Crooked Kingdom

Executive Summary: A satisfying ending to a fun series.

Audiobook: Just like the last book, this has like 5 narrators or something (one for each POV). They were all good, but I think I'd have preferred 1 really good narrator, or maybe 2 (one male and one female).

Still it's better than many other audiobooks I've listened to, and I think audio is still a great option for this series.

Full Review
I really enjoyed the first book of this series, and I was curious to see how things wrapped up. The first book ends on a pretty big cliffhanger so I had to jump into this one right away.

I found Kaz a pretty unlikeable, albeit interesting/well-written character in the first book, but he really grew on me in this book. All of the characters are pretty great in fact. Inej probably remains my favorite, but Nina is a close second. The entire crew feels fully fleshed out, which is probably helped by them all having their own POV chapters.

Much like the last book, this book is full of some great cons, and kept me guessing some, but not all of the time. The stakes manage to be even higher in this book, and the plans that Kaz comes up with to deal with them were really fun to read, even if they don't always work out as intended.

The world building continues to be excellent as well. We get some more details about other places beyond Ketterdam, that again adds to a sense of lived-in feeling. Her magic system continued to develop in a fun and interesting way, building on top of the foundation of the first book.

Overall this was a really fun series, with a satisfying conclusion. I'd happily read another book with these characters or set in this world, but I'm also content if things remain where they are. That's always a tricky balance to strike, especially doing a duology when trilogies seem to be the standard.

I'm not sure when I'll pick up another book by Ms. Bardugo, but I suspect it won't be too long.