“You know the problem with heroes and saints, Nikolai?” I asked as I closed the book’s cover and headed for the door. “They always end up dead.”

Alina and Mal are trying to build a life for themselves in a land across the sea, while hiding her identity as the Sun Summoner. However, Alina is still being hunted across the True Sea by the Darkling and she can’t outrun his minions or her destiny for long. The Darkling has emerged from the battle on the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power that pushes up the boundaries of the natural world. As Alina’s powers grow, she slips further into the game of power and politics that the Darkling plays. This attraction pushes her closer to the Darkling and away from Mal, which will force her to choose between her country, her powers, and her love. Which will she choose?

I’m still enjoying my reread of this series. And personally this book doesn’t suffer as much from the common second book slump. However, something that I will mention is that between this book and the next one I had forgotten how much downtime the characters had in the middle while at the palace. They get caught up in their plans and the intrigues of court, which isn’t particularly interesting, but it gives the reader a chance to see the relationships developing between Alina and more of the Grisha and Mal.

Alina’s relationship with Mal, at least for me, was something that wasn’t especially fleshed out in the first book. I found their relationship to be quite flat especially when compared to the Darkling. Even in this book I still find Mal to be boring when compared to the Darkling, which I think is not especially a good thing because the relationship between Alina and the Darkling is a bit toxic. However, I find Mal boring because he’s basically a lawful good paladin, which for me isn’t an especially interesting character. However, he does start to have some faults in this novel and starts to be an alcoholic, which isn’t what I look for in endearing faults, but I guess it is something.

I enjoyed watching Alina become slightly more dynamic and losing more of her naivety. She evolves and becomes stronger as the series goes on, but she does still retain a sense of optimism as to not be completely depressing. However, I find her battle for power, both political and magical, to be interesting. There is a duality in how she reacts to both.

Finally, I was so happy to see this Nikolai back again. I didn’t particularly like King of Scars and I had missed this more laid back and sarcastic version of the character. I understand why his personality changes, but I’m not going to mention any reasons because of spoilers. But I love his interactions with Alina and the other characters so I was so happy to be reading about him again. He never fails to put a smile on my face.

Overall, I would say that if you liked Shadow and Bone that you will also like Siege and Storm, but I know some readers were disappointed. They didn’t like either the pacing, the plot developments, the character changes, the love square, and the fact that the Darkling isn’t present consistently throughout the novel. However, the quality and the writing style continues to improve. And also, I think they hold up pretty well to a reread if you’re looking forward to the Netflix show.

Have you read Siege and Storm? Did you like it more or less than Shadow and Bone? Do you feel like it suffers from second book syndrome?

Important Bits:
Length: 435 pages
Published: June 4th 2013 by Henry Holt and Company
Content Warning: Violence, Emotional Abuse, Hunting, Religious Fervor
Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2013)
The Shadow and Bone Trilogy: Shadow and Bone (2012), Siege and Storm (2013), Ruin and Rising (2014)
Also by:  Six of Crows (2015), Crooked Kingdom (2016), King of Scars (2019), Ninth House (2019), and The Lives of Saints (2020), Rule of Wolves (2021), Hell Bent (2023), The Familiar (2024)