Shadow and Bone

Name: Shadow and Bone
Rating: 3.876 (127915 reviews)
ISBN: 9780805097108

By Leigh Bardugo

Publisher Description

See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with the Netflix series, Shadow and Bone -- Season 2 streaming now!

Discover the adventure that started it all and meet Alina, Mal, and the Darkling in Shadow and Bone from #1 bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo.

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold—a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite—and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.

The Shadow and Bone Trilogy
(previously published as The Grisha Trilogy)
Shadow and Bone
Siege and Storm
Ruin and Rising

Praise for the Grishaverse

“A master of fantasy.” —The Huffington Post
“Utterly, extremely bewitching.” —The Guardian

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Shadow and Bone Reviews

3.5

alegrareads

Created 13 minutes ago

“Reread”

Harry

Created 15 minutes ago

Stella Bergstedt

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Siham Jaajan

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Liana

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“⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5) I can definitely see why so many people recommend this as a first fantasy book. Going into Shadow and Bone, I honestly had no idea what was happening for the first few chapters. I felt like I had been dropped into the Grishaverse with almost no explanation. I kept wondering who the Grisha were, why everyone wore different colors, what the amplifiers were, and how everything worked. Eventually the world-building started making sense, but I definitely think the beginning expects you to figure things out as you go rather than explaining everything upfront. Once I settled into the story, though, I was hooked. Alina was such an enjoyable main character. I loved watching her slowly grow into her power and become more confident. One of my favorite moments was seeing her finally realize that the Darkling didn’t truly own her power. Watching her fight back despite everything he had done to control her was incredibly satisfying. Speaking of the Darkling… I never trusted him. Even before the reveal, something about him felt off. The plot twist confirming his true intentions wasn’t completely shocking to me because I already had a bad feeling, but I still loved seeing all the little clues suddenly click into place. Looking back, everything made sense. Now let’s talk about the real reason this book got four stars. Mal. I absolutely loved him. The yearning between Mal and Alina completely stole the show for me. Their relationship felt so much deeper than simple attraction because it was built on years of friendship, history, and finally realizing what they meant to each other. Every reunion, every misunderstanding, every conversation between them had me completely invested. The love confession was easily my favorite scene in the entire book. “I missed you every hour… I caught myself looking for you just because I’d seen something I wanted to tell you about… I would do it again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day.” I genuinely think that’s one of the sweetest love confessions I’ve read in a long time. And later… “I don’t care if you danced naked on the roof of the Little Palace with him. I love you, Alina. Even the part of you that loved him.” I was done for. Their relationship wasn’t built on instant attraction. It was built on longing, friendship, missing each other, and finally realizing they had always belonged together. That’s exactly the kind of romance I love. The only reason this wasn’t a five-star read for me was the ending. I enjoyed it, but I also felt like I could predict most of what was going to happen. Once everything was revealed, I wasn’t particularly surprised by how the final confrontation played out. It wasn’t bad—it just didn’t completely shock me the way I had hoped it would. I’m also still not sure what to think about Genya. Part of me wants to trust her, but another part of me is convinced she’s hiding something. I guess I’ll find out in the next books. Overall, I had a really great time with this. It’s fast-paced, easy to get through once you understand the world, and it has enough romance to keep me emotionally invested without taking over the fantasy plot. Most importantly… Mal owns my heart now. I’m already starting Siege and Storm, and I can’t wait to see where this story goes next.”

About Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Familiar, The Invisible Parade, and the Ninth House trilogy. She is also the creator of the Grishaverse (now a Netflix original series) which spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, the King of Scars duology— and much more. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies, including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Los Angeles and is an associate fellow of Pauli Murray College at Yale University.

Other books by Leigh Bardugo

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