Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

5 Stars
Okay…I have a lot of thoughts and (emotions) about the end of this series. But they’re very hard to put into words…and even harder to do without giving away massive spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the book yet. So I’ll try to just give a general impression and save the spoilers for the very end (where they will be dutifully tagged so only read them at your own peril!).
First, this is basically how I felt after a certain dramatic climax:

Originally posted by gambinogirls

Like really, I had to actually stop at the end of a chapter and just cry it out for a solid minute or so. There was certainly heartbreak (actually quite a bit of it) but I felt like I mended back together reasonably well by the end. I know there are plenty of fans who weren’t crazy about certain things that happened, but, I don’t know, I guess I expected that to happen, especially during the last third of the book. I thought Leigh handled things well and gave me an ending I could like even as it surprised me (because there were certainly a great many instances of “whaaa…just happened?!” while I was reading). Certain characters cemented themselves as my favourites (you know who you are, you rascals you) while other characters improved from previous books. I thought Alina did very well, especially in the beginning, with all of the saintly stuff (she definitely paid close attention to Nikolai on how to put on a show for the populace). I still have burning questions, which I hope might be answered or at least hinted at in her new series The Dregs (but the release is so far away!!!). Guess I’ll just have to wait semi-patiently until then…and maybe reread this series in the meantime. :)