Girls of Storm and Shadow (Girls of Paper and Fire, 2)

Five finger death punch has a song and the chorus is "I'm on the wrong side of heaven,and the righteous side of hell." That is explored in this part of the series. Lei sees how much the war is changing everyone around her, including the person she sees in the mirror. Even though everyone tells her she's a good person she can't help but wonder who's the enemy.

This book is one of my best reads of 2022 thus far. After Lei and Wren have escaped the Hidden Palace, they must gather the aid of the different clans across the land to help them win their war against the Bull King and his ilk. With the help of new loveable characters like Nitta and Bo, a pair of Leopard-form demons, and Wren's father Lord Hanno, they must escape ever mounting danger, and hope their love survives along the way. I am a sucker for a good LGBTQIA+ story and this one stole my heart. I can't wait to read the final installment.

I stumbled upon the first book, by accident, shortly after it was published. I could not put it down and immediately devoured it in days. Although this sequel didn't inspire the exact same emotions in me as the first (what sequel does?), I enjoyed it immensely and again, could not put it down. The growth of Lei was both amazing and heartbreaking as was truly beginning to understand Wren. Usually by now I have a pretty decent idea how a series is going to end or play out, but with this I'm anxiously in the dark. Knowing it's most likely going to be a year to find out what happens after that cliffhanger is almost unbearable!Also, I kinda hate Lova. Okay maybe I don't hate her. But the writing in the parts with her, and everything she symbolizes, was done so well that it was impossible not to feel what Lei was feeling.

I don't know how many fantasy books I've read where the heros pretend like they're outnumbered and on the run. All the while sailing through fight after fight kicking the crap out bad guys. The main character, who never picked up a weapon before, suddenly becomes an unstoppable bad ass, cutting down enemies left and right. This book was not that. This book felt real. I felt all the panic, all the desperation, all the rage Lei felt as she and her friends fled the kings men. The losses the group suffered hit hard. The emotional ups and downs of Lei and Wren's relationship also felt real, not contrived solely to add relationship drama into an already established couple In short this book was the real deal. I've never had to suffer like poor Lei has, but this book gave me some insight into what it would be like.

A really enjoyable read. It doesn't have quite the same magic that Girls of Paper and Fire did, but it kept me riveted right up until the end - until the honest-to-goodness cliff-hanger end. *shudder* Things I loved:* The character development and high drama.* The use of different narrators to give us different pieces of the story.* The complex relationships that aren't always what they seem.While this book didn't quite grab hold and refuse to let go the way the first one did, it's an excellent piece of high fantasy and I can't wait to see how everything plays out in the final book.

This book broke my heart all over again. So much heartache. Wren and Lei's relationship is totally put to the test in this one. Not sure if I liked where Wren's story was headed either.A lot of non-stop action, character deaths (why!?-I'm so sad about two of them), and tension. I really did enjoy this one, but it stopped at a major cliffhanger--so beware.Glad that Lei didn't automatically become an butt kicking machine. Appreciated that the author made her train for it. She's still not perfect and I'm completely fine with that.

I was absolutely floored by the first book. The second unfortunately didn't live up to expectations. I couldn't seem to find interest in any of the new characters and got annoyed by some of the choices our heroines made. It almost felt like an entirely different series. I'll still read the third when released though.

I wanted to be able to give this one five stars, but there were some missed opportunities here. This felt more like "let's take up as much space as possible" as opposed to moving much of the plot along.

As is often the case, I did not enjoy this as much as the first book in the series. We were still in the fantastic world that had been built in the first book, and there were additions to it in this one. However, things felt a little flat to me, like the author was running low on steam. Alternatively, it could be that I was finding it difficult to like some of the characters we were supposed to care about. Rather than happy go lucky, Bo felt obnoxious. Rather than proud, Merrin felt bitter. I started to dislike Lei as she came across as 'oh, this is all my fault, I am so useless, woe is me'. Even Wren became annoying after exploiting the full extent of her magic. So this book had an entirely different feel to me. Perhaps that was the intention, for the author to drag us into an emotional low point in order to make everything wonderful by the end of the trilogy. That's fine, when it's done with the plot points and all seems lost, IMO, but when you essentially character assassinate your heroes for the purpose, it feels all wrong. At least it did to me. I will read the last book because it seems a shame to abandon it, but I'm not as enthused about this series as I was at the start.

The last 150 pages or so of this picked up so good! I think in the middle, Girls of Storm and Shadow felt like it was suffering from middle-book-syndrome; and while it was good, I wasn’t dying to pick it up at all or feeling that motivated to read. But at around the 60% mark I was sucked right back in, hence raising my rating from a predicted 3 stars to 4.I also really liked the group of characters we were following with Lei, which is not something I felt was as present for me in Girls of Paper and Fire.Plus, my jaw just kept dropping, I was honestly not expecting lots of the twists in this book which made it pretty gripping towards the end, and I’m now very hyped up to read Girls of Fate and Fury in November (I say as if it didn’t take me literally like a year and a half to pick this up).

What an amazing author Natasha Ngan is. Her descriptive writing makes every second of this book real. If you're looking for books that you can become completely immersed in, you'll do no better than to read this trilogy. A note of caution though: Do not pick up this book if you are supposed to be doing something else, it will not get done!

I liked how the characters; Wren and Lei are now out of the palace, but still in danger from soldiers and the King. It deals with the aftermath of the trauma they experienced at the palace and we see them go on a quest for allies and go on personal journeys too, with secrets discovered along the way.A new collection of characters are introduced too which are a great addition to the team, although would have liked to have heard more from other characters who stayed at the palace.Can’t wait to see how it will end in the conclusion when the next book comes out.

I did enjoy this book, I did however prefer the first one. I look forward to seeing how the third progresses the story.