The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

Let’s chat about the proper order of things!  The Grishaverse is complex and needs to be read in order.  Unlike the TV show, we are trying very hard not to spoil things, but please beware, Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse includes the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology (which sort of appears in the Netflix show), and the King of Scars duology.  These seven, YES SEVEN, books should be read in that order as they all take place chronologically in the same universe and do intersect with each other.  From here, it’s going to get more spoilery, because that’s what happens when you review book seven in a (loose) series.  If you prefer not to have spoilers, please check out our review of Shadow and Bone.  If you prefer your spoilers in order, start with Shadow and Bone, remember it’s a trilogy, and then pick up with our review of the Six of Crows duology.  And now on to your regularly scheduled book review!

Before I dig in, I want to own that I most definitely had to look up some of the events of the end of Ruin and Rising to remember how we left our cast of characters in Ravka, or rather how I left them nearly a year and a half ago, even though a handful appeared in the Six of Crows duology, which was nearly a year ago for me.  So yes, these are all very much linked, and I very much adored getting to revisit these characters!  

King of Scars is about our favorite Ravkan king trying to piece the country back together after the events in the Grishaverse, roughly three years after Ruin and Rising and one year after Crooked Kingdom.  Ravka has been ravaged by civil war, the Fold has been destroyed, and the second army is slowly rebuilding.  Our titular character has his triumvirate to support him, as well as his diplomacy skills, and he’s trying to make friends and influence people in new and exciting ways.  For those who (like me) don’t remember, the Darkling left Nikolai a little present of a monster sharing his body during that final battle, and that is the piece that drives our current plot.  It’s getting more active, and it needs to go, but how?  Nikolai is also the last of the royal family and needs an heir as part of his efforts to stabilize the country and help his people heal.  Both issues are … complex, and then there’s Nina spying and trying to save Grisha in Fjerda and Zoya trying to help Nikolai pull all this off and rebuild the second army so Grisha can have a place to belong and thrive rather than survive.  Yes, we have multiple POVs, lots of action, and so much else that I am so excited to finish reading in Rule of Wolves.  I’ve already checked it out, so I’m hoping to consume it in the next two weeks and know how the story ends.  

King of Scars is a gloriously plotted continuation in the Grishaverse with beautiful writing and snarky dialogue.  The characters are beloved and dimensional and I have high hopes for the ending Bardugo will bring us.  I’m giving this title four solid stars and hoping the ending is everything I want it to be.  While I don’t know that I’ll reread any of the Grishaverse books, I’m slowly enjoying season two of Shadow and Bone and still thinking on many of the themes, even from the titles I read almost two years ago.  If you enjoy YA fantasy, please don’t sleep on this series!

What’s a book (or series) you’re excited to see transformed to screen?

~Nikki 

You know what I’m not going to do this time? Write about Leigh Bardugo and all her awards and accolades for her millions sold Grishaverse series, or her adult fantasy Alex Stern series. (The internet says prepare for four books in this series – probably one book per year for Alex’s years at Yale. #Speculation)  Or how she lives in Los Angeles. Or how Netflix made the Shadow and Bone series that’s now in season two, or how the Ninth House series is slated for production from Amazon studios…I’m also not going to tell you how Kaz Brekker, master thief in Six of Crows, uses a cane because Bardugo has osteonecrosis and also sometimes needs to use a cane to walk. I’m not going to tell you any of that and just get along to write about King Nikolai Lantsov and our favorite Grishas from King of Scars.

Yeah. I said it. Forget all that Santka Alina, Sun Summoner, savior of Ravka crap. Zoya Nasyalensky, the unforgiving commander of Ravka’s armies is my favorite. Nina Zenik and David Kostyk and Genya Safin are all amazing, too, but none can hold a candle to the give-no-effs badass that is General Nasyalensky for me. Yeah, I definitely have a girl crush on this lady. I also love Nina Zenik, trained by the great General herself, but of more use as a spy than a soldier. The journey she goes on emotionally and physically into Fjerda was like a dagger into my heart that got healed as Nina found her purpose. Oh the twist in her story at the end, Chef’s Kiss! These ladies are worth suffering through Alina Starkov’s weirdness for sure.

Now, Nikolai Lantsov, King of Ravka, has no trouble making friends and influencing people with his unwavering charm, dashing good looks, and subversive intelligence. He’s witty and a master player of the game, always multiple steps ahead of anyone else in whatever myriad intrigues are going on at court and abroad. But, what he didn’t plan on or expect was the darkness growing inside of him, coming out at night as some winged monster terrorizing his court and his people. He needs a queen and an heir to solidify his future but you know what his royal dumbness does?! (minor spoiler alert) He avoids his feelings for his general. Even I’m not avoiding my feelings for Zoya and he needs to get with the program. What won’t come as a surprise to you, darling readers, is that Zoya is avoiding her feelings for Nikolai as well. I can’t wait for Rule of Wolves to get off hold so that I can finish up my Grishaverse reading and find out what happens. I’m torn wanting a big fat bow or wanting more, more, MORE.

Bardugo takes characters from her two other Grishaverse series and sets them on adventures in King of Scars. These characters are separated by geography but are working towards the same goal – to save the Grisha and their home in Ravka. I am so glad that Zoya and Nikolai and Nina have more time on the page, because I love reading about when the ‘secondary’ characters get their stories told. Four stars, obviously.

~Ashley

PLEASE SUPPORT US WHEN YOU SHOP BY FIRST CLICKING ON THE IMAGES BELOW: