Review: Crown of Midnight

Crown of Midnight
(Throne of Glass #2)
by Sarah J. Maas
YA Fantasy
August 27th 2013 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens 
(first published August 15th 2013)


Goodreads summary:
An assassin’s loyalties are always in doubt.
But her heart never wavers.


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 most willing to fight for?

  

What I thought:
I don't know if I can, even now, really put into words what I thought of this. It was a crazy, amazing, scary, roller-coaster ride. I went back and forth a little on my rating too. Should I give it 4.5 stars or 5? There are a few things I saw coming and I wanted to yell at the characters to do something, or if they were, to do something differently! There is also some content in this book that isn't up to my clean standards, but then this book was so good. I mean, really good. I loved it, so how could I not rate it high? And those negative comments back a few sentences are all the negative comments I have, so let's move on to the good stuff.

Celaena, Celaena, Celaena. What more can I say? :) I really liked her in the first book. I liked her more in this one. She means business in so many ways. She is trying to protect everyone all at once, except maybe the people she doesn't like. She's trying to protect her friends (both male and female), the people, country, and herself, oh, especially herself emotionally. That heart of hers has been broken so many times already. I won't say how well she does. It's a lot for one girl, even if she's the best assassin there is, to handle.

I also loved the crown prince, Dorian, and the captain of the guard, Chaol. I thought things had been mostly settled, as far as Celaena's love interest went, in the last book. Man, was I wrong. I normally really dislike love triangles, but this one works for me. There are so many layers to these characters. They have their own backgrounds and current situations that influence their perceptions. There are some very serious things that happen in this one that could have been avoided by just little things: communicating something to someone or a simple change of decision. Of course those small choices or missed choices end up having such huge effects.

I still love the setting. This is a fantastic world that Maas has created! The whole idea of a glass castle and the magic that built the land is fabulous. There are so many different peoples involved. You have the different guilds, I guess you could say, such as the one that trained Celaena. Then you have the upper class, the regular people, the witches, the long-gone fae, then other countries and lands. This means there is a lot going on and different plans being carried out simultaneously. Celaena has some things to do in the next book and I am really looking forward to finding out what her experience will be.

If you like books such as Graceling, Poison Study, and the first book in this series (Throne of Glass) then I would definitely recommend reading this!

Content: A few swear words, violence, innuendo, and non-descriptive sexual content.
Source: Bought


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