I just found author Leigh Bardugo, how did I miss her?!

So, I have heard people talk about Leigh Bardugo and especially her book "Six of Crows" for awhile. The first time I tried to read it, I felt lost and uninterested. I did not know that the Shadow and Bone series takes places a few years before Six of Crows, and if you read them first, some of SoC makes a lot more sense.

Shadow and Bone description:

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold―a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite―and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.

Alina is just a regular soldier fighting with her best friend Mal for the safety of her country Ravka. She is a member of the first army, the normal people. The Second Army consists of Grisha, those with magical powers who also help protect the country, under the leadership of a dark and creepy guy called the Darkling. All children are tested to see if they have Grisha powers, and those that do are taken to be raised and taught at the Little Palace. 

Mal and Alina are both tested but neither had powers so when they were old enough they joined the army and learned to fight. Mal is a tracker, with an innate ability to track that surprises everyone. Alina is a mapmaker, not a great one either. However, on a perilous journey through a dead zone filled with monsters, Alina unleashes a power she never knew she had. She is taken by the Darkling to train. Told that her sun summoning abilities along with his dark abilities will be able to destroy The Fold, that undead area of the land that contains unimaginable monsters.

But nothing is as it seems at the Little Palace and soon Alina realizes that someone wants to use her powers not to save the country but to take it over and unleash more hell. 

This is just book one in a trilogy and I really enjoyed it. Why I never read it before, I have no idea. I finished Shadow and bone on Friday, book 2 on Saturday, and book 3 on Sunday, and then I read Six of Crows. I have to wait til tomorrow for Crooked Kingdom to arrive :/ Ugh. I hate being stopped dead in the middle of a series!

Anyways, this really was a great series and a fantastic author, so give it a try!