** spoiler alert ** 
 Avatar the Last Airbender meets Russian fairy tales meets Graceling at a bar and then they all go home and make a sweet baby, and that baby is this book. 
 This book is tough to review because there are things that DROVE ME CRAZY. 
 There are also things that I loved so hard, oh my god, I love this book. INNER TURMOIL. 
 I always feel it best to explain how I read the book, and I read a large section the first night, then flipped to the back to see when Mal returns. And I discovered Darkling was evil. (My fangirl heart is breaking, you guys) So I knew the ending. Kind of. Just the scene where he's using Mal to threaten her. So I was begging the YA gods to please make the Darkling have a change of heart. This is my main problem and love for this book; the Darkling was too compelling. He had all the best traits of a great love interest and all the best traits of a great villain. I knew he was bad for me-I mean, Alina- but I didn't care. UGH. All of scenes were so intense and sexy and I was going to explode with the knowledge that it was all for naught. Honestly, I'd read eight more books of their relationship, of wanting each other and weakness and vulnerability and manipulation...ngggg. He makes me do a lot of weird noises while writhing on the floor. TOO. MUCH. WANT. BLERG. 
 but it wasn't just how sexy and tempting he was, I realized I was experiencing this weird book-inception. He was nearly impossible to resist, in a resolve-weakening way. You don't want Alina to refuse him. I mean, I did, but if I was her...oh my god. Slap that antler-collar on me. Sneak into my room in the dead of night. Make me help you conquer the world and I'll be your queen. Wanting made me weak. It made the Darkling weak. It almost made Alina weak, but she was the strongest character because she overcame her desires and fought for justice. So smart. The Darkling was such a complexity. 
 Oh yeah, and Mal was a character in this book as well...hmm. I liked him, don't get me wrong, but I did want a tad bit more execution in their pure, eternal love. It all came out in the last chunk of the book, and he spends 80% of the book gone, so of course I drifted to the dark...ling. Teehee. I was waiting for the eye-rolling love triangle. God, I hate those. I know romance needs tension but oh my god, if the girl is worth that much trouble make it like, a love pentagon or something. Spice it up a little. Anyway, there's no pointless, "Who has the biggest dick?" scene of them vying for her attention. Not really. Sure Darkling gets his digs in, but they don't compete with each other. Mal trusts Alina to make her own choices, and Darkling is a sociopath who wants to turn her into a human slave. Which is actually much more tempting than it sounds. Nggg... 
 My problem with the Darkling....oh man. He was too good. That was my problem. I couldn't hate him. It actually hurts to think about him. God I love reading. Honestly that scene with them bending light and shadow was so beautiful. I really couldn't shift my focus from their relationship. Poor Mal did not get enough moments with Alina like this. Every scene where she was with the Darkling was crackling and intense. Mal gets sweet, funny scenes with Alina, but he's out of the book for so long I forgot why we missed him. Maybe more flashbacks would have helped. Yeah. I think that's it. 
 I sincerely love Mal and I hope Alina chooses him, he just needed more presence in this book. We know they're close and Alina missed him, but he sort of just shows up at the end like "Yeah I'm sorry I love you now." Alina goes through all her emotional growth WITHOUT him, which part of me is happy for, because she doesn't need him to be strong. However, the other part of me is a little worried for them. The Darkling is going to use this, so I feel that one of these boys is going to die, which I am not okay with. 
 Oh right, there's a protagonist to this. Alina. I liked her. She was tough when she needed to be, showed the right balance of emotion and grit. She had to overcome her own self-doubt and love herself to have control of her powers. 
 This book also has great side characters, whose names I'm not even going to attempt to spell from memory. The court scandal was compelling and dark, which is always fun to read about. 
 Great magical world, great characters, great love interests, great plot, intrigue, betrayal, sexuality, all that fun stuff. I'd recommend it to any teenage girl with a brain stem and a pulse.