Review: King of Scars

In honor of the release of Rule of Wolves, the second book in Leigh Bardugo's Nikolai duology, I decided to post my review of the first book of the two, King of Scars!

          

King of Scars General Information

 

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Series: King of Scars #1

Pages: 511

Publisher: Orion Children's Books

ISBN: 9781510105669

My rating: ★★★½☆☆

 

About: King of Scars follows Nikolai Lantsov, the boy king and war hero of Ravka we first met in Siege and Storm (Grisha trilogy #2). But nobody knows what he's endured during the war, or that there's an ancient dark magic inside him that's growing stronger every day. He has to ally with Zoya Nazyalensky, who's determined to rebuild the Grisha army, and Nina Zenik, who has a deadly power of her own. Ravka's king, Ravka's general, Ravka's spy. They will have to look past the boundaries of science and superstition and risk everything to save a broken nation. But some wounds aren't meant to heal.

 

I was super excited to read this because I fell in love with Nikolai back in Siege and Storm (who didn't?). And have you seen the cover? It honestly blends you with its golden beauty. All in all I liked Leigh Bardugo's first book about Nikolai, his friends and his adventures as the king of Ravka. But it took me an eternity to finish it, and that it because it was really slow. For huge parts, there is no action. The writing is fluent and beautiful as always, but there is not enough happening for my taste.

This is a very character driven novel. We have different POVs of Nikolai, his grisha general Zoya and Nina from Six of Crows. Later on there's a fourth POV, but I'm not gonna tell whose because spoilers (duh).

I liked Nina's chapters best, even though she wasn't among my favorites in SoC. But in this, I loved her. Nina is headstrong, courageous and funny. Her storyline was interesting (and a little heartbreaking at some points) and I really enjoyed it.

Nikolai and Zoya felt a bit like side characters to be honest, which is quite unfortunate since this is "his" book (only in the end Nikolai felt more like the main character he is again). I love Nikolai as a character and I liked his storyline here too. As for Zoya, I couldn't really picture her for most of the time. I loved that we got to know more about her backstory though.

There are a bunch of other characters as well. All in all it was a good cast of characters and there were some nice surprises!

The plot was well thought out and leaves enough room for the sequel. But maybe that's why I didn't love King of Scars as much as I wanted to: it felt too much like an introduction, and for that it was just too long. The ending was unexpected!! Not gonna say more.

Do I recommend it? YES, if you're already a fan of the Grishaverse this is a must read. There are many hints at the other books in the Grishaverse which was amazing. Leigh Bardugo is one of my favorite writers for a reason. BUT if you've never read a book by her I'd encourage you to start with another one. King of Scars wasn't a bad book, I just didn't like how slow it was. I'm slightly disappointed but still glad I read it (plus, it's an absolute beauty on my shelves)!

~ ~ ~

Now the second book, Rule of Wolves, is out, and while I'm not as big a fan of that cover as I am of the first one, I still think it's amazing and I'm definitely gonna read it! I'm also super excited for the Shadow and Bone series coming to Netflix in April - the trailers look so promising and I'm already in love with the cast. How about you? Will you read Rule of Wolves? Are you going to watch the show? Happy reading and until next time,

~ Anni