She is the greatest assassin her world has ever known. But where will her conscience, and her heart, lead her? After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice. Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she willing to fight for? Summary from Amazon Next up in Talia Talks... A review of Crown of Midnight, by Sarah J. Maas, published in 2013 by Bloomsbury. This is the second book in the Throne of Glass series. Crown of Midnight was such a thrilling and exciting ride. I was gripping the edge of my seat the entire time to the point where I read it in one go. I literally could not put the book down. I thought that Throne of Glass had set a high bar and that it was going to be hard to overcome that, but Sarah has just proven her amazing writing skills to be over the top. Crown of Midnight was even more thrilling than Throne of Glass and deepened the plot even further for the next book. The world building just added on and used everything from the previous book to it's full extent. The mysteries continue adding up in this novel, but enough are solved that it's almost impossible to end up frustrated--instead, it leaves you wanting the next book. We only meet a few new characters, but these characters all have a depth that's rare to find in a second novel. We also find that Sarah has fun breaking her characters. After all, to make a character, first you have to break them (even though it breaks the readers hearts as well). If you haven't read Throne of Glass, then I highly recommend reading that! Crown of Midnight lives up to expectations, if not more. That's all for the non-spoliery part (well as non-spoilery as you can get for a second book in a series)! Continue reading if you want to discuss with me! Spoilers below! OH MY GOSH. I am still stunned after reading CoM and I've already gone through it a few times. It's amazing how these books continue to keep me so ensnared, even after multiple rereadings. Sarah really has a way with words and this series just continues to grow better by each book. I have to say, I love it when authors can kill off characters and make it work. I mean we have authors who kill off characters for the heck of it, others who "kill" them off, only to bring them back to life, and then we have authors who kill for a purpose. They kill that one character and it spurs the entire book, turning it into a monster. It's quite incredible and that's really what Sarah has done here. Nehemia's death was expected, but the manner in which it was conducted wasn't (at least for me). I was super surprised when Nehemia had been talking with Elena about Celaena and Dorian. What did she mean by the prince wasn't ready yet? If the circumstances had been right, would Dorian have been the one to break? It's actually very intriguing and really leaves the plot open for tons of theories on what can happen next. The pure, cold rage that Celaena dropped into after Nehemia's death, actually managed to give me the shivers. We really get to see the darkness that she tries to contain and it's fabulous--Celaena has so much character development and it's a reader's dream come true. I also really loved how she made an oath at the end and it broke my heart completely at how broken and lost Celaena was. I was also quite surprised by Archer. I hadn't really considered him much of a threat, but towards the end when he started speaking of Nehemia and their plans, and then how he had planted the seeds of distrust between Celaena and her friends... woah. I had simply deemed him to be a pretty boy--not this crazy man who wished for power. To say the least, Celaena killing Archer was great. I also absolutely loved the wicked and evil grins Celaena was shoving at the King while handing over Archer's dead body/Grave's head. I mean yeah, our main character might be spiraling into the depths of insanity (just a little) but hey, she's convincing the King pretty dang well. I really enjoyed seeing the shifts of her character as time went on. And Chaol. Chaol, Chaol, Chaol. I like his character, and while I don't hate him, I don't love him. His actions made me face palm a lot, but I could understand his reasoning behind it (goodness I hate it when that happens--conflicting emotions ew). His relationship with Celaena... well I can say I was happy when she almost killed him. Oops. Although yes, I'm glad she didn't. The rift that has now formed between Chaol and Dorian is actually really interesting in my opinion and I'm excited to see how that's going to play out in the next book and what problems it's going to cause :D Dorian. DorIAN CHILD I felt so bad for him in this book. He was still utterly in love with Celaena and he had to go through all that pain every time and wow that hurt my heart. AND DORIAN HAS MAGIC. HE HAS MAGIC AND IT'S RAW MAGIC AND OHMYGOD what is the King going to do when he finds out? Because we all know he's going to find out--Dorian doesn't seem to be able to control it that well and if Chaol's not there because he's left because of that stupid promise to his dad and then Dorian's alone and the King pisses him off and nOOOOO. I refuse to think about this. No. BUT GUYS CELAENA IS AELIN AND THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. It was obvious (to me) that Celaena was Aelin, once we started to learn about Aelin, but what intrigues me is her past. I really hope we get more insight on what happened the day her parents were slaughtered (although I'm sure my heart will break when I read it). I find it so realistic that Celaena has really pushed Aelin away and has tried to become a person so different that she's not actually Aelin anymore, just so she can run away. She's pushed down the part she doesn't want to think about and it's just so realistic that people can totally understand it. I also love that she's part Fae. It really gives off yet another side to Celaena and we clearly see her fear at this other half of her. Hopefully she can learn how to adapt to this other part of her as well. I'm also interested in if Arobynn Hamel actually knew who Celaena was the entire time. I bet he did. Hmm... more mysteries pop up in each book. I totally look forward to Celaena returning as Aelin and taking her throne back. I mean hello, badass assassin fae queen--how could it get any better? And that ending!!!! I'm actually super excited to start rereading the third book because I actually don't remember how Celaena deals with the problem of having to kill the royal family over in Wendlyn and man I don't know how that's going to work out. Celaena has obviously convinced the King that she'll do it. I don't think she's going to be able to fake their deaths like she did with the others though. Interesting, interesting. Super psyched to go and reread Heir of Fire now! What parts of Crown of Midnight did you like/not like? How did you react to Nehemia's death? Or Celaena's heritage? Leave a comment below and discuss!
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