Shadow and Bone: Now a Netflix Original Series: Book 1

Leigh Bardugo

Jun 2013 · The Grisha Book 1 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with the Netflix series, Shadow and Bone - Season 2 streaming now!

Enter the Grishaverse with book one of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by number one New York Times-bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo. Perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and Sarah J. Maas.

Now with a stunning new cover and exclusive bonus material: The Demon in the Wood (a Darkling prequel story) and a Q&A with Leigh Bardugo.

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold - a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country's magical military elite - and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.


Read all the books in the Grishaverse!

The Shadow and Bone Trilogy
(previously published as The Grisha Trilogy)
Shadow and Bone
Siege and Storm
Ruin and Rising

The Six of Crows Duology
Six of Crows
Crooked Kingdom

The King of Scars Duology
King of Scars
Rule of Wolves

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic
The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic
The Lives of Saints

Praise for the Grishaverse

"A master of fantasy." -The Huffington Post
"Utterly, extremely bewitching." -The Guardian
"The best magic universe since Harry Potter." -Bustle
"This is what fantasy is for." -The New York Times Book Review
"[A] world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp." -NPR
"The darker it gets for the good guys, the better." -Entertainment Weekly
"Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down." -USA Today
"There's a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo's original epic fantasy that sets it apart." -Vanity Fair
"Unlike anything I've ever read." -Veronica Roth, bestselling author of Divergent
"Bardugo crafts a first-rate adventure, a poignant romance, and an intriguing mystery!" -Rick Riordan, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series

Ratings and reviews

This is a beautiful and fascinating world I will definately explore in the future. For this first book, my goods are: the secondary characters who are totally brilliant, maybe even more than the protagonists...; the magic system, the atmosphere and even the villain of the story. The not so goods: I found the chapters between pages 170 -210 a bit tiring and long. I could not get interested enough, and all seem repetitive. Thankfully, the action returned soon, and I could finally push through these pages. I will wait a bit to read the second book because those pages really put me off. It's better to jump to something else and return later!

The story is good, feels original and fresh and the way the author describes the book in detail is really superb! The setting of the book is also different. The story, I feel, is somewhat little short and the actual plot is also less because most of the time the book is wasted in too much of description at the time spent during the palace. Still, a good start to the series.

Packed with action and emotion and was an all-round good read. Maybe a bit too much "fan service" for my liking but yeah.

About the author

Leigh Bardugo is the number one New York Times bestselling author fantasy novels and the creator of the Grishaverse. With over one million copies sold, her Grishaverse spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology and The Language of Thorns. She was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Los Angeles, graduated from Yale University, and has worked in advertising, journalism, and most recently, makeup and special effects. These days, she lives and writes in Hollywood, where she can occasionally be heard singing with her band.

Find her website at www.leighbardugo.com and follow her on Twitter @lbardugo.