Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

 According to the author this book is suppose to be inspired by tsarist Russia, and that was one of the main reasons why I read it. However except for the misuse of a few Russian words I found absolutely NOTHING in the story that said tsarist Russia. But I did find an amazing book which I absolutely love.

The prose flowed smoothly, no odd, short sentences which YA authors of today love to write. The plot was awesome. Even though it was of one of the usual types i.e ordinary girl turns extraordinary type, I found myself enjoying it. Maybe it was because Alina was a character people can relate to. She was a good character though not exceptionally strong or brave.
There's also Mal, who is equally likeable (alright, maybe a lot more likeable). I loved how their romance blossomed from childhood friendship into beautiful love. Usually in book the girl meets the new guy while the childhood friend remains forgotten behind. So the romance was a pleasant change.
(picture by bookaholic, deviantart)

Another thing that I admire about Shadow and Bone was The Darkling. He is ,after Voldemort,my favourite villain. He actually has motivation for the evil things he does other than "Muahaha, look at me! I'm Evil!"
I loved the surprising way in which the Darkling's identity was revealed. I often guess the plot twist after getting into the story but here the plot twist was MIND BLOWING!

Lots of reviewers gave this book pretty bad ratings because of the misuse of Russian words. I can understand their annoyance. It's clear that the author did not carry out any research. Even the editor and the publishers simply published this book without checking if Russian culture had been correctly portrayed. But my knowledge of Russia is very limited and I learned about the misuse of words problem after finishing the book so it didn't really affect my enjoyment of the whole story. All in all a great book the book. :D