Shadow and Bone 2. Siege and Storm

The second book in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy has just about made 3 stars. Thanks to Nikolai and the ending. The rest sadly was just quite boring tbh. I’m not sure what it is exactly that makes me not like the way the author tells the story. The storyline offers so much potential but it just falls flat - even more with this one than the first book. I was sure that I was going to like Nikolai, since two of my friends (who I share my taste in books with most of the time) also loved him, but I wasn’t prepared to like him this much in the end. He truly safed the book and now I’m torn between him and Mal. Mal was done dirty by the author (as was Alina in my opinion), because his scenes and the relationship between him and Alina just didn’t do it for me. I like Mal as a character and I was sad that his arc seemed so carelessly written in this second book. My guess is that the author wanted to establish Nikolai more and in the process focused too much on the supposed ‘love triangle’ (which also felt a bit too forced) which in turn degraded Mal to a background actor so to speak. Also, I wouldn’t have thought I’d lose even more sympathy for Alina, as it was low from the first book on anyway. She did redeem herself a bit at the end of book 2 but I just don’t really like her. Could be because the author chose to write in first person POV. We’re too much in her head and the big twist at the end is just bittersweet, as I as a reader feel a bit cheated rather than surprised. Nevertheless, I liked the ending – it’s a great cliffhanger (maybe minus the ‘After’ chapter). I’ll definitely read the third one, but I’m not sure how much hope I should put in it to ‘safe’ this trilogy.