Book Review | Girls of Storm and Shadow [CC]

Hello and welcome or welcome back to Bookmark 
Chronicles today I am doing a review of Girls  
of Storm and Shadow the second book in the Girls 
of Paper and Fire trilogy I do have a full review  
of the first book on my channel so I will be sure 
to link that in the cards and in the description  
below if you’re unfamiliar in book one we follow 
Lei who is a member of the lowest caste in her  
society because she’s fully human whereas the 
higher tiers are either a human and demon hybrid  
or are fully demon even though Lei is fully 
human she does have golden eyes which catches  
the attention of someone and they take her to the 
palace to be one of the concubines for the demon  
king obviously Lei’s not happy about this this was 
never supposed to happen to her literally someone  
picked her out just because of her eyes and that’s 
how she ends up in this predicament so obviously  
in this book we are picking up with the aftermath 
of the first book Wren and Lei are on a journey  
to form alliances and to continue sparking the 
rebellion I can’t say too much more at this point  
without spoilers but we are introduced to some 
new and really lovable characters I did enjoy this  
but not as much as the first one I rated it three 
stars and this one even though it didn’t bother me  
in the first book

the romance was a tad annoying
and it lowered my rating just a little for anyone
who is interested in reading this book there is a
content warning for scenes of violence self-harm
and references to sexual abuse and trauma recovery
even in book one none of the abuse is actually
on page but the aftermath of it can definitely be
felt when the girls are having conversations with
each other and that continues in this book so just
be aware of that if you go into it so if you have
not yet read Girls of Storm and Shadow but would
like to this is your official spoiler warning
okay so for once we are not going to start
with the characters we are going to start
with the questions that I had after I
read Girls of Paper and Fire and so far
none of them have been answered so first I wanted
to know we would ever see the demon queen because
we did find out that she exists but essentially
her job is just to produce an heir which had not
happened yet nothing there next I wanted to know
if Lei would reunite with her family also did not
happen yet although they are safe at the Hannos
palace I also wanted to know if Lei’s mother was
actually dead I kind of feel like maybe the king
told her that she was just to [ __ ] with her and
maybe she actually isn’t I’m not really sure but
it was just a question still no answers though
and lastly I wanted to know why Lei’s eyes
are gold so I’ll talk a little more about that
later but I am under the impression that
there there’s a reason behind it I don’t
know maybe she has some hidden magical powers
or something I’m hoping that we find out in the
third book which we’ll also talk about a little
later for the characters let’s start with Lei
I like her I do I really do however she is the
reason that my rating for this was not as high
she was just constantly doing dumb [ __ ]
and I get it she’s still a kid whatever being
young is still not synonymous with being
stupid I feel like I have to constantly
repeat that because that seems to always be the
excuse but anyway she just spent so much time
talking about how pretty Wren was and “she’s
so beautiful it hurts” and “I love her so
much” and blah blah I get it babe I get it
but you’re on the [ __ ] run right now okay
focus Wren I still love her she’s still a badass
boss [ __ ] but I’m not loving her character arc
I know that she has basically been trained from
the very beginning to do what is needed for the
mission but I also feel like with her uh birth
blessing word being ‘sacrifice’ I don’t know
if she’s gonna make it I don’t think she’s gonna
make it and I want her to care more about herself
I want her to understand that her life
is valuable without sacrifice and I don’t
think she sees that right now and after
Hiro’s death I definitely think that ren
will probably at least attempt to do the same
thing that he did and give herself to this cause
and I don’t love that so uh I’m just I’m
worried she’s not gonna make it Nitta
and Bo I love them so much I – I love
them and uh Bo didn’t have to die okay
you didn’t have to do it Natasha you didn’t
but here we are I think with Nitta’s grief
and possibly being paralyzed now we’re not exactly
sure of the extent of her injuries at this point
um I wonder how she’s gonna handle it I wonder
what role she’s gonna play I really like her as a
character though and I hope – I hope she doesn’t
I’m dying too I thought she was going to die
right before Mirren carried them off so I’m not
sure where her storyline is going but we shall see
Mirren I don’t blame him for any of the [ __
] that he did or said I don’t blame him for
slapping the [ __ ] out of Wren I don’t blame
him for punching Shifu Caen because he’s right
about a lot of [ __ ] I don’t think that Bo had
to die he was right about Wren killing Lady Eolah
and again I understand that Wren is trying to
stick to the mission but I mean it is kind of
harsh and then she’s keeping secrets from Lei the
lack of communication y’all know – y’all know I
hate lack of communication you know that if you
don’t tell your partner everything they’re gonna
find out eventually and it’s gonna cause some
trouble and what do you do you decide to not tell
them and then they find out later and then there’s
an argument now look at the two of you we could’ve
have done without all that in my opinion but
Mirren has been right about everything so far so
he didn’t have to turn on him though and I knew
something was up like something just wasn’t right
and then the fact that he’s the reason that they
got attacked okay well we’ll see how that goes
when everybody else finds out what he did I feel
a little indifferent about Shifu Caen and Ketai
Hanno I think Mirren and Lei’s worries about Ketai
are definitely warranted I think he is seeking
power here and willing to sacrifice Wren for it
which is concerning in and of itself I also don’t
love that he’d been cheating on Wren’s mom this
whole time but I mean I’m glad that Ketai and
Caen are together now I guess um they also
should have been honest with Wren about that
probably would have saved a lot of uh awkward
moments there but okay Lova I did not like her
I didn’t like the way that she kept throwing her
and Wren’s past in Lei’s face her kissing Wren
in front of everyone was obvi – like a very
clear move of disrespect and what pissed me
off more about that was that Wren didn’t stop
her Wren didn’t tell her to stop didn’t like
interfere in any way which I
also felt was disrespectful like
it just felt really weird really unnecessary like
nobody needs that and good for Lei on calling
Lova out because she deserved it but also like
she shouldn’t have had to like Wren should have
stepped in Lova should have backed the [ __ ] off
Naja I mean good for her she’s loyal I guess but
okay I don’t know I just I
don’t really care for her
and then the demon king is still a misogynistic
piece of [ __ ] still abusing girls to make
himself feel powerful he has to die at the end of
the series I don’t see this going any other way
I – I hope he dies I was excited to see the
different POVs that we were getting we got
like a sprinkle of them every here
and there which I was not expecting
which is pretty cool so we got Naja which
was interesting she’s a [ __ ] psycho Aoki
this [ __ ] still thinks she’s
in love with the king oh my god
poor girl um Kenzo which is interesting he’s
supposed to be broken out of prison soon Mistress
Azami who is on the side of the rebellion so I’m
interested to see where that goes I was glad to
see that Lill was still alive it seemed like she
might have been dead because of her connection
to Lei even though she had nothing to do with
everything that happened so that was interesting
the twins are also still at paper house so
hopefully I feel like Aoki’s gonna get in the way
I don’t know how that’s gonna work out so yeah
we’ll see even though I didn’t like this one
as much as the first one I still enjoyed it and I
will definitely be reading Girls of Fate and Fury
speaking of which can we just talk about that
cover for a second first thing I noticed that
her eyes are no longer gold which makes
me think that my original prediction might
have been right and maybe she does have some
magical ability that we don’t know about yet
I don’t think that it’s supposed to be Wren so
that would have been the other option but also
the fact that she’s holding a dagger kind of
confirms that it’s Lei she has sort of become
more of a fighter in this book even though her
dagger is enchanted so you know there’s that but
I don’t know I feel like something’s gonna
happen that will change the color of her
eyes I think that maybe she does have some
magical ability that we aren’t aware of
at the moment we’ll see the king has to die
that is if he doesn’t I’m going to be very upset
very very upset but all my other questions still
stand as well so I’ll be interested to see what
happens in this book it comes out November
2nd I believe and I will be pre-ordering it
we’ll see how it goes I don’t know I’m excited
for the end I think it’s going to be good I’m
hoping maybe the last book will be my favorite
there’s a lot at stake here so we’ll see let
me know if you have read either Girls of Paper
and Fire and or Girls of Storm and Shadow or if
they’re on your tbr otherwise that’s all I have
for you today and I’ll see you in the next video