Synopsis:
4 out of 5 stars
Crown of Midnight was definitely an improvement after Throne of Glass. After reading Throne of Glass, which was definitely the tamer of the two, for the first time, I honestly didn't know if I was going to finish the series. But, of course, I picked up Crown of Midnight and I have to say that I loved it! And while CoM was not without its own flaws, I felt like Maas listened and carefully considered the criticism reviewers gave of Throne of Glass.
And boy, did she. I finally got to read about Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan's Assassin in this book. The blood and gore I was so badly anticipating in Throne of Glass, was notably absent. However, Crown of Midnight made up for whatever disappointments I was left with, and then some. The complaining princess Celaena we were introduced to in ToG was gone in CoM, well, mostly.
Let's discuss Celaena's latest beau, Chaol. Like many others, this is one those series' where the protagonist has to be with all possible love interests before they settle with "the one". Even before I read Throne of Glass, I knew Celaena would be with both Dorian and Chaol. She doesn't necessarily have to end up with either, but she had to try, didn't she? Apparently, she also gets with some Fae dude named Rowan, which I assume she'll meet in Wendlyn, hopefully in Heir of Fire.
Anyway, Celaena and Chaol. I was rooting for this relationship to happen since the beginning of ToG. I didn't know exactly when it would happen, I knew it was inevitable. And needless to say, I was ecstatic when it did, and for good reason. Although it was short-lived, I absolutely loved their romance. I feel like they understand each other, they understand that they both have obligations to King and they don't agree with everything that goes on in court and outside for that matter, they know their places. Now that Chaol sees Celaena as her full-fledged assassin self, he feels a little intimidated but respects the fact that she does it (it being, assassinating people she knows almost nothing about) because she has no chose but to do so. He also thinks he understands that the targets are traitors of the crown, so there's that.
The same goes for Dorian. Though, Dorian had problems of his own to deal with. *SPOILER ALERT* As it turns out, Dorian bears the burden of magic. It's a burden because, his father, the King made forbidden the mentioning, handling of, and encounters with magic. We find out in CoM that the King is in possession of three magical items called Wyrdkeys that together, lend the handler the ability to open portals to other worlds. I'm going to go into too much detail, but the King has one of the Wyrdkeys and because of that, he singlehandedly wiped out the mighty kingdom of Terrasen, and destroyed the remaining kingdoms that were of threat.
After Celaena left him, Dorian had time for himself. His character developed a lot in this book, I think. He had time to think about what his father's doing, decide that it's wrong, and vow that he will be a better king. A good king. Dorian started to speak out against his father, rather than keep his thoughts to himself, which I think is great. But I'm a little apprehensive of his cousin, Roland who came from some other country with supposedly "good intentions". I have a feeling he's going to be real trouble for Dorian, even though he supported all of said prince's arguments to the council thus far. I don't know, he gives me the chills. I don't like him.
I'm kind of in a dilemma right now. Aren't protagonists supposed to have their true thoughts, feelings exposed to us? The answer is yes, at least for all the books I've previously read. That was definitely not the case with Celaena. All throughout the book, I felt like she wasn't revealing everything about herself, that she knows things the readers don't know, it was kind of frustrating and weird for me because I'd never read a POV quite so vague. For example, we didn't find out who she really was until the very last page. And it wasn't because she simply didn't know. Celaena just chose not to reveal it until the very end.
But what really broke me was a certain friend's death. I did not see that one coming. I was so sure Celaena and said friend would conquer Adarlan and see all of the kingdoms restored together. I didn't imagine that Celaena would be mourning the person. (I'm not being very helpful with the obvious indistinctiveness, am I?) Great book, will definitely read the next one, as they seem to get better as I go along.
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