Review: Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo *SPOILERS*

 I read this finally and I am sad that it is over. But I am excited that I can finally get to Six of Crows. I just can't wait for the second season of the show and knowing the actors faces for the characters made this so much more enjoyable. I fell in love with more characters. I actually feel bad for book Darkling and I know I am going to be a damn wreck when and if there will be a third season. 

Going into this, I was expecting an epic quest with a lot of action and betrayals. There was a mighty quest for the amplifier and there was a lot of shocking reveals. One reveal made me turn away and I hoped with all my might that Leigh Bardugo wouldn't pull a Cassandra Clare with the kissing cousin trope. But, thankfully it didn't.

The beginning was a little boring and hard to swallow with the apparat spouting religion and trying to isolate Alina from everyone. Genya, I actually forgot what happened to her in the second book, so I didn't feel any pity for her. Mal grew on me in this and how he had to keep forcing himself to accept that Alina would be Queen and wouldn't be able to be with her because of his status was sad.

The death of the darkling made me tear up. I expect to bawl like a baby when this is played out in the show because I hate seeing my favorite actors "die". Him asking Alina to say his name one more time and asking not to be buried because he didn't want his grave desecrated made my heart break. 

I did love learning more about Baghra's past and how it all started and the background of Mal and how the future of Keramzin played out. This is a series that I will be re-reading. I am not obsessed with it like The Hunger Games, but I am not done with this world.