Ruin and Rising is a difficult book for me to rate. I was really interested in the series as a whole, but some parts of it fell short for me.

I liked the characters a lot more in this book. Nikolai was more likable than ever. The side characters were interesting and much more developed. I even liked Mal somewhat better, which was a surprise. Alina was kind of bland to me, though.

I liked the story, but some of the book felt drawn out and kind of boring. The ending wasn't very satisfying, but it did wrap up the story and I didn't hate it.

I like the world that Leigh Bardugo built and I'm excited to read Six of Crows soon. ( )

Like the others, it's slow to start and kills the stakes of whatever is from the previous book's stuff. But, the payoff was good, good enough to make me not care about the other things. ( )

I liked this book, but the first one in this trilogy was the best for me. It was fast paced and showed a lot of the magic system, whereas the second and third part were rather long and missed a little bit of the magic. Overall still a good book and I am genuinely satisfied with the ending. ( )

I really tried to like this series but I felt that it was overly hyped and my expectations ended up having me disappointed. I kept waiting for something big to happen but it was just blah. For once I like the TV/netflix adaptation a bit better than the books. I even gave my trilogy set to my daughter maybe she will like it better than I did. I don't know maybe I wasn't in the right headspace as these are the types of books I love to read but it just fell flat for me. :( ( )

Overall I love the trilogy. (Nikolai Lantsov)
The ending was really good as well and I loved the fact that they ended up in Keramzin together again.

However, what I didn't like is the amount of characters there were in that gang (I couldn't keep up sometimes). Unless i somehow skipped some pages accidentley, I often would forget some of the side characters and would get confused when they popped up again and then need to recollect on who they are.

Back onto the positives, Nikolai Lantsov. That is my favourite part overall.

I feel like the Darkling should have gotten some more action or delve into his past more. Speaking of, was it by chance that Alina is the sun summoner or is she also somehow related to Morozova?

Finally, good trilogy which had me hooked. If not mentionned before, I did really like Nikolai Lantsov. ( )