The Shadow Between Us - Tricia Levenseller (The worst book in years)

 This book has to be the worst book I've read in years. I think the last time I disliked a book so much was when I gave 'Three Dark Crowns' a chance and absolutely hated it. How did this get published? Why is this a book you can buy? So many things wrong with it... I won't put a spoiler warning on this review, but I for sure will spoil some stuff. I am so ready to just RANT. 

The premise of the book is basically a girl who has a plan: 1) woo the king, 2) marry him, and 3) kill him to take the whole kingdom for herself. How can a concept like that go wrong? 

Let me tell you what.

There is zero to no worldbuilding . What does the castle look like? I don't know. What does the kingdom look like? I don't know. How is she dressed? Oh, be sure I know even into the littlest details how our main character Alessandra is clothed. But something other than that, like imagining what the world looks like, is too much to describe. It was horrible. 

Then Alessandra herself is just a horrible character. What do you mean with she's cunning and dangerous? I did not have that feeling? Okay, she killed her first love because of heartbreak and hides it for 3 years. Yeah, sure, but she makes it sound as if she's a mastermind in hiding and disguising it when in reality she cuts him with a knife, puts him in a trunk with her initials, and then digs a grave for him somewhere in the woods. Okay, but that doesn't take a criminal genius to do. Heck, be smart and at least burn the body so that there are no remains??? She is a dumb characterwho thinks she controls everyone, is an amazing feminist, and is the smartest person in the room. She didn't have any development and had the worst inner dialogue??? Also, her plan to woo the king is wearing a color different than the favorite color of the king and not wait in line with the other possible suitors for the king?

Then there was the king himself: Kallias. Oh boy, did he have the most confusing introduction. All it takes to get his attention is a girl in a black outfit and her being rude to him. Sure, the 'you're different from the other girls'-trope comes into play here, but at least try to make her stand-out more than just her style and rudeness. He also has some sort of shadow-power, which to me was the most confusing thing ever? Basically, when he touches someone for the first time, he can't use his powers or something? What is that about? So that's why he doesn't want to 'take a wife'. Also, he somehow gets to be super old if he doesn't wed? His father was 300 years old and nobody in the entire kingdom found that odd??? Is everyone naive and dumb who lives there? 

Also, this was supposed to be a 'slow burn romance' with the promised 'enemies to lover trope'. How on earth do you mess that up? There was NO tension at all between the two of them!!!! How they got feelings for each other is a mystery for me because, in all seriousness, they could have fallen in love with a stick or rock and that would have been the same relationship. To just expand that, the entire court and the rest of the characters are just flat-out bland. Do any of these people have brain cells? No, seriously, how odd and weird are they? Let me explain:

There are 4 side stories and this is how they got solved:
1) An old love of Alessandra wants to blackmail her for her status by saying she has slept with him before her courtship with the king. 
She has a weird plan to get rid of him by borrowing money from a friend (??confusing why but ok??) to only hear afterward that the king doesn't mind her having had previous bed-partners... so this plot was unnecessary and was also resolved by page 120...

2) There's a bandit in the kingdom stealing money from the richest and giving it to the poor.
Turned out to be a guy from the court who wanted Alessandra for himself, and was also quickly discovered by her and nothing much really came of it... Also, this was the king's main issue in his kingdom for some reason? 

3) There's an assassin trying to kill the king. Someone other than Alessandra wants to kill him.
Hold your horses... turns out it was Kallias's dead brother who tried to kill him! You can think 'OMG, his own brother was alive and willing to kill him?' Oh boy, not only that... He also lived in the castle as one of his best friends for 4 years! All it took him was some hair-dye and a broken nose to keep him from being discovered. What. A. Mastermind.

4) They investigate the guy's disappearance who was Alessandra's first love (and she killed him).
It didn't matter. It came to light, she told the king, and he pardoned her LAUGHING at the fact that she killed that guy and that he had it coming for breaking Alessandra's heart. Are you OK sir???????

So all these stories didn't matter, had no influence, and she eventually forgot that she wanted to kill the king? In, like, the last 20 pages they also find poison in her room because they were putting her stuff into the king's room and they figure out she wanted to kill him. A little side note here, they already removed 2 times before that, her stuff into another room... 

She also has a weird relationship with her father and a sister, who we eventually never even meet. We only get 2 odd letters from her that show nothing to add to the story. They could have been erased from the narrative and nothing would've changed in the book. 

So when it comes to giving this book a rating I can clearly say that it gets a big fat 1/5⭐️'s. It's a miracle I finished it and am willing to give it a star.

xoxo, peace out

Elke 

Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo (The book that made me undone)

This book tore me down. I am undone by it. No mourners. No funerals. 

I'm currently feeling a lot of emotions at once: excited, sad, happy, mourning, melancholic. It's a recipe for not truly knowing what to do next. Crooked Kingdom was good. Better than good! It was exquisite. I remembered a lot of stints from reading the book for the first time, and that's why I feel so surprised by how I'm now reacting towards the story. 

I'll try not to spoil too much in this review, but that will be a difficult task... so beware of the spoiler warning.

Crooked Kingdom, just like Six of Crows, tells the story of 6 people brought together into a 'criminal' mission to assure their money. The story immediately sets off at the moment where the first one stopped. It started with a chapter of Wylan (which I was very excited about to finally get into the brain of this genius boy) and the question 'Why am I here?'. The perfect question that you can ask the rest of the six of them: Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, and Matthias. Everyone has their reasons and everyone has their strengths to add to this crew. An irreplaceable mix they are. 

I don't want to dive in too deep into how the story develops but I do want to mention that the book has an incredible pace that makes it very difficult to put your copy down. I legit couldn't stop! I didn't know how to. I was so consumed by everything, wanting to... no NEEDING to know what happens next! We got amazing cameos of characters from the 'Shadow & Bone'-trilogy and we got some amazing new ones. Everything that happened, happened for a reason with many twists and turns and of course, misdirects. I truly start to wonder if Leigh Bardugo herself might be some criminal mastermind? The way she writes scenes and knows what to do put in for words and how it all just can make sense. No, I think she has another job next to being an author... (I'm on to you Leigh!)*

Let's please all go through each character! I would love to start with Jesper. Our dear smoll Jesper who has a gambling addiction, who is cocky, and who knows his way around guns. This book really dove into his backstory. You'll learn a lot about his heritage, his family and his secret 'skills'. You also see him in a more delicate way. His emotions come out more and his relationship with Wylan is all I lived for in this book. The ship that I was happy to happen!

Wylan is definitely the more 'pure' boy in the team. He is not roughed up the same way that the rest of the crew is, but you do get to see him develop beautifully in this tale. He probably has one of the biggest changes in him throughout these two books. He truly figures out who he is and what he likes. Just as with Jesper, you'll learn a lot about his backstory in this one. His tragic family story of shame. A lot of it was already revealed in SoC, but this time you truly see what the boy had to deal with and how he ended up in Kaz's care. Lucky for Wylan, he did, because otherwise, he would've never met glorious Jesper. 

Moving on to Nina. Nina is our amazing Grisha. She had a lot to deal with in this book, and we all know by now that she is also part of the 'King of Scars'-duology so she still has a lot of suffering ahead of her. The last book had a terrible thing happening to her so a lot of it in this one was recovering from it and how to move on from that point. She probably is the most driven Grisha to have wandered this world because her will is something no one else can compare to. She is the biggest fighter of them all, even if odds are against her favor. 

Matthias his piece does contain spoilers so skip him if you don't want to be spoiled! 
Oh dear Matthias. I was truly weeping when I read your last chapter. I knew it was coming. It's the most vivid memory I had since finishing the book for the first time and I didn't want to get to the point again. How much I loved his character. He's changed so much in these two books. He opened up, learned about so much, and more! His death made me so sad and I felt sorry for him and Nina. I felt sorry for how short their time was and how quickly it had ended and why it had ended for him. I was so afraid for him, reading this book and I can't let it go. His character will be missed so much. Just like all the dregs say "No mourners. No funerals". Rest in Piece Matthias.🖤

Our favorite acrobat and Wraith: Inej. Inej is the perfect shadow and nobody can replace her. Even Kaz knows that. She deals with a lot of inner monologue about her past which gives a clear idea of who she was before. Inej is pure and dangerous. She knows it, and it's what makes her character intriguing because thanks to her pureness, you can't believe that what she's doing is evil. She has a clear goal in mind and I know she will achieve whatever she says she wants to pursue. She has great things coming her way. I can just feel it.

Kaz is the last one of the crew and also the mastermind behind all the planning and scheming. He is still as deadly as in the last book, but more softened around the edges. He knows loving is a weakness and he will never ever show it again, although we all know that that's not true. He has his issues with touching, just as much as Inej, and the scene where it happened (you all know what I'm talking about if you read the book) had me completely in pieces. It's difficult to ship them, knowing they're both in pain, but at the same time, they're perfect for each other? His character development is small, but big at the same time. Kaz underwent a lot in his 'previous' life. He endured pain, deceit, and loss. He has a hunger for revenge and for being cruel. That's why we all love Kaz Brekker so much, and nobody would want him to change too much.🖤

So yes, this book was amazing. Crooked Kingdom ended an adventurous, beautiful and exciting story of six people who happened to be criminals and who became unlikely partners, lovers, and friends. 

5/5⭐️'s and more. The night sky doesn't hold enough starsto offer them. 


xoxo, peace out
Elke 

*This is a joke, please don't take it seriously! I have no proof that she is one 😉

Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo (Probably her best book written to date)

 I started this book with the question "will I still like the book as much as when I read it for the first time" & "will this book keep its 5/5 status"? Oh boy, let me tell you what.

I. Couldn't. Put. It. Down. It got to the point where my boyfriend had to say "Elke? Can you just try to get some sleep"? 'cause I was so bound to devour it. In my mind, I was just thinking "Okay, if I sleep now I'll wake up early and will be able to finish it completely." Just to give you a little inkling of how addictive this story is. 

Why is this book so good? Well let's dive into it, shall we?:

The story is about a crew of criminals, a lot of money, and a heist. Doesn't that already sound like the best concept ever? Casa De Papel probably had its inspiration here (probably not, but hey? They could've??). And what Leigh did different here in comparison to the Shadow & Bone-trilogy is giving each of those crewmembers a character. They were all different. All skilled at something. Each one of them has a reason to participate in this ludicrous and dangerous heist. They're morally not well in their head and they, for sure, know that everything has a price. The leader of them is Kaz who is probably the most complex character in this crew. Everything he does is with the idea of gaining something. No mercy. No sorry's. Just profit. I love how he compares himself as a businessman, but that could be indeed the best way to describe him. A cunning, cheating, violent businessman. There was even a part in the book where Kaz is torturing a guy (like, written in a very detailed way) and I just sat there reading "Huh, I sometimes forget how cruel they are because I just love all of them"!

Throughout the book, you get to know the characters and their demons. How they wound up with each other and what happened in their past. Let me tell you, none of their stories are pretty, but it gives you a grasp of what their personal motives are. You mix these people together with each other? Then you get a cocktail of witty conversations, a lot of action-packed scenes, and a lot of shameless flirting with death. 

Next to an amazing cast of thieves, criminals, Grisha; there's also a good world built up around them. Ketterdam is the starting point and I adored it because it's (what my guess is) based on the Netherlands and Flanders. Being a Flemish girl myself and having lived in the Netherlands for some months, I absolutely adored it. The names of streets, the last names of characters, ... The vibe was so well described that it was easy for my imagination to bring this world to life. 

Another great aspect of the story was the pace. They did not hang around in comparison with Shadow & Bone. No, they were always scheming, always busy doing something that was advancing the story. The heist itself is more than 300 pages in the book. Just imagine how detailed it's written? They're traveling with a purpose and take on everything they encounter. You basically just fly through the book because every time you think 'I can put it to rest now' something new happens that keeps you on your toes. The best book I've ever read when it comes to great action scenes!

So to answer the first two questions of this review: YES. It's still as good as reading it for the first time and yes it's still worthy of its 5⭐️'s. 

The biggest MUST READ from Leigh Bardugo!

Now, on to Crooked Kingdom.

xoxo, peace out
Elke