“Fear is a phoenix. [...] You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.”
― Zoya Nazyalensky ―

Synopsis

Three years after what happened between Alina and Darkling in the fold, Nikolai continue in ruling Ravka, in the edge of war with the Frejan, also with geographically in bewteen Frejan and Suli, Ravka always in the danger of war. Having lots of debt to Kerch, Nikolai and Ravkan also in the middle of the edge of war between Kerch and Novyi Zem.

Keeping balance between each country with Ravka in the center of all is not only hard enough. Ravka is low in money, but need a lot in order to provide their innovations for war against Freja, but also has to built a submarine for Kerch who want to bomb the Novyi Zem in secret, but Ravka need Novyi Zem support in order to win the war against Freja because Novyi Zem suppies Jurda, the one of ingredient that creates Jurda Pareem, the addictive drug that Frejan use to control Grisha. 

Not only matter with the political issues, Nikolai who is a bastard, his identity got issued as a gossip around Ravka and some of them asked him to step down from the throne. He also has no son to take his throne in case of something happened to him.  Above of that, the demon inside him suddenly pop up taking his consciousness and  run away from the palace, and Nikolai has to keep this monster at bay and also to find the solution for this too in the middle of others problem he has as the king of Ravka.

In other hand we also join Nina's adventure in the heart of the Ravka's enemy, Freja. Disguise as a widow undercover to help the lost Grisha in Freja to going back to Ravka and also discover her own new power after one dose of the lethal Jurda Parem. 

My Review

But this book made me questions for what is this book all about at the time i continue to read until the middle of the book. It just took the reader into another genre of the book. At first part of the book, we see that Nikolai is into such a political crisis in here as Ravkan King, who in the middle of war with Frejan, asking Suli to help for Ravka in case Frejan march to Ravka for war, but of course the negotiation is not that easy. Being in the middle of Kerch and Zemeni is not easy either. Ravka own Kerch a lot of money, but Ravka need Zemeni for parem suppy so they can find the antidote for jurda parem that Freja used to control Grisha.

In other hand Nina Zenik is in Freja, bringing Matthias body, trying to find the suitable place to bury him, while constantly having conversation with him in her mind. Her new power that enable her to talk to the death lead her to a case in a town that has a warehouse full of girls that has been lost or claimed go to the capital city, turns out being dosed with drug alike like jurda parem but less lethal but still addicting. I was told this book is about the two of them, Nina and Nikolai, i was expecting a lot of interaction between them but in the end they just has two separate adventure.

Also, I don't know that Zoya has this kind of sad history in her life. She was just annoying girl at first in Shadow and Bone trilogy, although by the end i sense that she will be appears again in King of Scars because of the special relationship of her with Nikolai. Speaking of that, I knew that this would be about Nina and Nikolai since they got this kind of "the way he look at her" kind of scene in Six of Crows duology, but in this book they both has different adventure while Zoya is kind of Nikolai's right hand, i see the tension between them too. So... is it gonna be a love triangle kind of thing? I guess we'll see by the end of this duology.

My Verdict

 It's an Uh Yeah for me (please go to my rating system here if you don't get what it means). I like the adventure, the tension between each country and Nikolai's team in the palace, but Nina's adventure is a bit bland for me. But the plot twist in the middle of the book really took me by surprise and by the end of the book i was like, "WHAATTTT??? NOOOooo!!!" kind of feeling. Surely need the second book right away after finish it, good for me i never start a series if i don't have them complete in my shelf. 

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