BOOK REVIEW: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication Date: June 5th, 2012
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 358

The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.
Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?
The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.
But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?
Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.

Okay. I read this book for the anticipation of the third book comes out in less than a month. I don't know much about this book, except that this is a fantasy and a lot of people loved it because it has a high rating on goodreads. So, here we go ...

It took me 3 days to finished the first chapter. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I found it confusing. I decided to push through to read the rest. It was pretty good, but ... it was flat. Until half point of the book, nothing happened. The world building was fine, not really that great. These points were taken when I reached the first half of the book. If you found the first half of the book was flat, you were expecting something would happened in the next half, right?

BOOM. I started to get excited, but then a little bit disappointed (again). 3/4 of the book, flat. Expecting something? Yes. I predicted something would happened later, and it actually happened. I'm sorry, but I didn't like this book that much. Well, I like the villain character of this book. He is not just typical villain, but more complex I should say. I'm not going into the Russian elements in this book, I don't really know that much to compare to the real one. I'm not sure about the romance, I thought the romance were pretty clear for me.

Overall, I liked it, but not enough to love it. So, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars, I'm definitely going to continue the series.

Happy reading! :)

-Nikita