Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes 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 questioning 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 willing to fight for.

All the characters have grown so much! They were all kind of stumbling a bit, trying to get a footing in Throne of Glass but it is in Crown of Midnight that everyone stands up tall, firm on their feet.

I truly liked Celaena more in this book that Throne of Glass. It's in crown of Midnight that I get the assassian vibe from her. She is bad-ass and honestly, kinda crazy at times. DEFINITELY NOT COMPLAINING.

Dorian. Oh my cinnamon roll. I ship Dorlaena so hard. I loved Dorian in Throne of Glass and now to see him heartbroken, confused and scared is eating my heart away! But i love how he has grown as a character and truthfully, VERY PROUD OF HIM.

Chaol Westfall sneaked up on me and made me ship Chaolaena too! (Which is crazy because at the end of Throne of glass, I was against any kind of romance brewing between them) Like, I it's not like me you guys. I always have a single ship for a character but I actually did like Chaol and Celaena together. (They were kind of giving me a Rose X Dimitri vibe). But Dorlaena will always be close to heart because it's my first ship in the series.

Nehemia is a key character who sets so many things in motion. I loved her. Smart and bad-ass, she makes quite an impression. SHE IS MY FAVOURITE REBEL AND WILL ALWAYS BE!

Also, special mention. MORT. He's a door knocker with sass. I'd like a Mort please.
Also, Rena Goldsmith. I AM SO PROUD OF HER. A true hero.

SO MUCH HAPPENING!

While the biggest twist of the book wasn't entirely unpredictable, the ending made me pick up book 3 immediately. (I'm reading Queen of Shadows now). So many things happened in Crown of Midnight that made me shake with anger or cry or both. I became emotionally invested in Dorian, Chaol and Nehemia in book one and now I'm paying for it.

We have magic in this book. The magic that was outlawed so long ago. There wasn't much mention of magic in ToG but Crown of Midnight has a strong foothold of magic. I enjoyed learning more about the world. Did I mention I LOVE world-building?

While I'm not a fan of love triangles, I actually didn't mind the one in this book. While yes, the love triangle did break my heart and made me whimper with sadness, I loved the character driven romance in this book. Like I said, I ship both Dorlaena and Chaolaena so this book gave me happiness, sadness and everything in between at the same time. I love it when books play with my feelings.( We readers are weird because we love books that make us cry. Sometimes I wonder how people even put up with us?)

I LOVE the writing. The world building was on point without any kind of info dumps. I enjoyed the dialogues. And the humor and sass had me smiling and laughing so much! So so many lovely quotes. Maas knows how to write in a way that the words go straight to the reader's heart. I liked the writing in ToG too but it has become SO MUCH BETTER in Crown of midnight. And the humor and sass had me smiling and laughing so much!

“I worry because I care. Gods help me, I know I shouldn't, but I do. So I will always tell you to be careful, because I will always care what happens.”

"Because," she whispered, her voice shaking, "you remind me of what the world ought to be. What the world can be.”

"Does your love for yourself know no bounds?"
"Absolutely none.”

- EVERYTHING (almost)

- Nothing at all (Except maybe the loss of certain characters. I wish certain things hadn't happened.)

The book is pretty much flawless. While I am wary of Empire of Storms (Due to certain issues I've heard from people and certain other issues I came to know of when I witnessed a Twitter drama-during which too many spoilers came out and I'm not happy about that-), I LOVED crown of Midnight and yes I will be reading the rest of the series for sure.

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