The Basics 
 A unique but inaccurate book with decent takes on common tropes. 
 Was once this is now this 
 Trope Check 
 *heroine is plain, white, with brown hair 
 *basically everyone is white 
 *now-more-than-friends romance 
 *MC thinks she's terrible at life but then finds special power 
 *author forgets proper conjugation of Russian female names 
 The Ships 
 I never actually thought the Darkling was a ship until I joined Goodreads. He's THE VILLAIN for heaven's sake and his name has DARK in it! Heads up, fangirs, there can be hot bad guys that aren't love interests and there can be plain, freckle-faced geeks that are. 
 This is how I feel about the Darkling: 
 Mal: 
 Full review 
 My feelings about this book have changed a little since I first read it back in 2014. I've learned from Mizuki, Nastassja, Nataliya, and Tatiana's Reviews have demonstrated to me quite well the potentially offensive inaccuracies that make it more than "just a fantasy world." I remember my younger self taking information from historical books, always assuming that the author had done their research very well and knew more than I did, and think about how people in Russian-speaking areas would react to a next generation of YA authors writing about Russia as if this book was accurate and then suddenly realize just how far past "just a fantasy world" this is. I don't know if it sounds like I'm calling the fangirls of this series dumb, since I used to be one, but I feel reading the criticisms of this book's cultural-ness has helped me with my own Russia-inspired fantasy world. I still do remember the feeling of reading this series, especially book two, so I can't be all that critical of it. 
 Original review 
 I would give this 3.5I liked the world-building in this book because most fantasy kingdoms are modeled off Medieval England and the like rather than Russia, and the plot line was original, yet some of the other parts seemed a bit cliche. Firstly, there are two best friends, boy and girl, who admit that they love each other. Second, the heroine is an overly average underdog; and third, the villain's name has "dark" in it. But unlike most books with similar set-ups, the storyline, though confusing, overcame the cliches and I came to like this book.