Tags
Fantasy, Grisha Trilogy, Leigh Bardugo, Romance, Ruin and Rising, Shadow and Bone, Young Adult Fiction, Young adult literature
I just finished Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo, and well…Wow! I’m on an emotional high from the ending right now. This is the third and final book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy.
The book starts slow…very slow…as Alina, the sun summoner, is stuck below ground healing, far away from the sun which gives her the strength to be able to heal. The Darkling obviously survives Alina’s attempt to kill them both at the end of book 2, and he has taken over Ravka. The King and his family (including the pirate prince, Nikolai) are forced into hiding.
Thanks to Alina’s friends, a hodgepodge of rogue Grisha and Mal, they are able to outwit the Apparat and escape his underground prison. They set out to find the third amplifier to increase Alina’s strength…what they believe to be the only way in defeating the Darkling, his monsters, and the Unsea. No way will I spoil the surprise regarding the third amplifier!
Alina must choose her path. Will she become the future Queen of Ravka and serve as a nominal wife to Prince Nikolai? Does she embrace her inner desire to be all powerful and reign beside the Darkling as his balance of good and evil, light and dark? Or does she relinquish power and return to her past (and her heart) by choosing Mal? And what will her choice cost? There is always a price to pay. I have to admit that I was surprised by her choice.
The ending…bittersweet! My heart aches, but I’m happy too.