my favorite KING is in need of a QUEEN 👑🤴👸

 

𝓶𝔂 𝓯𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓚𝓘𝓝𝓖

𝓲𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓷𝓮𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓪 

𝓠𝓤𝓔𝓔𝓝

Hey guys, it’s Eesha Samantray from the Samantray Post. Today we’re talking a book, yet again.

This book emotionally destroyed me (not as much as crooked kingdom, but who can top that). The reason why, I will tell you later.

Anyway, if you didn’t know, we’re reviewing KING OF SCARS.

[WARNING: This review will just be me fangirling over Zoyalai, gushing over random scenes and crying. There will be a bit of a plot explanation, but oh, it is so poor]

𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀

 

The book starts off in the perspective of Dima, the youngest boy of six. As soon as I read the first page, my immediate thought was ‘he’s gonna die, isn’t he? This is like Joost all over again!’ Luckily (and thank god, which in this case is Leigh Bardugo) he didn’t die. But, I mean, Nikolai did almost kill him.

Yup, that’s right, our favorite prince (now king, I know, it’s just hard to comprehend) is now a ferocious hungry beast that he turns into…what, every night? I think so? But the point is his transformation is becoming more frequent.

Why is he turning into a beast that eats sheep (and humans, but we’re not ready to talk about that), you might ask. Very well, it seems as though the darkling has cursed him to have some darkness inside of him that turns him into a raging beast. Well, that is what they thought, until they found out by the saints that it’s a manifestation of the darkling’s soul…? I guess. And they want him to get rid of it by doing a ritual which is a trial or some shit.

Anyways, before we get to thar, Zoya is pissed that she had to bring back Nikolai-the-beast-boy. Let me talk about Zoya. She’s a QUEEN. And I know that she becomes a literal queen in the next book, and you know what; she deserves it. No joke, I loved her, any annoyance I had for her character has vanished. Show-Zoya is so pretty and I can’t wait for Zoyalai on TV!

Oh, and the Nikolai casting has been announced! I’m excited to see him as Nikolai. I can also see Tolya reciting his poetry (he better be annoying everybody in the show with it) and Tamar throwing axes (sidenote: the Wylan casting is perfect! He has the innocence that I imagined and pictured Wylan to have. Dye his hair muddy red and he IS Wylan. Also, I’m beyond excited for early show-Wesper).

Anyway, let’s move on to the book. Nikolai goes to the Grisha Triumvirate meeting, and we get this jem (not Carstairs) of a scene.

 

I mean, I love Nikolai so much. And it reminds me of the iconic scene of ‘The Princess Diaries’.

Julie Andrew walked so Nikolai could run. Should I read the Princess Diaries books? Tell me in the comments. Anyway, let’s talk about the other storyline; Nina Zenik’s.

Our waffle queen is struggling over the grief of losing Matthias and can’t believe he’s gone (me neither, Nina, me neither…) She is in Fjerda with Adrik (Nadia’s brother) and Lioni, Adrik’s love interest (all though, they aren’t together yet; a girl can hope) she is an optimistic because as a child she had nearly died and wanted to live life in a better perspective.

Anyway, switching back to Nikolai and Zoya’s storyline, a ruckus is ensued in the church. A man named Yuri, is preaching for ‘The Starless Saint’ AKA the Darkling – to be a saint like Alina Starkov (which is bullshit). Or something like that, I don’t remember. Don’t judge me! It was two days ago!

Anyway, Nikolai invites him over for some biscuits (Yuri: sips tea with Nikolai), who tells Nikolai that the Starless Saint will return and he has a method to cure Nikolai.

Skipping over to page 208 and more, where we get some Nikolai childhood backstory. Let me tell you this, that just made me hate Vasily more (may he rot in his grave). I love Dominick and almost teared up when he died (I’m weak, I know).

I’ll be honest, the book didn’t really pull me in until the 300 page mark. I mean, I loved the characters but the plot was meh. But after 300 pages, I was hooked. I was hooked in the princess Ehri and Isaak romance (sobs at righting this) I was emersed in Zoyalai love. I wanted Nikolai to free himself of the beast/the darkling/’s power.

Now, Zoya giving reasons to hate the darkling.

I feel like this book was to tell darkling stans: ‘hey! This betch is toxic! Get another interesting character to thirst on!’

And I agree with my QUEEN Zoya. This is a darkling hate account. Deal with it!

[I do think that he is an interesting villain. But I don’t ship darklina as its toxic and the darkling is a very toxic being. But I understand people are drawn to the premise of a dark | light relationship (opposite power couple). It also doesn’t help that Ben Barnes is the one who plays him,]

Let’s talk about Hanne. I love her. I know probably she and Nina will get together in Rule of Wolves. I just want Nina to be happy. I’m still crying over Matthias, but she needs happiness. I’m curious to know how her character storyline shall play out.

Anyways…Did I not talk about how the Saints had taken Nikolai and Zoya to help Nikolai to get rid of the beast which is a remanent of the Darkling and his power in him so that they could be free of their imprisonment that happened when he created the fold, and how Saint Juri is training Zoya? No? Well, one of the Saints betrayed them as she actually didn’t want to lose her power and she wanted to be in the darkling’s side and to bring him back in a physical form. You know what, I actually liked her. The betrayal, wipes tear.

Anyway, Zoya saves the day. The Darkling doesn’t rise (yet). Nikolai is safe, but the moster is still inside of him.

Let’s switch to Isaak’s storyline for a bit. Isaak becomes glamoured as Nikolai because they have some festivities. So, he meets Princess Ehri. And they bond. As soon as they had a conversation, it was like – my romance senses are tingling! But when he calls her so they could be alone, she stabs him with a fjerdan knife and kills herself. I actually cried when she killed him, and gasped when she killed herself

Surprise! She’s actually an assassin who was dressing up as the actual princess, it was the real one who had hired her.

Then the end of the book is finally there. Plot twist! – the Darkling survived and took Yori as his physical form!

I didn’t expect that twist at all. I just realized this sounded so sarcastic, I assure you that I was shocked on many levels.

𝔀𝓻𝓪𝓹𝓾𝓹 & 𝓶𝔂 𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰

I’ll wrap up by telling what I thought about the characters.

NIKOLAI – I think Leigh did a good job showing his insecurities, can’t wait to see him deal with the beast!

ZOYA – My queen! Second best character development after Matthias in the grishaverse. Can’t wait to see her rule Ravka with my favorite King.

NINA – Loved seeing her deal with grief. The scene where she let Matthias go was so sad but it was necessary. Can’t wait to see her and Hanne’s storyline progress!

ISSAK – Loved him! My favorite fake king! I’m tearing up talking about him. At first, I didn’t like him because he liked Genya. But I cried SO HARD when he died. So heartbreaking!

MY RATING? – 5 stars. I just joined Goodreads! My name – Eesha Samantray!

I love this book. But I don’t think I’ll be reading the next book until next year. I have so much on my tbr that I have more priority for.

Anyway, love y’all, thanks for reading! It’s 12 am and I need to sleep.

A King of Scars review by Eesha Samantray