Crown of Midnight – a review

Throne of Glass was a fun book, and I enjoyed it, but Crown of Midnight is a much better sequel and I’m glad I picked it up! Celaena Sardothien, royal assassin, is the King of Adarlan’s deadliest weapon. She must win her freedom through his enemies’ blood – but she cannot bear to kill for the crown. And every death Celaena fakes, every lie she tells, put those she loves at risk.

Sarah J Maas does so much better with Celaena in this book. All the way through the first book we are told that she is an insanely talented assassin, but this doesn’t come across in any way, shape, nor form throughout the book. In other words we’re told not shown. Thankfully, in this book we actually get shown her skills various times and it makes it a lot more believable that she would win the original contest and be known and feared across the city.

One issue that I’ve had with both books so far is that the pacing at the beginning is SO SLOW. I find myself bored so much at the beginning of both books and then by the end I’m enamoured and wanting more! This kinda scares me for Heir of Fire because it’s a much bigger book and I really don’t want to be going through 100/200+ pages of boredom to get to the good bits.

Overall this book has made me want to carry on in the series and for me was so much better than the first book! I just hope that this trend continues!!! Have you read this series? If so tell me what to expect!

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

It took me absolutely forever to read this one, I know I know. But at least I’ve read it now! I hadn’t been expecting to love this, to be honest, it is so hyped on the Bookternet which always makes me wary, and I had also heard a few bad things about rep and character development. However, I definitely want to continue with the series!

It wasn’t a 5* read as there were a couple of problematic aspects and I also didn’t find the writing to be the best (although given Sarah J Maas’ age when writing this I think I can give that a pass as it’s still decent!). I did personally find that there were some points where Celaena’s obliviousness grated a little, as she seemed to not notice the absolute obvious that is staring her in the face. These bits just seemed to be there to further the plot and were not interwoven well enough into the story to not stick out like a sore thumb.

On a more positive note though, I was so engaged and engrossed within this book. I couldn’t put it down and felt so personally invested in Celaena’s story and what was going on! I am definitely planning on continuing on with this series (once I find book #2 in a charity shop!) and I can see myself giving future books a 5/5* review if the writing improves and all my boxes are ticked. Super glad that I finally started this series!!