I don’t usually rate shining 5 stars but the amount of girl boss power this book has is amazing.

This ‘might’ be my favorite book from the series yet, just imagine being the new boss but here’s the twist; you replaced your ex and now obviously people looked down on you, questioned your capabilities and see you as a weakling so you threatened them by attempting to slice a man in two with your power and now they have your fear and respect. THIS BOOK HAS THAT EXACT SCENE AND I LOVED EVERY BIT OF IT.

So on this book we’ve got the same cat and mouse game, the darkling, who’s stronger than ever, is chasing Alina to bound her again with him and to further his own power to ‘save’ their country (he was just destroying it tbh) and Alina was able to escape the darkling and wages a war against the darkling for the sake of her country and to end his evil plans. Thats my vague description of the plot. the end of the book was a *sigh*

The darkling may have questioned my inner feminism by loving him eventho he’s the villain but boy we’ve got a new character entering, NIKOLAI, and the wonderful thing about him is he’s not another cruel villain and he is very much likable to a fault. Somebody might be replacing the darkling stan in me so soon sjebuwbssjbs

Like I said before I never connected with Mal (Alina’s childhood bestfriend and love interest) from the first book and on this book he just annoyed me more, its like he’s keeping Alina from her powers and just wanted her to be “normal”, I do hope it does get better on the third book, I just can’t fathom his whines but I liked him on the first few pages tho and it just went downhill after that.

The end worried me... especially for Alina cos’ I don’t know what the hell is going on or what happened to the others. It was depressing since of course we have a war meaning we have bloodshed and all that, I felt bad for the characters here since half of them may be just supporting extras but I really liked them.

This book showed how evil and demanding the darkling could be and it made me not like him a bit, it showed how cruel and how determined the darkling is to have alina and to execute his plans even if it means destroying their country or killing hundreds or even thousands of his very own people because he believes that it was a necessary sacrifice, one that he is willing to take to save their country.

Overall, I loved the angst and the action happening on this book. We get a better glimpse of Alina being a leader, a friend, a lover, and a protector but not just that we also see the dark side of her the side that resembles the darkling’s cruelty and hunger for power and this side is taking a toll on her, she got scared of what she is capable of if she continued but whats her choice? this is the only way she could defeat the darkling and save Ravka. I hope we get to see more of that part on the next and sadly last book :((

“I've seen what you truly are, and I've never turned away. I never will. Can he say the same?”
-The Darkling

“I like to have powerful enemies. Makes me feel important.”
-Nikolai

The Darkling just stared out into the waves. I considered shoving him over the railing. Sure, he was hundreds of years old, but could he swim?
-Alina (I luv snarky alina lmao)

“I came here for you. You're my flag. You're my nation.”
-Mal