This book has received a lot of hype. So much hype and so many "I LOVED IT" reviews. Honestly, I felt a little silly while reading all the reviews and seeing how many people had read it. Obviously, I'm out of the loop! Not that that's bad. I find that I tend to prefer lesser known books that don't receive loads of hype. 
 Anyway. I read this book. 
 I had no clue what to expect. As it was, I wasn't disappointed, but I wasn't super pleased either. This book was just meh for me. It had loads of potential, but just fell short. But let's go into greater detail. As is my custom, we'll start with the lovely, wonderful things about this book. 
 1 The setting. So cool. The feel of the Russian inspired world intrigued me to know end. The world was fascinating. I just wish... well, we'll get to that later. 
 2The basic idea of the plot. Pretty good. Kind of unique. 
 3 Genya. I loved her. 
 I'm afraid that the negative will be a little bit longer... 
 1>/b>The setting. Like I said, it was a good setting, but I wanted more of it! I wanted more development (also, maybe calling the wasteland Tsibeya was a little too much. I mean, I see what you're trying to do, but don't be quite so close to Siberia, please.) 
 2The magic. While the idea of the Grisha was good, the actual magic systems needed work. The Like calls to Like made sense, but what Alina could do didn't have enough believable explanation. In the end, for instance, with the whole mercy/stag thing. I didn't buy it; it should have had a better explanation, or it shouldn't have happened. It was too deus ex machina. 
 3The Darkling. (view spoiler)[He was dark, and mysterious, and I loved that. However, I wanted more hints towards his goal at the end. I wanted something to make Baghra's claim believable. I felt that Aline believed it too quickly, and too obviously. There should have been some hint of it earlier on in the story. (hide spoiler)] 
 4There were definitely slow points. The beginning. The Middle. It lagged. 
 Okay, so the pros and cons were about equal, with the cons being a tad more weighty. I still liked this book, so I shall award it three stars. 
 Looks like I'll have to read Siege and Storm 
 Speaking of which, why do the second and third books have alliterated titles, while the first book is Shadow and Bone? More alliteration, please! 
 This review, as well as many others can be found at the The Airship Library