Book: Crown of Midnight (Book#2 of Throne of Glass series)
Author: Sarah J. Mass
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
My Review:
This review was long due. I finished this book last month but could not bring myself to review it earlier. I think, after reading Throne of Glass, readers are going to be blown away by Crown of Midnight. I was fairly disappointed by the previous book, granted that a highly notorious assassin was wearing Cinderella dresses, going to balls, flirting with prince etc. It did not very much feel like reading about an assassin though. Crown of Midnight made me fall in love with Celaena Sardothian. Mass made her look like, and feel like, a world notorious assassin as she ought to be.
Story:
The story carries on where it ended in the previous book. Celaena Sardothian who became King’s Champion in the previous book is now supposed to be doing King’s dirty work and killing some innocent people the King detested. But she could not bring herself to murder them, and would secretly arrange for their escape and lie to King about their murder. Her life was going great; Nehemiah’s friendship, Chaol’s love, and all the luxuries of life that she could ask for, she got all of these comforts of life. But sometimes good things stay for only a short while before disappearing forever. Her destiny was so much more than she would have expected.
Characters:
Sarah J. Mass gave the readers everything about the characters that she could not in the previous book. The character development of Celaena Sardothian was incredibly brilliant. We, readers, might not have liked her in the previous book, but we started loving her with all our heart in this book. Previously she was portrayed as sweet, vulnerable, easy to fall in love, and kinda stupid and shallow girl, but all the traces of shallowness was erased from her character in this book. She came out as badass bitch who could kill with one slight movement of her wrist, extremely strong, deadly, and ferocious assassin who, in fact, is also capable of loving her friends, and is empathetic and good at heart. One dimensional characters of the previous book are transformed in multi-dimensional ones as Mass made them explore more deeply. Same could also be said about Dorian and Nehemiah as both of them are my favorite characters of Crown of Midnight. I hated Chaol though, he loved Celaena a lot but his actions made it look like he would always put his duty to the King first and he also seemed kind of shallow.
On the whole, I really loved this book. I feel like the series is going to open a lot more directions to this story and it made me impatient to wait. I really want to read more about Celaena and Dorian as I don’t care much about Chaol. Everything that the previous book lacked is included in this one. It is emotional, lot more complicated (in a good way), inordinately captivating, and entertaining piece of work. Highly recommended!
My Favorite Lines:
“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.”
“The best lies were always mixed with truth.”
“Some things you hear with your ears. Others, you hear with your heart.”
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