Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Book: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Read From: 14th March - 16th March 2022

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary (Throne of Glass): Celaena is a notorious assassin and has been locked away in prison for the last year. However, when she is approached by the Crown Prince with an offer to get her out of the prison to sponsor her in an upcoming competition, she is quick to accept. Celaena is then plunged into a competition against her competitors in the infamous Glass Castle, one which she must win in order for her freedom to be granted.

I think I actually preferred this one to Throne of Glass (even though I’ve given both books the same rating)! The plot felt a lot more fast paced with so many things going on, we got to see more of the characters we grew to love in the first book and also explored some more of the magic system within this world which was super interesting.

I actually love Chaol! I loved that the banter between him and Celaena that we saw in the first book continued into Crown of Midnight and there were a lot of moments between them that made me want to get out my annotating supplies and tab this book to death, even though I’m not much of an annotator at all. Much like the first book, there were some characters (both new and existing), that you never know if you can trust, and there will be some revelations and events that will leave you reeling. But that’s all I’m going to say on that... you’ll have to read the series to find out.

I can’t say a great deal more without spoiling anything, so I’ll be keeping my thoughts relatively brief as I work my way through this series so that my reviews can be as spoiler free as possible. The further I get into the 8 books, the less likely that may be, but I will always make it very visible at the beginning of the blog post if there are any potential spoilers within the review. 

Read my review for Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) here.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Book: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Read From: 12th March - 14th March 2022

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: Celaena is a notorious assassin and has been locked away in prison for the last year. However, when she is approached by the Crown Prince with an offer to get her out of the prison to sponsor her in an upcoming competition, she is quick to accept. Celaena is then plunged into a competition against her competitors in the infamous Glass Castle, one which she must win in order for her freedom to be granted.

Maas never frickin misses. I am fully aware that I’m SO late to the hype with this series but I’m pleased to say that I’m finally on the bandwagon. She definitely knows how to write a book with an exciting plot and how to really bring her characters to life.

Talking of characters... whilst the plot was great in this book (I didn’t find myself getting bored once), the characters were what made it. I can’t say that I’m a massive fan of love triangles, I find that one love interest tends to be really likeable and the other is usually lacking, mainly because the author knows that the main character isn’t going to end up with them. But I actually really liked both of the love interests in this book! I thought they were interesting in their own way and it was nice to see how both of their trust with Celaena blossomed after knowing her for a while, despite her reputation. AND THEY READ😳😍 Have to admit though, I’m definitely Team Chaol, sorry Dorian I do love you but you’re a bit too much of a womaniser for me and Celaena’s banter with Chaol was just top notch, particularly as they began to become more comfortable around each other. I’m definitely intrigued to see who she ends up with. 

If I’m being incredibly nit-picky, I would have liked to see a bit more of the Tests that comprised the Champion’s Competition. I really enjoyed reading about the few Tests that were depicted on page and how they tested Celaena in different ways. I also didn’t feel entirely connected to her as a character, but this is to be expected considering it’s an 8 book series and I’ve heard that reading Assassin’s Blade fourth has the most emotional impact - so I’ll be getting her backstory soon enough (and I can’t wait)!

If you’re reading this, I’m sure you don’t need anyone else to recommend this to you. It’s probably been recommended a million times already. I wasn’t expecting this to be a 5 star read, despite the hype I’ve been told that it only gets better as the series goes on and I’m so excited! I just can’t get over the fact that Maas wrote this when she was 16 - context is definitely important because the writing isn’t mind-blowing, but for a debut novel at SIXTEEN intricate writing isn’t necessarily to be expected. I am not ashamed to say I bloody loved this and shall be moving onto Crown of Midnight immediately.