SHADOW AND BONE

"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." - goodreads.com

First of all, this author has an awesome last name - Bardugo, I found myself just repeating it over and over because I liked the way it sounded. [haha, I'm weird] I got this book as a 'blind date' book from the library, I was actually quite excited when I opened up my package and found this book. It was in my goodreads TBR, so I was looking forward to getting this read. I love the cover, has a very Russian feel to it.

The story follows a girl named Alina, who believes she is nothing special, just another map maker helping her fellow soldiers fight the war that has been going on for dozens of years. When they venture into the 'unsea'/fold of darkness and get attacked by the man-eating volcra something magical happens. When Alina goes to the side of her best friend who is being attacked, something deep down inside calls to her, she answers and everything explodes into light. Turns out Alina is a sun-summoner, a very valuable magic power that the Grisha have not seen in a very long time. 

I got to admit it took WELL over 100 pages to get into this book, I just was not feeling it. The author put a lot of  words into it from either another language or a made up one, and then she lacked to actually explain what those words were. I actually went to good translate once or twice to try and figure it out. Nope, no answers.. just skip the word and move on, I suppose. So because of that I found myself missing a lot of the story because I didn't understand the words that were being given to me. I honestly thought it might be Russian because of the cover. The author did include a beautiful map at the beginning of the book which helped a lot. I love when authors do this so that you can actually see how far they have traveled and really get a real sense of where things are located in these fantasy worlds. 

I also fell in love with one of the main characters who ended up, not being a good person by the end of the book, so that was disappointing. I won't give away who, I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

Thankfully, the book did keep me entertained enough for me to want to know what would happen in the end. When finished I actually really enjoyed it and do plan on continuing with the series, maybe just not right away. 

3 out of 5 stars!

"one moment, I was staring into his slate-colored eyes, and the next, his lips were pressing into mine."

Leigh Bardugo is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Grisha Trilogy (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising).

She was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Los Angeles, and graduated from Yale University, and has worked in advertising, journalism, and most recently, makeup and special effects. These days, she’s lives and writes in Hollywood where she can occasionally be heard singing with her band. Her new book, Six of Crows, arrives fall 2015.

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