I couldn’t have asked for a better first pick by the random picker than this one. It was a book I had been wanting to read for the whole of last year. Honestly I needn’t have waited this long but for some reason I was apprehensive of going into this story without reading the original trilogy where the bulk of the world building would be.

It’s my first Leigh Bardugo novel. I had not read the Shadow and Bone Trilogy and I truly went in blind on the whole Grishaverse. I do not know the main characters of the main series nor if our main characters here have any connection to them. I had no problem understanding the different characters in this story and their varied backgrounds.

The plot is pretty similar to a heist movie. The leader puts together a crew of mismatched folks who have their own selfish reasons to be part of the team. They may have mixed feelings about each other, have trust issues and apparently the mission they are on seems impossible to everyone except to our omniscient leader. So will it work out? I am sure you can already see where this could be going.

I think the fascinating part for me was the dynamics of the world. There is enough information provided for us to know the origin story of each character and what makes them tick. I liked the chemistry between the characters and the overall flow of the plot was good. I got lost a bit in the middle once the Ice Court started but that’s because I am not big on descriptions. Very compact and well put together. Overall a very engaging read.

I do think my expectations were a bit high. I was not disappointed but I didn’t feel the urge to immediately start book 2 (Crooked Kingdom) once this ended. Reading the grishaverse might have even made this book less interesting for me. I will pick up book 2 eventually as I did enjoy this one and I am definitely liking the author’s writing style.