Shadow and Bone (Shadow and Bone, #1) in Never Too Old For Y.A. & N.A. Books

Jul 19, 2013 Erica Alyson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, paranomal

Amazing book! On to book 2!!!!

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May 01, 2012 Sharrice rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Is it weird to say I honestly did not say I was going to like this book? I had seen Smoke and Bone around through reviews and at bookstores but it never caught my interest. In actuality I probably would never have checked out this book at all if I hadn’t gone to RT and gotten a free copy. Needless to say after I started reading Smoke and Bone I could have slapped myself in the head for waiting as long as I did to read this amazing book.

Alina is an orphan and so is her crush and long time best f Is it weird to say I honestly did not say I was going to like this book? I had seen Smoke and Bone around through reviews and at bookstores but it never caught my interest. In actuality I probably would never have checked out this book at all if I hadn’t gone to RT and gotten a free copy. Needless to say after I started reading Smoke and Bone I could have slapped myself in the head for waiting as long as I did to read this amazing book.

Alina is an orphan and so is her crush and long time best friend Mal. Mal and Alina grew up together but they have been drifting further and further apart. Alina doesn’t believe she’s anything special. She can hardly ever sleep, she looks constantly sick, and is completely untalented in her opinion. Then they go on a mission into the Fold and everything changes. Her ship and Mal are attacked and Alina lets out a bright powerful light that saves everyone. Now Alina is being taken by the Darkling so she can be trained by the Grisha. Only she doesn’t believe she’s a Grisha, all she wants is to go home. With secrets around every corner and the Darkling’s handsome face trying to help her Alina is in a whole new world which is just as dangerous and the Fold.

At the beginning of Smoke and Bone I had trouble getting into this book only because some of the language was extremely different and it didn’t explain very well what anything was. As the book goes farther though and the terms are used more in different contexts I figured out what almost everything was. Honestly this is probably my only complaint about this book.

Alina’s story is definitely awesome. While she’s unsure of herself throughout most of the book I didn’t find it annoying except for maybe when she was giving up on trying. However, she brought back the awesome so I wasn’t too bothered by it. Alina is one of the only of her kind in the Grisha community which really puts her on the outs even with her own people. Alina’s crush on Mal didn’t really make sense to me except that she craved his knowing her forever until near the end of the book when they meet again.

Mal is definitely not the typical guy I would enjoy in a book. Something about him in the beginning made me not like him, like the fact he took Alina for granted. Although he does redeem himself much much later in the book I am still not totally in love with his character.

The Darkling is sexy appeal and all powerful. Many people are afraid of him but he seems so incredibly nice throughout the book. I really enjoyed the scenes with him and Alina and found him to be ubber sexy.

Now due to Mal and the Darkling being somewhat love interests I will tell you now that as far as I can tell this is not a love triangle. So, no need to worry if you aren’t into love triangles Smoke and Bone does not that any of that going on.

Ms. Bardugo definitely packed a lot of mystery, tragedy, and action into this first installment of the Grisha trilogy. Some people get cut in half, others get eaten by flying things that used to be human, others die of the cold and the list can go on and on. Lots of people die, and lots of people get hurt. Smoke and Bone honestly reminds her of the Graceling series and the Seven Realms series. Both of which are awesome by the way. I honestly had no clue who the bad guy was until all was revealed. It was a complete shock to me. I was totally in it with Alina and then as soon as the truth was revealed all I could think was “Woah, I so did not see that coming.”

Overall, I really enjoyed Smoke and Bone. The characters both good and bad were awesome because they felt real. The whole world felt read and so I need to give props to the fantastic writing by Ms. Leigh Bardugo. Can’t wait to read the sequel!

Teaser: "Then a cry rent the air beside me. I gasped as Alexei's arm was yanked from mine.In a spurt of flame, I saw him clutching at the railing with one hand. I saw his howling moth, his wide, terrified eyes, and the monstrous thing that held him win its glistening gray arms."

Swoon: "His hand slid down to my hip. I felt a little trill of panic as my skirt slid higher and his fingers closed on my bare thigh, but instead of pulling away, I pushed closer to him." ...more

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Dec 24, 2019 Zara Arshad rated it liked it

Shelves: got-sucked-into-their-world, kick-ass-girl, good-start-bad-end, fantasy, assasins

I first read this book's 100 pages (till Chapter 10) some 4-5 months back and then stopped reading but after learning that I was horribly behind on my to-read list for 2019 (I'd barely read 3 books all year, out of 50) I wanted to start reading again and this was the one I picked up to continue.

I first read the standalone series Six of Crows by Leigh Burdago back in 2017. After surprisingly enjoying that story a little too much, I wanted to give her other works a try. Back then in 2014, I first I first read this book's 100 pages (till Chapter 10) some 4-5 months back and then stopped reading but after learning that I was horribly behind on my to-read list for 2019 (I'd barely read 3 books all year, out of 50) I wanted to start reading again and this was the one I picked up to continue.

I first read the standalone series Six of Crows by Leigh Burdago back in 2017. After surprisingly enjoying that story a little too much, I wanted to give her other works a try. Back then in 2014, I first tried Leigh's writing and ended up reading the short story The Witch of Duva and didn't really like the gist of it so I dropped wanting to read Shadow and Bone then. But after hearing that Netflix had opted to make this book into a series I decided that I had to check it out. I finally got round to reading it and today during my winter vacation, I ended up reading it in one sitting from Chapter 11 to 22.

My thoughts on the story:
The story is set in a land called Ravka where special people with powers exist called Grisha and are enrolled in the army to defend their land against wars with other nations. There's a girl whose rare gifts are discovered by accident and she turns out to be the Chosen One they've all been waiting for. She's taken away from her old life and her best friend/childhood love Mal, and put into the custody of the mysterious Darkling, who's the only one of his kind just like her. The story goes that his ancestors created the Shadow Fold, a land of darkness, that had divided the nations and to reunite them all they need Alina to destroy the Shadow Fold and the monsters, volcra, that lurk within.

Spoilers
The author plays with the innocence of Alina and leads us to believe that the person who smiles at us and bring us a sense of comfort can be trusted. That's where the story goes off, when we as readers are lulled in the security of the Grand Palace, with its warm beds, the cozy friendship of Genya, and the pull of the Darkling, we find out things aren't as they seem. It was like waking up from a happy dream and smack into reality.

Alina is forced to run away from the Palace in order to save herself from becoming Darkling's slave and letting him use her powers for his selfish gains. He wants to expand the Shadow Fold's range and spread terror onto those who refuse his wishes. The Darling ambushes Alina and Mal at the sighting of the ancient stag. He then uses its powerful stags as Amplifiers to control Alina's powers. Once in the Shadow Fold, when Darkling orders Mal to be thrown to the volcra as food, Alina's powers come to her aid and she ends up fleeing the hold of Darkling with Mal and they find themselves on the other side of Ravka.

The ending was a bit underwhelming and was like any other cliched story but I had a lot of fun reading it. I know for a fact from the Six of Crows series that Alina ends up destroying the Fold so I know how this ends but I'll read the next book soon enough. ...more

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Aug 21, 2013 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya-fantasy, favorites

Literally read this in two nights....so good! Such an original young adult fantasy book - sort of similar to the Graceling series with the whole Grisha power thing. I loved the plot twist with the Darkling about 2/3 into it - did not see that coming at all. I absolutely adored Alina...such a great main character. Oh and I really loved Mal too....honestly, I just loved it all :) Can't wait to pick up the next one! ...more

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