3 Stars. 
 I really liked this book. The first 50 to 100 pages were quite slow and hard to get through, but I stuck with it and it ended up picking up eventually. I think that the plot of this book is quite weak but for me what really drove me forward were the characters and how they were progressing. I really enjoy the relationship between Alina and Mal. I love the idea of a power divide between the leading man and leading lady. I thought the relationship mirrored how complicated real life relationships are, and how hard they are to make work sometimes even when you love someone. I feel like eventually Mal will end up being discovered as being as powerful as Alina, but I really hope that Bardugo doesn't take that road, and instead sticks to this messy, complicated, lovely relationship struggle. 
 I found that in this book the idea of "the Darkling" really didn't seem to bother me. He just didn't have a presence in this book, and that in turn made the whole plot seem pointless because he was supposed to be the bad guy. 
 I don't know, this book just really seemed to connect to me on the relationship level. I liked that it showed an established relationship and how it is keeping together/falling apart. I'm interested to see where the next one goes.