Crooked Kingdom.

Another action-packed story, but this time, it's with a bunch of political intrigue, long-awaited revenge, and walking corpses.

Kaz Brekker is off to save one of his crew members from Jan Van Eck, who swindled him and disappeared when he didn’t keep the terms of the agreement.

The prisoner they stole from the Ice Palace in book one is very, very highly sought after because of his ability to produce a powerful new drug. Unfortunately for him, he becomes the bargaining chip for Kaz’s next heist.

What I loved about this book:

Kaz has a fight scene where he single-handedly takes out a bunch of thugs. I was amazed, cackling delightedly ‘watching’ him take out half a dozen street gang members and humiliate their leader. Very impressive for a kid with a cane. ;)

Wylan’s inner journey. The depth of his father’s betrayal was gutting, but it was cool to see Wylan rise out of the tragedy and trauma more confident in himself.

The scenery is as captivating as ever. Yet in this novel, I felt like Bardugo used her characters to widen the scope of Ketterdam, weaving the story into different districts and expounding upon the different ethnicities and their respective countries and cities and cultures. The story wanders into the warehouse district, university district, financial district, and even to the countryside beyond. Oh, and canals. You can ride boats through the city too. Very unique and skillfully done.

What I didn’t care for in this book:

• The start of a gay relationship. There are two different scenes where young men kiss. I was super disappointed. In addition, the innuendos between them in dialogue grossed me out and I skipped the rest of the two chapters containing the kissing.
• Inej encounters an opponent who is also a very skilled knife/blade fighter. She’s also agile, and nimble high above ground, but the girl was extremely random. She didn’t seem to be connected to anything else in the story, a half-hearted attempt to add suspense to Inej’s arc. In the final few chapters we learn who hired her to assassinate Inej, but the connection thread is so thin it was lame.
• Once I hit the 65%-70% point, it started to drag. It started to feel drawn out, like I wanted things to hurry up already.
• My eyes crossed a little when the heist prep dipped into the political aspects of Ketterdam/world. I’m not a fan of deep political intrigue, but thankfully, Bardugo only weaves it in intensely for one chapter.
• A character I really liked dies. WHYYYYYYY???
• [SPOILER!] The consequence of Nina using jurda parem, a dangerous drug, in the first novel causes her magic to sort of reverse. It’s dark and creepy. She can't manipulate anything living anymore, but the dead are fair game. So yes. The walking dead.

Favorite excerpts. 

Inej:

Where would [he] have brought her? She could be in a warehouse, someone’s home. She might not even be in Kerch anymore. It didn’t matter. She was Inej Ghafa, and she would not quiver like a rabbit in a snare. Wherever I am, I just have to get out.

She’d managed to nudge her blindfold down by scraping her face against the wall. The room was pitch-black, and all she could hear in the silence was her own rapid breathing as panic seized her again. She’d leashed it by controlling her breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth, letting her mind turn to prayer as her Saints gathered around her. She imagined them checking the ropes at her wrists, rubbing life into her hands. She did not tell herself she wasn’t afraid. Long ago, after a bad fall, her father had explained that only fools were fearless. We meet fear, he’d said. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us. When fear arrives, something is about to happen.

Inej intended to make something happen. SHe’d ignored the ache in her head and forced herself to inch around the room, estimating its dimensions. Then she’d used the wall to push her feet and felt along it, shuffling and hopping, searching for any doors or windows.When she’d heard footsteps approaching, she’d dropped to the ground, but she hadn’t had time to get her blindfold back in place. From then on, the guards tied it tighter. But that didn’t matter, because she’d already found the vent. All she needed then was a way out of her ropes. Kaz could have managed it in the dark and probably underwater.

Matthias:

They had nearly reached East Stave and the crowds of revelers had grown thicker. Nina pulled him into an alley between two buildings. She lifted his mask and her own veil; then slowly, she placed a hand on either side of his face. Her fingers slid into his hair and Matthias’ focus shattered. It felt like she was touching him everywhere.

She looked into his eyes. “Well?”

“I don’t feel anything,” he said. His voice sounded embarrassingly hoarse.

She arched a brow. “Nothing?”

“What did you try to make me do?”

“I’m trying to compel you to kiss me.”
“That’s foolish.”
“Why is that?”

“Because I always want to kiss you,” he admitted.

“Then how come you never do?”
“Nina, you just went through a terrible ordeal–”

“I did. That’s true. You know what would help? A lot of kissing. We haven’t been alone since we were aboard the Farolind.”

“You mean when you almost died?” said Matthias. Someone had to remember the gravity of this situation.

“I prefer to think of the good times. Like when you held my hair as I was vomiting into a bucket.”

“Stop trying to make me laugh.”

“But I like your laugh.”

“Nina, this is not the time to flirt.”

“I need to catch you off your guard, otherwise you’re too busy protecting me and asking me if I’m okay.”

“Is it wrong to worry?”

“No, it’s wrong to treat me like I might break apart at any moment. I’m not that fine or that fragile.” She shoved his mask down none too gently, yanked her veil back in place, and strode past him out of the alley, across the street to a shop with a golden badger over the door.

Stars:

3 stars for mature (17+) content (and multiple disappointing aspects).

Still 5 stars for craft.