Narrator: Lauren Fortgang
Published by Audible, Inc., Henry Holt and Co. on 30 November 2025
Length: 8 hours and 55 minutes
Source: Purchased through Audible
Goodreads
The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?
The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.
But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?
Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.
Thoughts: I waited a long time to write up my thoughts (I listened to this back in the first week of June), but I’m going to do my best to organize them. First, I LOVED this book. It was one of those times where I was kicking myself for waiting so long to read it. It has some of my favorite elements-cool world with even cooler magic, main character who has both a secret crush on her best friend and a secret power that makes her very important to very dangerous people, and a morally ambiguous, completely sexy, possibly evil man in a position of power with unclear motives.
The story has a well developed world and characters who all seem real, but I never felt like the pace suffered because of this. I love Alina and I love her secret love for her best friend and how it makes everything so complicated. I love watching her struggle with whether she abandoned him or he abandoned her and what that means for her. I love The Darkling and know that I will love him no matter where the story goes. I love that Bardugo took her story to a place that other writers would be afraid to go. I love that she takes everything from her characters and makes them work to keep that last shred of hope. I loved everything about this book.
I won’t wait so long to review book two.
Moments I Loved: There are so many moments to love in this book, but my favorite is learning how Alina got the scar on her hand. It makes my heart pitter-patter.
WTF Moments: The real one is a spoiler, so I’ll go with one at the beginning: someone who I was hoping would become a main character (meaning I already loved them) was killed at the very beginning of the book.
Narrators: I really enjoyed the narrator. I thought her performance was perfect, without trying to be overpowering. She added atmosphere, but let the book shine. I’ll definitely be checking out other books she has narrated.
Overall: I don’t know why I waited to read this book. I thought it would be dense (like Russian literature) but it reads more like Divergent.
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It took me a really long time to read this book, too. To be honest I couldn’t get into it when I first tried to read it. I loved the third person POV of the prologue and was disappointed by the first person I saw the rest of the way through and put it down. Not kidding. I waited a year…tried again & fell in LOVE. Seige & Storm is even stronger- Leigh admits it, too — and I can’t wait to read the third and final book. Is it 2014 yet!!!
Grad Student @ Young Adult Fiction and Whiskey Sours says
I just read and loved this one, too! I agree about the scar on her hand :-)!
I don’t know why I waited so long to read it, but good news we can jump right into the sequel~!
Lauren @ Love is not a triangle says
LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH. Also I’m an idiot, b/c I totally thought you were reviewing book 2 for a while and I got myself confused. But now I’m back on track and let me tell you, there are even more juicy WTF moments in the next installment. Clearly I’m a failure, b/c I cannot remember the hand-scar scene at all! What is wrong with me? Glad this was a win for you and that the audiobook was great. xo
Kate- Midnight Book Girl says
I need to read this book! I feel bad, because I think when it came out I got it confused with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, so I didn’t give it as much attention as I should have. I am so thrilled that you’re listening to so many books!
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase says
I won this one through a blogger’s giveaway last year and it has moved up and down on my TBR piles and now that I have to read ALL THE BEA BOOKS (I still haven’t read one BEA book, can you believe it? Too many other things to read first! But I will be starting on them SOON!) I don’t know when I’m going to get to this one. But it sounds great! Fantastic review! 😀