Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 5/5 stars
★★★★★

Crooked Kingdom is the second book in the Six of Crows duology. Six of Crows is about a big heist, and Crooked Kingdom is the aftermath.


I was absolutely in love with Six of Crows, but it’s been a while since I’ve read it, so I was scared that I’d go into Crooked Kingdom not remembering a lot of the details and having to look up characters and names and places, but everything was written perfectly that I could piece together any little details I may have missed/forgotten. The writing was smooth and beautiful, and many chapters had me holding on and actually had me staying up til like 2 in the morning reading it.

Crooked Kingdom didn’t seem like it had as much as a plot as Six of Crows, but I get it. It’s the aftermath of the big heist on the Ice Court. There was still so much going on in this book though! It’s almost impossible to put it down. There was still plenty of plot—it just seemed a bit more scattered than the first book. The backstories of all the characters kept breaking my heart. I just want to wrap every single one of the main characters in a blanket and pat their heads and tell them everything will be alright. This is one of the only series I think where I actually REALLY care about every single main character. 

This book is probably one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Now onto really small discussion time.

Was I the only one who didn’t like Matthias? He seemed pretty useless in this book, and honestly doesn’t seem good enough for Nina. I still ended up really sad at Matthias's last chapter, though. Nina on the other hand was amazing and I had the biggest crush on her throughout this book. She’s so sweet and amazing and her love for food is so relatable. I feel like I'm going to constantly be thinking about her and how she ended up. I need more ;__;

Wylan and Jesper. Were they sort of a thing in Six of Crows? I don’t remember all the flirting at all. Is that new??? Anyway, I loved them to death, and Jesper’s scene with Kuwei at the piano was sort of hilarious. All the flirting was so cute and had me smiling every time, but they were definitely more than just flirting. They did have an interesting connection. 

Also. KAZ AND INEJ. OH MY GOD. All of book one was heavy shipping and praying that they would be together and support each other til the end. I think I was rooting for them the most. Inej’s final chapter actually had me tearing up a bit. 

There’s so many more thoughts I have about things, but I’m so full of emotions and can’t really get all my thoughts together right now.