Siege and Storm: Book 2 (Grishaverse, #2) (Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #2)

by Leigh Bardugo

"The Hunger Games meets Potter meets Twilight meets Lord of the Rings meets Game of Thrones; basically epic magical fantasy but completely for grown-ups." STYLIST MAGAZINE The first book was Shadow and Bone. Now Alina's story continues. Darkness never dies. Alina and Mal are on the run. Hunted and haunted, but together at last, they can't outrun Alina's past or her destiny forever. The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and he needs Alina to realise his dangerous plan. There are others who would like to use Alina's gift too. And as her power grows, somehow, she must choose between her country, her power, and her love - or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm. Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance. Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and Laini Taylor.

• ISBN10: 1780621132
• ISBN13: 9781780621135
• Publish Date: 6 June 2013 (first published 4 June 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 22 May 2014
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Indigo (an Imprint of Orion Children's)
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[tweetybugshouse]

This is second book in the Grisha trilogy and i admit i read the first one a while back so i did a re read before i picked this one up and of course i picked the series back up cause King of Scars is coming out at the end of this month January 2019.

Now do any of you do that are you notorious for starting a series but then you don't have the next one or it not out yet. So you go along and then you never get back to it? Yeah i really bad about that but i do love when a series i thought was done gets a spin off or something that drags me back.

In this second book our main character Alina and Mal are torn apart and brought back together in this mad treasure hunt for this mythological creatures to steal their powers and hopefully make Alina strong enough to defeat the darkling. Their a lot of action in this second book and we are introduced to Nikolai which is who King of Scars is centered around. I admit if you only read book one of this series you won't know who he is so you need to read at least the second book.

The ending to this second book is great as it really leaves you with a gut wrench and your like oh my need book three and i have book three so it next in my pile so i be ready for King of Scars which i hope proves to me amazing.

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews As soon as I finished Shadow and Bone I had to jump into Siege and Storm. Mal and Alina have been living a normal life for a while now but Alina is struggling. By not using her powers she is making herself weak and quite frankly unhappy. It's not long before The Darkling catches up to them and their life is thrown into chaos again.

I enjoyed this book so much. I cannot describe how much. This was due to one of my all-time favourite characters Sturmhond aka The Clever Fox. This character is blunt, honest and oh so witty.

Mal irritated me a lot in this book. He was selfish and very whingey. Alina is trying to save the world from The Darkling and he is complaining because she doesn't want a few kisses. He doesn't stop to notice that something is wrong he is so wrapped up in himself that he can't see that something is seriously wrong.

On the flip side, Alina kept everything to herself and never asked anyone for help which frustrated me immensely. Just ask for some god damn help woman!

This book is so much more than the first and it made my love for the series and the verse increase dramatically. (Yes most of that is down to Sturmhond)

The end of this book is pretty dramatic/cliffhanger like so I was so so glad I didn't need to wait for the final book in the series.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

3.5 stars... on to ruin and rising so once again RTC ;-)

5/29/18- okay. I change my rating to 4 stars. Nikolai ran this shiz okay?!? And omfg he’s one of my favorite characters ever, ever, ever. The character building there, too; knowwhatimean!? Just epic. He may have just charmed me more than even anyone actually in the novel ;-). I miss him already// blah. I could talk forever about how fabulous & amazing he is but you probably get the idea.

There’s no denying this book did not feel like it held its own. It was for sure just a bridge to gap beginning to end. It just did not feel complete on its own as a novel.

Again Mal just does NOT do it for me here. Bland & whiny & I feel bad for saying that, really, I do- bc Alina loves him so much. But *shrugs* you want the truth don’t you?! Mal is sulky & broody & bland no matter how many Grisha he fights.
*eye roll*
Mal is a bit extra. JS.

The Darkling... so much for THAT. Lol. One way train to crazy town (as if he wasn’t already there), much?!
Still think he’s a way too powerful, dangerous, lonely, thousands of years old, EMO KID .

In all, Nikolai is a dream & is the only thing that kept me reading this one, honestly.

Alina continues to surprise & grow on me, especially in her interactions with supporting characters here.

Both Mal & The Darkling need a freakin’ WAHHH-mbulance.

Oh & the world building & writing just continue to be positively mesmerizing...

but sometimes that just isn’t enough?

Still loved it though.

Ms. Leigh Bardugo... *bows* I want to personally thank you for Nikolai Lantsov.

That is all. 😉

[bumblingbookworm]

This review was originally posted on The Bumbling Bookworm

I'm currently making my way through the unread books on my shelf, and Leigh Bardugo's books make up a nice chunk of them.  Until this week, I've owned all of her books and only read Shadow and Bone, which I read more than 3 years ago.  My goal this month is to read the rest of Leigh Bardugo's books, and I can now knock Siege and Storm off that list.  I tried to read this after I read Shadow and Bone, and I struggled a bit to get through it, but this time I didn't have any issues - I read it quite quickly and found I really enjoyed it.

I won't say too much about this, because it's the second in the series and I don't want to give too much away.  All I'll say is that Mal is so annoying and needs to disappear, but Sturmhond is so precious!  I love the Grishaverse, what Bardugo has created is simply amazing.  I can't wait to read more books set in this world, including Ruin and Rising and the Six of Crows duology.  The pacing in this book was quite good to begin with, but as I continued it dragged a bit in the middle, before picking back up again towards the end.  A solid middle book, and I can't wait to see how it ends - 4 stars.

Check out the rest of my review here!

"I am a soldier. I am the Sun Summoner. And I'm the only chance you have." (Alina Starkov)

Siege and Storm is another book to add to the list of second books in a series where nothing much happens. There's travelling, boring politics and court life and preparations for an impending battle.

I feel like the aim of Siege and Storm is to focus on Alina's character development. As Alina becomes more powerful she has to deal with the responsibility and price that comes with that power. Alina's transition from white to grey is done extremely well. There's a small blot of darkness within her and that darkness slowly manifests to a point where she embraces it without realising it. Unfortunately, Alina's character development wasn't enough to keep me invested in Siege and Storm

In Siege and Storm, the love triangle becomes a love square. This love square didn't annoy the hell out of me for two reasons. Firstly, the focus of Siege and Storm is not its love square and secondly while Alina has many love interests, it's clear who she's going to end up with. There's also a lot of drama going on between Mal and Alina in Siege and Storm. This drama makes sense in context of the characters and the events that they've been through, but there were some instances where it's overdone and pointless.

The bright spark in Siege and Storm is Prince Nikolai Lantsov. From the moment that he appears in Siege and Storm, I was hooked. He's smart, calculating, charismatic and hilarious. Every scene that he's in fills Siege and Storm with life. He's one of the two characters (the other being The Darkling) that I'm extremely invested in and I'm so excited that he's getting his own book, King of Scars.

Siege and Storm was such a chore to get through. It took me weeks to get through this book, but what kept me going was Prince Nikolai, The Darkling and the themes of power and darkness.

"Besides, I like to have powerful enemies. Makes me feel important." (Sturmhond)

[dokie80]

While Reading six of crows without reading grisha series first is okay, reading grisha after soc series somehow ruin the reading experience.
Ppl should read grisha first then soc to enjoy most of them.

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: The only character I found remotely interesting was Sturmhond. The siblings added a little colour as well but everybody else, including Alina left me cold. Don't get me started on Mal either. He was the most excruciating one of the lot. He seemed to merely exist to drag everything down. The Darkling was nothing more than a phantom that posed a threat which while explosive didn't do much to convince me. I know he was dangerous and there were glimpses but the imminence of it only came across in theory. The plot prattled along with some form of destination but it was so anchored in the drama between Alina and Mal, it ultimately drove me to boredom.

[liz089]

I don't why I had trouble continuing this book.. I just wasn't in the mood? Or maybe it did not pull me as much as I would have wanted?
I really like the characters though and it was very action packed at the end.. But through out the story it was a bit slow at times.
I love Sturmhound and he, together with the twins, were a great welcome to this series.
I just did not like the romance a lot.. Alina is whining and Mal is acting like a complete ass.. Not much to root for. I like her better with a certain prince ^^

But, one more to go !! Curious how this is going to end..

[Cocktails and Books]

I loved this second installment to this series. Alina and Mal find themselves on the search for amplifiers that will help Alina's powers become stronger and hopefully defeat the Darklings. I was at the edge of my seat and was glad I didn't have to wait for book 3 to come out.

[Kait ✨]

warning: kind of (?) spoilery seas ahead:

I loooooved this second instalment. it’s the perfect kind of dark and twisty and I think bardugo’s skill as a writer has shown improvement and growth. bardugo threw in some complications with kind of a love square (???) with alina, mal, the darkling (no surprise there) and sturmhond (I LOVE HIM). mal and alina both struggle with how to live with her increasing power and new goals. I LOVED how bardugo developed the use of magic in this sequel, both with the darkling and alina. alina learns how to be a leader and how to accept herself- which has a pretty steep learning curve. and she ended it on a cliffhanger of epic proportions.

there are also new characters whom I love, particularly STURMHOND (!!!), tamar and tolya, and an old character, Zoya, who I now kind of like a lot but hated in book one??? (bardugo is messing with my heart. I love when authors flip the tables on me like this.)

soooo I will definitely starting #3 ASAP. I can’t get enough of alina and the crew, and I know I’m going to regret it once I get to the end (within a span of a week???), but I JUST CAN’T HELP MYSELF.