Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising (Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #3) (Grishaverse, #3)

by Leigh Bardugo

*The Grishaverse will be coming to Netflix soon with Shadow and Bone, an original series!*

Enter the Grishaverse with book three of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by number one New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo. Perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and Sarah J. Maas.

Now with a stunning new cover and exclusive bonus material: The Demon in the Wood (a Darkling prequel story) and a Q&A with Leigh Bardugo.

Soldier. Summoner. Saint.The nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

The Darkling rules from his shadow throne while a weakened Alina Starkov recovers from their battle under the dubious protection of the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Now her hopes lie with the magic of a long-vanished ancient creature and the chance that an outlaw prince still survives.

As her allies and enemies race toward war, only Alina stands between her country and a rising tide of darkness that could destroy the world. To win this fight, she must seize a legend's power - but claiming the firebird may be her ruin.


Read all the books in the Grishaverse!

The Shadow and Bone Trilogy
(previously published as The Grisha Trilogy)
Shadow and Bone
Siege and Storm
Ruin and Rising

The Six of Crows Duology
Six of Crows
Crooked Kingdom

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

Reviewed by alindstadtcorbeax on

5 of 5 stars

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Star Rating : 4.5 stars, only .5 loss for the lack of a satisfying ending for one very amazing character, one Nikolai Lantsov.

SPOILER ALERT REGARDING THIS LITTLE BLURB!!! D O N T read unless finished with King of Scars!

{ Feb. 7th, 2018
After reading KoS

Uhmmm, so, when I said, at the end of my review below, “Also, the way the darkling’s story wound up in the end... I think was genius and perfection & the only way it SHOULD have ended up. It was like tying the ribbon on a neatly wrapped & sealed package (like, you know... filled with tons of chaos and evil and stuff but whatever— it’s wrapped. Not our problem anymore).” }

Welp, guys. I may have been wrong.
That is all.

😂😂😂


May 29th, 2018
Original review:

Trying not to include spoilers here? Hard to care about spoilers when my heart is in pieces on the floor- but hey.

Well. This is the first book in the series where I truly felt sure of an ending one second, and was completely dumbfounded the next, because nothing felt truly RIGHT. This story took me on some wonderful twists and turns; it was a pleasure, for once, to not be able to use context clues to figure out the exact ending. The book changed direction more times than I’ve said I love Nikolai Lantsov which is A LOT - let me tell YOU. Every way for it to end that I could came up with while reading did not quite... work. I honestly could not figure out what was up, what was down, and how this thing was going to end without me being outraged by some outrageous factor.

BUT it did end up without me being outraged. In fact, I thought the ending was almost perfect. In the end, it mostly all felt right/ the way things worked out. An elegant, emotion filled ending. Bardugo is a damn master.

I think that the reason that Nikolai didn’t get his story written to a satisfying conclusion is because honestly nothing already within the story would’ve done his tale justice. It would’ve taken a whole new book basically to give him the ending he deserved (and he will be getting not one, but TWO; *SQUEEEEEEEE*).

Can I pull a blues clues and jump on into that novel when it’s released? Please? Imma get working on the science & magic of physically inserting yourself into novels immediately. So worth it.

This last novel was written so well. So emotional, I was a mess all throughout this book- we’re talking tears caused by probably every kind of emotion that exists. I mean seriously, the pages all throughout that are tear stained and soggy will attest to this ;-).
And the last pages of this book are stained with my tears FOREVER, my GOD! They look like I spilled water on them & then dried, haha. Good thing this will stay on my bookshelf for all time, available for me to reread and re-fall-in-love with forever.

And character building? Holy freakin moly. MAL TURN AROUND ALERT. Seemed a bit sudden but either way- I ACTUALLY LIKE MAL NOW. I may even have fallen in love with his character before the end. Still a bit too broody & a tad too whiny, but what’s a tracker who’s hopeless in love to do? ;-)

I cannot help but long for this emptiness in my heart for Nikolai to be filled as soon as possible. Mmk? I am fulfilled by every character’s closures but his, because he DIDN’T HAVE proper closure. Ugh. How have people lived this long without knowing there would be a duology for him without being left longing & feeling so much emptiness in your heart (plus possibly a tad bit of rage?) HOW?!?

Also, the way the forever emo kid/ darkling’s story wound up in the end... I think it was genius and perfection & the only way it SHOULD have ended up. It was like tying the ribbon on a neatly wrapped & sealed package (filled with tons of chaos and evil but whatever— it’s wrapped. Not our problem).

Loved Alina’s, Mal’s, all their Grisha friends, etc endings. Somehow so perfect.

Anyway; The Grisha Trilogy has officially claimed a piece of my heart forever. And ever. And ever.

And no offense to any emo kids out there ;-) I’m the first to admit= me. Lol

Fin.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 29 May, 2018: Finished reading
  • 29 May, 2018: Reviewed