Continuing with my dive into the King of Scars duology by Leigh Bardugo, we have Rule of Wolves. Lovely readers, this is what I was expecting to get with the duology – the action, the tension, the high stakes, the interactions between characters (including those I wasn’t expecting to appear in the book) and all those battle scenes. I have given this a solid 4.5/5 with the potential for it to shift upwards. Once I read the original trilogy and this duology again, I will let you know my final verdict. I’m going to do my best to keep this spoiler-free, making only broad statements or making note of generic events within many YA books so that if you haven’t read it yet, which I strongly recommend you do, you will not be let down by specifics.

The characters; we had character development in the first book but oh boy does this one really give us something to bite our teeth into. I love the tensions between characters, the progress in relationships and dynamics between them, and the fact that there are still strong roots to the original trilogy that really acknowledge the authenticity and credibility of the characters. I’m happy to announce that I was living for Nina’s perspective in this one – the location, the situations, the internal conflicts and external issues – and the bringing together of everyone by the end of the book truly had me so happy. The interactions we get in this book are iconic and I am looking forward to seeing these books be brought to life in the following seasons of Shadow and Bone.

I keep getting reminded by these books that Leigh Bardugo has really great inclusion and variety to her characters in terms of race, sexuality, gender and religion. It only proves to me that this world, the Grishaverse, is entirely plausible because the diversity within it makes it so much more realistic. I also need to acknowledge the fact that toxic relationships are not glorified or romanticised in this world. I have been sick and tired of reading books or even just hearing about books these last few years where characters are in such obviously toxic relationships and readers praise it. The Grishaverse feels like a breath of fresh air in that regard – a world where there is so much diversity and difference yet the characters are not disillusioned nor do they fall prey to toxic or abusive relationships.

the last thing I want to bring up are the battle scenes. I won’t go into detail because they are significant in the books. I just need to commend the incredible imagination and credibility that these scenes have – the people involved, how things play out, the power each side has and what they can do with it. I was blown away by the possibilities and the ways in which the battles were written. It brought out the right emotion when it needed to, followed how things would change internally for the characters and, furthermore, painted the scenes in such an enticing, immersive way. Big round of applause to Leigh Bardugo for such an exceptional conclusion to the duology.