This was a completely magical book and I was under it's spell!
The world that Leigh Bardugo has created was amazing. Everything was so vivid, the story line flowed good. It was well written. It had everything that I love in books; action, magic, adventure, an exotic location, some romance (no insta-love)!
The characters were amazing! I loved them all.

This book surprised me, I didn't know what to expect before I started it, but I'm sure glad I had the opportunity to read it. Buy the book when it comes to stores I know I will, why because it's pure awesomeness!
My only question is: When is the second book coming out?

Thanks so much to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley!

I don't think I've read something as strange and awesome as Shadow and Bone. I can honestly say that I have never read anything quite like it. I'm new to the high fantasy genre, and if others in this genre are a great and unique as this one than I will have to read them all. Shadow and Bone was extremely well done!

What a great way for Leigh Bardugo to debut! Will an imagination this vast and writing and story telling skills this great she will no doubt go far with her writing career. The world of the Grisha is epic, with the shadow-fold and the frightful creatures that hide in its darkness I was drawn in so far that I just didn't want to come out. To top it all off Grisha powers are pretty kick-ass, I wish I had some of those.

Alina started off as an okay character, but as she learnt about her powers and how to use them I grew to love her. Her powers are pretty neat as well, but I won't tell you what they are you will have to find out for yourself. I really loved her bestfriend Mal, especially as their friendship leaned towards something more towards the end. Even though the Darkling is the bad guy of the story I loved him as well he had some nice sensitive sides with Alina in the book.

As first I was a bit confused with the odd words used in Shadow and Bone to describe the world and didn't types of Grisha and what exactly their powers were. Eventually I did learn them, they are just words I have never seen before and their were so many I kept having to flip back to the Grisha guide at the front of the book. That guide was very helpful. Once you get used to and understand the world of Ravka, you will no doubt fall in love with all the characters, and the world of Grisha. This book is seriously amazing, and I need book two now. I'm am ecstatic to be apart of the blog tour coming up, look out for an interview with Leigh in mid June.

4.5/5 stars

I wonder if I would have liked this more if I’d read it when it was first published nine years ago. I have a feeling I would have. As it is, I really enjoyed reading it but found it very formulaic. It’s incredibly similar to so many other YA fantasy romances and there was nothing particularly special to me to make it stand out.

I wanted a lot more from the world building – it’s one of my favorite things about high fantasy and while this had a lot of potential, ultimately I was left wanting more. Overall I felt like everything just… lacked depth. I wanted more oomph, more excitement, more danger, more romance, more adventure. It was such a quick read and I kept waiting for the real story to begin. I imagine that might happen in the next two books but I feel like even in a trilogy each book should stand as a story on its own.

NOW, having said all that, I did find it really addictive and I’m interested to see what happens next. It was a fun, engaging read and I’m definitely still looking forward to reading the rest of the series! I honestly didn’t dislike this, I just didn’t love it the way I was hoping to based on all the rave reviews. I can also 100% understand why this was made into a TV series; I can see it being an absolute visual delight and I can’t wait to watch once I’ve finished the books.

By far one of my favorite fantasies that has come out! Leigh Bardugo is an amazing author who knows how to hook you into her world and characters! If you haven’t gone to the bookstore yet to grab it you must go now you will not regret it!

Rereading this book 7 years later and I still like it. And see how it influenced a lot of YA novels after it...

I can't believe I waited so long to read this. I kid you not guys, I've had this book since before it came out in 2012 (obviously the old cover then). I seriously can't believe it took me 6 years to finally read it. Idk. I guess the hype around this really got me back in 2012 and I avoided it like the plague because of it. I'm so glad I finally picked it up though. I really did enjoy this and what a quick read it was for me as well! The only thing that kinda annoyed me is like most other first books in a series, it seems to start off slow and save all the action and plot twists for the second half of the book instead of equally pacing everything through the whole book.

So the first thing I liked is that the idea for the world came from Russia. We see so many books whose worlds are based on Europe or the US, but not much from Russia. So it was refreshing to read a book with a different influence. And the fact it also took into account the class differences in Russia made it that much more realistic being based off that world. I also loved that some of the language also seemed to be influenced by the Russian language. It definitely made it more interesting for me to read.

I also found the magic of the Grisha incredibly interesting. I thought it was really interesting how most Grisha seemed to only have certain types of powers. Like fire, wind, etc. and how they were separated into 3 groups based on their powers. Which is what makes The Darklings and Alina's powers more unique. No one else seems to have control over darkness like the Darkling does and no one else seems to be able to control Sunlight like Alina. What makes them different? If most Grisha tend to have one of the normal powers, how did those two get more unique powers? I found it interesting how the Grisha are the elite, wealthy ones. Usually with magic it either makes you the elite class or the poor persecuted class. It all depends on the world right?

I did like Alina's character. She's not my favorite of characters, but she's not bad by any means. I thought it was pretty interesting how she didn't seem to manifest her power until much later compared to when most Grisha manifested their powers. Especially since she had even been tested when she was 8 like everyone else. But then later on we find out that Alina did kinda know about her power and that she was different. She pushed it down and hid it so she wouldn't be separated from Mal. Which causes her trouble. She let the idea of not being separated from Mal take over her thoughts so much, that she found it hard to let go and let her power come to her until it finally seemed like Mal stopped being interested in talking to her. It was amazing how easily her power came to her once she let go of the thing that was holding her back. I did find Alina a little naive. She seemed to think the Darkling only had her best interests in mind and anyone who said anything to the contrary was wrong or lying. She didn't wanna believe it because he was so nice to her and was definitely into her. Once she got passed that though, I was liking her more since she was really starting to look deeper into things.

I'm not really into either of the "love interests." Neither The Darkling or Mal really gave me much to like about them. The Darkling obviously is lying to furthure his interests. Trying to get Alina on his side so he can steal her power to use to expand the Shadow Fold. Nope. Not to mention how he's just cruel regarding Mal even after Alina's begging. So that's a nope for me regarding the Darkling. And Mal. I just don't feel it. First, he's incredibly dense. All about hooking up with other girls, not caring about Alina's feelings until she's taken away. Then suddenly its like a 360 and he suddenly loves her and wants to be with her. Just ugh. How typical. You want her when she's no longer available to you. I just also haven't seen anything that makes me think "yeah, those two need to be together!" The most I see thus far is a close friendship despite them having feelings for the other. We'll see if it changes as the series goes on.

I'm definitely curious about what's going to happen next since Alina got away and clearly that's going to make the Darkling more angry. Not to mention I wanna know if any of the other countries are going to do anything about the fact he expanded the Shadow Fold on his own people and is threatening to do it to everyone. He may think it's going to bring peace, but it in fact, is not. That's seriously not how you go about achieving peace.

This book has everything you would want in a fantasy, a kick butt heroine, a broody villain and a gorgeous hero. Or are they? I really liked this world and it's magic system. It's a really fast read and makes you want to reach for the next book as soon as possible. There were enough twists and turns that made the pages fly. Definitely recommend for all readers!
Received copy from Netgalley for revew..(have since purchased my own copy)