Reviewed by Silvara on
I love the previous books in this series. But I think this one has become the new favorite. We've seen Celaena fresh from the slave mines. We've seen her fighting to become the King's Champion. Fighting not to lose herself completely, and to save her friends. But we haven't seen her as broken and unmasked as we do in this book.
Here, she does a complete 360. From being so broken down and despairing all she wants is to die, to truly living up to the name of the book. Memories that have been alluded to in previous books, but never told play out for us in this one. We get to see what happened after she woke up in her parents bed that morning 10 years ago.
Quite a bit happens that I won't even touch on so as not to give spoilers. But this book was just about perfect. I love Rowan. I can see why so many people ship him and Celaena. And if Chaol doesn't get his head out of his ass and accept every part of Celaena, not just the parts he wants to accept, I'll be perfectly happy if she ends up with Rowan. I don't see that happening since Rowan found his mate and lost her already. But you never know.
Chaol spends a great deal of the book unable to make up his mind and stick to his decisions. He's conflicted about Celaena, because while he loves her, he can't seem to accept certain things about her. Like how 'easily' she kills, or the fact that she is really a Queen. He also has managed to all but sever his friendship with Dorian. The Prince having magic threw him for a loop, and while he says he's keeping his distance so as not to have anything Dorian's father can torture out of him, it does nothing but strain their friendship to nearly the breaking point.
Celaena does a lot of growing in the book. And so does Dorian. He moves on from his infatuation with Celaena, and falls in love with a healer in the palace that we've met in the other books. He turns into a man more worthy of the title of 'King' with every page.
And Rowan? He starts off as a near-silent, intense warrior. He believes Celaena to be a spoiled princess at first, and so he treats her with little to no respect. He expects her to earn her weapons as well as her title. When she lashes out verbally or physically, he easily strikes back. And along the way, they become friends. A closer friendship than she's ever had in some ways.
I also really liked Manon Blackbeak. So much so, that I'm keeping my fingers crossed she ends up supporting Celaena and not Dorian's father. Long shot there I know, but I can hope!
The ending is such that if you don't already own the 4th book, you will want to put off finishing this one until you do. But don't put off reading this one for long, it is AMAZING and you need to have it in your life.
This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 5 September, 2015: Finished reading
- 5 September, 2015: Reviewed