Title: Ruin and Rising

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Publishers: Indigo

Release Date: 19 June 2014

Page Count: 433

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Ruin and Rising is the third and final book in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy and what an end it was! I absolutely loved this book and I think that the whole story was summed up really well for a great conclusion!

Warning, This review is FULL of spoilers.

In this book talk I will not only be reviewing this book and telling you my ratings, I will also be discussing some points with you guys and some queries I had about the book. If you want to participate in the discussion of 'Ruin and Rising' then feel free to comment down below!

In the Before section of the book at the very start we find out about Izumrud the huge worm thing. One thing that I realised after finishing this book is that we didn't actually get to find out if Izumrud was real. It says that Alina had no doubt that it was real but I wish it was seen in the book and played more of a central part, even though it isn't one of the three amplifiers.

So the actual story starts off with Alina being stuck in the white cathedral with her power at a stand still. I really hated these scenes because, I absolutely hate the apparat. What I didn't understand was why he was keeping Alina inside all this time when he wanted the people to see her power. Even though he wanted to keep her under surveillance and so that she couldn't get away from he but he knew that her power wouldn't work underground. Yes I know that he wants to keep her underground for her safety (even more so that he thinks she will run from him and he will no longer be able to take advantage of her if she leaves) but it still is a stupid thing to do.

When we find out what happens to Genya, I was kind of sad about that because even though Genya did betray Alina to the darkling he betrayed Genya after her services and I forgave Genya because she was punished for betraying her even though the punishment was a bit harsh, but thats the darkling!

Onto love interests I really enjoyed Nikolai as a character. If Alina was going to be with any of the possible people in the book I would have liked her to go with Nikolai. Because:

1) He isn't an evil tyrant (even though that evil tyrant is awesome)

2) He doesn't get drunk and kiss other girls and keep going on and on about how he thinks he will never be good enough for Alina (like seriously, stop)

3) He is a prince

4) He is good looking

5) He is charming

I did like the Darkling despite him being the overall 'bad guy' of the book. When Baghra died you could really see that he was still human and that he had feeling even though he was evil.

Many people didn't like Mal at all but even though he isn't my favourite of the 3 love interests, I did like Mal. Especially when Nikolai had become a rabid bird falcon thing and when he seemed like the only one Alina could love at the moment (even though we all knew he would be her choice in the end) I ended up seeing why she liked him and I felt sad when the time came that she stabbed him.

Speaking of the stabbing...OMG WHAT. My original reaction was that. I didn't think she would kill him but when it happened I realised that that had to happen and I thought that was it but he came back so its all good.

When we first knew about this whole Mal being the third amplifier and the whole Baghra's sister thing, I thought that Baghra's sister would be Alina's mother and that she and Morozova hadn't died. Also thinking that Baghra's sister possessed the same power as Alina and it was passed down to her. There was no evidence to believe this but I still thought this would be a better connection that it being Mal's mother.

Before I was aware that Mal was the descendant and not Alina, I thought that if they were related that maybe the Darkling knew about this because of some of the things he said to her like 'Like calls to like' and 'There is no one else like us' (Turns out it was just him being big headed and melodramatic).

When we find out about the third amplifier is Mal the third thing that comes into my mind is that why is the firebrid in the Istorii Sankt'ya? Also it made me wonder if Morozova's daughter is also in the picture just not being shown enough? Sadly there was no answer to this by the end of the book.

When I had about 100 pages left into the book I started to wonder whether Leigh Bardugo would kill off the Darkling considering he was such a popular and loved character even though he was evil despite that being the obvious thing that should happen.

I liked the way that this book contained LGBT characters (Nadia and Tamar) And I like that their relationship was not made a big deal about it because it gives off the impression that its the most normal thing ever and nothing to be fretting about, which it is of course. But I really liked this part of the book.

Okay so one thing that I realised in this book is that DAVID IS EPIC. David has not seemed so amazing in the other two books to me. I always knew that he was very clever and an important character and didn't mind that he wasn't as adventurous as the others, but as his inventions and understanding of the Istorii Sankt'ya in the 2nd and 3rd books make me realise how much of a central character and just how EPIC he is. (Just putting that out there)

I realised that towards the end of the book Alina seems to become more self obsessed. She is by no means big headed and its a very subtle thing but I was wondering if Leigh did it on purpose knowing that it would make sense as that would be what happens when she seeks the third amplifier. I don't know whether this was intentional but it worked!

Okay so let's talk now about all the things I wished would happen at the end of the book.

I really wanted Alina and Mal to meet their mothers. Now that we know Mals mother must have survived through the drowning because she had a child. 

I wanted Zoya and Alina to become friends because as girly and as Cliché as it sounds, I would have liked to see them as friends because I didn't like Zoya in the first and second books (as you do) but in the third book she was considerably better.

Speaking of Zoya I wanted her to be in a relationship with Harshaw but when we find out that he dies I started to want something to happen between her and Nikolai because even though he finds her irritable, I think they would be a good match.

Overall this book was an amazing and well thought out conclusion to the Grisha Trilogy and I gave this book 5/5 stars on goodreads.

Thanks for reading!

Lily.

Buy Ruin and Rising on Amazon! - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ruin-Rising-3-Grisha/dp/1780621167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408217664&sr=8-1&keywords=ruin+and+rising