learn more by losing."This is how a series is supposed to end! Ruin & Rising made up for any and all complaints I had on the series so far. Whatever I felt was lacking when it came to the depth of characters, or plot in first two books isn't even noticeable anymore: This one is by far my favorite of the trilogy. I've given each of the trilogy a 4-star rating, but the first two felt like 3.5-stars whereas this was like 4.5-stars. Everything's improved beautifully, and ends the trilogy much b...

That was an interesting conclusion to the trilogy. I can't say I'm super satisfied with how things came together, but it was still enjoyable! My main gripe with this series is it's lack of plot. I wanted more from the story, all three books feel like this build up to the ending, but nothing happens during those build up moments. (obviously this is just my opinion, you don't have to agree with me!)

They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things--if love can ever be called that.<34.5 stars Oh, and Leigh Bardugo talked to me about the glorious, glorious food of the Grisha trilogy here during this fairy tale lunch: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2014...

la la la la la tis impossible for me to say anything coherent about the Grisha trilogy because I love it so much. What a wonderful conclusion. I'm so happy I finally continued with this series this year.

1.) Shadow and Bone ★★★★★2.) Siege and Storm ★★★This book was a whole lot of ruin and not enough rising. This review is going to have mild spoilers, especially with information about Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm, so please proceed with caution if you haven't read this trilogy. Moral of this story:If you want the super hot guy you've been fantasizing about for years, make sure you never show that you can be more powerful than him in any aspect of your life. Mal wanted her powerless and he

”They will starve for you, lay down their lives and their children’s lives for you. They will make war without fear and die rejoicing. There is no greater power than faith, and there will be no greater army than one driven by it.” Three books and I still hate the Apparat! *lol* Guess that says enough about him and his despicable character. XD Despite everything he unfortunately has a point though. Now that Alina has become Sankta Alina for so many people they think that she’s the answer to all t...

There’s a repeated problem within this novel where the time skips. The first book ends with the leads off to a new adventure. That new adventure is compromised and they are in the same old situation as before the finale less than twenty pages in. The second book ends with the lead characters in a bad situation. They are out of that bad situation less than forty pages into this book. It’s a really weird element and makes this story feel really unpolished. Now, you might be thinking, Elise, I love...

4.4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️“Na razrusha'ya. I am not ruined. E'ya razrushost. I am ruination.”Look, I ain't gonna lie, I finished this book two weeks ago but hadn't had the time to write a good review about it (fuck you work) so I left it till this moment. And since then, because I'm a fucking goldfish, I don't remember shit. I delve into so many new stories each week, whether they may be tv shows, movies and books (obvs) that my mind is at its full capacity. My mind is 1tb and the fucking info is 5...

(view spoiler)[This perfectly describes how I feel about the ending: (hide spoiler)]["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

Leigh Bardugo has come a long way. Ruin and Rising was actually... okay. It was fine. (I rated the first two books one star. So this is a pleasant surprise.) I'm not exactly sure why it was better, but I think it's because Mal was hardly present. And because it quit the whole mean-girl subplot. I liked quite a few things about this book. Like the Darkling. I despised him in the first book and liked him a little more in the second one, but in this book, my favorite scenes were the ones with the D...

my original review wasnt much of a review, but more like an expression of awe. and gratefully, i still felt those feelings with this reread. so yes, my rating is very much based in nostalgia and personal bias. but man, this book (and series) is something else. i understand why reviews for this are mixed. where people saw filler, i read character development. and where others felt an imbalance of plot, i noticed the groundwork laid for character conclusions. so i guess what i am saying is the cha...

Moral of the story: A woman should never show more strength and power than her boyfriend. Ladies, you must give up everything so you can be with your man.The end.....Also, fuck any defense for this ending. The fucking title is "Ruin and Rising", and by naming the book this, Leigh Bardugo completely misled everyone into believing this book would be something its not. Read this if you like heavily contrived romance that the actual plot suffers for.

Guys, I had completely forgotten how much this final installment means to me. I feel like I somehow appreciated it even more by listening as a reread; I wasn't worried about what was going to happen and was able to soak up every detail. Ruin and Rising will remain one of the most cherished books I've ever read, and I'm looking forward to finding out if the SoC duology works out as well to reread as audiobooks. ******************This book was everything. 💔🖤💔🖤💔🖤 I'm so emotional right now *SOBS UN...