Queen of Shadows

Queen of Shadows

Sarah J. Maas

Ehh... I still loved the thrill of the story but I'm not so sure about this one.

SPOILERS BELOW

Main things I liked:

- I loved the introduction to two new female characters, because after Nehemia, Aelin really needs some new friends. Lysandra is the best, seriously love her. She's badass and has secrets of her own as well as a pure heart. Faliq is whatever, she was cool but I wasn't as impressed by her (especially her 'romance' with Chaol).

- Surprisingly, I really liked Aelin & Rowan's relationship in this one. It's pretty slow-burning (for now) and once he opened up and showed that he had feelings, it was good. I also loved Aelin's scheming, especially where Arobynn was concerned. She's really matured and become queenly.

Main things I didn't like:

- CHAOL. WTF ARE YOU DOING. I understand that it's true to his character to be broody, especially since he's pretty much lost everything he loved, but, C'MON MAN. First, he's a total dick to Aelin, then he almost gets everyone killed because he realized he was wrong about Dorian, and his new romance is just non-existent I was not feeling it at all.

- I wasn't a huge fan of the witches and all of that going on in Morath; Abraxos is the best part of that whole thing. I will say if Manon and Dorian get together that would be okay. Even though I don't really like Manon, I thought Asterin was great.

- Dorian. I just don't like him. Never have, never will. Everyone thinks he's so dreamy but I don't get it.

- The whole series, all you want is for the king to die and I felt like the battle was very anti-climactic. And now all of the sudden, there's an even worse villain that's been hiding under their noses the whole time?

I just felt like the characterization was off on this one. Aelin's court are great, I love all of them (except maybe Chaol and Faliq), but everyone else just seemed to be lacking depth. The plot wasn't as great in this one either, so I'm hoping the next will redeem the series for me because it started out so strong! Someone on GR told me to read Assassin's Blade (prequel to ToG) before I read the fifth book Empire of Storms, so I'll be doing that next.