Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)

by Sarah J. Maas

[ladygrey]

A part of me wants to give this 2 stars just out of spite. It's really not that bad of a book. But the things I didn't like, I just so didn't like.

The whole thing with Chaol... it was just so unsubstantiated and so drastic, even though it was a slow burn. I mean the entire last book was all about her and Dorian. And they were cute and fun and flirty and it was obvious Chaol liked her but there was no real inclination that she liked him. Then she ended it with Dorian so abruptly with no good reason at all. I thought this book would be all about the angst and the two guys coming in and out if focus for her. But no, suddenly Chaol is her soulmate and we're told it's been that way all along. But that's the problem - we're told that she's deeply in love with him but I didn't see it. Liking to hang out in his room and going running together doesn't translate into him being the other half of her to me. The character can tell me she's found the other piece of herself all you want, but if you want me to believe it you have to show me why; show me the flirting and the romance; show me her shifting emotions (and admit that they're shifting - they have not been there all along and I have an entire other book to prove it). And in this case you have to work even harder to convince me she's unequivocally in love with him because you have to overcome all the work you put into the last book to get me attached to the other guy. And it wasn't enough. It was never really enough for me to buy it.

All if that might have been easier to manage if I didn't also have issues with Caelena. She goes on these emotional riffs I just can't follow. Not the big stuff but the times in a simple conversation where she reacts out of no where in a way that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the conversation. It's so disjointed. It doesn't help that she's petulant and irrational and then she's also this badass assassin and that's so discordant. The assassin part I get and I like her like that. But then the petulant and irrational just doesn't seem believable as characteristics that fit at all with who she's supposed to be and she spends more time like that which was really annoying.

But I like the guys. Dorian and Chaol are both cool (except the whole stupid letting go thing) and the world is good and the story's actually not bad if you can separate out the annoying parts.

But then the end was lame. I saw the big shocking revelation coming miles ago so it doesn't really end on a cliffhanger so much as it peters out telling me things I already knew as if I should be excited about them.

I know, I'm being unduly harsh. I'm just so bitter about the whole stupid Chaol thing and Caelena spending so much of a good story being a dumbass. But you know I'm still going to read the next one. ETA: Nope. No desire to read the next one or any of this series at all ever again.