Darkness never dies.
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can't outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling's game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
Siege and Storm is the second book in The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo.
- Used Book in Good Condition
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
41 of 43 people found the following review helpful.
The darkest, most addicting book I've EVER READ!!!
By Alicia
SIEGE AND STORM was AMAZINGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!! So utterly amazing!! I forgot how much I loved this world in SHADOW AND BONE, but I was pleasantly pleased to have SIEGE AND STORM remind me of just how much this series means to me!! I'm just mad that I waited so long to read it. But.... on the other hand, I'm happy I did wait because I was able to dive right into RUIN AND RISING, the last book in the trilogy (Which I'm reading now and loving it just as much as SIEGE AND STORM, if not more. Shhh... no hints ;)SIEGE AND STORM has this darkness about it that no other book I've read ever had. And it was refreshing to have a book with such darkness, yet a light that's breaking through the barrier to bring balance into the story. It was amazing, to say the least!!THE PLOT...Alina Starkov is on the run from her last encounter with the vicious Darkliing. He's hunted Alina in the past, and she knows he's hunting her now. And he'll continue to hunt her until he captures her and possesses her Sun Gift Power she wields. He's evil and deadly and has nothing but darkness inside of him. He will unleash a tornado of dead bodies in his wake until he gets what he wants, and he wants Alina, all of her...Alina just barely made it out alive in her last battle with The Darkling, and she's not ready to take that chance again. Her and her best friend and love of her life Mal, escaped the fold, but not without paying a high price in blood. Lots of lives were sacrificed for them to escape. Now Alina and Mal are just trying to lay low and make enough money to disappear together and leave their terrible past behind them, forever. But The Darkling is not ready to let her go, he's on her trail, and he'll find her, he always does, but this time he might just take all that she loves.Alina and Mal will have to join forces with a powerful ally if their going to survive. They realize they can't run from The Darkling, they can't escape him, the only way to be rid of him and his evilness is to end him of his wretched life once and for all! As their plans make a 180 in a different direction, and more problems arise, they will have to be prepared not to run from The Darkling, but go to war with him, but this time, she may not make it out alive...SIEGE AND STORM was sooo much better then the first book SHADOW AND BONE! And the first book blew me away, but this book was EXPLOSIVE!!! We were introduced to new characters in this second book, and Sturmhond was one of them. And let me tell you, he was so dreamy and funny, and totally swoon worthy!! I just wish he was in the first book too, and we were able to get more of him!!!Overall SIEGE AND STORM was one of the best books I've read this year. And that's saying a lot because I've read some pretty awesome books this year!! But SIEGE AND STORM has come very close to the top!! If you like darkness, with a touch of light, good versus evil, and a deadly game of catch the mouse in the trap, then I'm sure you're going to love SIEGE AND STORM as much as I did!!!NOTE: I received an ARC for reviewing purposes. All opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced in any way!!
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful.Compelling from the Get-Go
By Diane B. Wilkes
It had been a few months since I read SHADOW AND BONE, the first book in the Grisha Trilogy, and I was eagerly awaiting the second. When I had the chance to get SIEGE AND STORM early, I danced around and posted on Facebook and generally acted like a VERY young adult (the genre this book is considered). Never mind that I'm 50 something.Because the Grishaverse (I am entitled to use the expression; the author, Leigh Bardugo does so in her Acknowledgments) is complex and rich and supremely well-imagined, I really should have read SHADOW AND BONE again before starting SIEGE AND STORM. I didn't. (Delayed gratification--that's for OLD people!) It didn't matter. The details came back as needed.* And within two chapters, the action was so fast and furious that I was swept into its storm. And just as the story seemed to be going one way...oh no. Ms. Bardugo sweeps in an entirely new and charming character, Sturmhond--a pirate (or, as he prefers, privateer).No one is who they seem to be. Is Alina merely (merely?) a Sun Summmoner, or does she have the power bug as intensely as the Darkling, who has found a new way to communicate with her. She swears she's no saint, but is she sacrificing too much? Is Mal tiring of being Mr. Sun Summoner, especially when Sturmhond begins to court Alina. And Sturmhond has a ton of secrets of his own...Meanwhile, can Alina save Ravka from the Darkling? She has unexpected assistants and assistance, but the Darkling has become more powerful than ever. And there's just one more thing Alina needs in order to take the Darkling down.This book is even better than the first in the trilogy. I started this review with tears in my eyes--partly because I have so long to wait for the third book, but mostly because I am so sad. Alina has gone through so much and Ms. Bardugo is going to put her and Mal and Ravka through so much more. Which makes for great fiction, fiction that moves the heart and stimulates the mind.Which knows no age.* However, if you have never read the first book, you really should. For many reasons, mostly its excellence.
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
Missed the Darkling a lot
By onepagereviews
As with my review of Shadow and Bone, I'm about to tell you all the things I didn't like about this book...and yet still rate it fairly high. I want to say this up front: it IS a good book. The writing is great. But I still have quite a few quibbles with this one that I'm just going to have to share.(I feel like the things I'm about to say might irritate some people, so, sorry in advance.)First and foremost: WHERE THE HECK IS THE DARKLING FOR THIS WHOLE BOOK?! He's there at the beginning, then he doesn't come back until like the last 20 pages. Not okay. Let's all be honest and just accept that he is the best character in the series. So why would you keep your best character MIA for so long?And while I'm on the subject of the Darkling, I feel as if it should be said that he's less awesome in Siege and Storm than he was in Shadow and Bone, at least to me. What made him so great in the first book was the fact that, at first, you sort of liked him. Sure, he was dark and creepy, but he wasn't doing anything all that bad; plus, he was hot - that certainly helped make us like him. Then when he truly reveals himself as a villain, we're taken aback, a little betrayed, just like Alina, that this character isn't who he says he is. So we're grappling for the rest of the book whether he's all that bad or not, whether we're allowed to still like him, whether we can still want him and Alina together.But in Siege and Storm, there's no grappling. The Darkling is evil, pure and simple. He doesn't do anything nice. He doesn't even seem to like Alina all that much. I found basically zero redeemable qualities in him, so I was having to cling to my memories of him in Shadow and Bone to still like him. I wanted to see glimpses of him that were good, that kept sucking us in, feeling a little sorry for him, keeping us torn about whether he's actually EVIL (or just misguided). Unfortunately, this didn't happen.My next complaint lies with another male character: Mal. Okay, I'm sorry, but he is superfluous. What does he actually DO? If you answered "nothing," you'd be right. He's basically there to serve as Alina's angst and to help her character development, but mostly, he's just dull. And I STILL don't see what Alina sees in him. I understand that Bardugo is really trying to sell the 'boy next door' thing, but I'm not buying it. Why would you have him when you could have (view spoiler)? I feel like he is overshadowed by all these other great characters, and he's getting lost somewhere. So when I'm supposed to be swooning over a scene between him and Alina, all I'm doing is wishing it were someone else.And do my eyes deceive me, or is there a love SQUARE shaping up?I believe so.Now, on the flip side to my complaining, there were some things I thought Leigh Bardugo did better than in Shadow and Bone. I liked the action and the overarching plot a lot better in Siege and Storm. I thought the tension was more visible, the stakes higher, and her desperation to beat the Darkling more visceral.I also really liked the added element of Alina wading through Ravkan politics. Her distaste for dealing with nobles was really hilarious. And similarly, I liked the bit about all the pilgrims believing she's a saint and basically worshipping her as the Sun Summoner. I thought that was really interesting...and really sort of creepy.The worldbuilding is still great, and I think it felt less like a Russia rip-off and more original, with the added mythology of the different amplifiers and the Darkling's new powers. Or maybe I'm just getting more used to this world that she's created. I don't know. But I liked the worldbuilding this time around, whereas it wasn't my favorite in Shadow and Bone.So, yes, this is a good book. It's written well. My problems lie almost solely in Mal and the Darkling, and how both of them are handled in this book. I have little hope of either of these problems being resolved in the third book, but I'll still read it, as I'm curious to know what happens. I guess I'll just have to hope that Alina kicks Mal to the curb.
