Tag: sarah j maas

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass

Published by Bloomsbury

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Pages: 648

“The queen has returned.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.” -Goodreads.

Review:

How do I begin a blog for such an amazing book?

I will start with my shame of course because we gotta get that over with. It took me so long to read this. I was not motivated and I really didn’t feel like reading it at times. I am such a bad book reader oh my goodness. I always do this and then I finish the book in a marathon session in the middle of the night like two nights ago. I also am ashamed that this is my third attempt to write this review. I cannot find the words to describe this book.

It wasn’t as good as it predecessor Heir of Fire but it came maybe close. I will probably say a lot of negative things about this because I have some negative feeling about it but I hope I can say god things because this book was good, just some of the story made no sense entierly. (Spoiler Alert: some things from the other books are said within this book so if you don’t want to be spoiled on the other books then don’t read this post)

Let me just say one thing that made me kind of mad and I think what made me not read the book quickly; the rivalry that occurred between Aelin and Chaol. I mean come on. He didn’t do anything wrong. Maas pitted Aelin and him against each other for no reason and then made Chanel look terrible by always bringing up Nehemiah’s death and how it was his fault and blah blah blah. Aelin blames him for everything wrong with Adrian and Dorian but if he would have done anything other than run we would have been killed and then where would you be Aelin, hmmm HMMMMMM. She was also a little hypocritical in saying he should have killed the king like so should’ve you. I mean you worked for him too sweetheart. What made me the maddest was that there wasn’t even any reason for it. When she left for Wendlyn they weren’t really that upset with each other. Yes he bit like her heritage and she hated him for what happened to Nehemia but they seemed to end it on terms where yes they have issues but when she came back I would have expected a little run to each other in a field of flowers with that one music that is always in that scene. I did not think what happened constituted utter hatred. There was nothing to even hate. Chaol doesn’t seem like he knows why he is mad. He goes under the pretense that she is a monster and that while she was off “flaunting” that she was Aelin in Wendlyn, he was working his butt off with the rebels. For one she sent her there to try and save her, two he hardly got any work done himself so…Also, I don’t know what aelin is mad about. From where she stands at the beginning she knows nothing of Dorian or Chaol to even hate him for doing anything. She just acts mad about nothing. Also, I would have loved to see some love triangle action going on but sadly that didn’t happen. I also thought Nesyrn was kind of an excuse to not have it which not saying I don’t want Chaol to be unhappy but I did wish to see a little more of the old feelings the two used to have. Also, the way she wrote Chaol completely unlike his character and when did Nesyrn even come in like I feel I would have been more okay with her if she had come into his life during Heir of Fire and they had grown close but she was just a random girl. They said she was from his past but that was coming from the guy who was blushing when the girls waited outside in the mornings to see him. Chaol Westfall deserves better than this. (I still support Rowaelin though but she could have played more with the Chaolaena plot more)

Aelin was amazing. I want to be mad at Maas for taking away my Celaena but I really can’t be. I read other reviews and they said they took Celaena away but really I feel like she is exactly the same if not stronger. I don’t think Aelin could do away with her completely I mean she spent ten years of her life disguised as she and she have been trained to be her. I really like Aelin during this story. I did think that her swooning over Rowan was a little unlike her but I mean you can’t blame a girl for loving someone like you have to let her live for liking a boy. She is only 19 like she still got hormones and stuff. I am wondering what Maas is gonna do about the whole Rowan-is-immortal-Aelin-is-not or if she will even address it which will be a major plot hole if she doesn’t, just saying. I know people hated Aelin because she doesn’t go to save Dorian or she doesn’t do things that make her seem queenly which may I remind you that she does think about Dorian a lot but he is not of total concern because she doesn’t know what to do about him because of Chaol forbidding her to kill him and she wasn’t raised to be a queen she was raised to be an assassin so…Aelin I am here to support you because I like you. I like you almost as much as I like Celaena. I do have to agree that Celaena and Aelin are completely different characters.

I am gonna stop bashing the book for a bit and talk about the plot because I haven’t talked about it yet. I thank Sarah for making this book wonderful and for giving a thrilling last 300 pages. The first 300 pages needed work see above but if you look past all the issues above then it was good. I am glad she tied all the characters together. I was so scared she wasn’t going to add then we would just have all these loose ends. As always in her book the first half of the book is slow paced and you can usually get pretty bored pretty early but then halfway through the real action kicks in and BAM all this action gets thrown at you and if you’re like me you marathon 300 pages in the middle of the night. I almost cried a few times near the end due to either relief, sadness, sweetness, and happiness. I think the end of the book was good. It wasn’t a jaw-dropping ending like I was hoping for but that was alright because the book did leave the story open for the next book (sidenote I don’t know when I will get around to the next book because I want to get a dent in my TBR list).

Okay, I am going back to talk about characters. I have already discussed Aelin so I won’t talk about her but let me talk about the others. First up is Rowan. He is a hunk okay I am saying it and he is like every man you could dream of. He is big, strong, sweetheart, in love with Aelin, and is a magical Fae prince. How could you not like him? I see why people hold a grudge against him because he ruins Chaol’s chance with Aelin but really people get over it. You knew that was over the moment he walked into Aelin’s life and I didn’t see you complaining about him in Heir of Fire. I am excited to see where he takes the story. I like him a lot because he is predictable but also mysterious. I don’t really know what I mean about that but it is a good thing. He just makes me happy that he is there for Aelin.

Chaol Westfall did not deserve what came to him all throughout the book. I know he made some mistakes but I jeez give the guy a break. He already lost Aelin because of his mistake but now he has to get hit after hit about it. I find him so sweet and so caring because he cares so much about Dorian and all her wants to do is save Dorian. I don’t know what else to say about him because I already ranted up above about him so…

Manon Blackbeak story made me mad this time around. I don’t think she gets that many times on the playing field. I wasn’t really that happy that I didn’t get to see more action between her and the Thirteen. I felt like she was just there to be there. The spotlight was more around Elide a new character in the series. I felt like Manon didn’t have too much real importance until about the middle of the novel and then that was it. I think she did learn a lot and had a lot of growth throughout the story.

Now to Elide which is a girl whose father I think was on the court of Terrasen. I don’t want to spoil anything for her so I won’t talk about her with specific details. I found her to be a really nice character. At first, I was confused if she was acting nervous or she really was. I think as her story progressed Maas decided to drop it. I am glad she was in the story. I didn’t see her significance, like all impacting significance, until the end, not to say she wasn’t important but she didn’t seem as important as I thought she would be. I probably thought that because all I wanted to hear was Manon’s story instead of hers.

Sweet Dorian oh sweet sweet Dorian. You don’t hear much from Dorian when it is his chapter you get maybe a page sometimes two but not much. He isn’t given much spotlight because (SPOILER ALERT IF YOU AINT READ HEIR OF FIRE OR THE OTHERS I GUESS) of the collar around his neck which holds a Valg prince in. The thoughts we do get from him are just short ones illustrating his struggle with the demon inside him and I feel like he wasn’t too necessary to hear from but I feel that Maas didn’t want to leave out. And it is good to hear what is going on inside the castle and to see what having a demon inside you feels like.

Lastly, I guess I should include Nesryn. We don’t get her narration but now that she has taken Chaol’s heart which that a bit of a spoiler but hey I knew if from the moment I started reading the book. She kind of just follow Chaol around the place and she doesn’t really do much. Not to say she isn’t a strong female character just in book terms she doesn’t do much to affect the plot. She is just there to give Chaol an excuse to get over Aelin. I feel like she was suddenly put in there randomly just to close up his love story. I think if she wanted to make readers happier she would have started making her evident in Heir of Fire or slowly brought her into the story not just make her Chaol’s sidekick in the short break of time between stories. I mean really how do you just decide to trust someone like he does when he meets her. I mean he only had a week or two to bond with her but that doesn’t seem like enough time to gain anyone’s trust especially Chaol’s trust. She wasn’t introduced to the story until this book and as I said to make her less random and more believable Maas should have put her in Heir of Fire somewhere even if it was just for a little while.

Anyways, I think that is all for characters and now onto romance. I know I have already talked about that a lot, like a lot, a lot. But I need to talk about it some more because this book’s major flaw is with the couples. I mean Rowan and Aelin are perfect like they are the dream couple (sorta) and Chaol and Nesryn are cute too but they only really are out in the end. I don’t really have much to talk about really. I just love romance and talking about book characters in love so her goes nothing. Rowan and Aelin are the best. I do still in the deep down parts of my soul believe Chaol and Aelin should still be together but I know that with Rowan and Nesryn in the picture it will never happen which is good. Chaol didn’t love certain parts of Celaena/Aelin and as people said multiple times: he couldn’t choose which parts to love and which parts to love. I think Nesryn is a better fit for him because she is more Chaol’s type. She isn’t his mortal enemy or a “creature” (if that is the right word for what Aelin is). She is just a warrior type of girl and I think that is what Chaol wants. Rowan and Aelin are beautiful together. I don’t know how they are gonna work out in the long run. He is a LOT older than her but we will see how that plays out eventually ~maybe~.

This ends my blog. I have written this and there are about 2500 words on this page which are flipping awesome so if you stuck around to read this then you’re awesome. Thank you so much for reading this blog. Go check out this book and this series because this lady named Sarah J Maas writes amazingly. Now I am going to die in a hole because I don’t know when I will get my hands on Empire of Storms. I hope you all have a good day and a great weekend.

Star Rating: 4.5 (would have 5 if Chaol wouldnt have been so attacked)

Have you read this before? What was your favorite part? If you said no, what are you waiting for? Have I influnced you into reading this book? Please comment down below.