“Zoya of the lost city. Zoya of the garden. Zoya bleeding in the snow. You are strong enough to survive the fall.”

Nikolai Lantsov, a dashing young king and privateer with a gift for the impossible, no, improbable. Zoya, fierce Grisha Soldier and part of the Triumvirate with David and Genya. Nina, a Grisha spy in a foreign country with a strange gift. Ravka is struggling after the bloody civil war and the Darkling’s reign of terror. They must work to refill Ravka’s coffers, defend their weakened borders, and stop new threats to their crumbled Grisha Army. Even though the country is finally at peace, unrest grows as a growing movement of radical religious people threatens the peace.

No one knows what King Nikolai went through during the war and the dark magic coursing through his veins is growing stronger. With the help of Zoya and a young radical monk, they will find the places in Ravka where the oldest magic lives on to vanquish the magic within him. Nikolai is willing to do anything to save his country but some secrets aren’t meant to be kept.

The first book in Leigh Bardugo’s first book in the King of Scars duology takes place around three years after the events of Ruin and Rising. This is probably one of my favourite Leigh Bardugo’s series as the events in this book start to tie in larger ideas with world politics, magic, and religion. This book seems to start slow and plain with the recovery of Ravka from the world but it isn’t boring and you’ll still be invested from early on.

This book is also about a lot of character development. Nikolai is dealing with being king, recovering from war, and dealing with the dark magic he went through. He struggles with whether or not he is a good king and how to help a country that’s been at war for decades. We always saw Nikolai as the charming king and adventurer, but in this book we get to see him face the worst parts of himself. Zoya has always been hard and powerful, and she learns how to be a good leader and work with Nikolai and the other people in the Triumvirate. Nina is also dealing with the heart break from Crooked Kingdom and is struggling with spying in Fjerda. It’s beautifully written with a huge twist at the end and you’ll be desperate to read the next one. I really loved the plot throughout this whole book and the character development.

You definitely have to read Leigh Bardugo’s other books first since this has characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology and the events in those books are important to this book.

If you like this book try the second one in this duology, Rule of Wolves, or try Sara Holland's Havenfall duology.