Crown of Midnight

After reading Throne of Glass and being completely enthralled by the plot and feeling diminished as a result of the love triangle, I have to say this book was an extensive amount better than the first one. I had picked up the book from the library and I vowed to myself, once I've read the whole entire series, whichever one I liked best, I would actually spend a full £8.00 to buy it. After finishing Crown of Midnight, I didn't even bother to read Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows, I straight up purchased this one, because it was soooooooooo good.

Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become the King's champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilently; she knows that the man she serves in bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realises she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above question her allegiances - not the Crown Prince, Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie...and whom she is ultimately fighting for.

This book was a favourite of mine, mainly due to the whole Chaol and Celaena relationship finally unfolding. From the last book, my heart was hurting when he saw Celaena dancing with Dorian, but in this book, it was Dorian's turn to watch Celaena and Chaol dance in a much better and meaningful waltz. And the last book where Chaol was staring at Celaena and seeing her blush, but her thoughts were not of him, killed me. But Crown of Midnight certainly brought me back to life. Then I died again. But by the end, I was just managing to put the pieces back together, but I am not whole yet. Far from it. I'm only just starting with the pieces again.

In terms of the main plot, the whole plot twist at the end where Celaena is Fae and lost heir of Terrasen, that really hit home. When Chaol sunk to his knees when discovering, and Celaena told him he would hate her when he'd figured it out made me cringe. The plot twist was magnificent and was far from what I was expecting. When I found out the Dorian had magic, I wasn't so surprised - not because I'm a genius who can predict the future - but because I didn't know it was such a crime for him to have magical powers. I knew it was a crime that the King made magic unlawful for everyone but like I said in my Throne of Glass review, I paid more attention to the romance, so the whole family ties, forbidden magic was lost on me in the second book. But I did understand it, and how it was outlawed by the King. So it did shock me to some extent. And then the business with the killings that Celaena was not carrying out. I never trusted Archer from the beginning and he turned out to be a little shit, just as I predicted. And Nehemia's death. I just remembered about it - my lack of memory goes to show you how much I cared about her. I really didn't. Her character development was not enough that I cared deeply. I wished that she never died though. If she hadn't died then Nehemia would protect Celaena all through her journey and it would mean that Chaol and Celaena's relationship could have still been steady. The business with the Wrydkeys and how the King has one of them is very promising for the 3rd book. No doubt Celaena or Chaol will go looking for them. I like that kind of journey. But Celaena is off to Wendlyn, to kill off the people the King ordered. So I don't know how that will go down.

I've heard people mention this Rowen character and if Sarah J. Maas has added another love interest, that is plain stupid. For the first two books, people have been routing for Chaol or Dorian (CHAOL IS END GAME), but adding another one will just anger us fangirl. We've stuck with Chaol and Dorian, we've grown to love them as characters, and we want Celaena to end up with one of them, so adding another love interest in pointless because I already hate Rowen for getting involved. Of course, I'm not entirely sure if he is romantically involved with Celaena, but if he is, so help me, I will riot. Another thing that scares me is that there will be no Chaol's POV in this next book, I fear for my man's life, but I doubt it considering he's a major character. Talking about love interest, the tables really turned in this one for Celaena. There was much more of Chaol and Celaena and I loved it!!! They were my ship. The first half of the novel was me getting these feelings in the pit of my stomach, like a balloon growing inside me and lifting me. Until the second half, the balloon popped and gravity mocked me. My favourite part was the night of Chaol's birthday where Celaena took him to the rooftop garden and they stood staring out. They were talking about how Celaena betrayed the King and she mentioned she would leave and find a place far away. And when Chaol replied with "We'll find that place then" my heart gave the fuck up. I was screaming with delight. Then he kissed her, omg, that was heaven. Celaena herself said "the kiss obliterated her" and I feel ya gurrll. I obliterated me even more. The kiss is what I was waiting for throughout the book. They had spent so much time together, that it was inevitable. And I reached to the point of the book, where the kiss should have happened already, and when it did, the noise that came out of me was not human. And that is when I thought it would stop. Just a kiss and nothing more. But it moved up to a whole other level that I was FAR FROM expecting. They ended up sleeping together, getting naked and actually doing IT. It surprised me so much that I genuinely almost fainted. (GENUINELY) I definitely remember collapsing on my bed when I read that part, the "skin against skin" part. And when I found out she was a virgin, that it was her first time, I couldn't stop breathing. I went back to read the part where she said "she'd waited once - waited with Sam, but it had been too late" - so it was CHAOL she lost her virginity to. He's the one that took it, and they didn't stop doing it. The best part came when they sneaked into the broom cupboard because Chaol had a meeting in 20 minutes, that was exhilarating. I read "he wedged a broom under the handle" and I was sweating, more than Celaena probably did when she was...uh....you know - with Chaol. But the second part of the book had to happen, and Celaena was about to kill Chaol for being so discreet about the potential threat to Nehemia's life that killed her (which the anonymous threat belonged to that dickhead Archer who kidnapped Chaol and fucked their relationship) She clawed at him and left a scar on his face. She shut him out and it hurt. And when Celaena left him her will, and she said "at least you'll have something to fall back on" and Chaol went away and started sobbing in the broom cupboard, my heart shattered like it never did before.

Let me tell you about the day I read that. I had come home, crying about how I did so bad in my English paper because I got a D and I was already quite sad that day. I read that part, "sobbing in the broom cupboard" and I went into a full depressed state for 2-3 days straight. If you think I'm exaggerating, then you are clearly underestimating the level of love I have for Chaol. I never felt that way in an every day life situation. In a real situation. I had never been depressed before. But those 2-3 days, I experienced it first hand. I didn't take a shower, I laid in bed crying, imagining my own version of events. I never thought my first wave of despondency and downright depression would be from a fictional book, based on a fictional character. My heart broke along with Chaol's. He is eerily a part of me, and I will never shake that character out of me. I don't want to. But the inner turmoil he faces, I face it too and it hurts. I wouldn't write a full paragraph on it if it were not true.

But by the end, I started picking up the broken pieces that Celaena caused as she said to him that "I'd pick you, I'd always pick you." I almost smiled then. And when Chaol said "I love you" that was so unexpected and shocking that I sat there paralised. Overall, the whole Chaol and Celaena ship is sailing some dangerous shores and I see more storms coming.

10/10 - I don't fuck about.