First things first: Mal, please stop breathing, it's annoying. And Nikolai, thank you for being a blessing. now take a rest, carrying a whole book must be tiring.


Ok so, this book was *yawn*
The plot? eh, what to say? what exactly happened in this book? Well, nothing literally happened until the last two chapters.
The plot was terrible, it was just Alina trying to defeat the Darkling by searching for her new amplifier and by leading an army, it was also just Alina and Mal having an unnecessary lover's quarrel. This was just boring.

The main problem here was Mal. Yes, Mal Oretsev, but on to him later, let's talk about our main character first.

Alina, our plain-average-speshul-mc, became a little bearable. She was still self-pitying, annoying, lousy, and uninteresting but at least she became useful and she had somewhat made a good decision for once. Though, one thing she mainly did was to swoon, cry, and fight over Mal.

Mal, here's come Mal, a manipulative, moody, insufferable, insecure, selfish, whiny jerk. It's just- who likes him? I literally can't stand every word that comes from his mouth.

"He held my gaze. “Did it ever occur to you that I might say no?”
My stomach dropped. It hadn’t. It had never entered my mind that Mal might refuse, and I felt suddenly ashamed."

“I came here for you. You’re my flag. You’re my nation. But that doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Do you realize this is the first time we’ve really been alone in weeks?”

*gags*

Dear Mal, everyone in this house dislikes you, so please stop.
Stop feeling as if the world revolves around you. Stop being jealous over little things. Stop being overprotective, it's not helping. Stop wanting to be Alina's number one priority, she has an army to lead and a country to save, duh. Stop being an entitled bitch. Mal, you suck and I want to strangle you. xx





Dear Alina, think about your taste in men lmao. There's the Darkling, who could be a better choice. There's Nikolai (but puhlease you don't deserve him). Yet you chose and will always choose the jerk, Mal.

Lastly. Dearest, Mal and Alina. I know you love each other and crap (i promise, i don't give a care), but can you two calm it down a notch, stop your lovey-dovey arguings, and think about your priorities and problems for a sec?


We didn't see the Darkling here much. I liked him in the first book but right now, I'm having second thoughts on whether I still like him or not. Though, he's surely hot haha.

I didn't have problems with the side characters, except for Vasily. He was only there to piss me off more, and as for the others, I mostly didn't care about them.


On to the brighter side of things…

Let's pave a way for Nikolai Lantsov! He's a real sweetie pie. a cinnamon roll for carrying this book with his humor and great personality. He's a comic relief that I adore, he has never done such bad, useless things. His jokes are also effortlessly funny unlike Alina's try-hard cringy ones.

a small Nikolai appreciation section:

“When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable.”

“My mother was an oyster,” he said with a wink. “And I’m the pearl.”

“Nikolai,” he corrected. “But I’ve also been known to answer to ‘sweetheart’ or ‘handsome.’”

“I am Nikolai Lantsov, Major of the Twenty-Second Regiment, Soldier of the King’s Army, Grand Duke of Udova, and second son to His Most Royal Majesty, King Alexander the Third, Ruler of the Double Eagle Throne, may his life and reign be long.”

Overall, the world-building, the Grishaverse, is still as wonderful as it was. The writing style improved and although I hated most of the things here, I still had some moments where I was kind of enjoying it. 2.5 stars!

--–———————————–--

Pre-review thoughts:

Phew im done! some skimming and patience were all it took to finish this. Review to come
and 4 DAYS TO GO for the Netflix show to premiere!! see y'all on Friday!!!


Pre-read:

hey, so i have finally decided to continue this (and not just read the summary) after days of indecisiveness.

am i not late, am i?