YA Novel Series Being Turned into Netflix Series -- Review of First Book

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was challenged to read today's book with Hazel and share our experience. It is the first book in a trilogy that is being turned into a series on Netflix. The book is Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Now I am going to add that the Netflix series involves this series as well as some other parallel series by Leigh Bardugo. 

From the Publisher: 

Enter the Grishaverse with book one of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, coming soon to Netflix as an original series. This edition features exclusive cover art from the show!

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold—a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country's magical military elite—and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.

From Me:

Hazel and I have enjoyed reading books together aloud. We take turns reading to one another. Usually it is a book I am not sure she is truly ready for the topics and am worried there will be parts she won't understand or that might frighten her. Since we were challenged to read it together, we started that way. Hazel started reading to me and to be honest I had trouble following the story while just listening. Next I tried to read it to Hazel and she found she was having the same issue. We both knew we wanted to read the book but didn't want it read to us or aloud. We are visual people and both found the book interesting but just had trouble following while listening and not reading ourselves. When we gave up I wanted to continue reading so I could write the review. We stopped in the second chapter and had we read a little further it may have worked to read aloud. I finished the book in less than 24 hours. Then I pressured Hazel into reading it quickly (she read it in less than 24 hours as well), because I wanted to talk about it and not ruin the story on her plus I wanted to check out the Netflix series. 

We both loved the book. It was easy to read it quickly because neither of us wanted to put it down once we started. The story is interesting and a page turner. There are sad parts and happy parts as well as a lot of mystery. We both can't wait to get our hands on the next book in the trilogy as well as the books in the parallel series. The characters are so well developed and the book is well written. 

Now our Netflix experience was a bit different. We watched the first few episodes of the first season. The second season was recently announced as coming out. We both found it hard to follow, but realized that some of the events were from the parallel series. We decided we need to read the other series to enjoy it. And of course as always the book seems to be better than the show. I always say we have to read books before watching the movie and this one seems to be true for that as well. Anyway, I hope you will join the adventure this summer and check out Shadow and Bone!