The final (at least I am going with that) book in the duology! Lots of war, action, some romance, and more!

FINALLY, FINALLY, I managed to read this book. Haha, this must be one of the longest times it took me to get through a Leigh Bardugo book. I started in November, read bits and bobs here and there when I felt like it, and finally finished on December 13th. It was a good book, don’t get me wrong, but there was just something missing and sometimes I just felt like it went on too long. Thankfully, there are enough parts that made me fly through the book. Parts that I loved.

Here are a few things I loved (because I am just too tired and excited to write a good review):
💕Hanne x Nina. Ah, I was shipping those two so hard. I loved it. They complement each other so well. I loved that they got closer and closer with each page in the Nina chapters. Loved seeing them figure out their feelings. Figure out where they stand.
💕Loved Zoya in this one. She is more human. But also more dragon. Yes, that is confusing I know. But I just love this girl and how epic and kick-ass she is. I loved what she did for Nina near the end of the book, yes, that was reckless, but I would have done the same if I was in Zoya’s rubber-soled shoes.
💕Loved reading about Ravka, about Fjerda, seeing Ketterdam again, about the Shu, about the country. I would love to just step into the book and travel this world. Well, OK, maybe I would wait until things are a bit more peaceful given all the crap and war that happens in this book.
💕This book made me laugh, cry, scream, want to yeet something, it made me feel all the feels. And I love that. Not all the books do that, but this one did.
💕Loved reading about Saints, about religions.
💕I was SO happy to see Alina again dances. It was a short one but it was one that had me hyped so much. I mean, YAS.
💕So happy to see my Crow babies again. Hi Kaz! Hi Jesper! Hi Wylan! Kaz was his old self, Jesper and Wylan were adorable and I had such a laugh at what was said and how they reacted to things.
💕Nikolai! He is figuring out so many things in this one and has to make some hard decisions that just cannot be easy for anyone, let alone a man who doesn’t even know if he is the right king for a country. I was rooting for him so much. I also loved seeing how he was trying to figure out more about the demon. Letting him out a bit more, granting a bit more freedom. Which is scary, but he had no choice in some situations.
💕The cover. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE it. The colours, the tree, everything!
💕A certain wedding.
💕Ehri was such a great character to have and while at first I was a bit wary of her, I could see she had a ton of good in her.
💕Loved that we got so many POVs and thus could see so many eyes on each bit that made the story complete. Nikolai and Zoya were quite close together but thankfully at they were still two very different POVs with different thoughts and at times different missions.
💕Zoya x Nikolai. LORD you don’t know how often I just wanted to lock these two in a room. XD
💕We meet some very new characters, and sure I wasn’t always a fan of them, but I still appreciate having new characters in a story so big and so established. Hope this makes sense. XD
💕How we keep getting more twists and turns, secrets unveiled. Each time you think you know most of the things going on but then BOOM a few pages later something is revealed. Or there is a twist!
💕The ending, I will speak about that under this one some more because not all was love, but for most I really loved those last pages. There is just so much happening. So many big decisions. So many more twists and surprises.

Wasn’t such a fan of the ending.. because this one is supposed to be a duology. I guess they want to go through with the third Crows book, but LORD imagine how that convo is going to go. Yes, you first need to read the Grisha books, then you can read the first two books of Crows, then you got to get through these two chonkers, and then you can read the third book of Crows. I would be so off put. XD I am glad I just went with how it was released.

Plus, I am rating the book a tad lower (no 5 stars) because of how long it took me (sometimes I just was a bit bored), there was just too little Nicolai in my opinion and I would have loved more of him, and my favourite villain The Darkling was ruined. I absolutely loved him in the Grisha books, he was a well-written villain, but here he just felt wishy-washy and added for the sake of having a big name in the book while he just isn’t important. I found myself skipping The Monk chapters after a while.

But all in all, I had so much fun reading this one. I am glad I am done, I did it, wanted to have read this one before the end of the year and I made it. I am definitely looking forward to more Grisha books despite how I just also wish for an ending. XD I would recommend this series to all.