Ruin and Rising is More Rising Than Ruin

While reading Siege and Storm, I was so happy to find out that Ruin and Rising was available at my library! I loved the first two books of this series and wanted to find out what happened.

This isn’t exactly part of the story, but the dedication of this book was so sad. It was dedicated to Ms. Bardugo’s dad: “Sometimes our heroes don’t make it to the end.”

Since this is the third book in the series, there will be spoilers for the first two books.

The actual story begins underground. Alina is the Sun Summoner, and hordes of people see her as a saint. As a sun summoner, Alina doesn’t do so well being cooped up in the dark. And the Apparat is keeping her friend Mal away from her. Even though she’s the celebrity, Alina is more like a prisoner. As a prisoner, she has to find a way to break herself out. Along with the rest of her friends.

Once above ground, Alina and the group have to avoid the Darkling, as well as the forces at war that would do her harm. Fortunately, she ends up meeting up with Nikolai, and they make plans for the future. Nikolai still thinks that Alina should be his queen, even though that’s not really where her heart lies. First things first though: they have to find the third amplifier.

On their journey to find the third amplifier, they discover some heartbreaking news (which I will not share here). They also learn about Mal’s ancestry, and why he is such an amazing tracker. Mal’s family is not the only bit of interesting backstory that we discover in this book.

All of this leads to the final showdown. I can’t say what’s going to happen, but I will say that the ending (for me) was incredibly sweet. I know that some people have a different opinion as to how Ruin and Rising should have ended, but it was the ending I would have liked. If I ever write fanfiction about this book, it won’t be fix-it fiction, because it ended on a satisfying note.

Overall, I loved Ruin and Rising, and started reading Six of Crows (on audiobook) shortly afterwards. This series made me love Leigh Bardugo’s writing, and I even pre-ordered Ninth House, her next book, which comes out in the fall.