The Grisha Trilogy

I have seen this book many times before, but only recently have I read it. I have literally checked it out of a library and returned it without reading it. The cover always catches my eye, but then I read the description and think, Eh. But this book is definitely not "Eh."

Alina Starkov, plain cartographer in the Ravkan first army. Mal Oretsev, best friend of Alina since they were orphans together. Yes, Alina is in love with Mal. No, Mal doesn't know. Sounds cliché, but it's bearable.

Alina and Mal are traveling across the Fold, a dark, terrible place where monsters attack anything that comes near them, along with other members of their regiment. Alina is scared, and rightfully so. The volcra are dangerous, and could kill her without a thought.

When she and Mal are crossing on a sand skiff, the volcra do attack. In all the chaos, Alina throws herself on Mal to save him, and sees a bright light as she feels the volcra attack her.

Then she's out of the Fold, having not crossed due to the volcra, and people are asking her about what happened. What was that light? Apparently it came from her. Apparently, she's not so normal. Apparently, Alina is the Sun Summoner, only one of her kind. And she can help close the Fold for good.

In Ravka there are Grisha who practice the Small Science, which is essentially magic. All children are tested at a young age to see whether they are Grisha or not. Alina was not found to be a Grisha, but now she is thought to be. And not just any Grisha, but the Sun Summoner. There is only one Sun Summoner. Since the volcra live in the dark, they can't come near light, and so when Alina accidentally used her power in the Fold, she saved the skiff from the volcra.

The Grisha make up the Second Army, commanded by the Darkling, who, opposite of Alina, can summon darkness. He is also the only one of his kind.

Alina is taken to the smaller of two grand palaces, where the Grisha are trained. She meets Genya, a Grisha servant, whose job it is to make the queen beautiful. She becomes friends with Genya, but is out of place with the rest of the Grisha, who are so used to excess and a rich lifestyle.

The Darkling tells her about a special amplifier that Alina can use to enhance her power, and destroy the Fold. Alina rests all of her hope on finding this amplifier.

The rest of this is a spoiler alert, but it doesn't give away that much. Later in the series, Alina finds out that there isn't just one amplifier, there are three. Usually Grisha can only have one amplifier, but these three are meant to be combined. Alina finds two of the amplifiers, but in order to obtain the last one, she will have to do something terrible.

This book was amazing, the perfect amount of romance, fantasy, and adventure. Loved the whole thing.

Read it. Read it now.

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