Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2) by Leigh Bardugo - Restarting December 8th 2021

[Rachel]

I'll be starting tonight :) sorry I'm a bit late!

[Adriana]

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Date changed. Restarting August 15, 2015.

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[[deleted user]]

Gonna start this later today

[Adriana]

You've read it before? I hope you like it better this time around and I like it too.

[[deleted user]]

I never finished it, I think I got halfway through and then stopped. I don't remember why I didn't like it though.

Chapter 2:
(view spoiler)[The story is moving a bit quick but its pretty good so far. I'm trying to remember who some of these characters are and what happened in Shadow and Bone and its coming back a bit (hide spoiler)]

[Adriana]

Good to know! I'm starting now.

[Adriana]

Before (view spoiler)[Just like they were kids and growing up as adults, Alina is the outsider while Mal is perfect. I didn't really feel overly attached to their "romance" in the last book at all. I hope Mal and Alina become clearly more attached. Although, I don't know if Mal really likes her that way? Was he doing the right thing before and that's all? I'm just imaging now how bad it went with the darkling. Before he betrayed her he was really nice towards her even if they saw each other so little. I can't get that out of my head. (hide spoiler)]

ch. 1 (view spoiler)[ Tobacco flowers?

She says she will one day be free but really the darkling has a lot of power and has been around hundreds of years and she has a lot of power so...

I guess it might be Alina's self-consciousness that I don't see why she is with Mal. Mal needs to really show me he cares.

That was fast! Oh crap. The darkling is going to just crazier now with all these monsters around him. (hide spoiler)]

ch. 2 (view spoiler)[ What was with that last one. The wings? Will she get wings? That would be awesome.

I really hate Genya. (hide spoiler)]

[Adriana]

ch. 3 (view spoiler)[ Two amplifiers. This won't end well.

I hadn't thought of it before but does Mal have a power of his own?

Mal is amazingly good at his job. (hide spoiler)]

ch. 4 (view spoiler)[ What are they going to do with the dragon? (hide spoiler)]

ch. 5 (view spoiler)[ Sturmhond is going to be fun to follow along.

Oh man! A third amplifier. That's what the darkling will be after. (hide spoiler)]

ch. 6 (view spoiler)[ She's going to go power hungry. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

Chapter 7:
(view spoiler)[I really don't get why I didn't like it before, this is quite good. I'm liking Sturmhond's character, he's quite funny. I'm not sure whether he is good or not though :/ I seriously do think Alina is going to go power hungry! That would be a plot twist i there ever was one XD (hide spoiler)]

[Abi]

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Reading from the 19th of September 2015

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[Joan]

Started this today :) I love how it begins with a BANG, it doesn't waste time putting Mal and Alina in danger - and action!

Chapter 7 now, so far I'm loving every page of it, but I'm a bit bothered by something:

(view spoiler)[Does anyone else hates Alina's pessimistic attitude? Her poor self esteem irks me. I swear, if she isn't in love with Mal, she'd be dying with envy for all his abilities.

The only thing I'd ever been good at was being a Grisha. I missed summoning light, and each day I didn't use my power, I grew more weak and sickly.

WTH, the same problem from the first book? It's like she didn't learn anything at all from her mentors! Get a grip of yourself, girl *shakes Alina* (hide spoiler)]

[Joan]

Oh wow, I flew by this book so fast! It's so good!

[Marie]

I'm gonna start this soon

[Joan]

I was going to take my time with it, but I finished quicker than I anticipated.
I am Nikolai fan now <3 I hope you enjoy it Marie!

[Marie]

Chapter 4
(view spoiler)[ I wonder what the captains deal is, why did he save them?
The Darkling is still as creepy as ever but I still can't help but like him. And I wonder why he didn't kill the sea whip. What happens when you use 2 amplifiers? (hide spoiler)]

[Marie]

Chapter 6 (view spoiler)[ I have a bad feeling about the amplifiers (hide spoiler)]

[Marie]

Chapter 15
(view spoiler)[ I'm thinking that the Darkling hallucinations are either caused by her shoulder wound or the second amplifier (hide spoiler)]

[Marie]

Ending
(view spoiler)[ the Darkling is as devious as ever and I can't believe her powers are gone. I hope she gets them back.
I really want to read the next book soon but at the same time I'm worried that it might not be good and here is also the fact that I just love these characters so much and I don't want their stories to be over! (hide spoiler)]

[Joan]

me too! I'm thinking the same thing. I love this one much more than the first and I don't want to end the experience yet...but im so curious to find out what's gonna happen now :) Will you be starting it soon, you think? I can BR it with you, I won't start a day earlier as well, lol.

[Vippi]

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Restarting November 9th 2015

[Max]

I shall be joining this!

[Vippi]

Great! :)

[Vippi]

Starting this right now!

So excited ^^

[Michaela]

Hi guys! Didn't have much to do at school today so I read the book most of the time! Ooops! :D I am about a hundred pages in and I'll read a little now before I start studying!
I'll post my comments on the chapter l8r :)

[Vippi]

Hi!

the past few days have been really busy and I haven't had much time for reading :(
I hope today and tomorrow will be better *fingers crossed*
So far I'm somewhere through Chapter 3:
(view spoiler)[I didn't expect Alina and Mal to be caught so soon, but I enjoyed meeting the Darkling again.
So far Sturmhond really intrigues me and I think(/hope) he'll play an important role in the story :) (hide spoiler)]

Are you enjoying this? :)

[Vippi]

Chapter 6: (view spoiler)[I can't say that Sturmhond (♥)'s betrayal totally caught me off guard. I suspected that he was planning something. Now I'm very curious to know who overpaid him to get Alina. (hide spoiler)]

[Vippi]

Chapter 7: (view spoiler)[Alina's greed really scares me O.O (hide spoiler)]

[Vippi]

Chapter 9: (view spoiler)[so Sturmhold is Nicolai!!! I did't see that twist coming! (hide spoiler)]

[Michaela]

Chapter 10: (view spoiler)[ Woww! PLOT TWIST GAME STRONG! Nicolai the sobachka is actually Stormhoung! I am already enjoying this book too much!
(hide spoiler)]

[Vippi]

Mickey wrote: "Chapter 10: Woww! PLOT TWIST GAME STRONG!"

(view spoiler)[I love Sturmhold/Nikolai.
I just wonder what happened to Alina with the volcra??
I guess it has something to do her wound... But I'm still worried...
Do you think she really saw the Darkling when she crossed the Fold?(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Michaela]

Chapter 18
(view spoiler)[
I knew there would be a point where Mal would be so pissed off he will eventually break every conncetion between the two of them. But in my opinion Alina made this super stupid decision not to tell Mal she was seeing Darkling all this time..
(hide spoiler)]

[Michaela]

Chapter 19
(view spoiler)[
I just can not accept Mal's coldness..
(hide spoiler)]
Since I was from my phone I'm sorry I didn't see your comment earlier Vippi, so I'll just answer it now:
(view spoiler)[ I don't really think he is real, but my guesses are he has either found a way to go in her head and he is manipulating her or she's just scared of the outcome of the war and in addition with the post-traumatic stress she is hallucinating.. idk, what are your thoughts?
(hide spoiler)]

[Vippi]

Mickey wrote: "Chapter 18
Chapter 19"

(view spoiler)[I didn't enjoy Mal's reaction, too. I can understand him, though. Probably if I were him, I would have been even harsher...
The problem is that not only I think Alina was wrong not telling him about her "visions", but I also despise her.
She feels lonely but she is the one who has created a bareer around herself, putting distance between her and Mal... :/ (hide spoiler)]

Mickey wrote: Since I was from my phone I'm sorry I didn't see your comment earlier Vippi, so I'll just answer it now: I don't really think he is real, but my..."

I thought he was real.
Now that I finished the book (view spoiler)[I know that so was he: he said that it was part of his new powers... but I still cannot understand how he could do it... or why: to torment her? to play tricks with her mind? because he really misses her? O.O (hide spoiler)]

I'm eager to know your opinion about the book and share mine with you ^^

[Michaela]

I can't see the spoilers here on my phone :( I'll just write my thoughts and then discuss your comment with you further :)
(view spoiler)[
I am really shocked by the disappearance of Alina's power and I couldn't really understand the thing with her eyes. think that Mal should've let her kill Darkling even though she'd die with him but we all know how much he loves her and wouldn't let that happen.
My guesses were confirmed about Darkling really coming to Alina and in my opinion it was really disgusting that thing he did when he turned himself into Mal and kissed her.
Another thing is that I really thought David's plates were going to work but I guess we all underestimated Darkling's power.
(hide spoiler)]

[Michaela]

Finally home! Yay!
Sooo:
(view spoiler)[
That is a really good theory u have there about the Darkling missing Alina. As I think further and further I think of it more and more as a possibility. Maybe he was so alone all that time throughout all these ages that he'd finally found someone to let his feelings free for.
(hide spoiler)]
I am happy I get to discuss this one with you! You're a great buddy! Let's see what happens next! I am looking forward to discussing the third book with you!
Do you have any other books in mind for these two months? Maybe we have some books we can read together?

[Vippi]

I really enjoyed our buddy-read too ^^

In regard to my "theory" about the Darkling, I've just commented on the Ruin-and-Rising thread after reading the first 3 chapters ;)

In the next weeks, I've scheduled:
- Queen of Shadows
- Blue lily, lily blue
- Firefight

and I hope I can read at least Kate Daniels #6 (and maybe #7 and #8?). What are you going to read?
It'll be great if we can arrange another buddy-read! :D

[Vippi]

I've almost forgotten it: I'm going to read Six of Crowns in December :)
Have you already read it? It seems awesome!

[Michaela]

I don't have it here in my country yet :( Queen of Shadows, too. I'm crying :D

[Vippi]

Oh, I know the feeling :(
Generally Italian pulishers are the last ones when it comes to translating the books I dream of... and often after publishing the first-in-a-series they change their mind and abandon the translating project... *pure hatred*
That's why now I mostly read in English... :((

What are your reading plans for the next weeks? ^^

[Michaela]

They don't even import English books that much :(I have like 20ish and they are only the most popular ones, so yeah it sucks...
I plan on reading Carry On but only if it counts as second book to Fangirl I have to ask the mods first, Lola and Isla towards the end of December bc that's when I am getting them, the fifth book in the Selection series which comes out this Satuday here and I am surprised by how fast they're publishing it..
I have some other ideas but I am not quite sure yet..

[Vippi]

Here in Italy it's the same: it's very rare to find books in English sold in bookshops.. Generally they ave only few selected solid-mainstream titles... :/
For my orders I generally use The Book Depository that offers free shipping worldwide...

Carry on? I'd like to read it too! Let me know if you'll manage to schedule a buddy-read ;)

[Michaela]

I am free the first three weeks of December so you can choose a date and we can set it already! I am overly excited haha!

[Vippi]

Shame... I'd join you but I'm quite busy till the last week of December bc I've scheduled some BR and I've to read and review some titles provided by Netgalley (that have piled up since I've give precedence to other books I've been more interested in... er... like the grisha trilogy...)
I'm really sorry! :(

[Michaela]

Hmm, what about late next week or I can try squeeze it in the last 3 or 4 days of December? How about that?

[Vippi]

The last days of Dec will be fine for me, but feel free to read it before if you want. I don't want you to wait just for me!

[Michaela]

I have other books I can choose so don't worry, I'll wait for you so we can discuss :)

[Vippi]

Okay, thanks! ^^
I'm free in the last week of December: pick the date you prefer ;)

[Victoria]

My book hasn't come yet, so I'm going to be late starting :( Hopefully it'll turn up soon though!

[Melanie]

can i join this convo too?

[Ashley]

Chapter 5: (view spoiler)[ I liked how we got pulled right into the action. I think that Sturmhond has some kind of big secret, since he tried to hide his face when he realized Alina was looking at him. Maybe he's related to some kind of royalty, and the person in West Ravka is a relative? I want Alina and Mal to be able to be together, hopefully Sturmhond doesn't stop them. (hide spoiler)]