Here’s what I wanted from this book:
- An explanation of what the boat with the two-star flag painted on the mural of Zoya’s room meant.
- Zoya embracing her inner Juris and shape-shifting into a dragon.
- Nikolai forgetting all about marriages of convenience and making Zoya his queen so the two of them could rule Ravka together.

Did I get it? If you’ve read it you already know and if you haven’t I won’t tell you. But I’ll tell you I liked this book a lot. It made me laugh, it made me cry and I will love these characters to death because the Grishaverse’s babies are my babies. I still have a lot to say, though.

WARNING: MILD-ISH SPOILERS AHEAD. CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

First of all, this duology should not be called King of Scars, it should be called Stormwitch because the whole story is more about Zoya than it is about Nikolai or anyone else. Zoya is the character that grows, develops and learns. The character who changes the most from who she was at the beginning of King of Scars to who she is by the end of Rule of Wolves. It is her story.

I found Nikolai surprisingly dull (for Nikolai standards, that is) in King of Scars, like he was just there to make Zoya likeable, but he shone bright again in Rule of Wolves and it makes me so happy. He is the sweetest but wittiest and most charming cinnamon roll there is and the best King any nation could ever have. Fight me on that.

I loved Zoya ever since she joined Alina against the Darkling and I loved Nikolai since the very first moment he made his appearance as Sturmhond. In my mind they make the perfect couple and I was rooting for them to be together since King of Scars. But here’s the thing: I don’t think it really worked? I loved the scene in Zoya’s secret garden and I think they’re perfect for each other, but at the same time that kind of relationship between them seemed forced as the story progressed. They didn’t have the chemistry of Nina and Matthias or Jesper and Wylan. I don’t know, I think it would’ve worked better if it had stayed platonic, strong friendships are highly underrated.

Now, getting into the actual plot. I think a lot of why I liked this book was because of the characters. I found King of Scars to have a slow start but Rule of Wolves jumped right into the story and for a moment there I thought this would be at the same level as Crooked Kingdom. But then it lost momentum and the middle was kinda slow, there were so many POVs, each focusing on a different story that there was a point where nothing was happening because it was all building up.

I do think some of this POVs and plot lines were unnecessary. The Darkling and the blight, for example. The story didn’t need that. Its only use was to leave the door open for another book, which I will absolutely read but I don’t know if we’re stretching things too much here. This is becoming like The Pirates of the Caribbean, where fountains of youth and tridents and hearts in chests will start popping up for Kaz and his crew to somehow find them.

Then we have the Shu Han plot line, which I understand was needed to tie up the loose ends of the khergud threat and I didn’t really mind it but it didn’t really add much.

Also, there’s that unnecessary death that happens but didn’t serve a purpose. Matthias’ death hurt but it somewhat made sense, in this case the story didn’t need that particular character death nor did it benefit from it in any way.

Something else the story didn’t need? The cameos. Don’t get me wrong, I was living for those reunions and I loved to see everyone again but did the story need them? Not really. Did they slow the pacing of the story? Absolutely. Every freakin’ character makes an appearance. Look for any Grishaverse character and you will find them in this book. I was even waiting for Bahgra to somehow show up. It gave the story this nostalgic vibe, like it was a final goodbye to the Grishaverse, but we’re getting another book so it wasn’t that necessary. I did love seeing Jesper again though, truth be told.