FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

When the galley for Shadow and Bone came out, I was very intrigued. The premise sounded awesome and everyone was raving about it. Naturally, I requested the book from NetGalley and dove right in!

I admit that I loved this book the minute I started reading it — the pace moved very quickly and I was turning it page by page, eager to find out what was going to happen next. I really loved the main characters, Alina and Mal, and was quite interested to see how things would turn out for each of them.

Leigh Bardugo does know how to write an exciting book — I didn’t want to put this one down! I was a little confused about why Alina’s power is such a great power, but it was a unique kind of power to have. Things were a little predictable and parts of the story had just a little too much focus on fashion and makeup (and strange theatricals that just seemed a little weird?). That being said, the world that Bardugo created was quite fascinating and exciting — I just felt that while the excitement was there, the plot was just a little too predictable.

I wouldn’t say that there was a love triangle per se … it was a little predictable what was going to happen. I found myself swooning over one character in particular and was happy that things worked out how I wanted them to.

While I really did enjoy reading this book, I found myself feeling on the fence when it ended. There was so much action and I was turning the pages as fast I could, but when I finished I didn’t find myself overly excited to get to the next book in the series. Keep in mind that I’m not too into series books these days, so it might just be me, so I’ll have to see when the next book comes out how intrigued I am. Now, that being said, Bardugo tied most things up at the end of the book, which was nice — rather than making the first book a stepping stone to the rest of the series, leaving too many things open.

If you really enjoy fantasy YA books, you should like this one. It’s very much like Maria V. Snyder’s Study series, but with a little less focus on the training.