Shadow and Bone Trilogy: Entering the Grishaverse

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This is my first book review. Better yet, my first book SERIES review. So, let's hope that I do an alright job at this.

Now.. readers out there that love fantasy novels, you might love this trilogy of books I'm about to mention for that it is much different because it does not take place in ancient England like most fantasy novels do (fictional versions of England to be exact), it instead it takes place in a fictional country called Ravka which was inspired by Imperial Russia. Interested yet?

Our story begins with two orphans with one of them being extremely important ( this is because she is the protagonist). Alina is the main character in this series and she is this prophecised "Sun Summoner" that is meant to "take away the darkness". Sound familiar?
In the first book, she has two love interests. The first being her best friend, Mal. Obviously. The second being this man called The Darkling, a powered dude that can manipulate shadows or something like that.

The No. 1 recurring theme of these three books are Alina's constant confusion of feelings between men, especially one man that I happen not to like. Other parts of these books are of Alina are looking for three objects that help her defeat the up and coming darkness. I do not think I should tell you more because I might spoil you guys. I feel like I have already said too much but... oh well.

Anyways, there's not much to hate in this trilogy but also not much to love. I did love Leigh Bardugo's writing. Bardugo's language is the kind of language I aspire to use once I become an author. I expected the story to be darker but it was as dark as it could be for a young adult fantasy series. There's more to the Grishaverse so, I guess the expansion might make it better. (Maybe once I get the chance to read the Six Of Crows duology, I'll get to review that too.)

My favourite character in this series would be Nikolai, who is introduced in the second book. His humour and snark carried and saved the sequel in a large scale. He was the only reason I read the second book in less than two days. I have another favourite character and it is the one and only Darkling. I cannot say much about his character except that he is dark and mysterious like his namesake.

To conclude, I wouldn't say Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy, the ultimate debut to the Grishaverse, is one of the best fantasy books out there but it is fun to read and it would be a great reference for you fantasy buffs out there once Netflix decides to finally continue filming the adaptation of this books ( Yes, there is going to be Netflix Original series based on these books) and I hope that they do the books justice, maybe even make it better. Shadow and Bone has crazy potential and the world building deserves Game of Thrones level of attention. There alot of other books that are like Game of Thrones, that deserve the most ultimate praise but I shall keep that rant for another day.

I will be rating the trilogy as a whole at 4/5 for that it's just good and it did well to entertain me during this Quarantine Lockdown. 

If you guys have any comments towards my first book review, feel free to do so. I shall use your inputs to improve. 

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