"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)