Girls of Storm and Shadow Book Review

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan

Though this review is SPOILER FREE for GoSaS, it does contain SPOILERS for the first book in the series.

Also, I imagine this book will include a TW for: violence and sexual abuse, plus potentially some other stuff that I have forgotten to mention. When reading the book, please check what TWs are in place if you may require them.

From Goodreads: Lei and Wren have escaped their oppressive lives in the Hidden Palace, but soon learn that freedom comes with a terrible cost.

Lei, the naive country girl who became a royal courtesan, is now known as the Moonchosen, the commoner who managed to do what no one else could. But slaying the cruel Demon King wasn’t the end of the plan—it’s just the beginning. Now Lei and her warrior love Wren must travel the kingdom to gain support from the far-flung rebel clans. The journey is made even more treacherous thanks to a heavy bounty on Lei’s head, as well as insidious doubts that threaten to tear Lei and Wren apart from within.

Meanwhile, an evil plot to eliminate the rebel uprising is taking shape, fueled by dark magic and vengeance. Will Lei succeed in her quest to overthrow the monarchy and protect her love for Wren, or will she fall victim to the sinister magic that seeks to destroy her?

First up, thanks so much to Hodder for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely adored Girls of Paper and Fire, so getting the chance to read book two before it hits shelves in November is a huge deal for me.

Okay, before I get into all of the review stuff, can we take a moment to admire this cover? Even as an ARC it’s so pretty and I love the different colours and shades cast by the lightning. I have seen the design for the Fairyloot cover, which looks phenomenal, but I am a big fan of it even as a galley.

Anyhow, let’s get into the actual review.

Lei is possibly one of my favourite YA characters ever. Which sounds weird, considering she isn’t a very bold or brash character. She isn’t as vibrant as some other YA characters like Aelin or Emma Carstairs. But she is just really awesome. I think the thing that really sticks with me about her is her bravery and her kindness, and how they sort of strike off one another. From Girls of Paper and Fire, we learn that she’s a decent fighter. However, she’s not ridiculously amazing at it, and is in fact usually surrounded by better fighters. She’s got Wren by her side, who is a trained assassin, so there’s no way she’s going to be the strongest of the bunch. But she still gets to be brave, she still makes difficult choices and sacrifices and does what she believes is right, even when it’s hard. Which I really admire her for. More than that, she’s just so kind. I think this book takes it a little further that GoPaF did, and we get to see a little more of Lei as someone who does all these wonderful things. In GoPaF, the setting sort of inhibits this a little. It’s more of a survival of the fittest atmosphere, even if Lei doesn’t like that element of it and quickly grows to understand that she doesn’t want this kind of life. Yet on the outside, away from the king, Lei has the potential to just kind of not fight if she chose to? Sure, she’d spend the rest of her life in hiding if she did, but there’s plenty of stuff that she could be doing instead of joining the rebellion. So yes, I guess what I like most about her is that she feels like a realistic hero. She’s not a Mary Sue, or the kind of bold badass heroine a lot of YA novels are going for these days, but I feel like she reflects a lot of the innate goodness and awesomeness one should expect from a protagonist.

Wren is, by contrast, a very shadowy character. We didn’t learn all that much about her in book one, and I feel like this continues into book two as well. Again though, I really enjoy what Natasha reveals along the way. I think it’s really interesting to have such a complex and multifaceted relationship at the heart of the series, and what intrigues me the most about it is that again, it seems realistic. This couple fights, they have arguments. Hell, they’re obviously under a lot of pressure as a couple, considering they’re on the run together, but I seriously admire that Natasha repeatedly goes against this romanticised romance kind of thing that I see a lot of in YA. A lot of the traditional stuff like instalove, first love is forever [Wren mentions ex girlfriends at some point], and love fixes all problems is simply not the case in this series. And I loved seeing Lei and Wren fight to stay together through these first two books.

Pacing-wise, I will say this book isn’t perfect. There are some moments which feel a little off-beat and there were times when I could easily put the book down without feeling annoyed that I had to go do something else instead of finish it. It took quite a few sittings to get through, if only because I wasn’t massively invested in some of the chapters, particularly towards the middle. However, the ending really amps up the pace and I tore through the last hundred pages or so in a frantic manner. For anyone who hates cliffhangers in books and likes to wait it out til the next book is available to read everything all in one go… this book might be one of those you keep on your TBR for a while. I’m already desperate to get a copy of the third book and find out what happens next.

In terms of world-building, I think everything ticks along nicely. It’s not one of my favourite settings of all time though. While the descriptions are gorgeous and lovely, there’s some essential spark that’s missing for me a bit there. Not that I didn’t like it, just that it doesn’t have that same beloved feeling like I get when reading A Darker Shade of Magic or Strange the Dreamer or The Raven Cycle. Still, it’s a perfectly fine world. The magic is explained in a way that makes sense to the reader, and the whole hierarchy structure of the world works well. I did like getting to see a bit more of this world, since so much of it was limited to the Paper House in the last novel, and I’m excited to see more of the lands in Natasha’s world in the next book.

Overall, I’m giving Girls of Shadow and Storm:

I loved the characters and their development across the series, and I did really enjoy the tension towards the end of the book and getting to explore new areas of the world. However, I think the pacing lagged a little in the middle, which sometimes made the book a bit easier to put down than I expected.

Has anyone else read this book already or plans to? What do you all think of it? Let me know in the comment section down below ❤