Review: Crooked Kingdom

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

The Crows are at it again with this action-packed sequel to Six of Crows!

"We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary."
--Crooked Kingdom

This review contains spoilers from the first book in the series, Six of Crows.

After being cheated the reward from the life-endangering heist they pulled off, the Crows are determined to get their due--with interest. Van Eck will pay, whether he wants to or not. And he certainly doesn't seem keen on paying. But the payment isn't enough. There's some big fish in the city who need to learn a lesson, and only the Crows have the wit and the resources to do it. But with so many players, anything could go wrong at any time.

Crooked Kingdom is my favorite of the Grishaverse books to date. The crew's banter never fails to put a smile on my face. The metaphors are always spot-on for each character. I had a clear picture in my mind of the city. I was drawn-in to the back stories that are told in this novel, and the twists around every corner had me on the edge of my seat!

The hardest part of reading Crooked Kingdom was the cliffhangers! Switching to the perspective of another character right at a critical moment often pushed me to keep reading, but sometimes I found it a little irritating, especially if the next character was doing something a little mundane. This may have been Bardugo's intention, but it still drove me crazy!

In the end, I found this to be a gripping read. I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Mature content: torture, murder, violence, kidnapping, profanity, drug addiction/withdrawals, prostitution, gambling, slavery.