Review: Shadow and Bone (Grisha Verse #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Book info:

Title:  Shadow and Bone

Author:  Leigh Bardugo

Series:  Grisha Verse  #1

Genre:  YA Fantasy

Release Date:  June 5th, 2012

Publisher:   Henry Holt and Company

Source:  Purchased copy of book

My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.


My Review:
I'm not sure what took me so long to get to this. Time, other books I'd rather read, but no matter what, now I get what all the fuss is about.  I loved this book and am so eager to read on! I finally gave in and bought a copy of this, don't remember if it was on sale, or if I decided to use my extra employee appreciation discount back in November to save more on it, but I bought it, and it was one of my goals to get it read this year.  One of my Bookish Resolutions.  Now, because I'm new to the series, there are questions I have that probably those who have read them all know the answers to.  Like, did we know the Darkling's real name?  And then so much was left kind of up to not know what is true and who is good and who is bad, etc!  I can't wait to have time to read on in this series.  So while this is a pretty short review, that's because I know so many of you have probably already read it.  But just know that I loved it and that I think the hype is totally well deserved!

 

Dream a Little Dream (The Silver Trilogy #1) by Kerstin Gier

First, thanks to Henry Holt and Company Books for Young Readers, as well as Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this back in December.  For some reason I thought it was going to be published in January, so I read it earlier than I probably had to. But the only bad thing about that, is that now I have to wait even longer than I thought for the next book in the series to be published I guess, and I LOVED this one!  I was a huge fan of the Ruby Red trilogy, and so was very excited to see this come available on Edelweiss.

The main character in this book is Liv, short for Olivia.  Her mother and father are divorced, and she has a younger sister named Mia.  Their mother travels for her job a lot, and so they have lived in many different places.  The book begins with the current move to London.  When they arrive they find out that the little cottage they'd been looking forward to living in has been replaced with an apartment in town. The reason?  Their mother seems to have fallen in love.  They meet this man, who is nice enough.  He has twins, Grayson and Florence who are a little older than Liv.  They both go to the school where Liv and Mia will be able to go now.  And the night they first meet at a dinner, it seems that they are going to be moving to live in the same house together.  When Liv makes a mess on her clothes, she ends up borrowing a sweatshirt from Grayson.  Later that night she runs into Grayson in her dreams.  As well as some other boys that go to her school.  Of course she knows she is just dreaming, and she's always had pretty vivid dreams that she can remember.  This dream seems to be more real feeling though.  And the next day when she sees all the boys at school, it is as if they remember the dream too.  Soon the boys have a proposition for Liv.  They want her to help them out with a game they started about a year ago.  A game they started with a girl named Anabel, who has since moved away.  The "game" had to deal with raising a demon, and one of the caveats was that one of the participants had to be a virgin.  Turns out Anabel wasn't what they needed.

Grayson, and one of the other boys, named Henry, both kind of try to talk Liv out of joining them. But her curiosity wins out and she joins in. The realistic dreams and other things really have her attention.  And Liv loves a good mystery, or puzzle, one that she has to solve. The more complicated, the better.  Along the way it seems maybe Henry might be a pretty good guy, and maybe, just maybe, he might feel the same way about her that she is feeling about him.

I just love the way the author writes her characters, just like in the Ruby Red trilogy, I love the sarcastic conversation.  I love that Liv will catch herself when she is describing Henry with very sappy, silly words like, "had I really just thought his hair looked like spun gold in this light?"  I also love that their dog, Princess Buttercup, is a dachshund!!  My favorite type of dog.  The only thing I didn't like?  That the ending seemed to be pretty much wrapped up, until a little twist at the end.  But, the good thing about that is that it means there are more stories with these characters that I love so much for me to read.  If only I read German so that I could read the 2nd one already!  If you loved the author's earlier trilogy, I think you'll love this one as well.

One last fun thing, the door on the cover is basically Liv's door in the dream world.  Everyone has a door to their dreams.  At the end of the book, the author tells what her dream door would look like, and then asks the readers what would their door look like?  I'm thinking mine would be pink and have a doorknob with a dachshund head, or else a door knocker that was a dachshund that would bark it's head off when someone knocked. 

Emerald Green (Ruby Red Trilogy #3) by Kerstin Gier

I have to thank Henry Holt and Company for sending me an ARC of this, I believe through a link in the Shelf Awareness e-newsletter.  It also says on the back this is supposed to be part of the Fierce Reads campaign, which as you've seen earlier, is something I really love!  I don't think it is possible to say how much I love this series!  Even with all the time travel issues I mentioned in the first book's review, it worked in the end for me.  While many things didn't quite end up being explained, they were left in a way that sufficed for me.  And I loved that although I guessed who Lucy and Paul really were pretty quickly, and that once that huge revelation was out, it wasn't as if that was the end of the story.  There was still more to go.  And it was also not turned into a problem for Gideon and Gwyneth.
We were left at the end of the last book with Gideon's declaration of love to Gwyneth being questioned due to what both the Count said to her, as well as the way Gideon reacted to her questioning him about it.  And there are more clues left in this book, helping Gwyneth and her friend Lesley to figure out why Paul and Lucy took off with the chronograph.  And some of these clues will tell them just where the original chronograph is hidden.  There is help from Gwyneth's grandfather, as well as their house servant, Mr. Bernard.  Yet cousin Charlotte figures out something is going on, and leads the Guardians to supposedly discover what she says Gwyneth is hiding.  But when it isn't found, Charlotte looks like a fool, and begins to rebel.  We still have Raphael, Gideon's younger brother around, and he and Lesley seem to get along quite well, although she tries to be free of him, afraid he will break her heart like Gideon has done to Gwyneth.  At the beginning that is.  But now the Guardians know they must go back in time to try to help figure out who the traitor is.  And when they do find out, it is a dangerous situation.  Deadly, at least thought to be.  But once Gideon and Gwyneth come back, they find it is not quite so deadly, and that what may help the count now, is if Gwyneth would give up her life for love.  Kill herself to save Gideon.
I won't tell you much more, except to say that again I love the gargoyle ghost/demon, Xemerius, and the ending is a pretty happy one.  The family issues get resolved, and even the school problems.  Such a great story.  I will for sure be buying it for my school library with my next budget.  I will also be highly recommending it at the bookstore where I work, as well as with my friends.  If you haven't read this series, I recommend it for the great story, the great romance, the laughs, all of it.