Shadow and Bone Trilogy

Shadow and Bone

The first series I will be reviewing is the Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. This is a riveting fantasy book filled with romance and many plot twists. The series is told through the eyes of the main character Alina Starkov whose life is turned upside down out of nowhere. The first book of the trilogy, Shadow and Bone, starts by introducing Alina Starkov and her best friend Malyen Orestev. Very quickly, as the chapters progress, many events occur leading up to the discovery of Alina’s ability to summon light. After this discovery, she is escorted to the Capital where she is trained to be a Grisha and soldier. Her ability to summon light is extremely rare and at the time she is the only one who can do this. Alongside the Darkling who is the leader of the Grisha and Second Army, Alina learns how to use her abilities and better harness them. Everything changes however when the Darkling mentions a powerful Grisha amplifier that he wants to obtain for Alina. Alina soon finds out that the Darkling’s intentions weren’t as good as she thought and that he plans to use her to take their country’s throne. 

In a panic after learning this new information, Alina flees the capital and reunites with Mal in order to hunt for the amplifier themselves. If the Darkling were to find the amplifier first, he would be able to control Alina and use her abilities to help in his quest to expand the Fold, which is a “gash” in the Earth made of shadow. After weeks of traveling on foot, Mal and Alina finally are able to locate the stag that housed the amplifier. Just as Alina is about to get the amplifier for herself in an attempt to be able to defeat the Darkling, the Darkling shows up, killing the stag and putting its antlers (amplifier) around Alina’s neck. The Darkling then takes Alina to the Fold using her light to travel inside and through to the other side and uses Mal as leverage so Alina won’t try and fight against him. With a warm glow of light surrounding the sand skiff they use to travel through the Fold, they are protected from the Volcra who are monsters that live in the Fold and hunt anyone who tries to pass through. In order to demonstrate the amount of power the Darkling now holds, he uses his abilities, which is to manipulate shadows, to push the Fold forward destroying a town and the people who live there. In one last attempt Alina overcomes the control that the amplifier has over her and escapes the Darkling with Mal, leaving them in the Fold to be killed by the Volcra. The first book ends with them escaping the country.

I was completely hooked with this series when I read this first book. It is definitely one of the better books I have read and probably one of my favorites. Leigh Bardugo has a way of writing that just keeps you captivated and wondering what will come next throughout the book. The plot twist where we find out that the Darkling actually has malicious intent truly surprised me. Bardugo wrote the character in a way where it really seemed like he was a good guy. The author was also able to convey the nervousness Alina felt while she lived in the capital for a short time. Since she wasn’t used to doing all of the formal things they required of her she was always nervous about being judged on how she did things. Bardugo also left us with a captivating ending leaving us to wonder whether the Darkling survived and where Alina and Mal could have possible gone to escape the Darkling. 

I also loved the setting of the book. The country the book was set in I’m pretty sure was heavily based on Russian culture with the names and the style of clothing. I don’t know if this was Bardugo’s actual intent, but that's what the country reminded me of. At the beginning of the book I remember it always being mentioned that it was cloudy a lot and not the greatest weather, but then when Alina was finally able to grasp her powers, the weather always seemed to be nice and pleasant. The weather in the book almost symbolizes the mood that Alina would be in since in the beginning and towards the middle of the book, she would always be down since she didn’t fit in, had trouble with summoning, and since she was separated from Mal. 

The romance in this novel was present but I wouldn’t say it was the main focus. Of course, Mal and Alina were in love with each other, but they didn’t quite realize it until they were on the run from the Darkling trying to find the stag. There was a time when they were away from each other in the middle of the book when Alina was at the capital, and I think that time away from him really made her realize that she was in love with him. Both Mal and Alina grew up together in an orphanage, so they were almost inseparable. While in the capital Alina would always think about the different memories they shared from their time at the orphanage whenever she felt alone. 

The part of the book where Alina was training to be a Grisha in the Little Palace, which is a smaller version of the main palace in the capital, was definitely my favorite part of the book. It’s the place where she met some of her friends David, Genya, Nadia, and Maria. It’s also where she met Zoya who can control air. They were enemies at first since Zoya was so snobby, but they become friends in a later book. We also get more in-depth detail about the lives of Grisha and the different abilities and orders there are in the Second Army. Leah Bardugo further explains the different orders which are Corporalki, Etherealki, and Materialki. In the Corporalki order, you can either be a healer or a heartrender, and heartrenders can manipulate your body and organs, in ways such as taking the air from your lungs or slowing down your pulse. In the Etherealki order, you can either be a Tidemaker, Inferni, or Squaller. Being a Tidemaker means you can manipulate water and even turn it to ice, Inferni’s can manipulate fire but they have to have a spark to get it started, and Squallers can manipulate air. In the Materialki order, you can be a Durast who is able to manipulate materials like glass and steel, but you could also be an Alkemi who has an affinity for chemicals and powders. Learning about the different orders and how Grisha were trained seriously intrigued me, and the way Bardugo wrote and described everything during this portion of this book was incredible. 

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone that seems interested in it after reading this review. It was such a good book and I extremely enjoyed reading this novel. At some points, I couldn’t stand to set the book down. The plot was intriguing and the way the story flows is incredible. The author, Leigh Bardugo, did an impeccable job writing this book and really bringing the characters and stories to life for us to enjoy. 

Siege and Storm

The second book in the trilogy, Siege and Storm, is just as captivating as the last. This installment in the series is my personal favorite out of the three. This novel introduces new characters and new places for the characters to explore. This one starts off with Alina and Mal in a different country called Novyi Zem. After fleeing from the Darkling and Ravka, which is their home country, they caught a ride across the True Sea where they’ve been living in a town called Cofton. One day while Mal and Alina are walking back to the place they’ve been staying, they are ambushed by the Darkling and his guard of Grisha. Alina and Mal are introduced to the Darkling’s new power which is creating shadow soldiers or nichevo’ya using Merzost. Merzost is a different form of magic that comes from the “heart of the world” and usually takes something from whoever uses it and drains their energy. After this encounter, the Darkling kidnaps Alina and Mal and takes them to an area of the sea called Bone Road. To get there the Darkling hires a famous Privateer called Sturmhond. Since Mal is a skilled and famous tracker as seen by him being able to find the first amplifier, the Darkling uses him in his search for a second amplifier. The amplifiers the Darkling is looking for were made by a Saint called Ilya Morozova and when all three are put together they are rumored to give a Grisha immense power. The second amplifier is a scale from the infamous sea whip called Rusalye. Nobody on the boat even knows if this creature exists, but the Darkling is hopeful. 

Miraculously, Mal is able to locate the sea whip, but as they are trying to kill the creature another one of Sturmhond’s ships swoop in and rescue Alina, Mal, Sturmhond, and his crew. They manage to take the sea whip with them and leave the Darkling and his Grisha stranded in the ocean. After obtaining the second amplifier from the serpent, Alina and Mal learn that Sturmhond is taking them back to Ravka, but he won’t tell them why. Just as they are about to land on Ravka’s shore we learn that Sturmhond’s ship can actually fly, so they go flying through the Fold in order to get into Ravka faster. However, the ship/plane crashes and they are surrounded by army troops. In a huge plot twist, we learn that Sturmhond is actually Nikolai Lanstov who is the second prince of Ravka. We learn that Nikolai was actually taking Alina back to Ravka to try and save it since neither his father nor his older brother is very successful in doing so. On the travel back to Os Alta, the capital, Alina convinces Nikolai to let her lead the Second Army, to which he eventually agrees to. 

While leading the Second Army Alina successfully gets the different Grisha orders to work together instead of staying secluded to their own group. They also work to prepare for an inevitable attack from the Darkling. Nikolai and Alina also have frequent war meetings with some palace generals in order to fully prepare for the Darkling’s attack. However, at Nikolai’s birthday celebration we learn from his brother that he opened up logging routes from a neighboring country into Ravka. This alarms everyone because the only reason Fjerda, which is the neighboring country, would want these open would be for the Darkling and his small army to pass through. Just as this revelation is brought to everyone’s attention the palace is attacked with nichevo’ya swarming the dining hall and killing everyone except Alina, Nikolai, the King and Queen, and Alina’s guards. They are able to flee to the little palace, but almost everyone there is dead. After gathering everyone that is left Alina and her small group of Grisha flee to a nearby chapel where Alina has a showdown with the Darkling. Using the tether that Alina and the Darkling still have from the first amplifier, Alina takes control of the nichevo’ya and uses merzost to try and kill herself and the Darkling. They both just end up severely injured and Alina is taken underground where she is hidden away, which is where the book concludes. 

Like I have previously mentioned this is my favorite book out of the series. I love how Leigh Bardugo introduced the new characters, and how she developed them to be my favorite out of the whole series. I also forgot to mention in the summary that the civilians in Ravka have begun to worship Alina as a Saint since they believe she can save them from the Darkling and the Fold. The Apparat, who was the sort of religious leader in the palace before everything went wrong is the leader of these people. Alina’s followers and the Apparat are the ones who help Alina and her crew to escape from the Darkling underground. This whole idea of having Alina being worshipped as a “living Saint” I think is so cool and adds a lot more depth to the character. I also like how in the end during all of the chaos Nikolai is separated from Alina and is left to fend for himself after the attack. This adds a bit more mystery and tension to the ending since she doesn’t elaborate on whether or not he made it out alive. 

The setting is pretty much the same as the first book except we are introduced to more of the world than just Ravka and its neighboring countries. We learn that Novyi Zem is more of a warmer climate than Ravka and we also are briefly informed of another place in this world called Kerch and its capital Ketterdam. This new information about the world outside of Ravka makes the story seem more immersive since we now know there is more out there. 

Since Mal and Alina are together more often in this book than in the first, we see a lot more romantic interactions than in the previous book. At the beginning of the book, their relationship is good and they seem content with each other but as tension builds up throughout the novel things get a bit tenser between the two. Given Alina’s new position as the leader of the Second Army, she has a lot more tasks to do and is very busy. Alina also assigns Mal to be the captain of her personal guard, which builds a sort of wall between the two since it would look bad if she was seen with him. Because of her new status, she is also around Nikolai more often which makes Mal jealous since Nikolai is trying to get Alina to be his queen. Overall, they do stick together throughout the book with a few breaks here and there just to try and release some of the tension both of them are facing throughout the book. 

My favorite part in the book is when we get introduced to Nikolai Lanstov. I think he is such a dynamic character and really adds a lot to the plot. Nikolai was the well-needed comedic relief, but he’s also very strategic and clever adding a lot to the group. When him, Alina, and his entourage finally arrive at the capital we see Nikolai interacting for the first time with his mother and father. I find it to be an interesting scene since we learn so much about Nikolai and the King and Queen. Both of them were barely mentioned in the first book since they weren’t really important characters. I also love that Alina was able to lead the Second Army. I find it incredible that she was able to go from a simple cartographer in the First Army to being a strong leader of the Second Army. I also think that Alina does a great job tying the orders together and getting them to put aside their differences in order to work together to be better prepared for the Darkling. In one of the scenes of the book Alina and most of the Grisha are on the roof gathered to test out these new reflective dishes that David and other Materialki created to better harness her power. After a successful run and finding out that they actually might have a chance against the Darkling and his nichevo’ya, they are seen celebrating and cheering, completely forgetting about any sort of discrimination they might have had against each other. It’s the first scene where we finally see all of Alina’s hard work paying off, and when things finally start to look up for them. 

Once again, Leigh Bardugo was incredibly successful in creating a sequel to the amazing first book. Leaving us with yet another cliffhanger, she skillfully finishes the story leaving readers to wonder what could possibly happen next. With Bardugo’s beautiful writing and smooth flow of her stories she keeps us intrigued in order to keep us reading and guessing what will happen in the next chapter of Alina’s life.

Ruin and Rising 

The story starts with Alina and all of her followers in a deep cavern called the White Cathedral. The Apparat is keeping Alina separated from the rest and essentially trying to weaken her, so he can control her. Having been underground for so long and away from sunlight has made Alina weak and she hasn’t been able to use her powers since the fight with the Darkling. In response to using merzost during that fight Alina’s hair was turned white. 

The only way for light to get into the Cathedral is through a pipe in the kitchens, so Alina’s friends stage a fake plot against the Apparat which leads all of them to be in the kitchen. Mal is then able to cause an explosion, which opens up the pipe allowing sunlight to pour in. Because of this Alina’s powers are restored and she is able to threaten the Apparat into letting her and her friends leave so they can try and find the last amplifier. Alina believes that she needs the third amplifier to stop the Darkling once and for all since he is much tougher to beat with his nichevo’ya. 

Not knowing what to do next, Alina and her small group try to head towards West Ravka, where Nikolai is rumored to be. However, on the way there they run into a group of army deserters who threaten to turn them into the Darkling so they can get money. As the deserters are about to tie them up, Nikolai shows up, rescuing Alina’s party and taking them to the place where he’s been hiding out which is in the side of a mountain. Once there they catch each other up on what has been happening and get to work forming a plan. One Grisha that has been traveling with Alina, Sergio, has been shaken up ever since the battle at the Little Palace since the person he loved died, so Alina sends him to a different camp that they have in hopes he calms down and returns back to normal. 

A plan is made on who is going to try and find the third amplifier and what everyone else is going to be doing to help, but before the plan can be executed the Darkling attacks their hideout. They soon learn that after Sergio was sent away, he went to the Darkling and told him where Alina was hiding. Once again the Darkling’s nichevo’ya swarm the compound, killing lots of people. In retaliation against Nikolai and so he can eliminate one of Alina’s allies, the Darkling actually infects Nikolai with shadow turning him into a volcra esk thing. This petrifies Alina, but she doesn’t have much time to think since her and Mal are surrounded by nichevo’ya with no end in sight. Suddenly, the Darkling’s mother, Baghra, who Nikolai took during the Little Palace fight and who trained Alina, emerges onto the balcony where the fight is taking place. Since she is also a Shadow Summoner like her son she is able to take control of the nichevo’ya, and heroically throws herself and the monsters off the side of the balcony into the abyss below. This allows Alina, Mal, and the remaining Grisha they have left to escape on one of Nikolai’s aircrafts. 

In desperation, they head to where they think the Firebird is, which is the third amplifier. After splitting up into two groups they each go their separate ways. One group with Alina, Mal, Zoya, and a couple of others end up trekking far through their other neighboring country, Shu Han’s, western border. After weeks they finally make it to a place called Dva Stolba where they find the Firebird. After a near-death experience from the Firebird trying to kill them, Alina soon finds out that Mal is actually the third amplifier. Alina however won’t kill Mal in order to get the third amplifier and refuses. However, she finally reluctantly agrees to do so if absolutely necessary since it’s what Mal wants. After returning back to the town where the other group stayed behind, Alina learns that the Darkling has taken the young Grisha students that they had hid away hostage and that if Alina didn’t turn herself in in 5 days then he would kill all of them on the Fold. Leaving Alina no choice they make their way to an abandoned town just outside the Fold, and get their resources together and prepare for battle. 

Their plan is to only try and save the students by Alina bending light to make everyone invisible and for Zoya to bend air in order to hide their sound. The plan goes terribly wrong though when Alina gets shot in the shoulder and is unable to keep bending light leaving her friends and followers out in the open. In desperation, Alina ends up stabbing Mal giving her the third amplifier, but it doesn’t do what she thinks it’s going to do. Instead of making her stronger, it takes her power from her and gives it to hundreds up people all around her, leaving her powerless but allowing everyone to destroy the Fold. Two of Alina’s Corporalki friends are able to resurrect Mal as the Fold slowly starts to disappear. Alina finally faces off with the Darkling, and after he realizes she doesn’t have her power anymore and that he doesn’t have an equal, he lets her stab him, and he dies once and for all. 

After the Darkling’s death, Nikolai is returned back to normal and takes up the role of Ravka’s new King. Zoya, David, and Genya become the new leaders of the Second Army after returning back to the capital. Since Alina lost her power, she and her friends fake her death allowing her and Mal to live a normal life. Mal and Alina return back to the city they grew up in and build an orphanage and live there and run the place, and that is where this lovely book ends. 

The plot of this book was seriously all over the place but in a good way. Even though there were subtle signs of Mal being the third amplifier in the earlier books, I still was not expecting it. I also thought it was cool that Mal essentially had two lives since he had the one given to him since he was an amplifier then he just had his mortal one, which is why he was able to be resurrected. I’m also really happy that Nikolai was able to become King in the end since he deserved it a lot more than his brother ever did, and he would be able to rebuild Ravka after all of this. I’m not a big fan of the fact Alina lost her powers since it was such a big part of her, but I understand why she had to for the plot to go the way Bardugo wanted it to go. Mal and Alina going off to start an orphanage was a really cute ending though since throughout the series they always talked about wanting to have a simple life. Another thing that I never mentioned before is that during the prologue and epilogue of each of the books, Bardugo would always talk about Mal and Alina, but instead of using their names, she would refer to them as “boy” and “girl”. I’m not entirely sure why she chose to do this, but I really like that she did it. It really added a lot to the story and I thought it gave a cool effect. 

In this book, we get to see a lot of different new places. Firstly, Dva Stolba, which is where they first thought the Firebird was. Dva Stolba is also the little village that Alina and Mal think they were originally from before they became orphans. Next, we also got to see a glimpse into Shu Han and what it looks like compared to Ravka. From how Alina describes is Shu Han has lots of hills and is very mountainous. The area they traveled through was also very lush until they got to where the Firebird was located. We also get to see the part of the town that didn’t get destroyed by the Fold. We get to see how quickly it was abandoned after what happened at the end of the first book, and how everything is still exactly how it was when the townsfolk left. 

Throughout most of this book, Mal and Alina’s love is strained as usual given the circumstances they are put through. It also doesn’t help that Nikolai constantly tried to get Alina to marry him making Mal jealous. Alina is also concerned about the love she feels towards Mal and wonders if it's even real. She was concerned that it’s not actually a real connection, but just something that was caused by Mal being an amplifier. However, in the end, we can see that that idea wasn’t true since they were still in love after the amplifier was gone. 

My favorite part in the book is when they arrive to Nikolai’s hideout after escaping the White Cathedral. I love the easy Bardugo describes the compound and the fact that it's in the side of a mountain. There is also one scene where Alina and Nikolai are in one of the bigger halls which has a large window looking out into the sky. During this scene, he takes her over to the window to see all the stars in the sky, and the way the author describes the view is amazing. There is also a scene in the book where Alina and all of her woman friends are gathered in her room essentially gossiping, and it is such a nice relief from the stress throughout the rest of the book. One part in the book that wasn’t particularly my favorite was when Alina was held up in the White Cathedral. The way that Bardugo wrote this part actually bad me feel claustrophobic at times with how she always talked about Alina being hidden away and confined to her room. 

Ruin and Rising was a stunning last book to this series. This book truly surprised me in a way I didn’t think it would with how it ended. I truly wasn’t expecting anything of the plot twists in this book, which I suppose was the point. This final installment into this series was one of the best and makes me excited to read all of Leigh Bardugo’s other works that are also part of this universe. 

Frostblood Trilogy

Frostblood

This book begins by introducing us to Ruby Otrera, a Fireblood who is hidden away in the upper mountains of the country she lives in. She has to stay hidden away with her mother because she lives in a kingdom ruled by Frostbloods who will capture her, and throw her in Blackcreek prison if they knew who she was. The first chapter tells us the story of how Ruby’s mother is killed by Frostblood soldiers when they came to take Ruby to prison. One of their neighbors had given away Ruby’s identity. After all of this backstory, we are taken back to the present where Ruby is cold and weak in a prison cell being taunted by guards. However, one night, two Frostbloods broke into the prison and helped her escape. She only decides to go with them because she thinks it would be easier to escape them than the prison. 

After escaping the prison she learns that the two Frostblood’s names are Brother Thistle and Arcus. They take her far away from Blackcreek prison to an abbey, where they let her gather her strength and recover from being in the prison for 6 months. Next, when she is finally able to function properly, Brother Thistle informs her that he will be training her on how to use her power since he learned how to use his from watching Fireblood masters. Ruby is barely able to even conjure a flame since she concealed her power for so long, so Brother Thistle has to start with the basics. At the same time, Arcus is reluctantly giving her combat lessons even though he doesn’t like Ruby. Eventually, her powers do start to grow, but she doesn’t have much control over them. Ruby also learns how to sense Frostbloods without even seeing them, which helps her later on. She soon gets acquainted at the abbey even though there are some Frostbloods there that don’t like her being there. Brother Lack being one of them, and he even started a fire and tried to accuse Ruby of starting it.

Eventually, Ruby learns from Brother Thistle why Arcus and him helped her escape Blackcreek prison. He tells her that they plan for her to melt the king’s frost throne. The frost throne was created by the god of the north wind, Fors, who also created Frostbloods, and its counterpart, the fire throne, was created by the goddess of the south wind, Sud, who created Firebloods. However, the god of the east wind, Eurus, in an attempt to make his own kind of people created something known as a Minax, which is a monster made of darkness that feeds off of humans' negative emotions. In retaliation against his siblings, he trapped a Minax in each of the thrones. Having a Minax in each throne causes the Frostblood king, Rasmus who is the king of Tempesia, and the Fireblood Queen, Nalani who is the queen of Sudesia to become corrupt and power-hungry. The Minax causes them to be cruel leaders and thirst for war, which is what prompted the war between the two countries. Brother Thistle also believes Ruby might be the Child of Light from a prophecy which would be able to destroy the Minax. Brother Thistle also wants Ruby to try and heal the king instead of try and kill him, but Ruby wants to kill him since he terrorizes Firebloods and killed her mother. However, before Ruby, Arcus, and Brother Thistle can even venture to the palace to try and destroy the throne, Brother Lack rats out Ruby to a local garrison, and soldiers arrive and take her away.

          When Ruby arrives at the palace she is immediately taken to the throne room where she has her first encounter with the frost throne. The throne is so powerful that it absorbs her powers leaving her defenseless while in the throne room. King Rasmus tells her that if she defeats a creature she owns she will be allowed to fight in his arena, which is the alternative to being in Blackcreek prison. She agrees and almost doesn’t succeed in killing the creature. However, since she did kill it she’s allowed to fight the king’s champion in the arena and she wins. This makes her the king’s new champion and she is forced to dine with him. A member of the Frost Courts’ daughter, Marella, goes to talk to Ruby telling her about the Minax and how she wants to help Rasmus. She tells Ruby that the Minax has chosen her and that if Ruby lets the Minax bond with her then Ruby will still be able to control herself. Before Ruby can do anything she has to fight in another arena battle where she is put up against the guard that killed her mother. She ends up killing Captain Drake right in front of his family. Since the Minax is inside of Rasmus, but during the arena fights Rasmus is near Ruby, the Minax always tries to reach out to her making her do the terrible things she does in the arena. Right after Ruby kills Captain Drake another fighter appears and it turns out to be Arcus who snaps Ruby out of the Minax’s control. In the arena Arcus announces to everyone that he is actually Rasmus’s older brother and the rightful heir to the throne. After this, there is a slight battle that we don’t really get to see since Ruby races towards the throne room to try and destroy the throne. Rasmus follows her to the throne room and tries to talk to her. In order for Ruby to destroy the throne, she has to allow the Minax to bond with her, which will increase her power, but when she does she loses control and she and Rasmus almost kill Arcus. At the last second Ruby takes back control of herself and with a final burst of energy destroys the throne and kills Rasmus along with it and sets the Minax free. Ruby passes out after this from the overuse of her power. When she wakes back up Rasmus’ funeral has just passed and they are about to have Arcus’ coronation. This is where the book ends. 

         I thought the concept for this book was very intriguing and a nice refresh from other books that I’ve read. In most fantasy books I read there is almost always a group of oppressed people. Of course, there is in this novel as well, but Elly Blake does it in a very different way. Usually, in books, there will be a huge rebellion and war, but I find it interesting that Blake choose to have Frostbloods going against the Frostblood king, and then only having one Fireblood since most of them had been killed. The whole dynamic the story had was really nice. 

          The setting of the book is Tempesia which is the Frostblood country. We also get to see the abbey and the palace towards the end. The abbey isn’t particularly the most thrilling setting since they were there to stay low and hide from the king, but from the way, Blake describes the castle it seemed magnificent but cold. Blake describes how there is ice covering the ceilings and walls, especially in the throne room, and there are a lot of intricate carvings and decorative pieces. 

         The book starts off with absolutely no romance since Ruby is locked away by herself. However, as the book progresses she does end up slowly falling in love with Arcus in this weird enemies to lovers dynamic. Being together in the end though does end up being a challenge since most people in the Frost Court still don’t like Firebloods and since Arcus is king.

           One of my favorite parts of the novel was when Ruby was at the abbey. We got to learn more about Ruby’s powers and the religious beliefs of the country they live in. The training that Ruby receives from Brother Thistles is very entertaining to read about, and watching her powers slowly develop. I’m also happy that she was able to become friends with monks at the abbey since she was so bitter towards everyone since her mother was killed.

      Frostblood was a thrilling first installment to this series and really sets the stage for the next book. To be completely honest, I wasn’t completely fond of this book when I first started reading it, but as the first couple of chapters passed I grew more and more in love with it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy.

Fireblood

       This book begins at a ball being held at the Frost Court where Arcus is trying to fix everything his brother messed up. At this ball, she meets the Sudesian ambassador, Kai. Later on during the ball, while Ruby is walking outside, she almost gets assassinated, but she lives thanks to Kai. In order for Ruby to figure out how to stop the Minax from killing people in Tempesia and just stop it in general, she decides to go back to Sudesia with Kai. Brother Thistle had told her of a book that contains information about the thrones, but it’s in Sudesia.

         Against Arcus’ wishes, she travels to Sudesia, meeting Queen Nalani, and figuring out that the only way for her to get to the book is to become a Fireblood Master. She accepts the challenge and starts her training with Kai who is also trying to become a master. We see her first two trials where she almost fails the second one, but Queen Nalani allows her to continue to the third trial. During this time she has also fallen in love with Kai and actually gotten engaged with him. She also learns that her mother was actually the princess of Sudesia, but she moved to Tempesia for some reason. This information means that Ruby is the heir to the throne since Queen Nalani hasn’t had kids. While Ruby is at Sudesia she is also confused as to where the fire throne is. She can tell that Queen Nalani is being influenced by the throne but it’s nowhere in sight.

         During the third trial, they learn that Ruby can control lava which further proves that she’s royalty since only the queen can manipulate lava. However, Queen Nalani also forces her to either marry Kai or not pass the trials, since the third trial is supposed to show your loyalty to the queen. She agrees to marry Kai just so she can pass the trials since she has no other choice, but when they are announcing their engagement, Arcus shows up to Sudesia and accidentally alerts people that he’s a Frostblood, getting him arrested. We learn that Arcus was written a fake letter that he thought was from Queen Nalani to come to Sudesia, but Queen Nalani didn’t write the letter and is threatening to kill him. Ruby finally persuades her to to not imprison Arcus, but Nalani does put him in a secluded tower. Ruby goes to talk to Arcus and he tells her to go find the ship he arrived on and find Marella which Ruby does. She finds Marella extremely sick, but Marella just passes it off as sea sickness.

       Ruby soon learns that Prince Eiko, who is Queen Nalani’s husband, actually has the book about the thrones in his library, so he assists her in finding it and even helps her with other things. Ruby learns that the fire throne is still in the capital, but Queen Nalani thinks that it was destroyed during a volcanic eruption. She learns that the throne is actually being guarded underneath the castle. She learns that the only way for the Minax to stay trapped after the throne is destroyed is for only a shard of the throne to remain. She also learns that you need frostfire to destroy the throne, and only shadow can destroy shadow meaning they need the fire Minax to destroy the frost Minax.

      Instead of going to her Fireblood Master initiation, Ruby takes Arcus and Prince Eiko down to where the fire throne is. They have to do it during this time since there won‘t be any masters down there to guard it. When she entered the room she immediately felt the impact of the Minax and struggled to ignore it. Arcus and Ruby joined their powers together to create frostfire and began to melt the throne. They melted the throne down to a shard and Prince Eiko slipped it into his pocket, but as soon as they were about to leave Marella walked through the doorway. She tried to get the shard from Prince Eiko, but he wouldn’t give it to her. Finally, since she’s sick of waiting she uses the frost Minax who has possessed her and gets the shard. Marella causes the Minax to possess Ruby and together they open created a portal allowing Eurus to come through to the real world. Eurus possesses Prince Eiko. Ruby finally takes back control of her mind and learns that she is actually the child of darkness, not light since her mother was possessed by a Minax when she was born. Since Ruby is a Nightblood she is able to house a Minax in her body and not become terribly ill. Eurus created Ruby as a Nightblood to start a new race and he wants her to be the queen of Nightbloods. After a small fight between Ruby and Marella, Ruby pulled the frost Minax from Marella and used the fire Minax to destroy the frost one. Eurus tries to get Ruby to come with him to the Obscurum, which is a sort of prison created by Cirrus to house Eurus’ Minax’s and Eurus, but she won’t go with him. As punishment Eurus leaves the fire Minax with Ruby to live with. 

      Ruby has to try and explain to Queen Nalani what happened and where her husband went. Queen Nalani allows them to leave, and she and Arcus have a mutual understanding between each other. The book ends with Ruby, Arcus, and Kai heading back to Tempesia on a ship.

         For me, this book was so much better than the first. Frostblood just felt like every other fantasy book that I’d read. It just didn’t seem like anything original, but Fireblood the whole story changed. This book was so much different than the first and had such a unique plot. I loved the idea of Ruby having to face the Fireblood Master trials because it really added a new dynamic to the plot that I found extremely interesting.

          We also get to see a completely different setting than the first book. Fireblood is in a more tropical climate and is very bright and vibrant compared to the coldness of Tempesia. It’s a really nice relief from the first book and the way Elly Blake describes the setting makes you actually feel warm inside.

          We also get introduced to an intriguing love circle in this novel between Ruby, Kai, and Arcus. Since were in Sudesia for the majority of the book we don‘t get to see much of Arcus at all which leaves us with Kai. Ruby does develop feelings for Kai, but she is still in love with Arcus. It also doesn’t help that Ruby is almost forced to be with Kai multiple times during the book, and she barely escapes having to be married to him.

         My favorite part of the book was when Ruby was training for the Fireblood Master trials and when she was taking the actual trials. I found it so interesting to watch her become stronger and watch her powers develop and grow along with her. The trials were very interesting to read about and filled the book with a lot of good tension. I also thought it was nice that she was finally able to train with another Fireblood instead of trying to learn how to use her powers from someone that doesn’t truly understand them. I also like Queen Nalani because she was loving towards Ruby but she was also aggressive in a good way. Even though I like her character, some of her actions did annoy me throughout the book.

         Fireblood was a huge improvement from the first book and I feel really showed Elly Blake’s true writing potential. While I did like the first book I was much more intrigued by the plot and setting of this book. The whole superstition about sequels being worse than the first book truly does not apply to this series. I wholeheartedly enjoyed reading this novel.

Nightblood

The third book in this series starts with Arcus, Ruby, and Kai traveling to Tempesia with a group of Fireblood Masters to gather reinforcements to battle against Eurus. When they arrive they learn that some of the Frost Court has turned against Arcus and the only way for them to be convinced of the threat of the Minax and Eurus is to show them. Ruby calls everyone to the arena and unleashes the Minax to quickly pass through the crowd so they can get a taste of what they are dealing with. Ruby also has to talk with Brother Thistle in order to translate the book she got from Sudesia, the Book of Thrones. Translating the book will allow them to figure out where the Gate of Light is which leads to the Obscurum. They need to get to the Gate of Light before Eurus can destroy the gate and release the Minax, essentially causing the end of the world. 

         Eventually, after lots of different challenges, they make it to the island which contains the Gate of Light. They also take a woman with them, Lucina who used to pose as Ruby’s grandmother. They soon learn that Lucina is actually Sage, who was a woman who helped the goddess Cirrus and was assigned to protect the Gate of Light. Essentially she is the opposite of Ruby and can produce light. 

          When they get to the island a war begins against Eurus’ followers and combined Frostbloods and Firebloods. Arcus is killed during battle leaving Ruby devastated. In desperation, Ruby enters the Gate of Light using a crystal filled with light given to her by Sage to repel the Minax inside, but for Ruby to be able to enter the gate, she must give up being a Fireblood and let Sage take her power away. She soon learns that the Minax are actually former kings and queens that were corrupted by the thrones. Because of the corruption, they were forever doomed to be stuck in the Obscurum. Ruby learns that she has to take each of the Minax’s darkness in order to free their souls so they stop trying to break the gate. Eurus chides Ruby and tells her that she won’t be able to do it, but with a lot of pain, she does manage. She also runs into Arcus’ soul in the Obscurum. Eurus, out of frustration, takes Ruby to the throne room that he has created for Nightbloods, and throws Ruby onto the throne. Ruby has to use all of her will to get off that throne and get out of the Obscurum and she succeeds with the help of Arcus’ spirit. As she is about to leave she releases all the darkness inside of her leaving it inside the gate. 

          When Ruby made it out Eurus followed and for Eurus to be stopped once and for all Ruby needed to let him hurt her. The gods weren’t allowed to interfere with the mortal world so when Eurus hurt Ruby and realized he wasn’t inside the gate anymore, Eurus’ siblings, Sud, Fors, and Cirrus appear ready to reprimand Eurus. I fight breaks out between the gods and Ruby breaks away to go and check on the battle. Their numbers were dwindling fast and Eurus’ Servants were overpowering them. Ruby, thought they would lose until the Fireblood Queen’s fleets arrived as backup. Ruby watched as Queen Nalani and her army scattered the Servants at an alarming speed. Suddenly, Arcus appeared next to Ruby. She thought he was just an illusion, but it was actually him. Lucina’s healing had sealed the wounds Arcus had had, and Lucina had persuaded Cirrus to reunite his soul with his body. Over the next couple of days, the battle ceased and everyone began to leave and healing tents were set up. The battle between gods ended with Eurus being thrown back into the Obscurum and being sealed in by Cirrus, Fors, and Sud. Kai and Ruby meet with Queen Nalani, and she allows Ruby to give up being her heir to be with Arcus. By doing this, Queen Nalani appoints Kai to be her heir since Kai is already a prince of one of Sudesia’s islands. This leaves Ruby to go back to Tempesia with Arcus where they stay together while Arcus rules over his kingdom. During the epilogue, we learn that Ruby is starting to get her power back, but barely, and she and Arcus live together happily. 

       I loved this book just as much as the second. It was a little weird and a bit of a step down from the second, but I still really enjoyed it. The middle of the book seemed to drag on when they were trying to get to the Gate of Light, but then the ending felt rushed and went by very quickly. The plot was still good and I liked the concept of her being a Nightblood since it made her different from everyone else. 

        I don’t really like the setting of this book since it mainly takes place in Tempesia, the ocean and a very dreary island where the Gate of Light was. Since they had to travel so much they were on a boat for a lot of the book which was just dreary and not very inspiring. Blake does make up for the setting with all the drama of Ruby having the Minaz inside her and not being able to control herself.

         The romance in this book is a lot better than the last two since Ruby and Arcus actually have time together. There were a couple of times where Arcus became jealous of Kai and by a couple of times I mean every time Ruby and Kai spoke to each other. It did get kind of old when Arcus would get jealous and think Ruby was going to leave him for Kai since Ruby obviously wasn’t going to.

          I suppose my favorite part of the book was when they were battling at the end since it was the most action-packed and it had a lot of things happen. I thought it was pretty epic when Queen Nalani showed up with her fleet to save the battle since the Frostblood Army was dwindling quickly. The whole conversation between Eurus and Ruby was pretty cool, and I enjoyed the little quarrel between the siblings since it was so goofy. 

        Overall, this book was good and I did enjoy reading it. It definitely wrapped up Ruby’s story and left us with a good ending. Altogether I did enjoy the series, but it did have its ups and downs. I would recommend for people to read the series since it’s a nice little experience and enjoyable to read.

Red Queen Quadrology

          In this story, we are introduced to Mare Barrow who is a red-blooded commoner. The society she lives in is divided by blood color where reds are commoners, and people with silver blood are rich and part of the upper class. Silver bloods also have different abilities, like the royal family has the ability to manipulate fire. People with red blood are usually very poor, and the rich silver blooded people do nothing about this. As a result of that, a group of rebel red-blooded people form called the Scarlet Guard. This group attacks silver bloods and uses violence to try and get their way since nothing else is working.

         At the beginning of the book, while working as a servant for noble families and the royal family. Mare suddenly finds out that she has the ability to control electricity which is unheard of for red bloods. She is quickly captured and taken in by the royal family, and she is forced to play the role of a silver-blooded noble girl who lost her parents in the war. Here she falls in love with Cal who is the heir to the throne and who can control fire. She also makes connections with the Scarlet Guard to try and get out of the place. Maven who is Cal’s younger brother also joins Mare in trying to help the Scarlet Guard, but he ends up tricking everyone in the end and framing Cal for the murder of their father. Because of this Cal and Mare have to go on the run and Maven becomes king.

         After escaping Maven they arrive to an island where basically everything goes wrong. Mare is introduced to the idea of new bloods, who are red-blooded people with silver abilities. After pretty much everything goes wrong Mare, Cal and a couple of other people along with a couple of new bloods escape the island to try and find more new bloods. 

          Meanwhile, Maven is going on a killing spree trying to lure Mare out, and he is also locking new bloods up in a high-security prison. Mare and her friends get a couple more new bloods and together storm the prison to try and free as many people as possible. Mare also kills Elara who is Cal and Maven’s mom and broadcasts her body to start a civil war. Mare makes a deal with the leader of the Scarlet Guard since they want the same thing, but as they are going to the front lines of the war to help soldiers, Maven attacks their plane and takes Mare as a prisoner.

           During the third book, Mare is Maven’s prisoner essentially the whole time, which makes sense since the book is called King’s Cage. In this book, we also get to see through the point of view of one of Mare’s friends, and we also learn about a democratic country that comes into play later on. Maven becomes betrothed to the daughter of the country they are at war with. Then a little bit later the Scarlet Guard storms the palace and Mare is able to escape. Mare then gets to meet the leader of the democratic country and they become allies. One of the noble houses allows Mare and her group to stay at their country house, and they hold a meeting with all of the rebelling houses. Cal is forced to be engaged to one of the houses daughters since he won’t let go of his crown and Mare leaves him to go fight the war.

         After a huge fight and a victory for the Scarlet Guard, Cal is offered the throne which he takes, but this angers Mare, and her and the Scarlet Guard aren’t going to let him keep the throne. Every social class works together in the final book in order to end this battle against Maven once and for all. During the huge final battle of the series, Maven is finally captured and taken as Cal’s prisoner and Cal even has to sentence him to death. After the whole debacle with Maven is over the Scarlet Guard and the democratic ally, Montfort, give Cal the option to either abdicate his throne or lose their support. Cal refuses to give up his throne, so the Scarlet Guard retreats to Montfort, taking Maven with them.

           Cal is officially crowned king, but the neighboring country, Lakelands, attacks almost immediately. Cal is seriously outnumbered, but even though the Scarlet Guard said they weren’t going to help anymore, they showed back up, saving the day. Finally, after the battle is won against the Lakelands, Cal abdicates his throne in favor of a democratic society based on blood equality. Maven is killed by Mare, but she gets wounded pretty badly. After she heals, however, she tells Cal they need time apart. Mare leaves for Montfort and Cal stays behind to rebuild his country Norta. This is the end of the main books, but there are a couple of other side books that give more detail to the plot line.

            This series was so interesting to read since it’s so different from other books. The series had a very complex romance dynamic. The series was so different from everything since both the main characters weren’t willing to give up their beliefs for each other. It’s really refreshing since most books similar to this just have the same “I would die for you” dynamic. 

            The places they venture in this series aren’t necessarily anything special, but they're just cool. I really liked whenever they were in the capital or in the palace because those places just really interested me. The settings in this series are also unlike many other fantasy books because they actually have technology. The technology that they have is even advanced and not just some basic things like other books have. For example, they have planes, cars, and even factories.

           One of my favorite parts of the series was in the first book when she had to play the role of a silver blooded noble. I loved seeing all of the abilities the nobles had and I loved watching Mare’s power grow. I also loved the part where Mare was held prisoner by Maven in the third book. Even though Maven was truly a terrible person he still was one of my favorite characters, and Mare being trapped in the castle meant we got to hear a lot from Maven. Basically, every scene where they were in the castle was and forever will be my favorite parts. I also LOVED the battle scenes because they were truly epic. The way that Victoria Aveyard described the use of their powers and the flow of battle was so intriguing and literally had me mesmerized.

       Aveyard did a stunning job writing this series. It was so different from most fantasy books, and I love the fact that Mare and Cal’s relationship never actually got resolved in the end. It left a lot of mystery to the end and really just let your imagination figure out what happened next. I feel like it would have been too easy for Aveyard to keep Mare and Cal together in the end and it really showed how good of a writer she was when she ended it the way she did. I really recommend reading this book if you haven’t already because it’s truly a great experience from beginning to end.v