This month we read…
Siege and Storm
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Pages: 432
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Published on: June 4th 2013
Darkness never dies.
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
To view the other half of this discussion, click here! There are some spoilers so just be aware of that!
Q: Were you more excited to start this book because we forced ourselves to wait a month to read it?
Lauren:This was actually one of those books for me where I don’t remember how much I enjoy the writing/characters UNTIL I pick it up and start reading again. I was kind of excited to get back into it, especially because I decided to read it kind of early in the month compared to when I usually would. I’m actually glad that we waited to read this book and have another month before reading the final book. I feel like the series is almost too heavy to binge-read, if that makes sense. I am pretty eager to get to the final book though now that I’ve finished the second one; the ending was kind of crazy… but we’ll get into that later!
Kaitlin: I do agree that this series is very heavy with so much action and stuff going on. I don’t know how I am going to handle the last book since last books of series are always the most heaviest and I was so emotionally drained by just this book.
Q: Did it stack up to your expectations?
Lauren: Yes and no. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect! With the way the first book progressed and ended, I truly had no idea what the next book was going to entail. This series is definitely one where I am constantly AMAZED at the author’s creativity. Some books you can kind of predict what’s going to happen or what you’d like to happen. With this series, I genuinely have no idea what the author is going to think up next. I like that though, because it makes it SO much more unique than other books. The only way it didn’t meet my expectations was that I thought there’d be much more action. The first book focused a lot on world-building and travelling all over the country…but so did this one. There wasn’t heavy action until the very end.
Kaitlin: I agree with the fact that there wasn’t enough action during this book. There was some in the beginning and a decent amount in the end but the middle part was very slow and just not as exciting to read as the end.
Q: Did it take you a while to get into it or did you pick up right where you left off?
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