I really enjoyed the series until the end of this book. Spoilers: Mal should have stayed dead, Alina should have ended up with Nicolai, and kept some extent of her powers. I was really disappointed by the ending and felt like everything the whole series was working towards was wasted. What a bummer.

I read the whole Shadow & Bone trilogy, it was a good series not the best but it wasn’t bad, not something I would read for a second time

-SPOILERS AHEAD- I love this series with my whole heart! Book One was GREAT, Book Two was WHATEVER but this one is just a complete and total CHEFS KISS. I loved Mal’s character in this, and I loved Nikolai even more, couldn’t stop underlining quotes. Don’t listen to the other people, the beginning is kinda slowwww but then it just gets so much better. I literally sobbed so hard when Mal turned out to be the third amplifier, I SOBBED EVEN HARDER WHEN NIKOLAI TURNED INTO A MONSTER, and I cried really, really, really, really, a thousand times really hard at the final battle. I have to say, only critique is that after Alina kills the Darkling, there’s about 45-ish extra pages of what happens to her after the fight. It’s a bit slow at the end but still worth it! Read the series you wont regret it!

The imagery within the writing is just amazing. The bond that they share seems insurmountable, but can still remind us of what we have felt like when in love. There is nothing ordinary about this book series. I’m glad I spent the money on it because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

I absolutely love this series. But this book IS a little SLOW. It has its good parts but there’s a lot of Boring in it before it gets good. Give it a chance. It gets good. Around chapter 6 it picks up. Looking forward to reading the next few coming up.

A good read to the very last page.

This was a fantastic series and book 2 was my favorite. The ending provided in book 3 was so majorly missed for me. It felt too much of a Disney fairytale ending than a realistic one. It was too romanticized which I felt was already wrapped up nicely before the final fight scene. The final fight scene was rushed but still an ok scene. I just felt the overall ending to the main character was a romanticized Disney version that was unrealistic despite the reasoning provided by the author.

I was so disappointed at the ending that I didn’t know whether the author was being serious. SPOILERS AHEAD! first off she ended up with the wrong person and that was simply hard to read. Secondly she lost her powers and once again chose Mal. Lastly I hated the fighting scene when she killed the darkling. He went out in a good way which was satisfying but the scene ended before you could process it. She would go into detail in the boring parts and passed over the action and drama way to quickly, but needless to say this was a great book series so I’ll give it the benefit if the doubt and say this. If you want a conclusion to the series that you will ultimately hate and be frustrated with. Read this book. That’s fine by me but if you don’t want that then I’d suggest you move on for the series after the second one. It truly isn’t worth wasting your time on.

The fantasy world paired with real down to earth characters who struggled, fought, and loved really drew me in to the story. I loved the complexity of the characters and the unpredictable storyline.

Why? Loved this whole series and then the ending happened. Three whole books and that was how it ended... no, just no. No hate to Mal but when you have Nikolai as an option verse really anyone he’s the obvious choice. And (SPOILER) WHY DID ALINA HAVE TO LOSE HER POWERS??? I was more sad for Alina than Alina was for herself. Other than this disappointing ending I love this series.