Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

I have finally read this book. And my heart is all kinds of broken. I'm unsure where to begin. Unsure what to share and what not to. I'm giving it five stars, though, despite my broken heart. Gah. I knew I would love this one, yet I was worried about one part. But even so. I ended up loving this book so much. Yess. So thrilled.

I'm not going to talk about the heartbreaking part until the end of my review. Where I might spoil a tiny bit, but no names, and no spoilers before that. I just. I loved Crooked Kingdom a whole lot.  It took me some time to read it, because I was treasuring every page. Gosh, how much I love how good these books are written.

I loved that Crooked Kingdom had all the point of views that I wanted. From all the main characters. Sigh. I love reading about them all the most. The story in this duology is beyond amazing. I'm not sure how to describe it well enough. Loved reading about these teenagers doing bad. I loved that they are all criminals. I loved reading about how they care about each other, even Kaz, though he would never say it. And I loved reading about this place. Ketterdam seems like the most awful town in the world. I would have loved to visit it, lol. This place was all kinds of awful. Yet they all live there. And I loved reading about their life. Gosh. Reading about Kaz and Inej and Matthias and Nina and Jesper and Wylan has been the most amazing. I'll miss them.

I'm not sure what to say about this precious thing. There is so much happening. All these characters gets hurt so much. They are always in pain, it seems like. And I loved every moment of it all. Despite my hurt heart. I'm just out of words. I loved this book way too much. I loved reading about how they went about rescuing Inej. How she was doing. And how they planned their revenge on Van Eck. And Pekka too. And oh god. It was all beyond interesting to read about. So much planning. So much action. All so amazing.

When it comes to the characters, my favorite of them all is Matthias. He is the cutest and he has the most interesting back story. Okay, fine, they all have amazing pasts. But I love Matthias the most. I love how brave and strong he is. And loving too. And I love how much he cares for Nina. Sigh. Matthias is the best. Second favorite might be Kaz. I adore him oh so much. Despite how rude he is all the time. He is just awesome. And beyond brutal. And his past is still so interesting and hurtful and I love reading about it all.

I felt like this book was mostly the story about Jesper and Wylan. And I didn't mind it one bit. They are adorable. And I ship them a whole bunch. Eee. They are too cute together. I can't tell you how much I loved reading about their past. So many secrets. It was so interesting to get to know it all. While they aren't my favorite characters, I still love them both beyond words, and I loved reading about them so much. They have a bunch of chapters in this one. Then there was also the Shu boy. I liked him a bunch.

Then there was Inej and Nina. Sigh. These two girls are so amazing. And I love reading about them way too much. Nina is a bit different in this book, yet even more awesome, and gosh, I love her. Inej is so, so amazing too. And I can't help but love these girls so much. Learning more about them was so exciting too. Though the past of Inej makes me so, so upset. I'm not okay with it. Sniffs. I just adore this girl. She's so strong and sweet and a bit brutal too. I love it. I loved all the characters so much. More than I can say.

I'm not saying much about the plot. Just that I loved it oh so much. There are too many things happening in this book. Yet never enough. I wish it had been even longer. I wish there would be another book. Sigh. I just wanted more. Though this book was enough too, but yeah. I wanted even more. There are also some amazing characters in this book from Leigh's first trilogy, and ahh. I loved it. So much. Though my favorite character was not included. Hmph. How rude, lol. Maybe in another book. Fingers crossed for the future.

I can't help it. I need to share a bit of spoilers about the ending of this book. I won't mention names. But I will mention what happens. Because I simply can't not mention it. There is a main character death near the end of this one. And it was a huge favorite of mine. I would rather any of the others had died, but this one. Sigh. I actually did love reading about the scene. But. It also made no sense. That death was the most random thing. And random things don't happen in these books. I'm disappointed. And the most sad.

Disappointed because I loved this one character the most. My favorite one. The character that deserved the most happiness at the end. And this person did not get that. I'm upset. More than upset. This death should not have happened. And I want it undone. I have seen some say that this character might be brought back to life. But I didn't read it like that. It didn't seem like that could happen. I mean, I want it more than I want anything, but it did not seem likely at all. And I'm so hurt and angry and disappointed.

I need Leigh to write more about this world. I need her to bring this character back to life. One thing that will haunt me forever, is that I saw someone say that the person this death left behind, will end up with another character in these books. And I would not be okay with that. It would kill me. Gosh. Please don't happen. Ahh. I'm nervous. I'm not sure what else to say. It hurts my heart too much. Yet I'm still giving this book five stars. Because I loved every moment. I wish the ending had been much, much longer, though.

But yes. I loved the ending of this book. I hated that heartbreak, because it made no sense, but I loved the rest of the ending. It was done so amazingly. It was all kinds of exciting and fun and awful and I loved reading every moment of it. These characters means so much to me. I love these two books so much. Sigh. Leigh is also a huge favorite of mine. I adore her. And cannot wait to read all her upcoming books. Eee. Crooked Kingdom was a masterpiece. Full of hurt and fun. I loved every moment of it. Go read it.

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