Maja's Reviews > Rule of Wolves

(Realistic rating: HMMM god this one is tricky! Between the romance and the ending, it's definitely not quite five stars -- but so much about it is so good, so enjoyable and emotional and engaging, that I've got to go stronger than four. A solid 4.5, I think, even if certain elements don't quite land for me, and improving upon them could have bumped it up to 5 stars.)

BOY, I LOVE GRISHAVERSE. I love getting to see the characters we say at what was, relatively speaking, the beginning of their journey -- close to the start of a struggle that defined their lives -- and how it's changed them, and how much they've grown since, and how hard they're working to shape the future of the country they love. It's a testament to how well Leigh Bardugo has built the character arc for all of them -- how they feel exactly the same, only older and wiser and more mature, and how hard they're all working to put things back together. I'm so, so invested in all of them (which makes it even harder when we lose one of them, NO SPOILERS BUT GOD I AM FUCKING DEVASTATED), and I love them so much, and they're all doing SO WELL, I AM SO PROUD OF THEM. (It's also so delightful to see Leoni and Adrik back in action in Ravka!! And my kids in Kerch, aaaaa!!!)

I've written tons of words over the course of this series about how much I love Nikolai, so I'll spare you here -- suffice it to say that I absolutely fucking adore him, and his POV in these two books has been an absolute goddamn gift. He's just my FAVORITE. I also love getting to see Zoya's journey -- here of all books, I think, we see the biggest shift in how her experiences have changed her, how she's grown and absorbed the lessons from the war and her family and her friends and what she's been through. I love her a lot, too, and I'm so proud of everything she's accomplished. (Her GARDEN!! GOD!!!) I also love Nina forever, of course -- I don't necessarily feel like she's grown or changed so much as gotten herself back, become closer to who she was before she went through her traumas and losses, found her passion and love again, and I truly, genuinely, wholeheartedly love that for her. Hanne's journey, too, is fucking amazing, and I'm so happy for the two of them.

I also enjoyed the new characters from the Shu Han, but I did feel like that particular aspect of the story was... not entirely necessary? I did really enjoy getting the peek behind the worldbuilding curtain to another country, and I love the bittersweet soldier/guard love story, and I love seeing Ehri with her family -- but there was SO MUCH going on in this book, and adding the POV of someone we only just met at the very tail end of the last book -- and an entire storyline happening at the same time as everything else! -- is just... a tad overwhelming. It MIGHT have worked better if this was a trilogy, but tbh I'm not sure I really wanted it to be? So as is, this seems better suited for, like... a companion novella! Or some other variety of material extraneous to the actual story, because as is, we really don't actually NEED to be kept abreast of the Shu Han portion of this plot; we can just learn about it secondhand. It's certainly fun to read about, but in a book as jam-goddamn-packed as this one, the fat really should be trimmed as much as possible.

And having said that, I also feel like certain plot elements in this book... came out of nowhere, a little? (view spoiler)[Like, with Hanne, I wonder how differently that King of Scars plot would read knowing how things go down here, but at the time I read it, it very much seemed like a woman chafing at the gender-based restrictions of her life, not a trans man fully trapped by them. Again, maybe now that I know, it'll feel like a better buildup? But as is it seemed like a tad bit of an ass pull, neatly and wonderfully as that storyline resolved. I felt the same way about Nikolai not wanting to be king and Zoya making a good queen -- like, didn't we JUST read in KoS that she'd be terrible at it because she's a general?? I kind of agree with that, quite frankly! I don't really think she'd be a good queen at all! Definitely a great second-in-command, but not a good ruler in and of herself. And I'm glad that it seems like there's a solid path for Nikolai to be at the head of Ravka again, but it does make me feel very cheated that he had to give it up! He's worked so hard! He loves his country so much! Why this, tbh!! I feel like it did get resolved as solidly as it could have been, under the circumstances, but... it still doesn't feel quite right. Sigh! (And I feel the same way about Nikolai/Zoya; I feel like if this had been a trilogy, the buildup would have felt better, more realistic and smoother? As is, I feel like we got hints of yearning and wonder in the first book, then... feelings here? Feelings that didn't feel entirely earned? I think the two of them will be good for one another, and Leigh Bardugo is really good at selling me on romance, but I wish this one had had a better build because both of these characters fully deserve it! (hide spoiler)]

So -- overall, I really loved the experience of reading this, as I do all the later Grishaverse books. Lots of enjoyable action and tons of deep heartfelt emotions behind them, and of course SUPERB Nikolai content. I wish it had been streamlined and had a slightly different ending -- or an ending that had felt, to me, more organic or built up better -- but overall, that's just things that would turn it from a very good book to a near-perfect book. I still loved it a lot, and I'm still really looking forward to revisiting it sometime in the future (actually very much so, because then I can evaluate better how the ending gets built to!). I'm so sad that this is my last entry into Grishaverse for a while, and I absolutely cannot wait to one day go back.