Anmerkung: Ich habe die Trilogie im Schuber als Rezensionsexemplare vom Verlag bekommen. Danke dafür. Die volle Videorezension findet ihr auf meinem YouTube Kanal namens schokigirl oder weiter unten. Of course, I already knew. He wanted everything— Ravka, the world, the power of the Fold. His answer didn’t matter. I just needed to keep him talking. I’d known this moment might come, and I’d prepared for it. I wasn’t going to let him take me again. I glanced at Mal, hoping he under- stood what I intended. Later, Nikolai asks Mal to join the soldiers on a royal hunt, which would also help him mend his strained relationship with the First Army. To this, Mal reluctantly agrees. While Mal goes off to hunt, Nikolai lets Alina in on his plan of building a new ‘Hummingbird’ (the flying ship). This was to be the Prince’s escape plan if the worst came to pass. Nikolai tells her that he wants to keep his parents safe from the Darkling and, hence, would need two Squallers to help him build the ship. Alina says she can only ask the Grishas to volunteer, and in return, she also makes Nikolai promise to take Baghra along with him.

The Clever Fox. Always two steps ahead with a Plan B and a clever, perfectly-delivered one-liner that's sure to catch his opponents off-guard, Sturmhond is, put simply: absolutely (frustratingly) delightful. A brigand, a privateer, Sturmhond commands a crew of mercenaries who terrorize True Sea. He's incredibly complex, perpetually unruffled, perfectly evasive, endearingly infuriating, infinitely charming, chronically untrustworthy and completely incapable of answering a direct question. One can never be quite sure where one stands in his game, or what game he's playing. However, one thing's always certain, he is playing at something and he always has some angle. Sturmhond's a compelling mix of sincerity, honor and compassion coupled with ambition, cunning and ruthlessness, and easily rivals the Darkling as my favorite character in this series.

In short

Extra," the landlord grunted. He was a heavyset man with thinning hair and the orange-stained teeth that came from chewing jurda. He was sweating, I noticed. Though the day wasn't particularly warm, beads of perspiration had broken out over his upper lip. Romance - A lot of sequels/2nd books in trilogies are about breaking up the main couple or testing the MC and interest to see whether their love can sustain multiple trials. As such, Mal and Alina will have to deal with her powers, the unique situation they place her in the Grisha world, and the fundamental difference between the two, although they both are the hero and heroine of this series. Of course there's also the Darkling ever looming, and his last attempts with Alina are clearly not over. And there too may be someone else... The tension and conflict in each and every situation was heightened and developed, stakes clearly raised, and it was a job well done indeed. There wasn’t exactly much romance in the book. It was more about change in Mal and Alina’s relationship and how Alina’s power and responsibilities was affecting it. You remember Jes, right?” he said, nodding to his friend. “How do you go?” Jes asked in broken Ravkan, offering Apart from world, what I enjoyed most was banter between Nikolai, Alina and Mal, conversation between Alina and Nikolai, the way Alina made changes at Little Palace, and action scenes.

The second story of the boardinghouse was in considerably worse shape than the public rooms below. The carpet was faded and threadbare, and the dim hallway stank of cabbage and tobacco. The doors to the private rooms were all closed, and not a sound came from behind them as we passed. The quiet was eerie. Maybe everyone was out for the day. But as the truth of Alina's destiny unfolds, she slips deeper into the Darkling’s deadly game of forbidden magic, and further away from her humanity. To save her country, Alina will have to choose between her power and the love she thought would always be her shelter. No victory can come without sacrifice—and only she can face the oncoming storm. Man merkt hier, dass das der Debütroman (eigentlich Debüttrilogie, da man es in allen Bänden merkt) der Autorin ist. Manches war recht unbeholfen oder einfach ein Klischee. Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass einiges nur drin war, weil es zu der Zeit eben in allen Jugendbüchern war. Pacing - This book is clearly more dense than Shadow and Bone. With the introduction of many new plot lines, I thought the pacing in the middle dragged, though there was still advancement of the story. It was all essential, and truthfully I'm not sure what I would have done differently, but it was a tad slow. It may simply be that I noticed it more in this sequel just because of its additional length. ON THE DAY the Verrhader made land, the boy and girl stood at the rail together, watching as the coast of Novyi Zem drew closer.

Did we miss something on diversity?

Two weeks we’d been in Cofton, and I was still getting lost. The town lay inland, west of the Novyi Zem coast, miles from the harbor where we’d landed. Die Idee an sich fasziniert mich, da nicht viele Geschichten in einem ähnlichem Land wie Russland spielen. Der Schreibstil und die Atmosphäre gefallen mir sehr gut. Auch hier haben sie mir das Lesen angenehm gemacht. Das gilt für die gesamte Trilogie.