2.252 The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

SPOILERS

Disclaimer: This review is my personal opinion. I did not like this book, but it is not my intention to hate on anyone who did like this book. I encourage you to read things on your own and have your own feelings about them.

Pages: 410

Time Read: 8 hours and 25 minutes

Overall Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Storyline: ★☆☆☆☆ Dialogue: ★★☆☆☆ Characters: ★☆☆☆☆

Genre: Adult Gothic Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, gore, blood, body horror, self harm, mutilation, religious bigotry, antisemitism, death, animal death, injury, murder, xenophobia, animal cruelty, torture, physical abuse, war, racism, death of a parent, bullying, hate crimes, colonization, child abuse, genocide, grief, emotional abuse, s*xual content, kidnapping, fire, confinement, vomit, classism, abandonment, racial slurs, misogyny, child death, sexism, trafficking, body shaming, toxic relationship, cultural appropriation, toxic friendship

POV: First person

Time Period/Location: The fictional country of Régország; including the village Keszi, the forest of Ezer Szem, the Black Lake, the Little Plain, Kaleva, Lake Taivas, and the capital city of Kirláy Szek.

First Line: The trees have to be tied down by sunset.

Évike has spent her entire life in the pagan village of Keszi, hidden away by the forest of Ezer Szem. Girls in this village are gifted with powers, the ability to forge metal by singing, the ability to make fire, the ability to heal, or, the rarest, the ability to have visions of the future. They wear wolf pelts as cloaks, giving them the title of wolf-girls. Every few years, the Woodsman, loyal servants of King János Bárány of Régország, come and take a wolf-girl to the capital, Kirláy Szek, where they are never heard from again. When Évike was 10, her mother was taken. She was born with no powers, and her father was Yehuli, a race of people that serve as tax collectors for the king. She has spent her entire life with one friend, Boróka, and was raised by the táltos (seer and village leader), Virág. The story begins with her helping the village prepare for the Woodsmans' arrival, and is taunted and teased by a seer girl Katalin and her friends. When they go to see Virág that evening, she has a vision, seeing that the Woodsman are coming to take Katalin. Because she is the only other seer in the village, and she is to replace Virág when she dies, she dyes Évike's hair and makes her pretend to be Katalin. The Woodsman take her and drag her off into the woods. On the way there, one of the Woodsman, Peti, tries to kill her in a religious fervor. The leader of the four Woodsman, one-eyed Gáspár, chops off Peti's arm as punishment. He later dies from infection and blood loss. They make it out of the forest and camp near the Black Lake, where the other two Woodsman are eaten by shapeshifting monsters disguised as black chickens. Gáspár and Évike fight them off, and he reveals that he is the legitimate son and heir of János Bárány. He says that his bastard brother Nándor wants to mess up the line of succession and overthrow their father. He follows the Patrifaith, like most of Régország, but is fervently religious and wants to exile the Yehuli and kill all of the pagans. Régország is also at war with Merzan, a country to the south, and where Gáspár's mother came from. King János wanted a seer so he could use her power to win the war. Gáspár wants to give his father a seer before Saint István's Day to stop Nándor from taking over, but in the fight Évike's hair dye came off and she was revealed for what she was. They make a bargain, that if Évike helps him find the turul, a magic bird that can see past, present, and future, he will let her return to her village.

They begin their journey north to Kaleva, where they believe the turul is. They stop in a village which claims to be plagued by a monster killing people. Gáspár agrees to help them hunt the monster, much to Évike's annoyance. They spend a couple days there and eventually find the remnants of the missing people in the tent of the village leader. Gáspár kills him, and they go on their way again. Gáspár and Évike grow closer the farther they travel north, and eventually reach Lake Taivas and the forest they believe hides the turul. In the Patrifaith, the Woodsman cut off limbs and body parts or cut themselves in order to wield magic. Gáspár's missing eye marks him as a Woodsman, and he cuts himself to light fires. Évike begins to wonder if she could do something similar. The wolf-girls get their magic from Isten, the pagan father god, but she wonders if she perhaps should have been praying to Ördög, the god of the Under-World, this whole time. She cuts off one of her pinky fingers and then sticks her whole hand into the fire and it goes out. They are chased from the forest onto the frozen lake by walking trees, and Évike falls through the ice. Gáspár jumps in to save her, and they both become unconscious on the ice. They wake up in a tree house with a pagan woman named Tuula, and her pet bear Bierdna. They later meet her partner, Szabín, who is a former Patrician. She tells the story of how Nándor grew up with her and he fell through the ice on a lake and froze to death. The Érsek, the archbishop, prayed over him and he came back to life, so he was given sainthood.

Gáspár and Évike try to continue their hunt for the turul, but Tuula and Szabín warn them not to. They realize they don't have enough time, and begin the journey back. Gáspár tries to convince Évike to go back to Keszi, but she refuses, saying she wants to find her father. They encounter several monsters on the way to Kirláy Szek, including a monster disguised as a naked young girl. When the monster dies, an spell makes Gáspár and Évike drawn to each other and they make out in the woods, but when the spell breaks, Gáspár rejects Évike, which hurts her feelings. They arrive in Kirláy Szek on Saint István's Day and Évike tries to find her father Zsigmond. Someone on Yehuli street finally tells her that he is being punished by Nándor for working on a holy day. It is against the Yehuli's religion to touch pig, so they find Nándor making Zsigmond kneel on a dead pig. Évike tries to defend him but is taken to the dungeon. She is then presented before the king, who wears a crown of fingernails all coming from the dead wolf-girls the Woodsman have taken. He is able to wield all of their powers. He tries to get her to demonstrate any of the four abilities but she isn't able to, so he tries to execute her. She brings up her hand to touch his sword and it disintegrates. She makes a deal with the king that she will use her magic to protect him if he promises to leave Keszi and the pagans alone and free her father Zsigmond. He agrees, and she spends a week playing bodyguard for the king while reconnecting with her father and learning how to write and about her Yehuli heritage.

Then Katalin is brought into the capital by Woodsman, and Nándor tries to kill Évike. She escapes, and her, Gáspár, and Katalin flee north to Kavala, using Katalin's seeing ability to find the turul once and for all. When they arrive back at Lake Taivas, they are confronted by Tuula, Szabín, and Bierdna. They all fight, and Évike jumps into the frozen lake once again. She finds herself transported to the top of the turul's tree, and she uses her magic to kill it. When she reaches the bottom, the Woodsman have caught up to them and capture them all. They are taken back to the capital, and the king eats the eyes of the turul, but the power is too strong and he starts to go mad. Nándor kills him then and there, and captures Évike, Gáspár, and Katalin. He kills the Érsek, and says that Katalin and Évike will be executed the next day, and Gáspár will crown him as king. Afterwards he will stab out Gáspár's other eye and exile him. The next day comes, and right before the coronation, Katalin has a vision and says that the pagans have come to attack the city. The Woodsman fight the pagans but lose, and Évike and Gáspár kill Nándor.

Évike goes back to Keszi and agrees to be the ambassador between Keszi and Kirláy Szek.

Évike: This book was nearly impossible to get through due to Évike being the most unbearable main character I've ever had the displeasure of reading about. She is unbelievably horny for Gáspár the entire book with pretty much no basis. She goes from hating him to wanting to have sex with him in no time, and there is really no chemistry or connection between them at all. Évike is a brat, reading as no more than a moody teenager, while in actuality being 25 years old. She is hateful for no reason a lot of the times, and while she definitely has reasons to be angry, she's mostly just a bully. The entire plot revolves around her saving her abusers to prove that they weren't right about her, and then she goes back to them in the end. Pointed out by a reviewer called Nasi on GoodReads, she does not at all act like someone who has been bullied and abused for more than half her life. She doesn't try to avoid situations in which she could be hurt, or have much of any empathy for Gáspár. She finally feels at home and welcomed like she never has before with her father and the Yehuli, and yet she still goes back to Keszi to be with her abusers and that makes literally zero sense to me. Everyone she meets reminds her of either Katalin or Virág to the point of annoyance.

Gáspár Bárány: He had so much potential that was completely wasted throughout this book. He honestly should have been the main character and had everything coming through his POV. He had to go through a lot of complex emotions: betraying his faith, fighting his brother, trying to protect his father even though he hurt him, falling in love with Évike despite the fact that she was completely unlikable, becoming the ruler of a nation overnight. He goes through a lot of growth throughout the book that we don't get to see at all.

Virág and Katalin: Virág whipped Évike almost daily and was cruel to her, and Katalin regularly burned her and called her racial slurs, and yet, with no apology for said behavior, and some half ass excuses from both of them, they get a redemption arc where Évike completely justifies their behavior in her mind and goes back to them, and they start being nicer to her just because she saved them all. Katalin's reason for tormenting her was she was jealous that Virág was nice to her sometimes (even though Virág was nice to Katalin ALL the time and never beat her). Virág's reason for saving Évike from being thrown into the woods after her mother was taken by the Woodsman and tolerating her for 15 years was that she had a vision and knew that Évike would save her life in the battle.

Storyline: The storyline was boring and unpredictable (but not in a good way). The first 50% of the book is Évike and Gáspár wandering around and being bitchy with each other, and while this would have been the perfect opportunity to have the romance build up, it doesn't. If anything it proves how little of a connection is between them besides the fact that Évike is horny and finds him hot. The next half of the book had me wondering the entire time how the book was going to end because I didn't see a way for a good, plausible ending (there wasn't). The real magic of the book was the magic of convenience. Nándor brutally kills the Érsek with magic previously unseen before by the reader, and yet Évike and Gáspár take him out fairly easily in comparison to how powerful this character has been made out to be. We also never get an explanation as to why Nándor IS so powerful. Évike spends half the book wondering about it, and yet the only explanation we get is that it must have been the time he died in the ice. But how did he come back to life? Why did he come back to life? Why did that give him greater powers? What magic was he really using? Ava Reid set up a pretty cool magic system and then gave us nothing with it. We only see Évike's magic a handful of times before she loses it by killing the turul. The Yehuli are shown to have a really cool magic using words that is also barely demonstrated. Tuula's magic, seeming to be a control over animals that the pagans in Kavala, the Juuvi, possess, is underused as well. The happily ever after ending we get where suddenly the Merzani, the Yehuli, the pagans, and the Patricians are suddenly cool with each other despite years and years of hate, violence, and genocide is completely implausible.

Representation: The language and culture were supposed to be based on Hungarian culture, but after reading the comments of a Hungarian reviewer named Brigi on GoodReads, among others, I've learned that the "Hungarian representation" is more like loose cultural and linguistic appropriation at best. The Yehuli were based off the Jewish people. Gáspár is mixed as he is half Merzani and he faces racism from his own people due to this fact. He also is missing an eye. Évike is missing a pinky finger, and the rest of the Woodsman also have missing pieces of their face/body, but all of that is self inflicted. Tuula and Szabín are gay, and it is hinted that Katalin and Boróka might have feelings for each other.

Summary: This book did have the potential. The magic system was unique and intriguing. There was a lot of good commentary on religion and culture. Gáspár could have been a really intriguing character. The gothic horror folklore vibe definitely was there and could have been there better. But all of it was wasted on a horrible attempt at enemies to lovers and nicely wrapped up ending where everyone is happy, the end. Ava Reid definitely knows how to write, and a lot of her prose is beautiful, but it felt like she tried to use her prose to make up for the fact that her story was simply not good. There was an abundance of metaphors and similes, so dense in parts that I had trouble differentiating the descriptive language from what was actually happening. Some of the word usage didn't even make sense. I love the unique names, however, from what I've heard, the pronunciation and spellings weren't even done correctly, and going back and forth from the story to the pronunciation guide constantly was exhausting. There was an overabundance of repeated words, phrases, and information that made everything seem incredibly shallow, and the fact that this was happening in first person narration reflected on Évike and made her even more unlikable and stupid. Also with it being first person, a lot of the flowerly language didn't make sense for who Évike is, especially when you learn 60% of the way into the book that she is illiterate. I really don't know if I'll be picking up anymore books by Ava Reid, and I sadly do not understand the hype here as this was definitely one of the worst books I've read.

Quotes: "I can't even light a match myself, of course, but if the price of Woodsman power is being honor-bound to some morose, pitiless god who demands purity and perfection, I'm not sure it's worth the cost."-Évike (p. 65) "All that talk of quiet obedience is for their benefit, not yours. They don't have to go to the effort of striking you down if you're already on your knees."-Évike (p. 97)

2.195 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

SPOILERS

Pages: 280

Time Read: 3 hours

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★☆☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Middle Grade/YA Fiction

TWs for the book: Death of a parent, death of a grandparent, stillbirth, hysterectomy, medical trauma, grief, car accident, abandonment, death of a grandparent, racial slur, brief discussion of the psych ward, paranoia, blood, ableism, pregnancy; very mild discussion of hanging, murder, kidnapping, and torture

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: The time period is not clear but it takes place mostly in Bybanks, Kentucky; Euclid, Ohio; and then a road trip from Euclid to Lewiston, Idaho

First Line: Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true.

Salamanca, a 13 year old girl and our main character, lived on a farm with her mother and father in Bybanks, Kentucky. After the stillbirth of her sister and a subsequent hysterectomy due to bleeding, Sal's mother leaves to take a bus trip to Lewiston, Idaho to visit her cousin, see the sights, and to ultimately find herself. Sal and her father learn not long later that her mother was involved in a crash and died. Shortly after, Sal's father rented out their farm and moved them to Euclid, Ohio to be closer to her father's friend Mrs. Margaret Cadaver. While there, Sal befriends an anxious girl named Phoebe Winterbottom.

Sal didn't get to see her mother's grave whenever she died, so her Gram and Gramps, her father's parents, take her on a week long road trip to retrace Sugar's last steps and to arrive at her grave in Lewiston on her birthday. While on the drive, she entertains her grandparents with stories about Phoebe and her family. She notices that Phoebe has a lot of wild notions about things and naturally assumes the worst of people. Sal spends a lot of time at her house and notices that Phoebe, her older sister Prudence, and father Mr. Winterbottom, tend to take Mrs. Winterbottom for granted and ignore all of the effort she puts in to her cooking. Sal also learns where Phoebe gets all of her wild ideas from, as her mother is also exceedingly anxious and worried about robbers and "lunatics". One day, while Phoebe and Sal are home alone at Phoebe's house, a nervous young man knocks on the door and asks to see Mrs. Winterbottom. Phoebe says she isn't there. After he leaves, Phoebe starts imagining the young man as some kind of lunatic looking to harm them. The paranoia increases when mysterious blank envelopes begin appearing at their front door step, all with mysterious sayings such as, "Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins" and "In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?".

Phoebe and Sal befriend Mary Lou and her cousin Ben, who lives with her. Ben flirts with Sal, much to her confusion. Phoebe shares with Sal her wild conspiracies about Mrs. Cadaver, and they only grow whenever they see their English teacher Mr. Burbanks at her house helping her to replant a bush. Phoebe tells Sal that Mrs. Cadaver used to be married, but she probably chopped up her husband and buried him under that bush, and Mr. Burbanks helped. Not long later, Mrs. Winterbottom leaves a note that she will be gone for awhile. Sal then has to watch Phoebe go through exactly what she did when her mother left. Phoebe assumes that her mother has been kidnapped, tortured, or murdered by "the lunatic" (the young man that knocked on the door) or Mrs. Cadaver. She puts tape around mysterious spots in the house and collects random hairs as evidence. Her father and sister and Sal all try to explain that her mother wrote notes and left them frozen meals for dinner so surely she wasn't kidnapped, but Phoebe isn't convinced. She goes to the police station, but they laugh at her and don't take her seriously. Her and Sal then break into Mrs. Cadaver's house, and Phoebe tries again to take evidence to the police, but is once again shut down. While there, Sal manages to see that "the lunatic" is the police sergeants' son. At school, Mr. Burbanks causes some drama amongst the students after reading their summer journals aloud to the class. He reads in Phoebe's that she suspects Mrs. Cadaver to be a murderer, so he stops by her house to speak to her and Sal and explain that Mrs. Cadaver is his twin sister, and that her husband died in a drunk driving accident that also blinded their mother, Mrs. Partridge. Sal continues to see herself in Phoebe as the mystery continues, and through some minor sleuthing, they find out where Mike, "the lunatic", lives. They travel by bus to his college, running into Ben on the way to the hospital. They are about to go up to Mike's room, but change their minds, only to see Phoebe's mother sitting with closely with him and giving him a peck on the cheek. Phoebe is angry, and Sal gets scared and runs, assuming Phoebe will follow but she doesn't. She goes to the hospital to find Ben and discovers he is visiting his mother in the psychiatric ward. They kiss for the first time. Phoebe is immensely angry at her mother, and refuses to tell her father what she saw. When they arrive back at her house though, her father informs her that her mother will be coming home and bringing someone to meet them. They prepare, and Mrs. Winterbottom comes home with Mike, and explains that he is her son that she had put up for adoption before she married Mr. Winterbottom. Mr. Winterbottom is distraught she kept this from him but is determined to be civil and make it work. Phoebe is still angry and leaves with Sal, and they find that the mysterious letters have been being left by Mrs. Partridge. Sal finally decides to speak to Mrs. Cadaver about how her and her father met, something Sal had been avoiding. She discovers that Mrs. Cadaver was on the bus sitting next to her mother for the whole trip when it crashed, and she was the only survivor. Her father had met her in Idaho when he was making burial arrangements, and moved him and Sal closer to her so he could have some connection to the last person who saw his wife alive.

During this whole story, Sal is in the car traveling with her Gram and Gramps to Idaho. They stop and see a lot of national monuments and sights. At one point though, while swimming in the river, her Gram is bit by a water moccasin. A boy who had been telling them to leave because it was private property helps to suck the venom out, and they take her to the hospital. She is weak afterwards, and has a cough. By the time they arrive in Idaho at midnight on Sal's mom's birthday, Gram is unconscious and they rush her to the hospital. They say she had a stroke. Gramps gives Sal the keys so she can drive herself to see her mother's grave. The four hour drive is on a dangerous and windy road, and Sal stops for a few breaks. At one of the stops along the side, a passing driver who is also stopped tells her that the bus her mother died in is down in the woods. She goes down and tries to get in it, but can't find a way in. When she comes back up, the police sheriff is there, wondering what she is doing. She explains everything that happened, and they take her and Gramps' car down to where her mother is buried. She is finally able to say goodbye properly and fully accept that her mother isn't coming back. The sheriff then drives her back to the hospital, where she finds a note saying that her Gram has died and that Gramps is back at the motel. They head back to Euclid. In the end, Sal and her father move back to their farm in Bybanks, and Gramps moves in with them. Gram is buried in the field and Mrs. Cadaver, Mrs. Partridge, Ben, and Phoebe all plan to visit them.

Storyline: This middle grade book has been sitting on my shelf since elementary school without me having picked it up. I finally did, and was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful, heart-wrenching narrative. Obviously the dialogue and characters are what you would expect of a middle grade book, but this story about grief and loss and the processing of those feelings was really well done.

Representation: Salamanca and her mother Sugar are described as being "American Indian". They also meet another "American Indian" man along their trip. I put that in quotes because there are multiple passages in the book criticizing the use of the term Native American. There is also the use of the a slur for Native Americans. Sharon Creech, the author, is not Native American herself, and has admitted to romanticizing Indigenous culture. The quote and article below was written by Dr. Debbie Reese, as I am not knowledgable enough or in the position to speak on this subject myself: "[Sharon Creech is] an outsider to Native culture, trying to write a story as if she's an insider. But her story is based on outsider's writings, and outsider's understandings, and it doesn't work... the Indian content doesn't really matter. It is simply a device, or, a decoration on a story about a young girl coming to terms with life and death." https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2010/02/thoughts-on-sharon-creechs-walk-two.html

2.62 A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck

SPOILERS

Pages: 102

Time Read: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: Theological Existential Horror

TWs for the book: Death, violence, su*c*de, murder, torture, injury, body horror, self harm, physical abuse, grief, gore, discussions of SA, blood, religious bigotry/themes, cancer, confinement, kidnapping, alcohol, nondescriptive s*xual content, slavery

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: In the fictional Hell of the Zoroastrian religion.

First Line: Although I have loved many, there has been only one genuine love in my near-eternally stretched life--Rachel who fell to the bottom of the library without me.

The story begins with the ramblings of Soren, the main character of the book. He speculates on his billion year old life living in a near infinite library, while he searches for the book that tells the complete story of his life. He is able to tell of only a few books that have coherent writing, and implies that the book we are reading is one of them. He goes on to tell the story of how he got there. He was a 45 year old Mormon man with a wife and kids who died of a brain tumor and arrived in the office of a demon with two other men and two women. The demon says that this is Hell, and when a Christian man tries to argue that he was saved and believed in the one true religion, the demon informs them that the one true religion was actually Zoroastrianism, and that they will not be tortured physically or remain in Hell forever. He then sends them to their individual punishments. Soren arrives in a seemingly endless hall in a library. The top and bottom floors are so high up they are invisible, and when looking down the hall to the right or left, he can't see the end either. He discovers a room with beds and a bathroom, and a kiosk that will dispense whatever food or drink is desired. The instructions are simple: find the book that contains your life story, with no errors, grammatical or otherwise, and place it into the kiosk slot, and you will be taken to heaven. There is a clock on the wall noting the time and how many days its been.

Soren quickly makes friends and they shuffle through the books, realizing quickly that most of them are entirely gibberish, with hardly even a complete word being found in a single book. Soren struggles to come to terms with his Mormon faith being disproved, and has his first cup of coffee. When the others start drinking alcohol though, he runs away, and tries to get to the end of one of the hallways. He runs for around three weeks before turning and going back. He also realizes that all of the characters and symbols of the books are in English, and that there are only white people from America who died between the mid 1900s and 2043. He ends up getting with a woman named Betty for two years before moving on.

100 years later, he is with a girl named Sandra. They are part of a "university" dedicated to finding the books. Every year they have a ceremony where they read the best text found so far, which that year is simply one sentence in a book that reads, "The bat housed again four leaves of it." They also pray to the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. After the ceremony, Soren speaks with Rachel, the one who read the text, and they have a deep conversation speculating about their situation. She then tells him of the expedition that she went on in year 58 to discover the ends of the library. A group went up, down, right, and left. She was a part of the left group, and they found nothing but more books, and they stopped seeing any other people after a year. After five years, they turned around and went back. The up group traveled for 23 years before turning back, and one member of their group stayed behind to continue climbing upward. Soren dumped Sandra for Rachel, and they are together for a 1000 years.

In their 1145th year in Hell, an extremist named Dire Dan claimed to have a vision from Ahura Mazda saying that he needed to punish people. He formed a cult that ran around the library, killing, torturing, and r*ping people, as he thought it would bring them out of the library sooner. The peace falls apart, and Rachel and Soren run away. They are caught by the cult members, called the Direites, but before they can grab Rachel she throws herself over the railing into the infinite pit in the center of the library. Soren tries to run as well, but is captured and knocked unconscious. For 36 days, he is held captive and killed six seconds after waking every day. He finally manages to roll away from the blow one morning, and they take him to a meeting. They say he can either be a tortured slave or he can take up torturing himself. Soren sees Dire Dan and shoves him over the railing, jumping with him. They both fall for days, Soren eventually losing sight of Dire Dan and dying of thirst. He wakes up and eventually learns to control his falling and swerve onto a floor, breaking his arms, legs, and neck in the process. A man comes by and offers to kill him, which Soren accepts. He wakes up the next day alone, and stays there for awhile before the man comes back. He has found a book with several complete senses, although they don't make much sense. Soren then continues upwards, and finds a man who had been crying. He doesn't engage with Soren at all, so he continues upwards and finds a group of people also crying. They tell him to continue up 17 levels and he'll find Took, and get the answer. Soren finds Took, and he explains that he did the math to calculate how many books are in the library: 95^1,312,000. When Soren asks if that's a lot, Took explains that there are only 10^78 electrons in the universe.

Soren wanders, distraught and empty for days. He falls for weeks and years as well. One day, while wandering on one of the floors, he sees someone fall past him. He jumps and grabs her, tying them together so they fall together. When she wakes up, she tells him her name is Wand, and they are intimate with each other. They figure out a way to swing Wand onto a floor, and then three days later, after repeated deaths, Soren manages to stop falling. He runs up the stairs, but never finds her. The book ends with Soren billions of years old, still searching for his book, utterly numb and broken.

Storyline: This was a very unique take on the afterlife and religion overall. It was a nice, quick, entertaining read. I went into this expecting more of a point to be made about humanity or religion, or for their to be some divine clarity or revelation at the end, but that's not what this book was. It was definitely more of a horror for me. The existential dread of it all was what really made it compelling. I wish there had been more elaboration on some things, but I do think the point of it was to not have that kind of clarification, so that might just bug me personally.

Quotes: "Strange, how a moment of existence can cut so deeply into our being that while ages pass unnoticed, a brief love can structure and define the very topology of our consciousness ever after."-Soren (p.1) "No. Sorry. The true religion is Zoroastrianism, I'm afraid. Bit of bad luck there. Christianity certainly borrowed a great deal from the one true religion, but not enough, unfortunately. Not nearly enough."-Xandern (p.7) "What kind of God would leave you burning forever?"-Xandern (p.8)

1.72.8 Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 980

Time Read: 16 hours and 44 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Torture, war, death, violence, blood, injury, grief, confinement, murder, gore, fire, death of a parent, s*xual content, kidnapping, physical abuse, emotional abuse, pregnancy, su*c*de/su*c*dal thoughts/attempts, gaslighting, animal death, body horror, panic attacks, slavery, cursing, vomit, medical content, mental illness, abandonment, genocide, self harm, SA, colonization, classism, ableism

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: 2 months after the events of Empire of Storms/Tower of Dawn in Terrasen, Adarlan, and Wendlyn.

First Line: The snows had come early.

Aedion and Lysandra have gone north to Terrasen with their allies. Lysandra is still pretending to be Aelin and Aedion is still refusing to speak with her.

Rowan has been searching for Aelin for months with Gavriel, Elide, and Lorcan. They go through Wendlyn, occasionally interrogating some of Maeve's higher officials. Aelin is being held prisoner in an iron coffin by Maeve and is being tortured by her and Cairn to force her to take the blood oath and tell Maeve the location of the Wyrdkeys. Fenrys is forced to remain in wolf form and watch Aelin suffer.

Dorian, Manon, and the Thirteen are on the hunt for the third Wyrdkey, but give up when it proves fruitless to start hunting down the Crochan witches. Dorian summons Gavin's ghost, and makes plans to leave the group in order to infiltrate Morath. Right when the witches and Dorian are about to leave camp, they are attacked by a shapeshifting stygian spider who wants Manon dead for stealing her spidersilk. The spider, who names herself Cyrene, is the same one that took Falkan's youth, and she also took some of his magic as well. Dorian captures her with his magic, and she tells them that if she leaves them alive she will guide them to the location of the Crochans. Dorian agrees despite Manon's hesitation because he wants to learn how to shapeshift.

Aelin is brought to Maeve's throne room, having been being kept in Doranelle this whole time. She makes Aelin kneel on glass with Mab's crown on her head and tries to force her to submit. She then tells Connall to tell Fenrys how he feels. Connall is angry with Fenrys and speaks harshly to him, and then kills himself with a dagger to the heart on Maeve's command.

Chaol and the khaganate's forces sail for Terrasen, but Sartaq reveals that there is a Valg army marching for Anielle, Chaol's home. They decide to send their forces to prepare Anielle for siege and to try and defeat the army.

Rowan, Elide, Lorcan, and Gavriel decide to head east to try and find Aelin, but they feel a surge of her power from the north and head for Doranelle.

Dorian, Manon, and the Thirteen follow Cyrene to the Crochan camp. They meet Glennis, Manon's great-grandmother on her father's side. They are not very welcomed except by Glennis, which makes Manon's task of recruiting them for the war all the more difficult. They are attacked by Yellowlegs witches that Manon lured there, and the Crochans and Thirteen fight against them. Fighting against the other Ironteeth gains them some acceptance, but not much, as some of the Crochans rightly suspect that Manon lured them there. Glennis tells Manon the Crochans only go to war when their queen calls them to war, and she must be accepted first. Dorian tries to learn shapeshifting from Cyrene, and he discovers that the spiders are Valg. He then kills her.

Darrow commands Aedion and Lysandra (as Aelin) to take their forces north to Orynth, but Aedion refuses and has Nox Owen, Darrow's messenger and also the thief Aelin was friends with in Throne of Glass, drug the lords so they can sneak south to defend the border.

Aelin spins illusions and dreams for Aelin to try and trick her into swearing the blood oath and telling her about they keys. She tells Aelin her story of being a Valg queen without saying outright that she is Valg. Aelin refuses to tell her and the illusion breaks. Maeve tells Aelin she will be gone for a few days to retrieve a Wyrdstone collar so she can finally control break her. Cairn moves her to a different location. Rowan and Elide actually spread the rumor of the collars to get Maeve away from Doranelle. After seeing Maeve's army camped outside of the city, Elide decides to go into the city itself asking after Cairn to see if she can find his location. She goes up to a group of soldiers talking with a beautiful Fae lady and begins to ask them about Cairn. They advise her against seeking him out, and reveal to her that Maeve has left Doranelle. The beautiful Fae finds Elide afterwards and says her name is Essar and she is Lorcan's ex girlfriend. She says she knows by her clothes that she is with Rowan and Lorcan and figures out that they are hunting for Aelin. She tells Elide that Cairn is in the eastern camp, and her and her sister give Elide information so that way they can get in. Cairn plans to burn Aelin as his torture method for the day. Aelin begins taunting him, and he unlocks her from the table and holds her over a fire. She fights back, and Cairn is close to killing her, so Fenrys breaks the blood oath and attacks Cairn. Aelin runs through the camp in the direction of Gavriel and Lorcan. They signal to Rowan, who is killing his way through the soldiers, that they found her, but Aelin begs Rowan and Gavriel to go and save Fenrys from Cairn. They find Fenrys and Cairn both unconscious, and Rowan chains Cairn to the table and peels off his skin before killing him. They meet up in the forest with Lorcan, Elide, and Aelin. Aelin has a panic attack when the iron chains, mask, and gauntlets won't come off, but they manage to get them off with Wyrdmarks. She then goes to Fenrys, who is dying from breaking the blood oath with Maeve, and she offers him the blood oath, which saves his life. They all notice that Aelin is now completely without scars, as she was tortured so much in so many places the healers essentially had to give her completely new skin. The Little Folk appear and guide them into a cave for the night, stocked with bedrolls and some food. Aelin lays down next to Fenrys and goes to sleep.

Manon, Dorian, the Thirteen, and the Crochans fly to Eyllwe to help other Crochans that were fighting against Valg. They were too late to help because they were delayed by Manon's arrival and the attack. Manon and the Thirteen hand dig their graves, and they earn some respect from the Crochans for this. Manon then catches Dorian speaking with Kaltain's ghost as he makes his plans for breaking into Morath. They fight over him not telling her.

Aedion and his armies fight are slowly driven back from the border by Morath's forces. They plan to retreat north to Perranth, and his soldiers begin to lose moral from "Aelin" not using her fire magic to help them. Aedion and Lysandra have a vicious argument, and he kicks her out of his tent into the snow, naked.

Aelin wakes up in the cave with her companions. She goes up to Rowan and they go to the underground lake to talk. She goes into the freezing water to let the edge off of her pent up magic and they talk. She doesn't believe that anything is real until the Little Folk told her it was. A boat appears, pulled by creatures under the water, and the Little Folk instruct them to get on the boat and it will take them to the coast because it isn't safe above ground. They also give Aelin Mab's crown. The boat pulls them for several days but they stop at an underground burial sight in order to loot gold to pay for their ship back to the west. Aelin finds wedding rings for her and Rowan. They get back on the boat and make it to the coast, immediately sailing west. Aelin makes Lorcan swear the blood oath to ensure his loyalty.

Dorian shapeshifts into a Valg to sneak into the Ferian Gap for Manon. He finds that the Matrons aren't there, only Petrah Blueblood and her witches. Manon flies in and asks the Petrah and the Ironteeth to rebel against Erawan and the Matrons. She reveals that her grandmother wants to be queen of the Ironteeth, and then she leaves.

Anielle holds against the Morath soldiers' siege. Yrene is revealed to be pregnant. The rest of khaganate's army arrives to fight the Valg.

In Perranth, Aedion is fighting a losing battle. Lysandra feels guilty, and steps onto the battlefield as Aelin. An ilken swipes her with its claws and she goes down. Aedion runs to save her. Just then, a witch tower appears, and a young witch gives her life in a Yielding, a powerful blast of magic that incinerates everything around it, including the witch. She jumps into the tower and 4000 of Aedion's men are wiped out, causing them to retreat.

Nesryn, Sartaq, Yrene, Chaol, and Hasar are still at Anielle and are planning what to do to defeat the rest of the Valg army. Aelin, Rowan, Lorcan, Gavriel, Fenrys, and Elide appear, and Aelin, Chaol, and Yrene have a joyful reunion. Falkan arrives and has been turned young again due to Dorian killing Cyrene, and he also recognizes Aelin as the assassin that he spoke with in Xandria in The Assassin's Blade. They exchange information, and Chaol confirms that Maeve is Valg. Lorcan and Elide fight, and she shames him for having been in love with Maeve, and she says she doesn't care if he dies.

Lysandra awakes three days after the battle to discover that they have been fleeing from Morath. She also shifted back into her human form while she was pretending to be Aelin so they all know that Aelin isn't with them. Aedion tries to apologize for all of the hurtful things he said but Lysandra refuses to accept the apology and tells him to leave. Darrow strips Aedion of his title as general and makes him give back the Sword of Orynth.

At the Crochan camp, the three Matrons arrive to fight Manon. The Yellowlegs Matron is wearing the Crochan crown of stars. Manon singlehandedly takes them on and kills the Yellowlegs Matron and takes the crown. Manon lets the Blueblood Matron go, and then tells Asterin that the Blackbeak Matron is her's to kill. Manon's grandmother decides to run instead. Glennis then crowns Manon as the Queen of Witches.

In Anielle, the battle rages, and Nesryn and Sartaq catch a group of soldiers trying to break the dam. They stop them, but the dam is irreparably damaged and going to break. They win the battle, but are about to lose the whole army to the dam. On the battlefield, Lorcan lays dying. Elide notices he's missing and steals Chaol's horse to go and search for him. She finds him and they try to run back to the walls but are too late. The dam breaks, but Aelin appears in front of the wave, and releases three months worth of built up fire power to evaporate the water.

Manon offers to marry Dorian if it will keep him from going to Morath. He neither accepts or refuses, but he leaves the next morning with the two Wyrdkeys anyways.

Rolfe and the Mycenians arrive and barely manage to save the remaining of Aedion's army and take them to Orynth. Terrasen calls for aid.

Manon receives Terrasen's call for aid and says she will help. The Crochans agree to follow her.

Elide and Lorcan make up. Aelin tells Rowan she sent a letter to Essar and Rowan's cousins' father to try and convince them to oust Maeve as queen because she is Valg and disband her army. The khaganate's armies march for Terrasen.

Dorian sneaks into Morath as a mouse, and he sees Maeve talking to Erawan. She reveals to Erawan that she is his long lost sister-in-law and that she was ousted as Queen of Doranelle. She proposes to Erawan that her kharankui can be the hosts for his remaining six Valg princesses. He agrees, and Maeve goes to her room, with Dorian following. She traps him the second they are alone, and proposes that they work together, as she wants the Wyrdkeys to send Erawan home and keep him or his brothers from ever coming back. Dorian agrees and says he will marry her.

Maeve attempts to seduce Erawan so she can get into his tower. He refuses, wanting to stay loyal to his brother Orcus, her husband. Since that failed, she plans to show Erawan an illusion of his brothers so that way Dorian can sneak into Erawan's tower. He finds a girl with a collar around her throat and the Wyrdkey in her arm, like Kaltain. She begs Dorian to kill her after he removes it, and he refuses, but Maeve appears and kills her for him. Maeve then tries to take control of Dorian's mind, but Dorian was prepared and takes control of her mind instead. He collapses Morath with his magic and leaves, taking all three Wyrdkeys with him and ripping away Maeve's ability to make portals.

100,000 soldiers march on Orynth, and everyone is preparing for their deaths when Manon, the Thirteen, and the Crochans appear to fight for them. Iskra attacks Manon and her wyvern almost kills Abraxos, but she is killed by Petrah who has rebelled against the two remaining Matrons and Erawan, along with her witches. A witch tower is about to bring down the walls of Orynth, but the Thirteen sacrifice themselves by doing the Yielding in order to bring down the witch tower. Their deaths break the curse on the Witch Kingdom.

Dorian finds Aelin and the army as they march north. They argue about who is to forge the Lock and when, and Aelin decides to put it to a vote. The vote goes that Aelin is to forge the Lock the next day, before they go to Terrasen. Aelin and Rowan argue, and Rowan suggests that her and Dorian forge the Lock together. So Dorian, Chaol, Rowan, and Aelin go in the middle of the night to Endovier to forge the Lock. Aelin puts the Wyrdkeys in her arm to become a living gate and they begin, but it starts to rip away both of their magic and take all of their life forces. But Dorian's father appears and offers to take Dorian's place, as his life force can also contribute as he is nameless because Erawan used a spell to wipe his name from the world. Aelin pushes Dorian out, and the Lock takes all of her magic. The gods appear with a captive Elena. Aelin tries to bargain with the gods, saying that she won't require them to take Erawan if they let Elena go. Deanna kills Elena on the spot just for Aelin asking, and refuses to take Erawan anyways. The gods return to their world, but Mala stops and says she remembers, and gives Aelin part of her power so forging the Lock won't take her life completely. She also tells Aelin to follow the marks, and she realizes that Rowan inked Wyrdmarks into her new tattoo as a map to find her way back to Erilea. Aelin then rips a hole into a hell realm in the gods' world and shuts the portal and fully forges the Lock. She begins to fall through worlds, but too fast, and she is worried she is going to miss Erilea, but she then falls into Prythian, and sees Rhysand and Feyre. Rhysand uses his magic to slow her down so she can land back in her body in her world. She is alive, but is left with barely an ember of power. Dorian's magic is also weakened, but he has more than Aelin. Aelin is also fully Fae now, unable to shift back into her human body. Hasar and Sartaq are upset with Aelin for forging the Lock and not sending Erawan back, but they continue to trek northwards anyways. A snow storm hits them, but the Lord of the North and the Little Folk appear and guide them through Oakwald so they can save Orynth. Their forces attack, and Gavriel makes it to Orynth. The western gate breaks and Gavriel reunites with Aedion one last time before going out and fighting the Valg soldiers, dying so Aedion has a chance to close the gate.

More of Erawan's forces arrive from Perranth, along with the 6 kharankui/Valg princesses and Erawan and Maeve themselves. Aelin decides to face Maeve and Erawan alone. She pits them against each other. Yrene signals to Erawan from Orynth, and an ilken takes him to face her, as the healers can kill the Valg. Rowan, Fenrys, and Lorcan come to back Aelin up against Maeve, and she uses her illusions to keep them down. Aelin breaks them from the illusion and uses Wyrdmarks to summon the lost Fae of Terrasen and the Wolf Tribes to fight, Fenrys stabs Maeve with Goldryn, and Aelin puts Athril's ring on her finger. All of this manages to kill her.

Yrene, Dorian, Elide, and Lysandra trap Erawan and Yrene manages to kill him, but not before Dorian makes him tell him his fathers' name. The King of Adarlan's name was Dorian, and he only remembered it again when he held Dorian for the first time, and so gave him that name. Yrene then turns Erawan to ash. The armies all fall unconscious and die without either Erawan or Maeve to control them.

Falkan and Lysandra meet each other for the first time. Rowan, Lorcan, Aelin, Aedion, and Fenrys mourn for Gavriel. Lorcan and Elide plan to be married, and Aelin is welcomed home as a queen by Darrow. Manon takes the witches back home, curse now broken. Rowan's cousin Sellene is made Queen of Doranelle. Aelin is coronated and Aedion finally gets to take the blood oath.

Not long after, the whole of the field of Theralis blooms with Kingsflame flowers.

Storyline: I honestly really loved this book. There were a couple of slow bits but I loved how everything came together. It was a little disappointing to not get a huge blow up battle between Aelin and Erawan/Maeve, but she defeated Maeve by outwitting her, which was Aelin's true power all along. Also Yrene and Aelin meeting in The Assassin's Blade and Aelin's act of kindness leading to Yrene and Aelin killing two of the most powerful Valg and saving the world together was really cool. Dorian really carried this book though, he was such a nuanced character and honestly a total badass. SJM doesn't do a great job of keeping her timelines straight though because Chaol says that he killed Cain less than a year since the battle at Orynth and there is absolutely no way that that much happened in that short amount of time, especially with all the traveling they do. When I first read this book I was really disappointed that Aelin lost her powers as I hate that trope a lot usually, but she still got to keep some of the fire that she loved, and she talks multiple times about how her power being that depthless and uncontrollable was a huge nuisance and struggle to her. So I think in order for her to have the fully happy ending SJM set up for her, it was necessary.

Quotes: "And if she never returned to who she had been before this, he would not love her any less."-Rowan (p.304)

1.72.7 Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 660

Time Read: 11 hours and 58 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, violence, grief, injury, disability/chronic illness, blood, war, murder, medical content, s*xual content, ableism, vomit, death of a parent, gore, medical trauma, animal death, torture, pregnancy, drug use, emotional abuse, su*c*de, body horror, cursing, mental illness, alcohol, physical abuse, child death, fire, abandonment, classism, su*c*dal thoughts, toxic friendship, child abuse, infidelity, stalking, colonization, body shaming

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: Taking place during the events of Empire of Storms. On the fictional southern continent, in the city of Antica.

First Line: Chaol Westfall, former Captain of the Royal Guard and now Hand to the newly crowned King of Adarlan, had discovered that he hated one sound above all others.

Chaol and Nesryn arrive on the southern continent in Antica, the god-city, known for its 36 gods and ruled over by the Great Khagan. They go straight to the palace to meet with the Khagan and ask for his aid in the war and a healer to fix Chaol's paralysis. They meet the stern man, and his five heirs, Arguhn, Sartaq, Hasar, Kashin, and Duva. They beg the Khagan for aid but he is insulted that by the gold they try to bring him and that they were unaware of his youngest daughter, Tumelun's, death. He says that they are welcome to stay so Chaol may be healed, but must consider any plans of war while also taking time to grieve. Chaol and Nesryn also learn of Rifthold being sacked and are devastated. Shortly after their meeting with the khagan, Kashin, who has control of the horse warriors of the continent, arrives to speak with Chaol. He tells him he doesn't believe Tumelun committed su*c*de like everyone thinks, and that there might be a threat that has come from the north. Chaol explains briefly about the Valg and promises Kashin to keep a look out for anything amiss.

Yrene, the healer girl that Celaena saved in The Assassin's Blade, has been working to become a healer at the Torre Cesme for two years, and is now a fully fledged healer. Hafiza, the Healer on High, instructs Yrene to heal Chaol. She refuses at first, not wanting to help anyone from Adarlan after Adarlanian soldiers burned her mother alive for practicing magic. Hafiza says this will be her final test before she is to return to Erilea. She tentatively agrees to assess him. The next day she goes to the palace, and it is tense between her and Chaol, and Yrene is very rude, but she agrees to heal him anyways. Nesryn visits her aunt and uncle that live in the city, and they tell her that her father, sister, and nieces and nephews managed to make it out of Rifthold before it fell, but they don't know where they are now. Chaol tries to speak to Arguhn, but he refuses him.

Yrene begins her healing on Chaol, but finds that there is still a remanent of the Valg's dark power wrapped around his spine, and that she can fight against it with her healing gifts, but it will be very painful for Chaol and take a lot of time. Yrene goes to the Torre's library to try and find out more information on the Valg. She finds a scroll with Wyrdmarks, and a book called The Song of Beginning, but it is written in Eyllwe and she can't decipher it. She suddenly feels as though she is being hunted in the library and begins to rush out. On her way out, she trips on the body of a healer, who is now an empty shell sucked of all life. She runs from the library and the Torre is put on high alert. When she tells Chaol of this, he tells her it was a Valg. Sartaq and Nesryn begin to bond, as Sartaq also suspects that the threat growing in the north may be worth fighting against. He takes her on a ride on his ruk named Kadara, a giant, sentient bird that makes up the southern empire's aerial legion.

Yrene has a special saddle made for Chaol so he can ride a horse again. He offers to help her teach a special defense class for the young healers at the Torre. While there, she uses the opportunity to teach her students about Chaol's spinal injury, and they move him off his horse, almost dropping him. He is immensely humiliated and him and Yrene fight. Despite this, they manage to make progress in his healing. Chaol is forced to relive all of the painful, traumatic moments of his past, but Yrene manages to grant him some movement in his toes. Hasar, who is friends with Yrene, summons her to ask her to get information about Aelin's whereabouts from Chaol. At a party a day or so later, Yrene and Chaol pretend to flirt so they can talk privately. Yrene reveals what Hasar has asked of her, and Chaol has genuinely no idea where Aelin is, so he tells her Skull's Bay, as he thinks that that is the last place she will go after her fight with Rolfe as Celaena. Yrene hides the scrolls and books with Wyrdmarks or mentions of the Valg in Chaol's room. Chaol gains movement in his ankles and feet.

Nesryn leaves with Sartaq to go south to the rukhin, the aeries and homes of the warriors who ride the ruk. Sartaq knows that his hearth-mother knows of the Valg and they decide to gather information there. Nesryn leaves Chaol a note saying she holds him to no promises and will not be adhering to any promises of her own. Chaol is angered by this and him and Yrene fight, causing her to leave him before even healing him for the day. She then hears that Nesryn left and deduces that to be the reason for Chaol's attitude. She heads back to the palace to argue with him again, but realizes she is being followed by the Valg. She sprints into Chaol's room and locks the door, but the Valg begins banging on it, trying to get it open. She runs into Chaol's room and blocks off the doors, and they stand united. The Valg knows Yrene's name and says it through the door, banging and pounding, but it eventually goes silent. Kadja, Chaol's servant, sees the damage and runs to get Kashin, who comes to see what happened. Kashin, who is in love with Yrene, offers to walk her back to the Torre, but Yrene refuses and spends the night with Chaol.

Nesryn and Sartaq arrive in the Tavan Mountains. They are greeted by Sartaq's hearth-sister, Borte. She says that the hearth-mother, Houlun, is out on a mission and will be back in a day or two. When she eventually does return, she speaks with Sartaq, Nesryn, and Falkan, a northern merchant who has been traveling the continent for two years. He reveals that he is only 27, even though he appears to be in his 50s, because he sold his youth to the stygian spiders for spidersilk so he could be rich (this is the same merchant Aelin encountered in Xandria in The Assassin's Blade). He is hunting the spiders, in the south known as kharankui, to see if they can be killed and he can get his youth back. Houlun reveals that the kharankui are on the rise, and stealing hatchling ruks from their nests. She says that during the first demon war on the continent, when the three kings battled against Maeve and Brannon, a Wyrdgate opened there and let in the kharankui. Most of the Valg went to Erilea, and some Fae came to teach the ruks to understand language and fight back against the spiders. She tells them that the Fae set up watchtowers around where the spiders now reside, and that most of them are broken down but still have active booby traps. She tells Nesryn and Sartaq to investigate the watchtowers to see if anything useful can be found in them. Sartaq and Nesryn investigate the first watchtower, making sure to throw rocks to set off the traps. They find some Fae weaponry but not much else before a kharankui descends on them. They fight and run, and are then aided in killing it by a gray wolf. Kadara makes the final kill, saving the wolf, who shapeshifts and reveals himself to be Falkan. Borte, Sartaq, Nesryn, and Falkan go to investigate the other three watchtowers but find nothing. Borte's betrothed, Yaren, comes to tell them that hatchlings have been stolen from his aerie as well.

Chaol and Yrene search for more books and scrolls on the Valg and the Wyrdmarks. The librarian tells them to go to Aksara Oasis, but it is owned by the royals. Chaol gains movement up to his knees. Chaol and Yrene then learn from Hasar about Aelin and Dorian's display of power in Skull's Bay. The khagan grows more wary of Aelin. Chaol attempts to have a private meeting with the khagan but it does not go well and he is removed. Yrene comes to heal him but he is raging with anger at the khagan's dismissal. They fight, and Chaol says something hurtful and makes Yrene cry. She turns to leave. Instantly regretting his decision and panicking about her leaving, Chaol stands and walks. When he finally reaches her, they kiss. Yrene convinces Hasar to throw her a birthday party at the Aksara Oasis so her and Chaol can investigate the necropolis in the jungle around it.

Nesryn, Falkan, and Sartaq ride on Kadara to Dagul, the land of the kharankui, to find the hatchlings. They spot one and fly down to save it, but when Kadara tries to fly back up she is caught in a spider web. They all fall, and Sartaq is injured. Nesryn tries to save the hatchling but a spider kills it and eats it before she can. Kadara is also injured but manages to fly off, and Nesryn and Sartaq run. Sartaq gets stuck while they try to squeeze through the rocks. He tells Nesryn to run, and that he loves her, before he is snatched by the spiders. Nesryn and Falkan hatch a plan to save him, and she allows herself to be captured.

Yrene and Chaol go to Aksara with Kashin, Renia, Hasar, Arguhn, and other viziers. While the royals are swimming, Chaol and Yrene slip into the jungle and find the necropolis. They realize it is a Fae burial site, not a human one. Chaol theorizes that healers are descendants of the Fae that are buried there, and that their powers might be able to kill the Valg.

Nesryn awakes wrapped in web, Sartaq near her. Falkan, in the form of a mouse, begins chewing through her bonds. A kharankui comes in though, and Nesryn begs for their story before they kill her. The spider obliges, and tells her that they are the handmaids to a Valg Queen who came here to escape her husband, Orcus, the most powerful Valg King. The spider reveals that Valg Queen is Maeve, and that the kharankui stand guard of the Wyrdgate that is there to pave the way should Maeve decide to go home, or use the gate to conquer more worlds. Falkan shifts into a spider and lures the one speaking to Nesryn out of the save. Her and Sartaq then run, but are once again confronted by the spiders when they can't find Kadara. Falkan tells Nesryn that he has a shapeshifter niece who was thrown out on the streets of Rifthold, and that he has been searching for her for years. He says his fortune is hers and then he lunges into battle against the other spiders. They are fortunately rescued by Borte, who went against her grandmother's wishes and brought her betrothed and some of his warriors to save them.

When they return from Aksara, Yrene and Chaol find his room completely sacked, and all of the books and scrolls stolen, save for one scroll, the one with the Wyrdmarks. Yrene takes the scroll to leave with Hafiza, who has a locked iron cabinet containing a ton of books with Wyrdmarks. She says she will consider letting Yrene take them to Aelin to be translated. Yrene arrives back at the palace to find Chaol in immense pain. She decides to test out his theory and says that she is ending this now. Chaol faces all of his worst memories again, and feels as though he is drowning in them, but slowly, slowly works through them, and realizes that not everything was his fault, and that he is a changed man now who still has a promise to Dorian and Aelin to uphold. When he comes out of the memories, he is fully healed and can walk again.

Nesryn and Sartaq ask the rukhin to fly north with him to fight, as Sartaq plans to do so whether or not the Khagan agrees to it. Nesryn receives Chaol's warning to come home, and asks Falkan to come with them, revealing that she thinks his niece is Lysandra.

Yrene and Chaol go to see Hafiza but find her missing. They go hunting for her in the tunnels beneath the library, and find her bound and captured by the Valg: who is possessing a pregnant Princess Duva. They fight her while also trying not to hurt her or the baby. She reveals that she was possessed because Duke Perrington sent her a box of wedding presents, and Duva claimed the silver ring as her wedding ring. She didn't know that it was actually made of Wyrdstone covered in silver, and the second she was married she was possessed. The Valg in Duva killed Tumelun for questioning her change in behavior, and killed the healer in the library to try and scare Yrene out of healing Chaol. Duva demands Yrene put on the ring. Yrene refuses and Duva lashes out with her power. Chaol jumps in front of her and takes the blow to his back, destroying his spine and organs. Nesryn and Sartaq appear, and Hafiza manages to make Duva unconscious. Yrene tries to heal Chaol, but even with all of the healers of the Torre coming down to try and save him, he is dying anyways. Silba, the healer goddess, speaks through Hafiza, offering a deal and asks Yrene to pay the price. She agrees. When Chaol awakes, he asks Yrene what she did. Hafiza explains Yrene bound her life to Chaol's and that her magic is constantly flowing through him like a brace so he will be able to walk. But when Yrene's magic is drained, so too will the brace, and he will either have to walk with a cane or be in a wheelchair. Also, if one of them is killed, the other one will also die. They then take Duva before the royal family, who is utterly distraught. Yrene purges the Valg from Duva, killing it, but not before it reveals itself to be a Valg Princess, not a Prince. Duva and the baby are fine, and the khagan offers to do anything for Yrene and Chaol for saving her life. She asks him to help save her people, and he agrees. Sartaq, Hasar, and Kashin agree to go to war with them. Sartaq tells Nesryn that he has been chosen as Heir to the throne, and that he loves Nesryn and wants her to be with him. She agrees.

Chaol and Yrene sail north with 1000 ships and 300 healers. They reveal they were married before they left Antica. Yrene shows Chaol the note Celaena/Aelin left for her with the money, and Chaol recognizes her handwriting and begins to cry, promising he will tell her exactly who it was she met that night.

Chaol Westfall (Lord Westfall/Hand of the King of Adarlan): I was never a huge fan of Chaol's character, but I'm glad that he got the character development and redemption arc that he so desperately needed. I like how he didn't instantly get over his trauma, and had to face it and do it on his own (with support from Yrene). There was no magical fix for it, and he had progress and regressions just like anyone else would. I also like that he was not completely fully healed of his paralysis, and it became something that he will still have to deal with. Him being completely healed would have been too easy of a fix, and it puts a lot more nuance into his character, especially since he had to grieve the loss of his body, but then when that full, perfect healing was taken away, he was still grateful for what he did have and no longer viewed the mobility aids as "prisons".

Nesryn Faliq (Captain of the Guard/Wind-Seeker/Neith's Arrow): I really like how Nesryn was so patient with Chaol (even when he was being an ass and didn't deserve it). She realized that he was struggling with his emotions, trauma, and feelings, and she decided to be patient and understanding with him, while simultaneously not being willing to let herself be his second choice.

Storyline: While definitely an integral part of the storyline, and good closure for Chaol, he has never been one of my favorite characters so getting through an entire book just about him after reading Empire of Storms is a little bit difficult (I couldn't brave the tandem read). The storyline is definitely a bit slow at parts, but getting to see SJM expand her worldbuilding on a new continent was interesting, despite the amount of information thrown at you all at once.

Representation: There was thankfully a lot more representation in this book than in any of the other books in the series. Yrene, the royal family, and just about everyone else on the southern continent is POC. Hasar and Renia are lovers, and it is mentioned that Arguhn was being touchy with a male and female servant. Chaol uses a wheelchair and cane, and it is made clear at the end that this will be a chronic illness for him. While paralyzed in the beginning, due to Yrene's magic he is able to be an ambulatory wheelchair user. Shen, one of the guards, has a prosthetic arm.

1.72.6 Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 689

Time Read: 11 hours and 22 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, blood, war, s*xual content, torture, death, murder, injury, gore, fire, grief, physical abuse, confinement, vomit, kidnapping, body horror, slavery, death of a parent, emotional abuse, abandonment, child death, cursing, misogyny/sexism, colonization, genocide, toxic relationship, ableism, animal cruelty, animal death, s*xual assault/r*pe (not on page), discussions of pregnancy, gaslighting, classism, panic attacks, su*c*dal thoughts, su*c*de attempt

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: Terrasen, Adarlan, Skull's Bay, and Eyllwe on the fictional continent of Erilea

First Line: Elide Lochan's breath scorched her throat with every gasping inhale as she limped up the steep forest hill.

Aelin, Aedion, Rowan, Lysandra, Fleetfoot, and Evangeline have finally arrived in Terrasen after a week or two of travel from Adarlan. She arranges a meeting with Lord Darrow, Lord Murtaugh, and Murtaugh's grandson, Ren. They are supposed to meet them in the woods, but the lords demand they come to an inn. When they arrive, Ren and Murtaugh, responsible for Chaol's kidnapping in Crown of Midnight, are shocked to learn that Aelin is Celaena. Lord Darrow is harsh and judgemental, and gives her a decree signed by all of the lords of Terrasen saying she is only a princess and that she is not to be queen unless they see fit. She is discouraged, but as they are leaving the inn, they receive news that the witches are flying to sack Rifthold. She sends Rowan to fly back to rescue Dorian, gives Evangeline and Fleetfoot to Lord Murtaugh to look after, and her, Aedion, and Lysandra make their way to Ilium, a port city in Terrasen that used to be ruled by fierce pirates called the Mycenians.

Meanwhile, Elide travels through the woods on her own to try and get to Terrasen, forging for berries and drinking from streams. She realizes she is being followed. Lorcan senses the Wyrdkey she carries and follows her around, thinking she is Valg. He realizes she is not when she is suddenly hunted down by ilken, terrifying eight foot beasts that were bred by Erawan. Lorcan kills three and Elide evades another, and they manage to make it away. They make a deal to travel together, Lorcan offering protection for Elide's knowledge of Morath. Pretending to be married they join up with a traveling circus to get past the Adarlanian soldiers guarding the river.

At Morath, Erawan reveals his true form, no longer masquerading as Duke Perrington. He orders Manon and the Thirteen, along with Yellowlegs witches led by Iskra, to sack Rifthold. Manon tries to get there before the Yellowlegs, but arrives right as Dorian is about to be attacked by a member of Iskra's coven. Manon kills her, and tells Dorian to flee. Rowan arrives and kills four more witches and tries to kill Manon until Dorian stops him. Rowan and Dorian escape and head for Skull's Bay, and Iskra accuses Manon of being a witch killer. She lies and says that the sentinel attacked her first, but Iskra doesn't believe her and runs back to Morath. When Manon arrives, she is put on trial. The Matrons ultimately decide that while Manon will live, Asterin must be brutally put to death. At the execution, Manon asks for the right to kill her, but she instead swings her sword at her grandmother. The Thirteen flee, and the Matron reveals that Manon is the last Crochan Queen, her father being a Crochan Prince and her mother being an Ironteeth witch, and that her she killed both of them upon discovering the truth. Manon takes a near fatal wound to the stomach, and then drops off the cliff and is caught by Abraxos. She manages to kill the witches that chase her, and then passes out and wakes up in Oakwald Forest. She is attacked by a shapeshifter turned monster by Erawan, calling itself a Bloodhound, and she escapes again and tells Abraxos to take her somewhere safe.

Aelin, Aedion, and Lysandra arrive in Ilium to find it occupied by Adarlanian soldiers, the temple there being used as their barracks. She makes a dramatic appearance, giving some of the soldiers the chance to flee, and then the three of them kill the rest. They go to the temple and Aelin meets with King Brannon's ghost. He tells her to go to the Stone Marshes of Eyllwe to find a Lock that can bind the Wyrdkeys back to the Wyrdgate. The trio are then attacked by Erawan, possessing the body of the Chief Overseer of Endovier that tortured Aelin. She manages to kill him, but not after being taunted by Erawan. They then sail for Skull's Bay.

Dorian and Rowan arrive in Skull's Bay two weeks before the rest of their companions. Upon arriving, they go to meet with Rolfe, who insists upon staying neutral, but also find Gavriel and Fenrys in his company. They say that they were sent by Maeve to hunt and kill Lorcan. Rowan bargains that he will tell them where Lorcan is so long as they help them until then. They hesitate but Rowan tells Gavriel that he has a son, and so they agree. Rowan begins to train Dorian in magic. After two weeks, they go again to meet with Rolfe, and find Aelin, once again acting as Celaena, in his office. She then reveals that she is Aelin, and tries to bargain with Rolfe to get him on her side. He is angry and refuses. After some scheming, Aelin comes up with a plan and sends out a ripple of power that the Valg in the Dead Islands detect. They come with ships and sea-wyverns to attack Skull's Bay. Aelin offers her and her courts' help in exchange for Rolfe's allegiance and him gathering the remaining Mycenians to fight for her. She also says she will make him a lord of Terrasen and give his people back Ilium. He reluctantly agrees. Lysandra turns into a sea dragon and fulfills the Mycenian prophecy that once a sea dragon returns again, so shall the Mycenians. Aelin and Rowan combine their powers to wipe out the Valg ships, but Aelin wears the Wyrdkey, and is possessed by Deanna. Deanna gives them a riddle and tries to destroy Skull's Bay with her silver fire, but Rowan jumps in front of Aelin and she redirects her blow to the ships. She still ends up taking out most of Rolfe's ship, some of his men, and the entire Valg fleet save three boats. Lysandra takes out the two sea-wyverns, but is attacked by three more fully grown ones. She barely is able to kill them, with the help of Dorian and Aedion, and also sinks the remaining three ships. Aedion promises a wounded Lysandra that he is going to marry her one day. After the battle, Aelin then summons Elena, who tells her again that she needs to find the Lock.

Lorcan and Elide continue traveling together, but are attacked again by the ilken. At the next town over, their traveling companions sell them out to the Adarlanian guards, and they are forced to take a boat and flee. Lorcan discovers that Aelin has tricked him and he didn't actually have Wyrdkey this whole time, and he tells Elide that he will be bringing her to Aelin after all, and reveals that Aelin and Celaena are the same person. After a long ways of travel, they stop in another town, and Lorcan leaves Elide alone to buy clothes. Elide is attacked by ilken and her uncle Vernon, and they attempt to take her back to Morath. Thinking that Manon is dead and Lorcan has abandoned her, she attempts to kill herself, but Lorcan knocks her knife out of her hand and attacks. She and Lorcan kill the ilken, but her uncle Vernon escapes. Elide finally reveals what she is carrying with her, and Lorcan explains about the Wyrdkeys. They continue to head south to Eyllwe.

Aelin and her court travel on boats to the Stone Marshes to find the Lock. On the way, they see the coast of Eyllwe burning, and the townspeople blame Aelin for it. Abraxos finds their boat and they fetch an unconscious Manon out of the ocean and begin healing her wound. Once she is conscious, Dorian and Manon grow closer, and Aelin attacks Manon for leaving Elide alone in Oakwald Forest. Aelin makes a connection between something Fenrys said and Baba Yellowlegs' prophecy, and throws up. Rowan wants to know what's wrong but she only talks to Lysandra about it. Dorian advocates for Manon's freedom on the ship, and when they go to release her, they are attacked by a Bloodhound pretending to be Fenrys. She tells Manon that Asterin and her Thirteen are dead, and then Dorian kills her. The ship is attacked by ilken, and they fight them off, Manon assisting. They worry as Erawan now knows their location. They eventually make it to the Stone Marshes. Manon sends Abraxos to lie low and the court makes its way into the marshes. After three days of travel, they find the temple containing a chest that supposedly holds the Lock. Just then they begin to feel a magical warning signal from Lorcan, who, along with Elide, has noticed an army of 500 flying ilken heading straight towards them. They set up a trap, but Aelin obliterates them with her flame, and the others pick off the rest. When Lorcan comes into sight, Fenrys and Gavriel immediately attack him. Elide jumps in front of Lorcan, causing Fenrys to accidentally wound her arm. Gavriel heals her, and then Rowan declares that Lorcan and Elide are under their royal protection, which delays the blood oath command for them to kill him. Elide has a tearful reunion with Aedion, Aelin, and Manon, and she offers Aelin the second Wyrdkey. They then go back to the temple to open the chest, and find not a Lock but a witch mirror. They carry it back through the Marshes to the beach, and encounter a hooded woman with soldiers at her back. Everyone goes on alert, and Lorcan sends out a pulse of power to signal Maeve to come so that way Elide will be saved if there is trouble. Aelin goes down to talk with the stranger, who reveals herself to be Ansel of Briarcliff, Queen of the Western Wastes, Aelin's old friend turned enemy from when she trained with the Silent Assassins of the Red Desert. Ansel owed Aelin a life debt, and she gathered her forces and conquered Melisande, taking it away from Erawan's control, all for Aelin. They ready to leave for Terrasen, but are cornered by Maeve's armada.

They give them a day to decide whether to surrender or fight. That night, Rowan flies to all of the ships in Maeve's armada bearing the Whitethorn crest and begs them to switch sides. A few hours before the dawn of the day of the battle, Dorian solves Deanna's riddle and the mystery of the witch mirror. Aelin and Manon join hands and step into the mirror. Aedion is enraged at Dorian for suggesting such a thing, and Rowan is left to command the fleet against Maeve.

Inside the mirror, Manon and Aelin are shown what really happened when Elena and Gavin fought Erawan all those years ago. Elena stole the Eye of Elena, the true Lock, from her father Brannon and used it to seal Erawan in a tomb. The gods then appear before her, angry at her for using the Lock. Brannon had made a deal with them to use the Lock to send the gods back to their home world, and they would take Erawan with them. But by wasting all of the Lock's power on Erawan's tomb, Elena ruined their chance and doomed her own bloodline. The gods tell her that her bloodline will pay the price she couldn't and ultimately one would have to give their own life to reforge the Lock and seal away the keys, sending the gods and the Valg out of the world. She agrees, and agrees to set clues and hints for that future descendant to help lead them into doing it. They are then shown Nehemia coming to the Stone Marshes, thinking the prophecies and clues were for her. Elena appears before her and tells her that it must either be Dorian or Aelin that does it, and that Nehemia must help by going to Rifthold and preparing one or both of them, but that she will forfeit her own life in doing so. Nehemia agrees. Aelin is enraged at Elena even though she had already figured out that she would have to die to reseal the Wyrdkeys. Elena shows her what really happened the night her parents were killed and she fell in the river. She almost drowned but was pulled out by Elena put in a physical form by the gods. Aelin died from the cold but Elena revived her, and the gods told Elena to take Aelin then, as a child, to reforge the Lock. But Elena wanted Aelin to at least have a chance to live her life before she died and instead compelled Arobynn Hamel to come and find her. The gods were angry with her for this and as her punishment Elena cannot enter the afterlife and she will simply cease to exist the moment the keys are put back.

The battle between the courts' forces and Maeve's wages on. Lysandra is able to take out some boats in sea dragon form, but against Fae warriors they are ultimately losing. But then the Whitethorn ships turn on Maeve's armada and begin assisting them. Abraxos flies back with the Thirteen, ultimately turning the tide of the battle and causing the remaining force to flee.

Manon and Aelin are sucked out of the mirror and teleported to the beach where Elide had been sent by Lorcan for safety. Her guards are all dead, and Maeve has her held prisoner. She cuts Gavriel off from the blood oath, and reveals Lorcan's betrayal, as well as how Aelin walked perfectly into her years long schemes. She also reveals that Rowan is her mate, and that she used her magic to trick him into thinking Lyria was his mate, and then had her killed in order to get him to take the blood oath. She then demands that Aelin surrender or Elide will be tortured. Aelin surrenders, and Cairn whips her brutally. They seal her into an iron box and sail away, right before Rowan, Aedion, Dorian, Lysandra, and the Thirteen arrive. Elide and Manon reveal everything to Rowan and the others, and Rowan reveals that they had a secret marriage, making him the King of Terrasen. Lysandra then reveals that she and Aelin already made a plan for her disappearance/death in which Lysandra would pretend to be Aelin for the rest of her life and Aedion would father her children so Terrasen would have heirs. Lorcan is immensely remorseful, and Elide and Aedion are enraged. Just then Ansel and Rowan's cousin Enda arrive, along with Galan Ashryver, Prince of Wendlyn, and all of his naval forces, and the Silent Assassins of the Red Desert. They realize that Aelin called in every life debt owed to her to raise an army, and Lysandra shifts to become her to maintain the ruse that she is still leading her own forces. Dorian leaves with Manon, Elide, and the Thirteen to find the Crochans, and Rowan, Lorcan, and Gavriel head off to begin the hunt for Aelin.

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius (Celaena Sardothien/Aelin of the Wildfire/Fireheart): Aelin has shown a lot of growth in this series, but we still get to see her mistakes. Even though she is learning to trust her court and delegate more, she still takes on a lot of secrets and schemes on her own, which leads to the attack from Maeve in the first place because Lorcan got scared for Elide and summoned her. While she accepts her role as the sacrificial lamb of her bloodline, we still see it scare her, and I'm glad she didn't just stoically accept her death.

Aedion Ashryver (The Wolf of the North): While I am personally not a huge fan of Aedion overall, Aelin and Lysandra's plan to use him to produce heirs was really messed up and he had every right to be angry with them about that. It also doesn't make sense because according to shapeshifter rules (Feyre's pregnancy in A Court of Silver Flames for example) if Lysandra and Rowan made kids while Lysandra was in Aelin's form, the kids would look like a mix of Rowan and Aelin, so Aedion is completely unnecessary. That would have really sucked for Rowan but getting him involved in that way wasn't even needed. The kids wouldn't even look like Lysandra's usual form either because Lysandra's form isn't how she was at birth and she can't go back to her original look because she doesn't remember.

Storyline: I once again loved seeing old characters come back into the fold and watching Aelin's schemes fall into place. Everything feels connected and purposeful and there are reasonable explanations for everything. Nothing is just left up to fate (looking at you House of Flame and Shadow) and things come together either by Maeve, Erawan, Aelin, or the gods' scheming and planning.

Representation: Aedion is bisexual, Rowan's cousin Enda is mentioned as being gay, and Lord Darrow was the former King of Terrasen's consort. Representation for POC is once again lacking. Elide is crippled due to her ankle being deformed from a break that was never healed.

Summary: This is my second favorite book in the Throne of Glass series, right after Queen of Shadow. All of the plot line were entertaining the whole time and everything is intentional and flawlessly comes together.

Quotes: "The world... will be saved and remade by the dreamers..."-Aelin (p.248) "I love you. There is no limit to what I can give to you, no time I need. Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you."-Rowan (p.350) "It is not such a hard thing, is it--to die for your friends."-Dorian (p.594)

1.72.5 Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 645

Time Read: 11 hours and 23 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, blood, death, murder, gore, torture, injury, grief, war, confinement, slavery, fire, physical abuse, vomit, miscarriage, emotional abuse, body horror, pregnancy, s*xual abuse, kidnapping, death of a parent, genocide, su*c*de, child death, child abuse, su*c*dal thoughts, trafficking, colonization, mentions of r*pe, s*xual violence, medical trauma, classism, domestic abuse, self harm, gaslighting, s*xual harassment, ableism, cursing, misogyny, panic attacks, stalking, alcohol, execution, xenophobia

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: Rifthold, Adarlan; Morath; Oakwald Forest; and Terrasen on the fictional continent of Erilea

First Line: There was a thing waiting in the darkness.

Aelin lands in Rifthold from Wendlyn and goes straight to The Vaults, the seedy underground tavern/fighting pit/pleasure house in order to find Arobynn Hamel. She is surprised to discover Chaol, with an unknown woman, meeting with Arobynn. He leaves without noticing her, and Aelin confronts Arobynn. He informs her of Aedion's capture by the king, and that he is set to be executed at a grand party for Dorian's birthday. He offers to help her free him, in exchange for her capturing one of the Valg soldiers now infesting the city. Arobynn leaves, and the city guards Aelin had led there break in, and she wrecks the entire place. She then leaves to hunt down Chaol in the sewers, and encounters the woman who was with him. Her name is Nesryn, and she is a member of the city guard now aiding Chaol and the rebels. Chaol sends Nesryn and the rebels and the captives they freed ahead, and explains to Aelin what happened with Dorian, Sorscha, and Aedion. They part angry with each other after Chaol refuses to tell her how to free magic. Aelin goes back to her apartment, and the next day finds Lysandra and a child named Evangeline outside. Lysandra insists she has changed from when they were children, and gives her a letter written by Wesley, Arobynn's former bodyguard, and Lysandra's deceased lover. In the letter Wesley explains everything Arobynn did involving Sam's death and Aelin's capture. Chaol and Aelin argue about whether or not to kill Dorian now that he has a Valg prince possessing him. Aelin swears she won't, and so Chaol tells her how to free magic. Aelin sneaks into the castle with a troupe of dancers set to perform for the King and Dorian at his birthday party. She spills water to wash away Wyrdmarks that would notify the King of her presence. Madame Florine, Celaena's dance teacher for years, aids in the ruse, and gives all of the dancers black glass roses. Aelin sneaks through the crowd, disguising herself as a man to get close to Aedion. When the dancers smash the glass roses, the whole hall goes up in smoke and Aelin uses the distraction to free Aedion. Everyone rushes out, and Aelin and Aedion run through the gardens until they are confronted by Dorian. Aelin uses a Wyrdmark to freeze him in place and tries to kill him, but is stopped by Nesryn. Her and Aedion run, and with the help of Lysandra, manage to make it back to the apartment. Chaol and Aelin fight over her almost killing Dorian, and Lysandra finds out that Aelin is Queen of Terrasen. Aelin discovers that the eight creatures on the clocktower, that she dubs Wyrdhounds, are living in the sewers and that the King uses them to speak to his Valg commanders. She goes out for drinks with Aedion and Nesryn, and on their way home, they are stopped by Rowan. They tell each other of what has occurred when they are back in the apartment. Rowan then reveals to Aedion that his father is Gavriel, and also lets it slip that he took the blood oath to Aelin. Aedion believes it was his right to be the only one to claim the blood oath, and him and Aelin fight and he storms out. Rowan then finally tells Aelin why he came to Adarlan against her orders: Lorcan is hunting her and the third Wyrdkey.

Aelin sneaks out at night to lure Lorcan into the sewers. He is attacked by the Wyrdhound and kills it, and follows Aelin, threatening to kill her. Rowan puts a knife to his throat, and Lorcan warns them that Maeve let them walk out of Doranelle, and that she isn't done with them yet. Rowan meets Lysandra and reveals that she is a shape-shifter. She warns them that Arobynn wants his demon tomorrow, so they go out and capture one and interrogate it themselves. They manage to talk to the man the demon is possessing, Stevan, and tell him a plan. The next day, Rowan, Aelin, and Aedion go to the Assassin's Keep. Arobynn tortures the Stevan for information, and Stevan tells him that the King put him under his control by putting the ring on and licking his blood. Arobynn cuts the ring off Stevan's finger before killing him. The three then have dinner with Arobynn, and he becomes jealous at seeing how close Aelin and Rowan are. He then pulls her aside to talk to her privately, and gives her the Amulet of Orynth containing the third Wyrdkey in exchange for her working for him again to take down the King. She agrees, but he then puts on the Valg ring and licks her blood. She becomes his slave, and he sends her back to the apartment. She is silent until they arrive there, and then she takes off the ring, revealing that Stevan lied about the blood and that Arobynn just revealed his true intentions. That night, Lysandra kills him in his sleep. The next day, acting as Celaena, the trio goes back to the Keep and Celaena demands from the other assassins and Lysandra to know what happened. They determine it wasn't anyone among them, and Arobynn's will is read. All of his fortune, lands, and the Guild are left to Celaena, much to the dismay of the other assassins and Clarisse, the brothel owner that owns Lysandra. Aelin kicks them all out, and tells them to come back with money if they want to buy it from her, which they do. Aedion and Rowan figure out she switched the will so that way they would have money for an army.

Aelin, Rowan, Aedion, and Chaol go into the sewers in search of hellfire, a potent mixture that would blow up the clocktower and free magic. They find the hellfire, but also an old temple built of bones, where wicked people carved their confessions onto them. They go through the temple till they find the confession of Gavin Havilliard. He explains that him and Elena fought the Valg king Erawan and that they could not kill him, so they entombed him in Morath and sealed it using the Eye of Elena. Nesryn finds them and tells them that the King is building a dark army in Morath, and tells them about the witches and wyverns. Aelin storms off and Lorcan pins her, telling her and Rowan the true reason he is here. He isn't on orders from Maeve, and plans to find the Wyrdkeys and destroy them to keep Maeve from becoming a monster. He offers to exchange Athril's ring, which grants protection from the Valg, for the Amulet of Orynth. Then he leaves to let them think it over. When they arrive home, Evangeline breaks in and tells them that as part of Arobynn's will, he had a letter sent to the castle informing the King that Lysandra was a shapeshifter. The guards came and took her and she was being taken into Oakwald forest for the King and Dorian to have a meeting with the witches.

Manon, the Thirteen, and the other Blackbeak covens have been stationed at Morath for months, taking endless orders from Duke Perrington, a collared and lifeless Kaltain at his side. The Duke demands that Manon chose a coven to be implanted with Wyrdstone so that way they can bear witch/Valg offspring. Manon initially refuses, but a Yellowlegs coven volunteers. Elide Lochan, daughter of Marion and Cal Lochan and niece to Vernon Lochan, is chained and crippled, working as a slave in Morath. She is assigned to serve Manon, and when Manon gives her a small cut and tastes her blood, she discovers she has witch lineage. She tells Elide to choose whether she is human, or whether she is a witch. Elide says she is a witch, and so Manon sends her to go and check on the Yellowlegs coven. She discovers that the witches are being bred multiple times, and producing monsters as babies. Manon is angered and writes to her grandmother, to no avail. Asterin, her Second and cousin, grows increasingly angrier with Manon and they fight multiple times, and it ends with her being demoted. but is then summoned by the Duke to meet the King and her grandmother in Oakwald forest.

The Matron shows the King a new weapon, a wagon covered in mirrors on the inside, meant to amplify shadowfire, a dark fire that doesn't physically burn but kills and injures regardless, that is wielded by Kaltain. Manon and Dorian instantly connect, the Valg prince in him immediately fading away and giving Dorian control at the sight of Manon's gold eyes. Dorian tries to goad her into killing him, but she doesn't oblige him. Meanwhile, Aelin, Aedion, Chaol, and Rowan free Lysandra and are about to escape but Chaol disappears to go try and mercy kill Dorian. He runs into the witches instead. Aedion, Aelin, and Rowan run after him. Manon is about to let them go but Aelin doesn't believe her and goads her into a fight by revealing she killed Baba Yellowlegs. They run through a temple and Aelin and Manon fight. The temple begins to collapse and Manon is trapped and going to die, but Aelin decides to save her life and then leaves. While Manon is gone, Elide is captured by Vernon and thrown in a cell. After the fight, Asterin tells Manon they need to talk, and she tells her how she fell in love with a human man, and went back to the witches when she was pregnant. Her baby was stillborn, and Manon's grandmother, the Matron, beat her, branded the word "unclean" across her stomach, and threw her out to die. Asterin never told Manon, and that is why she had been acting out. Manon is angry, and decides that she will not give another coven to the Duke for breeding. She then realizes that Aelin was probably trying to rescue Dorian, and that Chaol was trying to mercy kill him, so she flies to Rifthold with Asterin and paints all around the city a warning that Dorian is still alive despite the demon.

Aelin reveals to Lysandra that she has paid off all of her debts and she is now free from Clarisse and the brothel. Rowan is recovering from the battle with the witches, but smells Lorcan out on the roof and goes to meet him. Lorcan says he killed all the Wyrdhounds and offers the ring again for the amulet. Rowan agrees and they trade. Rowan gave him a fake though.

Aelin sees Manon's message and runs to tell Chaol. Aedion and Rowan sneak through tunnels underground to install the hellfire at the base of the clock tower to blow it up. Aelin pretends to be Celaena again and leads Chaol through the gates as her prisoner. As they are walking through the gates, they see all of Chaol's men, tortured and dead, strung up on the gates. They go to the throne room to meet with the King and Dorian. Aelin pretends as though she has killed the Wendlyn royals and gives the king two fake seal rings to prove it. He then reveals he knows that she is Aelin, and he sends Dorian to attack her. She runs, and Chaol faces off against the King. Lorcan lied about killing the Wyrdhounds, and Aedion and Rowan are attacked by them when they are supposed to be lighting the fuse. Lorcan, after seeing that Aedion is Gavriel's son, saves them. Aelin faces off against Dorian, and puts Athril's ring on his finger to try and get the Valg out. Rowan and Aedion blow up the clocktower, and magic is freed. Rowan and Aedion are targeted by soldiers, and Lorcan flees, but Lysandra appears in the form of a ghost leopard and helps them fight them off. The King appears and taunts that he killed Chaol, and Dorian breaks free from the Valg. Him and Aelin combine magic to kill the King. The King then breaks free from the Valg that was controlling him and reveals that Perrington tricked the King, raised Erawan, let Erawan possess him, and then possessed the King with a Valg prince. He claims that he got rid of magic to help protect Aelin and Dorian so the Valg wouldn't find them, and that he magically attacked Aelin when she was a child in order to provoke her into killing him. Dorian doesn't believe him and uses his magic to kill him and shatter the whole glass castle. Aelin uses her fire to melt the glass into a wall so the city is saved. She proclaims herself as Queen of Terrasen and Dorian as King of Adarlan. Lorcan steals back Athril's ring from Aelin. Chaol is alive, but he is paralyzed from the waist down. Dorian makes Nesryn his Captain of the Guard and Chaol his Hand, but immediately sends the both of them to the Southern Continent so Chaol can be healed at the Torre Cesme. Aelin makes Lysandra a Lady of Terrasen. Aelin, Lysandra, Aedion, and Rowan all leave for Terrasen.

In Morath, Manon arrives to discover Elide missing. She immediately hunts her down in the dungeons, being dragged away to breed with the Valg. Manon slaughters the guards, and they run into Kaltain. She reveals that she had killed the Valg that had been possessing her a long time ago, and takes Elide's clothes to pretend to be her to give her time to escape. She then cuts open her arm and takes out a Wyrdkey and gives it Elide, making her swear to give it to Celaena Sardothien. Manon, Elide, and the rest of the Thirteen run, and Kaltain uses her shadowfire to obliterate a third of Morath. Manon gives Elide supplies and tells her to go north to Terrasen to find Aelin and Celaena.

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius (Celaena Sardothien/Lillian Gordaina/Ansel of Briarcliff/Aelin Fireheart/Aelin of the Wildfire): I know a lot of people find Aelin's endless scheming and plots to be annoying, but one of my favorite parts about this series is watching her schemes and subtle plans come together. None of it comes out of nowhere, it was all well thought out and planned (a theme I wish SJM had kept in her Crescent City series).

Storyline: Once again, I love watching the intricate pieces and subtle hints all come together in this series, but especially in this book. She also lays the groundwork for later schemes in this book. The entire story was engaging and entertaining the entire time, and I loved seeing Lysandra, Rowan, Aedion, Aelin, Chaol, Dorian, and Manon all come together. I do wish Dorian hadn't killed the King as quickly as he did, as there was so much more information they could have got from him.

Representation: Ghislaine, one of the Thirteen, is described as being POC. Characters like Rowan, Lorcan, and Dorian are left up for debate as to whether they are POC or just tan.

Quotes: "She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers. She was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph." (p.142) "'But would you bleed red, or black?' 'I'll bleed whatever color you tell me to.'"-Manon and Dorian (p.463) "You make me want to live, Rowan. Not survive; not exist. Live."-Aelin (p.527)

1.72.4 Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 569

Time Read: 10 hours and 27 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, violence, blood, murder, grief, death of a parent, gore, war, torture, slavery, fire/burns, injury/injury detail, genocide, physical abuse, su*c*dal thoughts, animal cruelty, emotional abuse, body horror, vomit, mental illness, confinement, bullying, colonization, cursing, panic attacks, toxic relationship, self harm, abandonment, classism, misogyny, racism, child abuse, child death, su*c*de attempt, drug use

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Varese, Doranelle, and Mistward on the fictional continent of Wendlyn; Rifthold, Adarlan, and The Ferian Gap on the fictional continent of Erilea

First Line: Gods, it was boiling in this useless excuse for a kingdom.

Two months after being sent to Varese to kill the King and Prince of Wendlyn, Celaena has made no progress and realizes she doesn't plan on it. Drunk and starving, she is confronted by a Fae named Rowan and taken by him to a fortress outside of the Fae city of Doranelle called Mistward. There she is confronted by her aunt, Queen Maeve, and she demands to know about the Wyrdkeys. Maeve says that because she is demi-Fae, she cannot gain access to Doranelle or the answers she wants until she trains in her magic and proves herself worthy. She instructs Rowan to stay with her in Mistward and train her.

In Adarlan, Aedion Ashryver arrives in Rifthold at the behest of the king. He is Aelin/Celaena's cousin, and since the fall of Terrasen has become one of the king's best generals. Dorian and Chaol dislike him immensely, especially after Aedion starts taking Chaol's guards away to parties. Chaol goes to search for him, but discovers that Aedion doesn't even attend his own parties. Chaol begins to track Aedion all over the city in order to get blackmail so he can tell him to stop stealing his guards. He sees him meeting with a hooded figure, and is then kidnapped. He discovers Aedion has been meeting with two of the rebels who were working with Archer Finn, Ren and his grandfather Murtaugh. Aedion is also a rebel, and Ren and Murtaugh are former nobles from Terrasen. Chaol tells them that Aelin is alive, and privately tells Aedion that she is Celaena Sardothien.

We are introduced to a new character named Manon Blackbeak, an Ironteeth witch, heir to the Blackbeak clan. By order of the King of Adarlan, all three witch clans, the Blackbeaks, Bluebloods, and Yellowlegs, are all required to gather in the Ferian Gap and train to ride wyverns bred by the king so they can be his new aerial cavalry.

Rowan instructs Celaena to work in the kitchens in the morning, where she meets Emrys and Luca, two demi-Fae. Rowan comes to get her to train and commands her to shift into her Fae form but she refuses. Growing frustrated, Rowan tells her to walk through a field full of barrow wights, grave robbing cave creatures, and if she can come out the other side she can go to Doranelle. In the field, she is attacked by a creature who looks human but wears a black stone collar. It makes her relive her worst memories and slowly begins feeding on her essence. She is rescued by Rowan, but he refuses to take her to Doranelle. After several days of not shifting, Rowan bites her, forcing her to shift. She can't do this again, and slowly bodies of demi-Fae begin to appear around the area, withered husks sucked of all life. Rowan and Celaena get into a fight, and she decides to leave Mistward. She treks off on her own and lights a fire, but is very quickly hunted down by skinwalkers. Rowan saves her, and the fear and panic makes her able to shift and use her fire magic, and she burns the skinwalkers alive. After another fight between them, Rowan takes Celaena to a cave under a mountain with a lake, and he freezes it completely with Luca chained in the center. Celaena makes her way across the ice and controls her fire enough to free Luca, but they are then attacked by a lake monster. After leaving Rowan and Celaena fight again, and Rowan promises to never involve anyone else in their training again, and they grow a bit closer.

Dorian is lonely since Celaena left, not trusting Chaol and Chaol keeping his distance so Dorian doesn't discover that Celaena is Aelin. Dorian gradually grows closer to a healer named Sorscha, and it quickly turns romantic. Aedion and Chaol meet in the secret tunnels to discuss everything Chaol knows about Aelin and the king and the Wyrdkeys. Dorian, who was already in the tunnels, hears everything and is angry with Chaol for keeping all of this from him. Ren, Murtaugh, Chaol, and Aedion begin investigating how to bring back magic so Aelin and Dorian can stand a chance against the king.

Manon begins training her covens, and the time comes to pick a wyvern. She has her eye set on the biggest and meanest one, Titus, but when he is put in the pit and set on the bait beast to show off his skills, Iskra, the Yellowlegs heir, shoves Manon into the pit. The bait beast defends her when Titus tries to attack her, and, with her help, he successfully kills Titus. Manon chooses him as her mount and names him Abraxos, much to the anger of her grandmother, as he has never flown. He is able to fly, but not able to pass the test of flying the Crossing, so Manon goes to the Ruhnn mountains and steals spider silk from the Stygian spiders to reinforce his wings. With this, Abraxos is able to make the Crossing and lead the rest of Manon's coven, the Thirteen, in battle.

Rowan and Celaena continue to investigate the murders of demi-Fae, and come across 200 Adarlanian soldiers and three of the creatures with the black collars hiding in caves. They begin to prepare Mistward for attack, even though no aid would be coming from Doranelle or Wendlyn. They set traps, and plan to flee down a secret tunnel if the fortress becomes compromised, but they are betrayed by someone in the fortress, and the soldiers infiltrate through the tunnel while the creatures attempt to break down the magical wards surrounding the fort. Celaena goes out and uses her fire magic to hold off the creatures, and the reveal themselves to be Valg demons that Elena and Brannon fought centuries ago, all being controlled by the king of Adarlan. A fourth Valg appears in the body of General Narrok. Rowan's warrior friends arrive to help defend the fort, but when Rowan tries to run to Celaena, Lorcan and Gavriel stop him. She begins to be consumed by the memories of the days leading up to her family's death, starting with a magical meltdown she had when the king of Adarlan arrived in Terrasen. She realizes he was using his dark magic to make her react like that so they would have to send her away and split up their family, making them easier to assassinate. She also remembered her mother's lady in waiting, Marion, who died to save her, and the fact that her family heirloom necklace that she had been wearing, the Amulet of Orynth, went missing that night. While the demons continue to torture her, she is given a vision of her younger self that tells her to get up, and she does, unlocking the true depth of her power and she begins incinerating the Valg. She slowly begins to lose power, and Rowan finally frees himself and runs to her. They cut their palms open to form a blood tie and combine magic to destroy the rest of them, making them carranam, magical soulmates. After the battle Celaena realizes the third Wyrdkey is in the Amulet of Orynth, and that Arobynn Hamel must have it. She doesn't tell Rowan this though in case Maeve tries to force it out of him using the blood oath.

Manon and her coven participate in the War Games to see who will be crowned Wing Leader. The Blackbeaks are winning, but Iskra commands her wyvern to kill Keelie, the Blueblood heir Petrah's wyvern. Petrah and Keelie begin to fall to their death, and instead of securing her victory right then, Manon saves Petrah's life. They win the War Games anyways, but Manon is beaten by her grandmother for saving the life of her rival. As reward/thinly veiled threat to stay in line, her grandmother orders her to kill a Crochan witch and take her cloak for herself.

Rowan and Celaena travel to Doranelle and Maeve gives Celaena what she wants to know, which isn't much. She tells her what the Wyrdkeys look and felt like and then asks her where the third key is. Celaena refuses to tell her, and Rowan doesn't know, so Maeve begins whipping Rowan. Celaena encircles the whole city in fire and threatens to burn the people in it if Maeve doesn't stop. When they were in the cave with the lake monster, Rowan found a sword named Goldryn and and a golden ring, both that belonged to Athril, Maeve's former lover. Celaena figured out the true story, that Maeve tried to keep the Wyrdkeys for herself, but Brannon and Athril fought her. When Athril died, she was so distraught that Brannon took the Wyrdkeys from her. Celaena bargains the ring for Rowan being freed from the blood oath, and Maeve relents. Rowan immediately kneels and takes the blood oath to Celaena, and they leave Doranelle.

Aedion, Dorian, Chaol, and Sorscha are called before the king. The king threatens to cut off her head if one of them doesn't admit to treason, and Aedion takes the fall and is arrested. The king reveals that Sorscha was actually a rebel spy this whole time, in contact with Ren and Murtaugh and feeding them information. He cuts off her head and Chaol tries to fight the king. He is almost killed with an arrow until Dorian uses his magic to save him and Chaol escapes the castle with Fleetfoot. Dorian is captured by the king and given a Wyrdstone collar.

Celaena, leaving Rowan in Wendlyn, sails home.

Celaena Sardothien (Aelin Ashryver Galathynius/Elentiya): Watching Celaena/Aelin's growth throughout this series makes her one of my favorite characters ever. Especially in contrast to The Assassin's Blade and Throne of Glass, she has matured a lot, and her realizing that her parents' death wasn't her fault, and the memories pulled up by the Valg making her stronger, really shows her strength as a character and made for very believable character development.

Storyline: When I first read this series I didn't care much for Heir of Fire with the bouncing POVs, but after this second read through, this is one of my favorites. The series really starts to pick up and come together at this point, and a lot of growth happens, along with the introduction of Manon and the Ironteeth witches. There were a couple of slow parts, but I honestly didn't mind that much.

Representation: Emrys and Malakai, two the demi-Fae living at Mistward, are gay. I believe some of the demi-Fae are described as being POC, but no one major, and as much as I love this series, I would be remiss to not point out the lack of representation.

Summary: This book, along with Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms, and Kingdom of Ash is some of SJM's best work as far as plot and character development.

Quotes: "See what you want, Aelin, and seize it. Don't ask for it; don't wish for it. Take it."-Rowan Whitethorn (p.234) "You cannot pick and choose what parts of her to love."-Dorian Havilliard (p.344)

1.72.3 Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 418

Time Read: 7 hours and 8 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, murder, violence, blood, grief, gore, injury, torture, slavery, kidnapping, death of a parent, assassination, body horror, confinement, war, genocide, colonization, physical abuse, classism, toxic friendship, misogyny/sexism, su*c*dal thoughts/su*c*de attempt, toxic relationship, gaslighting, animal harm, hunting, minor s*xual content, cursing, stalking, abandonment, mentions of r*pe, panic attacks, self harm, mentions of drug abuse

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Rifthold, the capital of Adarlan, in the fictional world of Erilea.

First Line: The shutters swinging in the storm wind were the only sign of her entry.

Celaena Sardothien has been the King's Champion for a couple of months at this point, and has already been on five assassination missions for the King. However, she has faked all of their deaths. The King then gives her a mission in Rifthold to kill Archer Finn, a courtesan she knew from growing up at the Assassin's Keep, as he suspects him to be a part of a rebel plot. Her friendship with Chaol has grown during this time, and she takes him with her to "accidentally" bump into Archer. Chaol is jealous by how closely they bond, and starts to realize his feelings for her. Celaena attempts to go to the library and finds what appears to be a cloaked person standing there, and it growls at her. The Eye of Elena begins to glow, and the creature runs off. She goes down into the tomb to seek answers from Elena, only to discover that the bronze skull knocker on the door can talk, and his name is Mort. He tells her that Elena wants her to find the evil in the castle. Dorian's cousin Roland arrives in the castle, wearing a black ring like Perrington and the King, and Celaena immediately dislikes him, even though he is trying desperately hard to gain Dorian's trust. Celaena and Archer go to dinner, and she tells him that she was sent by the King to assassinate him. Archer pleads for his life, saying he has no involvement in the rebel plots, but that some of his clients do, and that he knows that they want to find Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, the heir to the throne of Terrasen, and use her to overthrow the King of Adarlan. Celaena gives him till the end of the month to get his affairs in order and to give her as much information as possible about the conspirators. He begins by taking her to a ball held by one of his clients, Davis, and she sneaks into his office and discovers a book on Wyrdmarks. In the back, she finds written, "It is only with the eye that one can see rightly." Davis catches her snooping and cuts her with a dagger that was covered in gloriella, a paralytic poison. She manages to kill him and make it back to the castle in time to tell Chaol to give her the antidote. Celaena then involves Nehemia, asking her to teach her to read the Wyrdmarks and help her solve the riddle. They go down to Elena's tomb, and discover that when standing on a constellation of the Stag, a hollowed out eye appeared in the wall. They both looked through it, but discovered nothing. Chaol and Celaena grow closer, and Celaena takes him out for a romantic dinner. She confesses that she hasn't actually been killing her targets, and Chaol is angry but ultimately chooses to be with her, saying he'll leave Rifthold with her one day. They have a lot of s*x over the following week.

Celaena and Nehemia get into a heated argument where Nehemia calls her a coward for refusing to help her plan to overthrow the King. Chaol is then kidnapped, and Celaena is left with a ransom note. She goes to a warehouse and kills 15 men before she is stopped by Archer. He tells her that Nehemia founded their rebel group, and that he had heard that she was going to be interrogated by Chaol and the King that day so they kidnapped him in an attempt to stop it and to show Celaena that Chaol had kept secret the fact that Nehemia's life was threatened. Celaena races back to the castle and finds Nehemia tortured to death. She attacks Chaol, blaming him for her death, and Dorian uses magic to stop her from killing him. Chaol puts her in the dungeons for a few days, where Kaltain tells her that Duke Perrington is taking her to Morath to be his wife, and that Roland will be going with them. When Chaol releases her from the dungeons, she sinks into heavy grief and refuses to speak to anyone. She then deduces that Grave, an assassin from the competition to be Champion, must have killed Nehemia, and she uses the tunnels to sneak out and kill him. She brings his head before the King, accuses the lord that was his sponsor in the competition of hiring him to kill Nehemia, and she gives him a list of the 15 men she killed from Archer's group. She solves the riddle talking about the eye and uses the pommel of King Gavin's sword Damaris to see another riddle written on the inside of the hollowed out eye. It is a map to to finding three powerful objects. She goes to a the carnival being held in honor of Prince Hollin, and speaks to an Ironteeth witch named Baba Yellowlegs. The witch reveals that Dorian came asking her questions about magic, and offers to sell his questions to Celaena but she refuses. She asks her about the riddle and the witch tells her that it speaks of Wyrdkeys, three slivers of rock broken off from the Wyrdgate, the portal between worlds. They are immensely powerful individually, but with all three one can open the Wyrdgate to all sorts of different planets and dimensions. She kills the witch for knowing Dorian's secrets, and her and Dorian grow closer again.

She then investigates catacombs she found beneath the library, using Wyrdmarks to unlock the iron doors. She finds an underground prison, and then the entrance to the giant obsidian clock tower built by the King. She is turning back when she is attacked by the creature from before. Dorian, who had followed her down, runs with her, and he tries to use his magic to seal the door. It doesn't work, so he runs to find the spellbook and they use it to trap and kill the creature. Celaena realizes it has a human heart, and that it must have been human at one point. She believes the King used a Wyrdkey to make it into a monster. She discovers the meaning of the first part of the riddle and discovers the key is gone. Distraught, she grabs the spellbook and uses it to open a portal to contact Nehemia. She succeeds, but Nehemia tells her to never do it again. Just as the portal closes, Archer appears, and reveals that Nehemia showed him the tunnels and he's been spying on her for weeks. Celaena realizes on of the coded notes in Nehemia's room was saying not to trust Archer. She acts like she is on his side and is willing to give him the book and work with him, and he confesses he was the one to order Grave to kill Nehemia. She attacks him once he does, and in their fight they accidentally open a portal to another world. Dorian is warned in a dream by King Gavin that Celaena is in trouble, and he runs to get Chaol and they discover the tunnel. They arrive to see a demon attacking Celaena, Fleetfoot (Celaena's dog) hurt, and Archer chanting out of the spell book. Chaol attacks the demon, Archer flees, and Dorian drags Celaena away. Celaena knocks him out, and sees the demon drag Fleetfoot through the portal and Chaol run after her. Celaena runs into the portal and immediately shifts from a human to a Fae, and attacks the demon with fire magic. They all get to safety and Celaena uses Dorian's magic blood to close the portal. Celaena then hunts down Archer in the tunnels and kills him, bringing his head before the King.

Chaol tells his father he wants to send Celaena away to Wendlyn to assassinate the King and his son, and that if he backs him up he will return to be the Lord of Anielle. His father agrees and they propose the idea to the King. He agrees, and tells Celaena to go to Wendlyn. She is panicked, not knowing how to get out of it, but Elena tells her to go. Before she leaves, she says goodbye to Dorian, and then says goodbye to Chaol at the docks. She tells him about the Wyrdkeys and everything she's learned, and then tells him the date of her parents' death and leaves. He is confused, and researches the date, and realizes that Celaena is actually Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, lost queen of Terrasen, and he just sent her away to the land of her distant Fae relatives.

Storyline: The storyline in this book was a little slow for me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Representation: Nehemia is the only POC, and she has herself killed in order to motivate and progress Celaena's character, which is a huge issue I have with this book.

1.72.2 Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS:

Pages: 404

Time Read: 7 hours and 9 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★★☆☆ Characters: ★★★☆☆

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, murder, blood, death, slavery, injury, gore, death of a parent, torture, vomit, body horror, confinement, war, physical abuse, grief, genocide, misogyny/sexism, emotional abuse, su*c*dal thoughts/attempts, racism, discussion of animal death, cursing, drug abuse, kidnapping, abandonment, s*xual harassment, discussions of r*pe, drugging, hallucinations, discussions of infidelity

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: In the country of Adarlan on the fictional continent of Erilea.

First Line: After a year of slavery in the salt mines of Endovier, Celaena Sardothien was accustomed to being escorted everywhere in shackles and at sword-point.

Celaena Sardothien, the most infamous assassin on the continent, is brought before the Crown Prince of Adarlan, Dorian Havilliard. At 17, she was sentenced to spend the rest of her days in Endovier, a mining death-camp meant for criminals and rebels. A year later, the prince is now asking her to compete in a contest to be held by the King of Adarlan. She would compete against 23 other mercenaries, assassin's, and murders, all sponsored by one of the nobility, to become the King's Champion. In exchange for four years of service, she would then gain her freedom. Celaena agrees, and they travel back to Rifthold, and into the giant glass castle of the king. Celaena disguises herself as the Lady Lillian Gordaina, a jewel thief from Fenharrow, so that she will not be targeted by the other competitors. Very quickly, Cain, Duke Perrington's champion, stands out as a threat, and he takes to taunting her quickly. She slowly gains the trust of Prince Dorian and the Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall. She also befriends Nehemia, princess of the conquered country of Eyllwe in the south. Not long after, the training for the contest begins, murders of the Champions begin to occur. The bodies are found with the organs and brain removed, the skin of the face peeled off, and the blood drawn into strange symbols called Wyrdmarks around the body. One night, Celaena discovers that there is a hidden door in her room that leads to tunnels under the castle. She discovers a secret hiding spot from which she can spy on the ball, and finds a tunnel leading out of the castle. She doesn't go down the third tunnel, however, she does in her dreams that night. She finds the tomb of the first Queen of Adarlan, half-fae Elena, and her husband Gavin. Elena then appears before her and tells her that she must find the great evil in the castle and win the contest to become champion. They hear a creature approaching, and Elena gives Celaena her amulet called the Eye of Elena and tells her to run. Celaena awakes back in her room, still clutching the necklace. She begins to study the Wyrdmarks, and then stumbles upon Nehemia reading a book in the common tongue when she supposedly cannot read in that language. Nehemia snaps at her and runs off with the book, and Celaena begins to suspect Nehemia might be behind the murders. She sneaks into the Yulemas ball, but she sees nothing suspicious from her, and ends up dancing with Dorian all night and kissing him afterwards.

She ends up discovering that the Wyrdmarks around the bodies are ones to summon demons called ridderaks. Once the ridderak eats the organs of the victim, the person who summoned it gains the strength of that person. Celaena ventures again into the tunnels, and finds Cain summoning the demon. He traps her alone in the room with it, but she escapes, and runs down to Elena and Gavin's tomb, and uses Gavin's sword Damaris to kill it. She is bitten, and by the time she makes it back to her room the poison in the bite slowly starts to kill her. She awakes having been healed by Nehemia. She reveals her true identity to her, and their trust in each other is restored. On the day of the final duel between the remaining four champions, Kaltain, a jealous courtier wanting Celaena out of the way so she can marry Dorian, poisons her wine with bloodbane given to her by Duke Perrington. When Celaena goes to fight Cain, she finds herself weak, confused, and nauseous. He begins to beat her brutally, and the drugs allow her to see the In-Between, the veil between worlds. She is surrounded by demons and the dead, and Cain himself appears to be a demon. Right as he is about to kill her, Elena comes through a portal and clears the poison from her system. She defeats Cain, and as she is comforted by Dorian, Cain attempts to stab her in the back. Chaol kills him, and Nehemia collapses. Duke Perrington frames Kaltain for the poisoning and has her thrown in prison, even though it was his poison and his idea. The next day, Nehemia comes to Celaena to explain that she is a spy for her people in Adarlan, and that her family has passed down the secrets of the Wyrdmarks for generations. Even though magic has completely disappeared in Adarlan, they work outside of that, and Nehemia used them to summon Elena and to heal Celaena of the ridderak's poison. She explains that she has been fighting Cain this entire time, and watching over Celaena. The king makes Celaena his champion, and she breaks off her relationship with Dorian, not wanting to try to force an impossible relationship to work. At the end, it is revealed that the King and Duke Perrington are using dark powers to mentally manipulate Kaltain, and were also the ones guiding Cain in his murders.

Celaena Sardothien (Queen of the Underworld/Lady Lillian Gordaina/Adarlan's Assassin/Elentiya): In ACOTAR, 19 year old Feyre is portrayed as very mature for her age. The same cannot be said for Celaena. Even though she is an accomplished and infamous assassin at 18, and is very intelligent, her childishness can shine through at times. Her thoughts and interactions with Dorian and Chaol can feel very silly at times, and she has trouble deducing some things that are a little obvious (e.g. the evil Elena wants her to defeat being the same thing doing the murders).

Dorian Havilliard (The Crown Prince of Adarlan): Dorian is also portrayed a bit childishly, however, we are seeing actual teenagers instead of the century old Fae we see in other books of SJM's. The chemistry between him and Celaena was definitely not there, so I'm very glad Celaena cut things off between them.

Chaol Westfall (The Captain of the Guard): You can definitely see the difference in how Chaol and Dorian both view Celaena. Even though Chaol has significantly warmed up to her by the end of the book, he still questions her motives and morals.

Storyline: You can definitely tell that this was Sarah J Maas' first book. Things were definitely more predictable in this book and she wasn't quite as adept as she is now in dropping subtle hints about things that have happened in the past. Going back and rereading Throne of Glass after having read the rest of the series, ACOTAR, and Crescent City, it is awesome to see how things have connected the whole time. The contest to become champion felt very stereotypically YA fantasy, and the love triangle a little bit forced, but overall it was still an entertaining read.

Representation: There is definitely not a lot of representation in this book (or in this whole series to be honest) and while I love SJM, this is one of my main complaints about this series overall. This book is the worst for it, as the only person of color is Nehemia Ytger, and she falls into the "Magical Negro" trope that is often used in books and movies, where the singular minority character with magical powers comes to the aid of the white protagonist but is not a protagonist themself. Also, all the slaves and rebels are discussed as being from Eyllwe, and we are left to assume that Eyllwe's population is mostly people of color. Since Elena explains that she wants Celaena to help the people affected by Adarlan's tyrannical rule, this effectively slots Celaena into the role of the "white savior".

Summary: SJM's distinct writing style hadn't clicked into place quite yet in this book, and there were a lot of unnecessary exclamation marks and childish dialogue. Upon reread this is definitely not one of my favorites, but I know that the rest of the series comes together really well, so some things can be forgiven (definitely not the lack of representation though).

Quotes: "I can survive well enough on my own- if given the proper reading material."-Celaena Sardothien (p. 146) "You could do anything... You could rattle the stars, if only you dared."-Elena Galathynius Havilliard (p. 399)

1.72.1 The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS (for The Assassin's Blade and also some minor plot spoilers for the rest of the series)

Pages Total: 435 The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: 75 The Assassin and the Healer: 37 The Assassin and the Desert: 106 The Assassin and the Underworld: 104 The Assassin and the Empire: 98

Time Read: 7 hours and 5 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, violence, murder, torture, blood, slavery, physical abuse, grief, gore, injury, emotional abuse, vomit, confinement, gaslighting, body horror, kidnapping, toxic relationship, child abuse, trafficking, domestic abuse, fire, toxic friendship, stalking, discussion of death of a parent, war, alcohol, s*xual harassment, adult/minor relationship, sexism/misogyny, s*xual content, cursing, colonization, abandonment, classism, alcoholism, discussions or r*pe, prostitution

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: The Capital of Adarlan, Rifthold; The Red Desert, Innish, Skull's Bay, Xandria, Endovier. This book contains five novellas set over a year before Throne of Glass takes place.

First Line: Seated in the council room of the Assassins' Keep, Celaena Sardothien leaned back in her chair.

The book starts out with The Assassin and the Pirate Lord. Celaena Sardothien and her rival, Sam Cortland, are sent to see Rolfe, the Pirate Lord of Skull's Bay. Arobynn Hamel, their master and the King of the Assassin's tells them that he wants them to demand payment for Rolfe killing some of his assassin's. When they arrive, however, they discover they are meant to be brokering a slave trade between Rolfe and Arobynn. Celaena and Sam are both appalled and set aside their rivalry in order to take down Rolfe and free 200 slaves. They succeed, and Celaena forces Rolfe to sign a document saying that he will never again participate in the slave trade, or she will hunt him down and kill him.

In the next story, The Assassin and the Healer, Celaena is in the town of Innish, on her way to the Red Desert to train with the Silent Assassins as punishment from Arobynn for having destroyed his deal with Rolfe. He beat her unconscious and then sent her on her way giving her two months to travel to and fro, and a month to be with the Silent Assassins. In Innish, she comes across a girl named Yrene, a former healer who lost her magic and her mother to Adarlan's empire. She had been working at the White Pig Inn for a year, hoping to save up enough money to travel to the southern continent and learn to become a healer at the Torre Cesme. While taking out the trash that night, Yrene is mugged by mercenaries, but Celaena fortunately comes to her rescue and kills the men. After Yrene wraps Celaena's wounds, Celaena teaches her how to defend herself. Just when they're about to be done, more mercenaries attack, and Celaena, with the help of Yrene, are able to fend them off. Celaena leaves Yrene a considerable sum of money and a large ruby to pay for her passage to the southern continent. Yrene leaves for the Torre Cesme immediately, and Celaena leaves for the Red Desert.

The Assassin and the Desert begins with Celaena trudging through the desert to reach the keep of the Silent Assassins. When she arrives, she is tested by the Mute Master by having four of his men attack her, all of which she easily fends off. He then passes her off to Ansel, a swaggering red head in full armor, and they share a room. Celaena is eager to begin training with the Mute Master, since Arobynn will not let her back until she returns with a sealed letter of approval. But she is told she must wait and spends her days running through the desert to the oasis and training with Ansel. The Silent Assassins are regularly antagonized by Lord Berick, the leader of Xandria, the port city to the south. Ansel is sent to Xandria to try and treaty with him after an attack, and Celaena goes with her. The girls become fast friends, especially after Ansel shares the true story of how she was a lady at Briarcliff, in the Flatlands of the abandoned Witch Kingdom, and a greedy lord killed her father and sister and burned her home to the ground. After the meeting with Lord Berick, Ansel and Celaena steal two of his Asterion horses, incredibly fast horses that were bred by the Fae. When they return, the Mute Master makes them take care of the animals every morning as punishment, but he does finally agree to train Celaena. He makes her study snakes, rabbits, bats, and other desert creatures to learn their movements so she can become a better fighter. Five days before Celaena is supposed to leave she and Ansel fight. As an apology, Ansel brings her some wine, but it was poisoned. She wakes up in the middle of the desert with her Asterion horse, a sealed letter of approval from the Mute Master, and a note from Ansel saying that she is doing this to protect her. Celaena begins to head towards Xandria to catch a ship, but sees Lord Berick's forces, marching towards the Keep. She races back, but they are already under attack. She runs to the Mute Master, and finds Ansel's lover dead, the Mute Master's son Ilias wounded, and the Mute Master paralyzed. Ansel stands over him about to behead him, but Celaena attacks. They fight, and Ansel reveals she killed her own lover, and made a deal with Lord Berick: the Mute Master's head and the assassins dead, and he will give her forces to go and reclaim Briarcliff. Celaena defeats her, and even though she is hurt by her betrayal, she gives her 20 minutes to get out of the Keep before she shoots her with an arrow. Celaena ends up giving her 21 minutes and purposefully misses, even though Ansel wasn't out of range. The Mute Master gives Celaena her sealed letter of approval, and also enough gold to free herself of her debt to Arobynn Hamel.

Celaena arrives back in Rifthold in The Assassin and the Underworld, planning to free herself from Arobynn once and for all and move into her own apartment. However, she returns to find Arobynn deeply remorseful of his actions, and he showers her with gifts and assigns her an assassination of an important Melisande man named Doneval. He tells her that Doneval is planning on exposing everyone in the nobility that doesn't support the slave trade, safe houses, and rebels. She says she'll think about it, and runs into Sam. She is relieved to see him in one piece, and begins to have a lot of feelings about him come forward as she remembers he promised to kill Arobynn while he was beating her. Just then, Lysandra, one of the courtesans owned by Arobynn's friend Clarisse, appears and begins flirting with Sam. Celaena agrees to kill Doneval, and attends the theatre, a ball held by his ex wife (the person who hired Celaena to kill him), and spies outside of his house in preparation. She attempts to break into his house to scope out where he will be meeting his contact and exchanging paperwork the day she is going to kill him, but is caught by his guards and tied to a chair in the sewers right before they're flooded. She manages to escape the chair, but almost drowns. Sam rescues her, and the next day he professes his love for her. They manage to assassinate Doneval, but Sam blows up his house and the documents Celaena was supposed to retrieve were lost. She chases after Doneval's contact, but he kills himself and sets the papers on fire before Celaena can retrieve them or interrogate him. From the remains of the papers, Celaena begins to piece together that she might have been lied to. She goes before Arobynn, who is angry at her for not retrieving the documents. He then reveals that Doneval's ex wife actually deals in the slave trade and wanted to be rich, and that is why she wanted her husband assassinated, as he was a rebel and planning on freeing the slaves. Arobynn tells her this was punishment for Skull's Bay, and Celaena pays her debt and Sam's with the gold she was given by the Mute Master and leaves.

In the final novella, The Assassin and the Empire, Sam and Celaena are living in their own apartment across the city. Sam is cage fighting in an underground tavern called the Vaults in order to make ends meet, and they can't find anyone to hire them. Sam and Celaena agree to move away from Rifthold, and they pay Arobynn the parting cost for breaking away from the Assassin's Guild, which takes away all of Celaena's savings. They agree to find one more contract before they go. Sam takes a contract from a mysterious man who wants Ioan Jayne and Roarke Farran, the leader and second of the criminal underworld of Rifthold, dead. Arobynn warns them against this, but Sam insists he takes out Farran on his own and then letting Celaena kill Jayne. Sam goes to kill Farran, and after hours of waiting, Arobynn arrives to tell Celaena that he is dead, his body tortured and ripped apart and left on the door step of the Assassin's Keep. Celaena goes to see his body and falls asleep next to it, and wakes up in her old room. She hears Arobynn and the other assassins conversing outside her door about going to kill Jayne and Farran, and then Arobynn locks her door. She escapes out the window, and breaks into Jayne's house, managing to kill him and several guards before they release poisonous gas. Farran hands her over to the Royal Guard, and she is sentenced to 9 lifetimes in Endovier. In the end, it is revealed that Arobynn was the one who betrayed them.

Celaena Sardothien (Dianna Brackyn, Adarlan's Assassin): Celaena definitely doesn't start off as the most likeable protagonist, both in this book as well as in Throne of Glass. She can be quite childish and selfish, and is easily manipulated. You see her start to grow through the book, however, and I think her character development is shown a lot better in this book than in Throne of Glass.

Sam Cortland: Sam and Celaena's romance felt like it came out of nowhere for me, since it was established multiple times how much they previously hated each other.

Arobynn Hamel (The King of the Assassins): Arobynn is definitely an awesome antagonist. You can get really confused and feel for him, as he seems genuine in his emotions, but deep down he is selfish and it always hurts just as bad every time his true colors and intentions show.

Storyline: All of the novellas are well written, cohesive, and don't drag on for too long, while still not feeling rushed. As you get later into the series you realize that SJM brings back a lot of these characters and connects them to the larger plot (Yrene, Ansel, and Rolfe to name a few). While I did feel like Sam and Celaena's relationship was a little forced, it didn't overtake the plot in any way, and it helped Celaena's character growth.

Representation: There is not a lot of good representation in this book unfortunately, Yrene being the only person of color I can think of.

Summary: While Throne of Glass is a little bit of a rocky start, I think The Assassin's Blade comes in to perfectly tie everything together and give a lot of insight on Celaena's past.

1.73.3 House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS for all of Crescent City and A Court of Thorns and Roses

Pages: 838

Time Read: 13 hours and 14 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ Storyline: ★★★☆☆ Dialogue: ★★★☆☆ Characters: ★★☆☆☆

Genre: Urban fantasy

TWs for the book: Torture, war, violence, death, s*xual content, gore, blood, murder, injury, confinement, vomit, misogyny/sexism, grief, fire, body horror, colonization, kidnapping, cursing, genocide, child death, gun violence, slavery, physical abuse, s*xual abuse, discussions of r*pe, toxic relationship, drug use, emotional abuse, classism, genocide, excrement, cannibalism, death of a parent, gaslighting, child abuse

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Begins immediately after the events of House of Sky and Breath; Crescent City, the Eternal City, Avallen, Nena, the Depth Charger; Prythian in the A Court of Thorns and Roses world; The Court of Nightmares, The Prison

First Line: The Hind knelt before her undying masters and contemplated how it would feel to tear out their throats.

At the end of House of Sky and Breath, Bryce opened a portal in an attempt to go to Hel but ended up in Prythian. Rhysand, Amren, and Azriel take her to a cell in the Court of Nightmares and ask her questions, most of which she refuses to answer and lies about the Horn and how she got there and her powers. When left alone, she winnows down through the grate where monsters are kept. Her starlight clears a path and she goes down a tunnel. Nesta finds her and threatens to bring her back but Bryce runs and the tunnel collapses so they keep going forward. They encounter a Middengard wyrm but keep pushing forward through the tunnels, and Azriel reveals that he was there the whole time. Bryce sets a trap for Nesta and Azriel using the wyrm, but then immediately regrets it and goes back to help. She discovers that Azriel and Nesta were fine and lured her back, and then Nesta uses the Mask from the Dread Trove to kill the wyrm. They continue onwards through the tunnels, and end up passing through a portal that takes them under the Prison. They are greeted by a holographic video of Silene, the second daughter of Queen Theia, and she explains what happened. The Asteri used to rule Prythian as the Daglan, but High King Fionn and Queen Theia, along with her general Pelias and with the help of the Starsword (Gwydion) and Truth-Teller, dispatched them. Fionn and Theia had Helena and Silene, and Theia ruled over the Dusk Court, now known as the Prison. Theia desired to conquer more worlds, but Fionn said no, so Theia and Pelias killed him and used the Mask and the Horn, the fourth part of the Dread Trove, to open a portal to Midgard. The Asteri were in different forms this time, and welcomed them with open arms, along with the fae shifters from another world. Under the guidance of the Asteri, the fae and the rest of the Vanir began to oppress the humans. But then the Asteri put a parasite into the water that would lessen magic and give the Vanir a human lifespan if they didn't make the Drop and give up part of their firstlight to the Asteri. The demons of Hel came to try and aid the Vanir in fighting back, and Aidas and Theia became lovers. Realizing they weren't going to win, Theia gave Silene and Helena each a third of her power, and then sent them with the Harp and the Horn to go back to Prythian. Helena pushed Silene through but stayed behind, and Pelias defeated Theia and forcefully wed Helena. Silene hid the third of her power her mother had given her deep beneath their old palace in the Dusk Court, and collected monsters to imprison there and turned the Prison into what it is. Then she married the High Lord of the Night Court, and keyed her DNA to the prison, and that is why Bryce and Rhysand can access it. Bryce takes the power she stored there, and when Nesta and Azriel try to take her back to the rest of the Court, she fights back and collapses part of the floor, where they discover an imprisoned Asteri named Vesperus. She was imprisoned by Silene, and reveals that the Illyrians were created by the Asteri/Daglan to be their warriors (the precursors for angels). Nesta and Bryce kill Vesperus, and Bryce steals Truth-Teller from Azriel and goes back to Midgard.

Meanwhile, Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian are being tortured by Pollux back on Midgard while Lidia ponders on how to free them. Baxian chews off Ruhn's hand in an escape attempt but it fails. Back in Lunathion, Ithan has freed the Fendyr heir, Sigrid, from the Astronomer. Ithan, Sigrid, Flynn, Declan, Marc, and the sprites search the Meat Market for any clues on what happened to Bryce. While there, Sabine and the wolf packs detect their presence. They try to run but end up walking into a trap. Flynn and Declan shoot Sabine in the leg and face to slow her down, and the Viper Queen hides them. They discover Tharion and Ariadne, and fill Tharion in on what has been going on. Lidia then appears and tells them to get on the Ocean Queen's city ship and head to the Eternal City because she is going to free Ruhn, Baxian, and Hunt. They struggle trying to believe her but feel they don't have any other choice. The Viper Queen says she will only allow them to leave if Ithan fights someone of her choosing. He agrees. Tharion convinces Ariadne to not fight him, and the Viper Queen reveals that Ariadne has agreed to go and work for someone else. She demands that Ithan and Sigrid fight to the death, and Ithan kills Sigrid. The three sprites light the Meat Market on fire, and they all escape and head to the city ship. Ithan, however, backs out last minute and runs to the House of Flame and Shadow to talk to Jesiba and convince her to find a necromancer to raise Sigrid from the dead. Jesiba agrees, as long as Ithan does some work for her. She reveals she was a priestess in the library of Parthos 15,000 years ago, and that she was cursed by Apollion to live forever because she wouldn't tell him the magic in the books (there was none). Hypaxia appears and reveals that a coup overthrew her as queen of the Valbarran witches and that she was deciding to swear fealty to the House of Flame and Shadow. Ithan asks her to use her necromancer abilities to raise Sigrid and she agrees. She tries, but when Sigrid comes back, she decides to become a Reaper, and goes off to work with the Under King. Hypaxia says the only way to get Sigrid back would be using a thunderbirds' lightning, so they travel to Avallen in order to get Sofie Renast's body.

Bryce arrives from Prythian in her father's house, and she spends several days as prisoner there. She attempts to get answers from him regarding the Starsword and Truth-Teller, and he says anything of import would be on Avallen. She breaks free from the gorsian shackles and locks her father in his basement and winnows away.

In the Eternal City, Rigelus takes some of Hunt's lightning in order to resurrect the Harpy. Lidia frees Irithys, queen of the fire sprites. The Asteri demand to see Hunt, Baxian, and Ruhn, presumably to execute Ruhn. On the way, Lidia kills the guards and the Hawk, and they make an escape attempt. Irithys blows up part of the Crystal Palace, but the dreadwolves hunt them anyways. They drive towards the sea, and as they hit a dead end, she tells Hunt and Baxian to fly Ruhn to the ship, and she shifts into her deer form and runs. The three make it to the ship, but Ruhn begs Tharion to jump into the water to save Lidia when she reaches the end of the cliff and has to jump. Lidia is shot, but leaps into the water, and Tharion is able to bring her onboard the ship where the medics heal her. When she awakes on the Depth Charger, Lidia immediately runs to a school on board the ship and looks into a classroom with two teenage boys, Brann and Acteon, and claims that they are her sons. Hunt, Baxian, and Ruhn are asked to meet with the Ocean Queen, and the Ocean Queen is furious with Tharion for being there and bringing his friends aboard when the River Queen and the Viper Queen both want him dead. Bryce suddenly appears, and claims herself to be Queen of the Fae and that Tharion serves her. The Ocean Queen backs off, but says Tharion is confined to the ship, and the group reunites. Bryce says they are going to Avallen, to find out more information on the Starsword. When they arrive, Tharion leaps into the boat with them and defies the Ocean Queen. King Morven, the Stag King and Cormac's father, is less than welcoming. He presents Flynn's sister Sathia, saying that her parents sought refuge here and in his lands fae females need to be wed. He plans on marrying her to one of his cruel, telepathic twin sons, but Tharion steps forward and offers to marry Sathia. They get married, and the group splits up to look for clues; Bryce, Hunt, Baxian, Tharion, and Sathia going into the caves, and Ruhn, Lidia, Declan, and Flynn staying behind to search the archives. They travel through the caves, and Ruhn and Lidia grow closer, but don't notice that Flynn and Declan are missing. In the caves, they are confronted by the Stag King, the Autumn King, and the twins, with Flynn and Declan prisoners. Bryce collapses the cave and jumps into an underground river with the rest of them. Bryce and Hunt fight, but they continue onwards and find the crypt of Prince Pelias. Beneath it they find an entire room carved out of obsidian salt, and bowls to drink water laced with it. Bryce and Hunt drink the water and are mentally transported to Hel. Ruhn and Lidia realize Declan and Flynn are missing and go to the caves to search for them. When Hunt and Bryce arrive in Hel, they are greeted by Apollion, Thanatos, and Aidas. They reveal that they have been waiting for Bryce for a long time, and that they created the thunderbirds to be able to power her up if she was unable to find Silene and Helena's powers. The thunderbirds were killed by the Asteri for this, and that is when they decided to create Hunt. Apollion and Thanatos were both part of his creation, and his mother was a willing participant. Hunt's angel father was killed for communing with the demons. They tell Hunt that the halo of thorns tattoo was created to keep the creatures of Hel in check, but it didn't work as Apollion and Hunt's power, the lightning that they called Helfire, was able to break it. When Bryce and Hunt return from their trance, they find the Stag King and the Autumn King holding all of their friends hostage. They plan to kill them all but Bryce and Hunt fight back, and Ruhn and Lidia appear and Ruhn uses the Starsword to kill his father. Bryce then kills the Stag King, and accesses Helena's power that was hidden under there.

Avallen magically flourishes now that it doesn't have to hide Helena's power. Hypaxia and Ithan arrive and are updated on the situation. Bryce tells Hypaxia she needs her to find a cure for the parasite in the water so that way they can be more powerful when they fight the Asteri. Bryce says because the Stag King's castle was destroyed when the land came back, Sofie's body is gone, but Hunt gives them some of his lightning. Hypaxia and Ithan leave again, and Fury arrives with Juniper, Ember, Randall, and Cooper (Emile). Bryce sends Ruhn, Lidia, Flynn, and Declan back to Crescent City to try and recruit Isaiah and Naomi, Tharion and Sathia to the River Queen to convince her to open her city to refugees, and she, Hunt, and her parents plan to go to Nena to open the Northern Rift to let Hel's armies in. Cooper, Juniper, Fury, and Baxian stay in Avallen. Once in Nena, they get to the Rift, but instead of opening it to Hel, Bryce opens it to Nesta's room. She asks her for the Mask, and to take her parents as collateral. Nesta refuses, and says Rhysand is on his way to get her. Bryce begs Nesta to take her parents anyways so that way they are safe, and Nesta relents, taking her parents but also giving her the Mask. She closes the portal, and is about to open one to Hel but is stopped by Isaiah, Naomi, and Celestina. Hunt tries to kill Celestina for turning them over to the Asteri, and he melts his halo and Isaiah's. Bryce convinces him not to, and Celestina yields, saying she realized what she did wrong and is willing to rebel against the Asteri. They are then attacked by the Harpy, who has been reanimated by the Asteri using Hunt's lightning, but Bryce realizes she's just an animated corpse and no longer has a soul, so she uses the Mask to put her down. She then opens the gates to Hel, and Apollion, Thanatos, and Aidas come through with their armies.

Back in Lunathion, Hypaxia discovers the cure to the parasite. Ithan takes it, and is gifted powers of snow and ice, and his wolf form is much more powerful. They then go to see the Under-King, and Ithan meets with Connor. He is unable to speak but gives Ithan a bullet. Ithan is confused and begs the Under-King for more time, but he refuses. Ithan freezes him solid, and then Jesiba appears. She tells Hypaxia to kill him and she does, and becomes the leader of the House of Flame and Shadow. She gives Connor the ability to speak, and he tells Ithan that the bullet is filled with the secondlight of all of the souls in the Bone Quarter, and Bryce should use it to kill the Asteri. Connor also puts himself into the bullet. Ithan decides to go to the wolves and confess what happened to Sigrid and tell them about the cure to the parasite. Sabine appears with the Astronomer and Reaper Sigrid, and claims that Sigrid is now her heir. The Prime steps in and renounces Sigrid and Sabine, and makes Ithan his heir. But before Ithan can accept, Sabine kills the Prime and Sigrid sucks out his soul. Sigrid also kills the Astronomer, and Ithan kills Sabine. Sigrid escapes, and Amelie and Perry Ravenscroft swear loyalty to him as Prime. Tharion and Sathia manage to convince the River Queen to not kill Tharion and to shelter innocents in her city. They are confronted by the Viper Queen, and Sathia recognizes one of her childhood best friends as one of the Viper Queen's soldiers. The Viper Queen demands retribution from Tharion for the burning of the Meat Market caused by the sprites. Hypaxia and Ithan appear and demand that the Viper Queen leave them alone, but Sathia goes after her old friend, leaving Tharion alone.

Lidia learns that the Depth Charger has been attacked and her sons have been taken by Pollux. Everyone rushes to the Eternal City. Bryce and Hunt winnow into the throne room and Bryce uses the Mask to reanimate the souls of the Fallen and their wings hanging up on the throne room wall, and puts their souls into the mech suits that the Asteri have built. Rigelus appears and reveals that he has sent half of his army to march into the open portal and take over Hel, but Bryce and the demons planned for this and already left half of their army guarding the portal. The rest of the Asteri appear on the battlefield, and Bryce kills Polaris by combining the Starsword and Truth-Teller. This opens a mini black hole that sucks Polaris in and kills her. Ruhn and Lidia search the castle for her sons, but Ruhn shoots her in the leg so he can go on ahead to save them. Tharion finds Lidia, and Pollux traps Ruhn. Tharion and Lidia both take the cure to the parasite and Lidia faces off against Pollux. Ruhn reveals that Lidia is his mate. Lidia's power manifests as fire, and she burns Pollux to ash. Ruhn rushes Brann and Actaeon out of the city, and Lidia joins the fight. Hunt and Bryce arrive at the firstlight core beneath the palace, but Rigelus is guarding it. They both tire, and Bryce winnows them away. Ithan finds Bryce and gives her the bullet and the Godslayer rifle. She winnows back to Rigelus only to find the remaining four Asteri guarding it. She plans to use the bullet to blow up the firstlight core, but Rigelus tells her that destroying it is a kill switch, just like the Cauldron is in Prythian. If she destroys it, Midgard will also be destroyed. Bryce takes a chance and does it anyways. It creates a massive black hole that sucks her and the Asteri into it. She pulls the black hole through a portal into space, but as long as the portal is open, the rest of Midgard also continues to get pulled in. Hunt jumps into a mech suit, piloted by the soul of Shahar, and jumps through, putting on the Mask so he doesn't need to breathe. The portal begins to close but Apollion, Aidas, Thanatos, Ithan, Ruhn, and the rest of their friends hold it open while Hunt rescues Bryce and pulls her back through. Bryce, however, is dead. Hypaxia says she can bring her back if someone trades lives with her, and Jesiba appears and volunteers. She talks with Bryce in the afterlife, revealing that even what the Asteri was doing couldn't destroy the souls of the dead. She waves to Danika, Lehabah, and the Pack of Devils, and comes back to life. The demons all go back to Hel, and Bryce closes the Northern Rift. She then, being the Queen of the Avallen and Valbarran fae, demolishes the monarchy. Lidia's sons go back to their adoptive fathers. Hypaxia begins working on mass producing the cure. Tharion goes back to the Meat Market to find Sathia, and runs into Ariadne instead. Ithan takes on his duties as Prime.

The bonus chapters for this book included Ruhn and Lidia getting married, Hunt and Bryce spending Winter Solstice at her parents', the night Danika tricked Bryce into getting the Horn tattooed, Bryce, Azriel, and Nesta listening to music together off of Bryce's phone, and Ember and Randall in the Night Court and Ember bonding with Nesta.

Bryce Quinlan (Bryce Danaan/Queen of the Fae/Starborn): I always preferred Bryce over Hunt and wished she had been on her own or with someone else, mostly because I don't care for Hunt. But she really lost all respect from me in this book and was acting totally out of character. Her telling Hunt to just get over his trauma and picking fights with him all the time was so unnecessary and a horrible way to treat your partner. She made everything that happened to him about her, and she was also awful to Lidia near the end and didn't even apologize for calling her kids baggage. Bryce was trying to be Aelin but was falling way short. Her death at the end had no impact on me whatsoever because it was obvious she was about to pull a Rhysand and resurrect. Also her using her parents' as collateral, and then trying to send them through anyways to keep them safe was so selfish. They would have been safe in Avallen and if she didn't think they would be, she just forced them to leave their son there! I wish we could have seen Ember tearing Bryce up for that choice because she definitely deserved it. You would think after everything she would have had some growth, especially with her attitude towards the Fae, but then she just childishly dismantles their monarchy and basically tells them to figure it out. Giving the Fae a vote in how they run things while trying to push for change of thousands of years old belief systems was so not the way to do that. Ruhn killed Einar, and Bryce killed Morven, so they both should have been stepping up to take responsibility for the fate of their people.

Hunt Athalar (Orion Athalar/the Hunter/the Umbra Mortis/Son of Hel): Hunt has never been my favorite but I just felt bad for him this whole book. Bryce honestly did not deserve him by the end of it and the fact that none of her horribleness towards him got addressed and he mostly ended up apologizing was so out of character and honestly abusive. On a positive note, I really liked his backstory of being descended from demons, I think that was much better and made way more sense than the god Thurr theories, even though it was annoying for all of those references and comparisons to come to nothing.

Tharion Ketos (Captain Tharion Ketos): I liked Tharion in House of Earth and Blood. I liked him less in House of Sky and Breath. In this book, his entire purpose just seemed to be the village idiot. It was really boggling how badly he kept messing everything up, and anything from his POV was kind of infuriating. The only thing that ended up making anything about his story interesting was Sathia.

Ithan Holstrom (Prime of the Valbarran Wolves): I've heard a lot of people complaining about Ithan and his POV and storyline, but I honestly kind of enjoyed it. He made a lot of dumb decisions, but I liked the trope of "running from destiny but no matter what you do it happens anyways". I'm hoping in the next book we actually get to see him gain more confidence and wisdom and do things right.

Einar Danaan (The Autumn King/King of the Valbarran Fae): I was really disappointed with where his character went, I felt like he was being set up for a redemption arc the entire time, just for him to be like, "I'm totally evil and I'm going to kill you!" in very over the top classic villain fashion. I know the whole point is that he was manipulative, but that's not how it came across.

Lidia Cervos (Agent Daybright/the Hind): Lidia was the most interesting character in this book. I knew going into this that Throne of Glass was definitely not going to be getting the screen time some people thought it was, I thought this was a perfect way to incorporate easter eggs. I knew her powers were going to be fire but it didn't make the reveal any less awesome. And the ring she gave her sons and the fact that she named her son Brannon was just the icing on the cake. Other than that, she had the most interesting character development, backstory, dialogue, and POVs than anyone else in the book (especially Bryce).

Storyline: I loved the ACOTAR crossover in the beginning, I thought it wasn't too much or too little. The rest of the story was riddled with a lot of plot holes, for example the reveal that the mer had been on Midgard the whole time fell flat because Rigelus had told Bryce in House of Sky and Breath that the mer came from the shifter fae (which made less sense but she just changed something that had already been established for mild convenience). Other things include: What really is Fury and why were her and Baxian, two of their most powerful fighters, left out of the biggest fight ever? What is so different about Perry that Ithan keeps sensing? Are they mates? Is she actually an Alpha? Is she secretly super powerful? Why was Ariadne, a super powerful dragon, introduced just to not do anything ever? What was all the tension between her and Flynn for? Everything just magically fell into place, and while in Kingdom of Ash everything comes together because Aelin is a genius, a lot of things come together in this book thanks to Urd (fate). The ending fell really flat for me, no one major died, and it was a lot shorter of an ordeal than I thought it would be, with one of the Asteri even dying off page and no one mentions how they died or who killed them (although I guess we're left to assume it was Apollion). Hunt and Bryce's dynamic usually annoyed me, but their back and forth between fighting, fucking, and fine was giving me whiplash and honestly taking away from the story. What happened with Sigrid did anger me at the time, but ultimately I did enjoy Ithan's storyline, contrary to popular opinion. Also, why did we spend so much of the story in caves? I got really tired of that by the second time around.

Representation: Baxian, Celestina, Juniper, Fury, Hypaxia, Marc, Isaiah, Hunt, Bryce, etc. were all POC. Juniper and Fury, Marc and Declan, Hypaxia and Celestina, and Davit and Renki (Brann and Actaeon's fathers) were all gay and in relationships with each other.

Summary: While the crossover and easter eggs were really cool, and the overall tie together of how everything connected was well done, the characters, dialogue, and plot made this book fall a lot flatter for me than I was hoping it would. I honestly wish SJM had wrapped up everything in this book and then left it as a trilogy because honestly I don't feel any desire to revisit this world or these characters (unless it's Ruhn and Lidia).

1.73.2 House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 801

Time Read: 14 hours and 31 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Adult urban fantasy

TWs for the book: S*xual content, violence, death, blood, war, murder, injury, slavery, cursing, torture, gore, grief, gun violence, alcohol, classism, colonization, drug use, genocide, fire/fire injury, confinement, misogyny/sexism, physical abuse, body horror, child abuse, s*xual assault/violence, mentions of r*pe, kidnapping, medical content, gaslighting, emotional abuse, toxic relationship, infidelity, panic attacks, trafficking, animal death, domestic abuse, mental illness, vomit, death of a parent, hate crime, discrimination, infertility, toxic friendship, homophobia, police brutality, arranged marriage, racism

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Crescent City (Lunathion) on the fictional continent of Valbara; the Eternal City on the fictional continent of Pangera; three months after the events of the first book

First Line: Sofie had survived in the Kavalla death camp for two weeks.

The story opens in the Kavalla death camp on Pangera, where the Vanir are keeping human rebels. Sofie, a rare type of Vanir called a thunderbird and an Ophion rebel, with the ability to harness and control all types of energy, frees her brother and a group of children from the camp. They are hunted by the dreadwolves, the wolf shifters that guard the camp, and the Hind, the deer shifter who serves as spy breaker and torturer in Sandriel's former triarii. Agent Silverbow, Sofie's lover, gets the children and her brother Emile to safety, but Sofie remains behind to distract the Hind and the dreadwolves. She is subsequently captured, and the Hind throws her, shackled, into the sea.

Meanwhile, in Crescent City, Bryce's parents are in town and they are seeing one of Juniper's performances. Afterwards, Bryce, Hunt, Juniper, and Fury go to Ruhn, Declan, and Flynn's house for a party. While there, Cormac, Prince of the Avallen Fae, appears and declares that the Autumn King has betrothed Bryce to him. When her and Hunt arrive home, they find Ithan bleeding on their floor. He defended Bryce against Sabine in an article and Sabine and Amelie beat him and kicked him out of the pack and the Aux. Bryce agrees to let him stay.

Tharion is on a mission from the River Queen to find Sofie's body. He goes to where she was dropped into the ocean but the chains are unlocked and the body is gone. The River Queen demands he keeps searching for her, as well as for her brother Emile, who everyone believes to be a thunderbird.

A new Archangel comes to lead the city named Celestina. An angel named Ephraim has been given control of Sandriel's old territory in Pangera, but because he has his own triarii and Celestina only has Hunt, Isaiah, and Naomi, the Asteri split up Sandriel's old triarii. They send Baxian, the Helhound, an angel with the rare ability to shapeshift into a dog, and Pollux, the Hammer, to Crescent City. Upon seeing Pollux, Hunt immediately attacks him and they both end up in cells. Bryce comes to free him upon Celestina's request.

Tharion finds an abandoned boat and believes Emile is running to the city with an Ophion commander named Pippa and her Lightfall squadron on his tail. He also finds emails between Sofie and Danika about things called Dusk's Truth, Project Thurr, and a safe hiding place in the city, and goes to ask Bryce if she knows anything. Hunt wants them all to stay out of it, but Bryce is insistent upon finding and helping Emile. Bryce meets with Fury who tells her that the only secret she knew about Danika was that she was a bloodhound, a rare ability among wolf shifters that allow them to sniff out secrets in a person's lineage. Bryce arrives home with Ruhn to find Ithan and Tharion on the couch with a white cat who reveals himself to be Aidas. He demands to know why Bryce hasn't been learning how to use her powers, and that her starlight doesn't come from Prince Pelias, but rather Queen Theia. He claims Pelias was an imposter who killed Theia, and demands that Ruhn's Starsword belongs to Bryce. He encourages her to aid the rebels and that the demons of Hel were actually fighting against the Asteri to free the people of Midgard. Cormac appears, and Aidas reveals him as the rebel Agent Silverbow before disappearing. He confesses he is also searching for Emile and that he ran away from Pippa because she wanted to use him as a weapon. He also wants to discover the war-changing secret that Sofie discovered about the Asteri before her disappearance, information she found at Danika's request. Cormac knew that Bryce knew Danika and it was the only reason he agreed to the betrothal. Bryce makes a deal with Cormac agreeing to keep the betrothal sham public if he helps her to learn her powers while they search for Emile with Tharion. Cormac also recruits Ruhn to help him by threatening to tell the Autumn King of Ruhn's mind-speaking gifts. Hunt tries to talk Bryce out of this plan, but she wants to find Emile on her own as she worries that Tharion, Cormac, and Pippa will just use the kid as a weapon. She also wants blackmail on the Asteri so that way they will leave her and Hunt alone.

Ruhn meets with Cormac who asks him to use his mind-speaking to contact Agent Daybright, a high-ranking Vanir close to the Asteri that they don't want to risk contacting any other way. Hunt has a dream where he speaks with Apollion, the Prince of the Pit and the demon that killed the seventh Asteri. He instructs Hunt to combine his powers with Bryce's and that they will be even more powerful. Ruhn manages to make contact with Agent Daybright, and she appears as a woman covered by flame. Ruhn passes along information to Cormac about a hit on the Spine, a train route where mech suits for Vanir will be transported. Pollux and Baxian get into a fight after Baxian stops Pollux from r*ping a girl. To keep media attention from focusing on their fight, the Asteri tell Celestina that she is to mate with Ephraim. Ruhn and Bryce head to the Aux training facility so that way Cormac can train her, when they are attacked by Reapers and Ruhn is dragged into the sewer. The Reapers tell Bryce that they were sent by Apollion, and that he wants to fight and kill her like he did with Prince Pelias, so she has to train her powers. They also hint that Emile is in the Bone Quarter. Bryce uses the Starsword to kill the Reapers, and Cormac teleports in to save Ruhn.

Bryce and Hunt decide that they are officially going to be together, and they decide that they are mates, even if they don't have the soul connection that Fae mates have. Hunt and Bryce travel to the Bone Quarter to interrogate the Under-King. He denies sending any Reapers after Bryce or that any are missing from his land. He also says Emile nor Sofie are there, and that neither is Lehabah, because Lowers are of no use. Then he explains that after a few centuries of the dead resting in the Bone Quarter, they are pushed through the Dead Gate and they become secondlight, and are used as a source of fuel and energy for the empire. He then has a demon, a large dog that can split into 3 dogs called the Shepherd, attack Bryce and Hunt. The Reapers and the Shepherd attempt to push Bryce and Hunt through the Dead Gate, but Bryce jumps in front of Hunt's lightning and flows through the Starsword and she begins killing them. Hunt manages to draw energy from the Dead Gate as well, very similar to a thunderbird, and they escape the Bone Quarter, aided by Tharion who takes them back to shore. Meanwhile, Ruhn, Ithan, and Cormac pass along rebel information about the Vanir mech suits so the rebels can attack the Spine. The rest of Sandriel's former triarii has arrived in the city along with Ephraim, and the commander of the dreadwolves, Mordoc, comes down the alley. Ithan tells Ruhn that he is a bloodhound, and Danika's father. Cormac teleports Ithan away, and then creates a distraction so Ruhn can run, but Mordoc catches his scent anyways. Cormac teleports Ithan and Ruhn to a bar across town so they have an alibi, and then vanishes right before the Hind and the Harpy enter. The Hind introduces herself to Ruhn as his fiancé's, Hypaxia the witch-queen's, half-sister.

Ithan wants to know if Connor's soul has been pushed through the Dead Gate so him, Bryce, and Tharion go to the Astronomer, a man that controls three mystics. Mystics are some rare Vanir born with the ability to essentially astral project all over the universe and into different dimensions, and their families usually sell them to people like the Astronomer. Ithan inquires about his brother, but the male mystic goes to Hel instead and encounters Thanatos, the Prince of the Ravine. He tells them that Connor is still safe in the Bone Quarter but he decides that he is going to eat the soul of the male mystic. All three mystics begin drowning, and Ithan frees them, much to the anger of the Astronomer who kicks them out. Ithan, still wanting answers about his brother, goes back to the Astronomer. He isn't there, but the female mystic is out of her tank, and he realizes that she is an Alpha wolf. She refuses to leave with him when he presses, and so he steals the Astronomer's rings.

Cormac discovers that Ophion has captured the Vanir mech suits and are keeping them on an island off the coast. Ruhn, Tharion, Bryce, Cormac, and Hunt go to the island. Cormac tries to convince Command to not let Pippa be in charge or start the war in Crescent City as she is insane, but he is overruled. Hunt reveals that the Vanir mech suits are meant to be able to draw firstlight from the ground and create massive bombs in an instant. He destroys the suits and the rebels shoot Cormac and they steal a boat and escape. However, the encounter Baxian, who warns them that the Hind is coming. A submarine blows up their boat and they are left floating in the water, but only the Hind approaches. She threatens them, but flees as a massive underwater ship comes to their rescue. It's a city ship from the Ocean Queen, and she claims that they were called there to rescue them. Hunt goes completely feral, lightning magic taking over upon seeing the Hind, and he is unable to calm down. Ruhn tells Bryce that her and Hunt are mates in the way that the Fae are mates. Bryce takes Hunt into a garden and they sleep together for the first time. When his magic flows into her, she teleports. After this, it is revealed that the city-ship went to go rescue Sofie, but she was dead by the time they got there and they have her body. Before she died though, Sofie carved a series of letters and numbers into her arm, and they presume it's the key to the information about the Asteri she was hiding.

Meanwhile, Ithan brings the rings he stole from the Astronomer back to Declan and Flynn. They break open the rings and reveal three fire sprite triplets. They break open the fourth ring though and reveal a dragon named Ariadne that was bound and contained within the ring.

When the rest of the group arrives back in the city, they are not confronted, so they assume that the Hind or Baxian hasn't told anyone of their involvement with Ophion. Baxian does come to them though and says he is a rebel sympathizer and wants to join them. Bryce lies and says that isn't what they were doing and rejects him. Hunt figures out that Bryce knows where Emile is. She takes him to the Meat Market and reveals that she had the Viper Queen find him and keep him safe, and in exchange Bryce owes her a favor one day. Emile reveals he isn't a thunderbird at all. Bryce has Fury take Emile to her parents' house, where they adopt him with forged paperwork. Hunt is angry at her for not telling him she found Emile and they fight and part ways.

Hypaxia comes to Ruhn' house and asks for him and Ithan to watch her back and for Ruhn to escort her to Celestina and Ephraim's mating celebration. Ithan agrees to guard her in exchange for her using her necromancer powers to get in contact with Connor.

The Autumn King comes to visit Bryce and tells her that he is having her name legally changed to Bryce Danaan, and that she is officially a princess of the Fae. After a falling out with Juniper and Fury being busy, Bryce contacts Hypaxia to talk. Ithan and Ariadne trail them, but two demons attack and rip out Ithan's throat. Hypaxia uses her healing magic to charge up Bryce so she can teleport and kill the demons. Hypaxia is able to heal Ithan, and it is revealed that Ariadne ran away.

Agent Daybright tells Ruhn that she will meet him at the mating ceremony for Celestina and Ephraim at midnight. The night of the party, Cormac escorts Bryce. When they arrive, Bryce heads straight to the Archangels and announces to them that her and Hunt have mated so he is now a prince of the Fae and she is no longer marrying Cormac. The Autumn King is humiliated but has no choice but to accept it because she had already gained the approval of two Archangels. Bryce and Hunt sneak away to have s*x and find Celestina and Hypaxia together. They swear to never speak about it to anyone. Ruhn goes to meet Day but the Harpy is there instead. He flees, and runs into the Hind as well on the way out, and then leaves the party altogether.

Apollion comes to speak to Bryce in her dream. He reveals that Aidas and Theia were lovers, and that Hel assisted Midgard in the last war. He denies sending the Reapers to threaten her and Ruhn, and asks her to open the gates to Hel so they can kill the Asteri. Bryce refuses, and he tells her to come find him once she has learned the truth. Ithan and Hypaxia try to summon Connor's spirit but instead summon the Under-King, and he traps them in the woods and sends hunting hounds after them. After a long night, Ithan and Hypaxia manage to make it to Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn, and the rest of them and she tells them that the Under-King demands they meet him at Urd's Temple or he'll shove Connor and the rest of the Pack of Devils through the Dead Gate. Only Bryce, Ruhn, Hunt, and Hypaxia go. The Under-King reveals that the Reapers who jumped them came from Eternal City, not the Bone Quarter. But the whole meeting was an ambush as Pippa and her Lightfall squadron attack the temple. Bryce teleports Ruhn and Hypaxia out, but doesn't have enough energy to get Hunt. The Lightfall Squadron is attacked by the dreadwolves and Pollux. Baxian pulls Bryce and Hunt through a secret passageway, but Bryce draws her gun and demands to know why he keeps helping them. He reveals a tattoo on his chest, "Through love, all is possible", in Danika's handwriting. He also reveals that he was Danika's mate. Bryce is heartbroken she kept this from her. Baxian reveals the numbers and letters on Sofie's arm are a room number in the Asteri Archives in Eternal City, and that he gave that number to Danika. Danika tasked Sofie with finding out what was in that room, and it took her three years but she finally did, and then ran to Kavalla to save her brother right after. They make plans to go to the Eternal City. Tharion tells the River Queen's daughter that he no longer wants to be engaged to her and she runs to tell her mother. In fear of having to live the rest of his life Beneath, he runs to the Viper Queen and swears allegiance to her as one of her fighters, stopping the River Queen from coming after him. Ithan goes to see the Prime and he tells him of the Alpha wolf mystic. Sabine gets angry at him, but the Prime pulls him aside in private to tell him that she is a Fendyr, and has the ability to replace Sabine as Prime Apparent. Ruhn meets with Day mentally and they kiss and sleep together telepathically. But at the end Day is pulled away and leaves him with a frantic warning. Ruhn goes into a panic thinking she has been discovered and captured and insists he is going to the Eternal City to save her. Hunt, Bryce, and Ruhn are the only three to go. Tharion and Cormac also travel to Pangera but blow up a laboratory as a distraction that they can blame on Pippa. Five of the Asteri show up to kill the rebels. Tharion flees but Cormac is killed.

In the castle, Bryce enters the room in the Asteri Archives. She finds a core of firstlight and pipes channeling it to the remaining six Asteri's thrones. She realizes that the Asteri are not the gods they make themselves out to be and that they are feeding on firstlight and secondlight. As she is about to leave, she encounters a room labelled Dusk. She goes in and discovers that the Asteri have done this to other planets for thousands upon thousands of years, killing and draining and feeding off entire planets around the cosmos. She finds notes on Midgard that say that the existing human population was not enough so they brought in the Vanir from other worlds. She also discovers that the Asteri tried to conquer Hel but were fought off, and Hel invaded Midgard to kill the Asteri and free the creatures there. As she tries to find the home world of the Asteri, she is caught by Rigelus. He reveals he lured her there so he could use her to reopen the Gates. Theia shut the gates to keep the Asteri from going back and conquering her home world. He reveals that Danika discovered that the shifters are all Fae, just a different kind than Bryce and from a different world. Rigelus says that they "bred out" the pointed ears. Bryce transports back to Hunt to find him captured by the Harpy and Ruhn is captured by Mordoc, who remembers his scent from the ally. They are all thrown into a cell and bound, and the Harpy begins to torture Ruhn, but Agent Daybright comes to the rescue, and it is revealed that she is Lidia, the Hind. Lidia kills the Harpy, but hears Pollux coming down the hall. She frees Bryce and Bryce beats her up and makes it look like she killed the Harpy. Pollux captures them all again and drags them before the Asteri, Lidia leaving Bryce's hands unbound. They stand before Rigelus, and Baxian and Mordoc enter. Rigelus reveals that he disguised himself as Aidas and sent the Reapers to manipulate Bryce. He says the eight pointed star on her chest is a mark of her home world, and that he wants to go back there and conquer that world as well. Bryce agrees to do so as long as he frees Ruhn and Hunt. He agrees, and she says goodbye to them. Hunt tells her to go to Hel and gather their armies, and Ruhn tells her she needs to live so she can be the Autumn Queen. She unlocks both of their chains while hugging them, and Ruhn and Hunt blast Rigelus while Bryce runs. Rigelus pursues her, and Baxian takes out Mordoc. Hunt sends a blast of power through the Horn and she opens a portal and disappears. Rigelus puts a slave halo back on Hunt.

Bryce lands in the grass in a city in front of a house. She thinks she is in Hel and is confused, but she has actually been transported to the ACOTAR universe. Azriel finds her, and she begs for him to take her to Prince Aidas, but they don't speak the same language, and he blindfolds her and takes her to the townhouse. Amren, Cassian, and Nesta enter, and Bryce mistakes Amren for Fury at first. She tries to speak to them in the Old Language of the Fae and Amren gasps and tells her that no one has spoken that language there in 15,000 years. She reveals the Starsword and Azriel pulls out Truthteller and they realize that the Starsword is Gwydion, the missing piece of Azriel's knife. Rhysand and Feyre enter, and Bryce mistakes Rhysand for Ruhn. They tell her she isn't in Hel, and Rhysand introduces himself.

Bryce Quinlan (Bryce Danaan/Starborn Princess): I love how Bryce continues to outsmart everyone, it's very entertaining to read and reminds of Aelin a lot. It's really heartbreaking to watch her continue to discover more and more about Danika's life that she didn't know about, and knowing more about her friend and honoring her legacy is a huge motivating factor for her. It annoys me a little bit that Bryce is super powerful and yet completely reliant on Hunt in order to use those powers. It would be bad writing for SJM to change who she is in a relationship with, but honestly I think Bryce should have stayed single or gotten a better mate.

Hunt Athalar (Orion Athalar/The Umbra Mortis): I'm really intrigued to see how Hunt's lineage comes into play in the story and the lore, but honestly I couldn't care less about him and Bryce's relationship. It doesn't have nearly the same impact Rowaelin or Feysand or Nessian. The dynamic almost feels forced in a way, especially with their conversation of "Well calling you my boyfriend feels weird so I guess we're mates after 3-5 months of knowing each other." I know that they actually are fated mates, but their relationship seems so s*x focused and surface level. The fact that their first time together was to calm Hunt down out of an overprotective male rage really rubbed me the wrong way and cheapened the whole thing for me, and a lot of his "sexy" dialogue made me either giggle or cringe. Their romance, and Hunt's character in general for me was more of a distraction from the plot (and this is coming from someone who lives for those spicy scenes).

Tharion Ketos: I love getting to see some of Tharion's POV in this as I feel like he is a fairly unique character and doesn't have a lot of the same loyalties and motivations as the other characters do. At the end of the day, while he does love his friends, he's a little bit of a selfish ass, willing to save his own skin at the expense of others (e.g. Emile, Sofie, Ariadne). While it isn't an admirable trait, it's good to see the variety from the other characters we see.

Ruhn Danaan (Starborn Prince): I was 100 times more invested in Ruhn and Lidia's love story than I was in Bryce and Hunt's. They had so much better chemistry and there was so much suspense behind it since they didn't know who the other one was. It definitely had way more forbidden romance vibes than Hunt and Bryce, and the reveal and Ruhn's turmoiled reaction to finding out that Agent Daybright was actually Lidia the whole time really makes me intrigued to see where their relationship goes.

Storyline: This book got five stars for the plot alone. There were some plot twists I could see coming (that the Asteri were evil, that Daybright was the Hind), but there were definitely a lot that I did not see coming even on my second read through (the female mystic being a Fendyr heir, Baxian being Danika's mate). The connections and revelations made about who the Asteri are and how Midgard is connected to the Throne of Glass world and the A Court of Thorns and Roses world were really well done and didn't feel forced. I love how SJM interweaves hints and easter eggs throughout her books, and how it's revealed that everything was important and nothing was mentioned carelessly.

Representation: Once again I think there were a decent amount of people of color in this book, and I'm glad SJM is expanding on the diversity of her characters. Baxian, Celestina, Hypaxia, Juniper, Fury, Hunt, Bryce, and Isaiah are all non-white characters. Juniper and Fury are gay and are in a relationship, and Declan gets a boyfriend named Marc. It isn't mentioned in this book but in the first book Isaiah is stated to be gay as well. Hypaxia and Celestina are together but must keep it hidden to continue their arranged marriages. I definitely wish there was more disability representation, as I think it would be really interesting to see modern magical creatures with modern yet magical assistive devices.

Summary: The second book was definitely better than the first in my opinion, and I really loved how well interconnected everything was. The cliffhanger was absolutely insane and I can't wait to read the final book when it comes out on January 30th. As I said earlier, I could really do without the Bryce/Hunt romance as much as it is, but it only detracts from the book a little bit in comparison to how many other compelling characters and plot lines are happening.

1.73.1 House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 799

Time Read: 14 hours and 49 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Adult urban fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, violence, drug use/abuse, murder, grief, blood, gore, slavery, torture, s*xual content, injury, cursing, su*c*dal thoughts/su*c*de attempt, war, alcohol/alcoholism, gun violence, panic attacks, addiction, classism, body horror, medical content, vomit, mental illness, medical trauma, animal cruelty, bullying, emotional abuse, physical abuse, abandonment, confinement, racism, sexism, misogyny, genocide, gaslighting, s*xual harassment, hate crime, fire, body shaming, self harm, toxic relationship, death of a parent, toxic friendship, child abuse, trafficking, car accident, ableism, child death, colonization, su*c*de

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Crescent City (Lunathion) on the fictional continent of Valbara

First Line: There was a wolf at the gallery door.

Bryce is a half-fae/half-human living in Crescent City as the assistant to an antiques dealer named Jesiba Roga. Her best friend Danika, a wolf shifter, is the Alpha of a pack in the city's auxiliary forces and is set to become the Prime of the Valbarran wolves. Danika is stressed as the leader of the human rebellion in Valbara, Phillip Briggs, is released from prison. She worries for Bryce and her pack's safety as she was the one to put him in jail. Connor, a member of Danika's Pack of Devils, asks Bryce out on a date after years of waiting. She tells him yes, but proceeds to go out to the White Raven nightclub to take drugs and get drunk with her other friends, Fury and Juniper. When she arrives home, she finds Danika and the Pack of Devils in bloody piles, dead. She runs into the street to find the killer and ends up chasing down a demon as it attacks an angel male on the ground. She fights against it and it bites her leg, but then it ultimately runs off. She is found by Hunt and Isaiah, two slaves working in the 33rd Legion that serve the city's Archangel Micah. Hunt is Micah's personal assassin, has the rare gift of lightning, and is a slave due to him leading a rebellion against the Asteri, the six god-like beings that rule over Midgard.

Two years later, Micah, Hunt, and Isaiah meet with Bryce to inform her that murders similar to Danika's have started again, and that they made a mistake by reimprisoning Phillip Briggs. Micah requests that Bryce, under Hunt's protection, work together to find the killer before the Summit, an important meeting of leaders that occurs every 10 years, as she had a connection to all of the victims; Danika and her pack, and the most recent victim Maximus Tertian, a vampyr that Bryce had just done a business deal with the night before. He tells her and Hunt to keep things quiet as the Archangel Sandriel, Hunt's former captor, and also his dead lover's twin sister, is going to be in town for the months before the Summit. He also tells Hunt that if he finds the killer, he'll only make him kill 10 more people before he allows him to be free, instead of the 2135 more lives he owed Micah in the original deal for his freedom. Ruhn Danaan, Bryce's half brother and the full blooded son of the Autumn King of the Fae, is tasked with finding a Luna's Horn, a Fae artifact that went missing shortly before Danika's death. The Autumn King suspects that Ruhn will be able to find it due to Ruhn having the Starborn power, although it isn't much more than a drop. Ruhn, Bryce, and Hunt meet, and Ruhn tells them that Luna's Horn was used by the Fae Starborn Prince Pelias to close the gates of Hel so no demons would come through anymore. The Prince of the Pit, the seventh layer of Hel, bred a demon named the Kristallos to hunt the horn, and Bryce identifies it as the demon she saw in the alley that night. They conclude that their cases must be connected. An acolyte from the temple where the three of them met is found dead, so they are confirmed in their suspicions that whoever is hunting for Luna's Horn is also behind the murders. Hunt tells Bryce that the angel male she saved the night of Danika's murder was actually Micah. The White Raven is bombed, and Phillip Briggs and his human rebels are once again suspects, even though Briggs is in prison. Ruhn insists Hunt move into Bryce's apartment for further protection. When Hunt and Bryce interrogate Briggs, he denies everything, including Danika's murder, saying he actually wanted to recruit Danika to their cause because she showed them mercy before and during their arrest. They also discover that Danika was on guard at Luna's Temple the night the Horn was stolen, and that the footage was swapped out to hide it. They conclude that Sabine, Danika's cruel mother, must be the one who stole the Horn or is summoning the demons.

With the help of a wraith named Viktoria, another member of Micah's 33rd Legion and also also a slave, Bryce and Hunt discover that the demon is using the sewers, and they ask Tharion, a mer friend of Hunt's, to keep an eye on the river for bodies or the demon. Bryce and Hunt meet with Sabine, who lies about Danika being at the temple. Ithan, Connor's younger brother, and Amelie, a wolf who was in love with Connor who is now Sabine's heir, mock and belittle Bryce during the visit. After Danika and the Pack of Devil's death, Bryce's texts to Danika were leaked to the public, where she admitted to sleeping with someone after agreeing to go on an date with Connor. The wolves all saw this as her cheating on him, and they all hate her. While walking around after the visit, Bryce and Hunt are attacked by the Kristallos, which he manages to kill. Upon arriving home, Hunt and Bryce are interrupted by Sabine who accuse them of poking their nose into Danika's death too much. Bryce accuses her of killing Danika and summoning the demon, but Sabine denies it, saying that Danika stole the Horn and she swapped the video feed to save herself from the public humiliation. Ruhn tells them about a new drug called Synth, originally meant for healing now being used as an illegal substance on the streets that can give magic and strength to humans; given in a higher dose however, or given to a Vanir, it can make them go insane, and is very dangerous. He thinks this could potentially be the substance spoken about in the riddle about healing the Horn from it's damage and restoring its ability to open portals between worlds. Tharion discovers around 8 missing persons' bodies in the river, all killed by the Kristallos but all different than Danika, the pack, and the other bodies that were completely ripped to shreds. They conclude that there must be another demon, and Bryce summons Aidas, the Prince of the 5th layer of Hel, to demand answers. Aidas came to Bryce in the form of a cat when she was 13 after her disastrous visit to the Oracle. He tells he that the demons have no interest in Midgard and that someone must be summoning them there, but he doesn't know who or what kind of demon killed Danika. Viktoria tests some clothes of Danika's and finds out that she had been in contact with Synth the night she died, and Tharion reveals she was seen either buying or selling Synth on the river illegally. Amelie mocks Bryce on the day of Danika's death and Hunt nearly kills her for it. After pressure from her mom, stepdad, and Hunt, Bryce decides to get the scar caused by the Kristallos healed. The med-witch removes the demon's venom from her leg and uses it to make an antidote for the Synth. Afterwards, Bryce and Hunt are summoned to Micah's office, where Hunt has his wings cut off for attacking Amelie at Sabine's request.

Bryce manages to hack into Danika's email, where she has hidden a file of videos from Synth testing at Redner Industries, revealing human test subjects injected with Synth tearing apart Vanir with their bare hands before turning on themself and tearing themself apart as well. The bodies' remains look exactly like the people they originally thought were killed by the Kristallos. Hunt convinces Bryce to not go after the Synth, but she leaves in the middle of the night anyways with Tharion to go see a Synth deal go down on the river. When they arrive, they find that the Viper Queen is selling Synth to Hunt, Viktoria, and Justinian, another slave in the 33rd, so they can restart their rebellion against the Asteri. They are caught by Micah, Isaiah, and a free 33rd member Naomi. Micah tells Bryce that Hunt has known for over a week that the Synth killed Danika and he kept it to himself, and that the pack and Danika died because she was a junkie and overdosed on Synth and killed the pack and herself. The Kristallos demon was accidentally summoned due to the amount of obsidian salt in the drug matching the demons' unholy number, and no one was searching for the Horn after all. Fury shows up to take Bryce away and Hunt is thrown in jail and his ownership is transferred back to Sandriel while Justinian is crucified and Viktoria is yanked from her body and dropped in a box down to the deepest ocean trench to slowly go insane forever.

Bryce, while livid at Hunt, balks at losing another friend, and offers Sandriel 97 million gold marks and magical amulet that keeps her safe to buy Hunt from her. Sandriel refuses, melting the amulet, and then Bryce offers herself in his place. Sandriel considers it until Ruhn shows up and claims her as his sister and the daughter of the Autumn King and refuses to allow her to do anything of the sort. Bryce is livid and walks off on her own, only to be attacked by a Kristallos demon. She is rescued by Ruhn and his friends. The Summit begins and every important leader and person in Crescent City is there, including Hunt. A couple days into the Summit, Micah leaves, and Jesiba gets frantic texts from Bryce asking ger to pull up the livestream of the video feeds in the gallery. It reveals Micah as he unveils to Bryce that Danika stole the horn, crushed it up, and had it tattooed into Bryce's back. He reveals that he was behind everything all along, and he was summoning the Kristallos demons to find the Horn so he could heal it with the Synth and use it to gain the power of an Asteri and summon an army from another world to kill the humans waging war on the other continent, but because Bryce is the Horn, the demon didn't directly attack her because she was wearing the amulet. The second she took it off though, it came for her. He also was the one to kill Danika and the pack, using his powers to restrain her before injecting her with Synth and watched as she killed her friends and then herself. Micah injects her with Synth to heal the Horn, but when she fights back, he throws Syrinx, Bryce's pet chimera, into the tank with a nøkk, an evil creature that Jesiba keeps as a pet. Micah blasts Bryce with his power to try and use the Horn, but it doesn't work, and Bryce and Lehabah, the fire sprite that guards the library, use the magical books to trap him. Bryce saves Syrinx, and they are about to flee, but Micah begins to break free. Lehabah sacrifices herself to break the tank with the nøkk to slow Micah down. Bryce runs and gets Jesiba's Godslayer rifle, a rifle capable of killing any Vanir, and Danika's sword, and shoots Micah through the head before decapitating him, lighting his body fire, and vacuuming away the ashes. She also takes an antidote for the Synth to keep it from making her kill herself. When she runs out onto the street however, she realizes the Horn did work, and opened up 7 portals to Hel in the city and people are being killed by demons. She begins fighting to make sure everyone makes it into their shelters. She goes towards the Asphodel Meadows where most of the humans live because they are the most defenseless. Ithan defies Sabine's direct orders and comes with the wolves to defend the humans. When the shelter doors are minutes away from closing, Bryce shoves Ithan in and is locked out herself. She calls Hunt to say goodbye and runs towards one of the portals. She reveals herself to be Starborn, and uses her own power and the power of the Horn to seal the gate to Hel.

At the Summit, Sandriel reveals that she's told the Asteri of what Bryce did and they plan to bomb the city to kill her and the remaining demons. Hypaxia, the witch queen, removes the witch mark weakening Hunt's power and he kills Sandriel, and then him, Fury, Ruhn and his friends, and Amelie rush via helicopter to the city to help and to save Bryce. The bombs begin hitting the city and Hunt dive bombs to protect Bryce, successfully shielding her but mortally wounding himself. Bryce decides to make the Drop, shed her mortal body for her immortal one, alone at the gates, hoping the connecting ley lines and the resulting First Light from her Drop will close the gates and heal Hunt. She doesn't have anyone to Anchor her which is incredibly dangerous, but Danika's spirit comes to help her and she makes the Drop, becoming far more powerful than she should be due to the use of the gates. The First Light heals Hunt, closes the gates, and repairs most of the city. Bryce and Hunt go back to her apartment and are getting intimate when they are interrupted by a call from her mother. Hunt gets a call from Isaiah requesting him to come to help him control the rogue angels who are vying for power after Micah's death. Hunt looks and sees his slave tattoo stamped out just as Bryce receives a threatening phone call from Rigelus, one of the Asteri, where he says that he granted Bryce Hunt's freedom as a reward and a bribe to remain quiet about killing Micah and Sandriel and for her promise to never use the Horn.

In the epilogue, Jesiba and Aidas meet, and he talks about how Bryce's starlight is not Prince Pelias' but rather his wife Theia's, and that Prince Pelias was responsible for Theia's death. He mentions Hunt's mysterious father, and says he would be proud but that Jesiba knew him better. Jesiba confirms that the library has been moved and hidden again, and tells Aidas not to screw her over again.

Bryce Quinlan: I really love Bryce as a main character because at first she seems dumb and ditzy and helpless but you very quickly find out that she's smarter than most and definitely more than capable of holding her own, even though she is mortal. I love her and Danika's friendship, specifically how loyal Bryce is to her and how much she loves her despite it being a purely platonic relationship (are you really best friends if other people don't think you're gay for each other?). I feel like in a lot of other SJM books, while friendship is valued, mates and partners come before everyone else, and I liked seeing that in this book. Even after admitting feelings, Hunt becomes no more important to her than Danika, Syrinx, Lehabah, etc. Even though I really didn't like how quickly she forgave Hunt, she still viewed it as "I can't lose another friend" and was willing to give up herself to save him.

Hunt Athalar (Orion Athalar/The Umbra Mortis): I really try to love Hunt, but personally, he just doesn't compare to the other men in SJM's other series. I am glad he stands apart from Rowan and Rhys, but he was honestly really unlikeable at times. He definitely felt more "modern" if that makes sense, and I just could not get over the fact that he betrayed Bryce's trust and then they go on to not speak of it ever again.

Aidas (The Prince of the Chasm): I desperately need to see more of Aidas and learn what his connection is to Jesiba, Bryce, Hunt's father, and the war overall. I think Hel and the Princes are going to end up playing a really interesting part in the series going forward, and I honestly like him way better than Hunt (not as a love interest just overall).

Lehabah: I loved Lehabah and she was perfect comedic relief and her death was absolutely devastating. I wish SJM hadn't killed her off, but it was a perfect demonstration of her character and who she was; loyal, brave, and loving.

Storyline: There were definitely some good, unforeseen twists and turns, but goodness SJM really throws a lot of information all at once at you in this book. Second read through was definitely better but I remember reading this for the first time and it was difficult to say the least. I'm not sure if "magical realism" is exactly the correct term for this book, however it was definitely very interesting to get to see magic and magical creatures in a modern world similar to ours. The Book of Breathings and Walking Dead hint near the end in the library is getting me so excited for how things are going to cross over between her series, and while the book doesn't end on a cliffhanger, the epilogue with Jesiba and Aidas reminds you of how many loose threads there still are and hints at exciting things to come.

Representation: Honestly not a lot of characters in this book are described as being white. Bryce, Hunt, Tharion, Juniper, and Fury are all seemingly people of color. Juniper and Fury are gay and in a relationship, and Declan and Isaiah are both mentioned as being with other males. Bryce has a massive scar on her leg that gives her a limp when she walks until she has it healed, but the scar remains.

Summary: Out of the three SJM series, this one is definitely my least favorite, but that's not to say that it's not still really good. 800 pages of mystery, side plots, and a huge cast of characters can make it a little more challenging of a read than what SJM fans might be used to, and the tone of everything is also definitely different, reading more like a murder mystery than the magical quests and adventures we see in A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass.

1.71.5 A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS (mild Kingdom of Ash spoiler)

Pages: 751

Time Read: 12 hours and 2 minutes

Overall: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

TWs for the book: S*xual content, violence, discussions of r*pe/s*xual assault, death, blood, mental illness, alcoholism, su*c*dal thoughts, death of a parent, pregnancy, murder, cursing, sexism/misogyny, gore, panic attacks, physical abuse, injury/injury detail, addiction, discussions of war, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, kidnapping, torture, s*xual harassment, confinement, child abuse, miscarriage, toxic relationships, child death, body horror, self harm, bullying, eating disorder, medical content/trauma, gaslighting, abandonment, fire, toxic friendship, classism, hate crime, ableism

POV: Third person; Cassian and Nesta

Time Period/Location: Velaris, The Court of Nightmares, Illyria, The Middle, The Spring Court, the Prison, the human lands of Prythian, and the human lands on the continent.

First Line: The black water nipping at her thrashing heels was freezing.

Set several months after A Court of Frost and Starlight, Nesta is still spending her time getting drunk and having s*x with random males. Cassian comes to get her to bring her to Feyre's new house on the river, where she is confronted by Rhys, Amren, and Feyre about her spending habits and the fact that she has no life and is being a self destructive alcoholic. They tell her that she will go live at the House of Wind, train with Cassian in Windhaven, and work in the library beneath the House. Nesta objects, but is told she will be sent back to the human lands otherwise. She refuses to train with Cassian at Windhaven, shelving books in the library and attempting to make it down the 10,000 steps of the House of Wind so she can go and get drunk at a tavern. Cassian realizes she needs privacy to train and begins training her at the House of Wind. Cassian spends time meeting with Eris, Lucien, Vassa, and Jurian to find out what the human queens are up to. The remaining three had fled back to their castles, but Briallyn, the young human who was turned into an old fae crone by the Cauldron, hunts for Nesta and the Dread Trove, three Cauldron made objects of great power. She works with Koschei, the Bone Carver and Stryga's brother and Vassa's captor, a death-lord confined to a lake. Nesta meets Gwyn, a fae-nymph priestess in the library, and Emerie, an Illyrian with her wings clipped who owns a shop up in Illyria. She eventually convinces them to come to training, along with other priestesses. It is revealed that Feyre is pregnant, but that the baby has wings and Feyre doesn't have the anatomy to be able to birth him without it killing her or the baby. Rhys decides to keep this a secret from Feyre as he searches for a way to save her. Nesta, Azriel, and Cassian go to the Bog of Oorid in the Middle in order to find the Mask, part of the Dread Trove that can raise the dead. They are attacked by Eris' missing Autumn Court soldiers that were kidnapped by Briallyn, and Nesta is taken by a kelpie. While being dragged along the bottom of the Bog, she finds the Mask and uses it to kill the kelpie. The Autumn Court soldiers are under some sort of spell, and they quickly discover that they are being controlled by the Crown, the part of the Dread Trove that can mind control people. Nesta's powers are revealed to be Pure Death. Cassian and Nesta start a physical relationship even though both of them want more than that and Nesta begins healing with the help of Cassian, Azriel, Emerie, and Gwyn.

Cassian takes Nesta to a blacksmith and she helps him forge two swords and a dagger, which he later brings to Rhysand claiming they are cursed. Amren examines them and claims that Nesta has created a "new Dread Trove" as magical weapons hadn't been seen for centuries and were all lost or destroyed. They vote over whether or not to tell Nesta, and the vote goes in her favor. When Cassian tells her, however, she is angry that they voted on her and in her anger, she marches down the 10,000 steps and goes to Amren's apartment to yell at her. Feyre comes running to diffuse the situation, but Nesta angrily tells her that her baby is going to kill her. Rhys demands Cassian get her out of the city before he kills her, and Cassian takes Nesta into the wilderness and they hike for several days to a lake. Nesta doesn't speak until she gets to the lake and begins sobbing and confesses all of her feelings and traumas to Cassian. They stay at the lake for a few days and then go back to the House of Wind. Nesta has a vision of the Harp, the part of the Dread Trove that can open portals and control time itself, and sees that it's at the Prison. Her and Cassian go to retrieve it but are confronted by a death-god named Lanthys and more of the captured Autumn Court soldiers. Nesta kills Lanthys with one of the swords she forged, Ataraxia, and they use the Harp to flee the Autumn Court soldiers. Nesta apologizes to Feyre. Nesta also agrees to dance with Eris at the Night Court in order to woo him and secure his alliance. At Winter Solstice, Cassian gets her a gift, an enchanted item that plays music so she can listen to it and dance. She tries to refuse it and they fight, and she claims that she is unworthy of anything but Eris. They have s*x and the mating bond snaps into place, but Nesta nor Cassian acknowledge it, and Cassian leaves for several days. When he returns, he tries to acknowledge the mating bond and Nesta panics and refuses and sends him away, running to Emerie's shop in Illyria. Gwyn joins them, and when they go to sleep that night, they are kidnapped by Illyrian soldiers and forced to participate in the Blood Rite, the Illyrian version of the Hunger Games that allows them to become warriors. Cassian and Azriel learn that Eris has been kidnapped by Briallyn and go to rescue him. Nesta, Emerie, and Gwyn make it up Mount Ramiel, and almost win but are stopped by Emerie's cousin who is mind controlled by Briallyn and the Crown. On the continent, Azriel escapes with Eris but Cassian is captured by Briallyn and put under her control, and Koschei winnows them to Mount Ramiel where Nesta has just defeated Emerie's cousin. Emerie and Gwyn escaped to the magic rock atop the mountain and were instantly winnowed back to Windhaven. Cassian tries to kill Nesta under Briallyn's control, and Nesta's power is unleashed and she completely Unmakes Briallyn. Azriel and Mor winnow in and tell them that the baby is coming early and Feyre is dying. They go to her bedside but there is nothing to be done for her or the baby. They cut the baby out of Feyre, but he is dead, and Feyre begins to die. Because of a bargain between them, if Feyre dies, Rhys also dies. Nesta summons the Mask, the Crown, and the Harp and tells the Cauldron she'll give it back her power if the Mother helps to heal Feyre. Feyre is healed, the baby is healed, and Feyre and Nesta's anatomy both change to be able to have Illyrian babies in the future. Nesta accepts the mating bond with Cassian.

Nesta Archeron: Nesta was a really unlikeable character in A Court of Frost and Starlight, but it is revealed and explained why she acted the way she did and how she was handling her trauma. She's definitely a very brave person and also very fierce and loyal despite her anger. Once she is able to find herself again, you end up rooting for her ambitions and desires and goals. I didn't like that at the end Nesta loses most of her power, as SJM also did this to Aelin in Kingdom of Ash.

Cassian: I love that Cassian never gave up on Nesta and never abandoned her no matter how mean or difficult she was with him. He didn't just have feelings for her because of the mating bond, but rather truly loved her.

Rhysand: In my opinion Rhysand from other people's perspectives isn't as nice as he is from Feyre's. He acted like an ass towards Nesta for most of the book, only changing his actions after she saved his, Feyre's, and baby Nyx's lives. And the fact that he wouldn't tell Feyre that the baby was going to kill her, and then wanted to kill Nesta for telling her of it, even if it was done in anger, was so out of line.

Storyline: I did love the storyline and even though it had a bit of slower pacing and was longer than any of the other books, I was fully invested the whole time. The spicy scenes were definitely a plus, and I like getting to see the things they have to deal with after the war instead of it just being a happily ever after. Also Eris and Tamlin potentially getting a redemption arc is going to be really interesting, and I noticed some foreshadowing for Elain maybe not staying in the Night Court (but I am not getting into the middle of the Elriel/Gwynriel shipwar)

Representation: Emerie, Cassian, Azriel, Rhys, and the rest of the Illyrians are written as people of color, Helion is black, Lucien is mixed and has a mechanical replacement for an eye. Nesta struggles with her mental health and addiction, and Emerie is crippled due to her father clipping her wings when she was young. Clotho also has damaged hands and no tongue due to being attacked, and she uses a magical pen to write down her thoughts as a way of speaking. It is hinted that Emerie might be gay as she blushes when seeing Mor.

Summary: As with all of SJM's books, I love them deeply, and while I do always have criticisms, I am glad she is taking the time to expand upon the characters that she has created and her worlds.

Quotes: "Never again would she be weak. Never again would she be at someone's mercy. Never again would she fail."-about Nesta (p.402)

1.71.4 A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 229

Time Read: 3 hours and 32 minutes

Overall: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★☆☆ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

TWs for the book: S*xual content, grief, alcoholism, discussions of death, mental illness, discussion of war, discussion of death of a parent, sexism, toxic relationship, eating disorder, misogyny, child abuse, cursing, discussion of pregnancy, su*c*dal thoughts, addiction, discussion of emotional and physical abuse

POV: First person; Feyre/Rhysand/Morrigan/Cassian/Nesta

Time Period/Location: Velaris, The Court of Nightmares, Illyria, and The Spring Court on the fictional continent of Prythian

First Line: The first snow of winter had begun whipping through Velaris an hour earlier.

Written as a "Christmas special" type novella a few months after the War and 2 years since the beginning of our story, Feyre and the rest of the Court of Dreams prepare for the Winter Solstice. Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel deliberate how to gain control of the Illyrians who are starting to grumble up north in the mountains. Feyre begins to paint again and opens an art studio for children with her new friend Ressina. Rhys confronts Tamlin and struggles to make peace with all that was done to Feyre. Feyre and Elain battle with Nesta to get her to join their new family. Cassian struggles with his feelings for Nesta and also tries to convince her to join them. Feyre tries to convince Lucien to stay in the Night Court, but he much prefers the company of Vassa and Jurian, dubbing themselves the Band of Exiles. Morrigan has to decide whether or not to go to the continent to spy for Rhysand. Feyre and Rhys decide to have a baby.

Storyline: In comparison to all the other books in this series, this one is definitely a little bland and comes across more like fanfiction than part of the plot. It definitely is a nice break to get more of a slice of life perspective on the Court of Dreams, but it can be a little tedious to get through at times with some of the repetitive thoughts and sentiments, as well as a lot of restating of things that have already happened. It definitely did feel like a closing chapter for Feyre and Rhys as SJM goes on to explore the other characters in the series, but man do I really hate the pregnancy trope. Feyre is 21 years old to Rhysand's 500+, and she states earlier on that she wants to wait to have kids because of how much time they have and how young she is. Now granted, she does explain that she doesn't want to wait for anything because even with their immortality, they can still die and don't know what the future holds. But to me the pregnancy trope always feels like a reduction of the female character, especially since this is closing out the focus on Rhys and Feyre's story.

Representation: Varian, Cassian, Azriel, and Rhys are described as POC, and Lucien is mixed. As always, Lucien is missing an eye and has a mechanical replacement. Mor's bisexuality (homosexuality?) is briefly mentioned by Feyre but then not discussed again.

Summary: Overall, it was a nice break from the thick books that came previously and are definitely following this one. This point is where SJM starts to take some plots in some unsavory directions in my opinion (the Azriel/Lucien/Elain love triangle, the pregnancy trope, the strange way she writes about Mor's sexuality at times), but I am definitely still invested in the series to an insane degree and continue to love the characters and world building.

1.71.3 A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 699

Read Time: 11 hours and 47 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

TWs for the book: War, violence, s*xual content, death, blood/gore, death of a parent, injury/injury detail, grief, torture, vomit, kidnapping, body horror, toxic relationship, domestic violence, cursing, fire/fire injury, emotional abuse, genocide/colonization, mental illness, gaslighting, panic attacks, misogyny, slavery, s*xual assault, child death, medical content, abandonment, r*pe, animal death, biphobia, homophobia, su*c*dal thoughts, alcohol, child abuse, eating disorder, infidelity, racism, incest (implied), self harm

POV: First person; Feyre/Rhysand

Time Period/Location: The Night Court, The Spring Court, The Autumn Court, The Dawn Court, The Summer Court, The Winter Court, The Middle and the human lands of the fictional continent of Prythian

First Line: The buzzing flies and screaming survivors had long since replaced the beating war-drums.

After being brought back to the Spring Court by Tamlin, Feyre plays the part of Tamlin's fiancé in order to bring down the court from the inside. She also gathers information from the presence of Brannaugh and Dagdan, two Hybern commanders, and Jurian, the crazed, resurrected human commander from the war 500 years ago. The commanders search for a way to bring down the Wall using the Cauldron, and Lucien and Feyre accompany them on their journey to find the hole. During this time, Feyre sows seeds of discord and mistrust throughout the court, and finally makes her move to leave and return to the Night Court. She encounters Lucien, however, being assaulted by Ianthe, and she orders her to smash her own hand to pieces. Brannaugh and Dagdan reveal that they knew what she was doing the whole time and have laced her and Lucien with faebane, a stone that negates faerie magic. She kills them regardless, and flees with Lucien to the Autumn Court. While there, they are confronted by Lucien's brothers, and manage to escape into the Winter Court to be rescued by Cassian and Azriel. Rhys and Feyre are reunited, and she goes to the House of Wind to see her sisters that have now been turned into High Fae. Nesta is enraged at the situation, not for herself but for Elain, who is withering away from grief at losing her chance at being married to Grayson, the human boy she was in love with. Despite Lucien being her mate, she shows no interest in him. Cassian and Feyre plan to unleash the Bone Carver, a death-god kept in the Prison, in the upcoming war, but he demands a mirror called the Ouroboros from her that is kept in the Court of Nightmares. The Court of Dreams (minus Cassian, Elain, and Lucien) go to the Court of Nightmares to ask for the mirror and request Morrigan's father Keir to promise is Darkbringer legion in the coming war. Rhys offers a deal with Eris, the eldest son of Beron, High Lord of the Autumn Court, and Morrigan's former betrothed, to Keir for his forces. Keir demands that the Court of Nightmares also be granted access to Velaris. Morrigan is appalled and begs Rhys not to agree, but he does, and Keir also agrees to part with the Ouroboros, but only if Feyre can take it by looking into it, which is rumored to drive the person mad. Mor and Rhys have a brief fall out after this encounter even though he assures her that he has taken precautions to ensure Velaris won't get ruined. Rhys demands a meeting of all of the High Lords. Elain begins speaking in riddles. While waiting on a response, Amren, Nesta, and Feyre all delve into research about a way that Nesta can maybe repair the holes in the Wall. When Nesta went into the Cauldron, she took a piece of it's power, and it wasn't strong enough to bring down the Wall on its own. Nesta and Feyre are in the library when the King of Hybern's "Ravens" attack. They are saved by a mysterious, terrifying creature at the bottom of the library named Bryaxis. Bryaxis and Rhysand kill the Ravens, and when they return to the townhouse, they realize that Elain had warned them of the attack before it happened, and they realize she is a Seer. Elain also reveals that the sixth human queen was sold to a death-god on the continent and he cursed her to be a firebird by day and a human by night and that she was sold out by her fellow queens. Lucien agrees to go and search for her in case she can make a difference in the upcoming war. Adriata, the capital of the Summer Court, is attacked by Hybern, and despite the blood rubies on their heads, Rhys, Feyre, Mor, and a unit of Illyrians go to try and help Tarquin defend his city. He is still angry at them for stealing his half of the Book of Breathings, but doesn't have them killed and agrees to come to the meeting of High Lords.

The meeting takes place in the Dawn Court, and all of the High Lords attend, even Tamlin. A lot of bickering ensues, and Tamlin claims that he intended to betray Hybern the whole time, but was now weakened by Feyre destroying his court from the inside. Feyre ends up attacking Beron, causing him to flee the meeting, but the other six High Lords stay the night and agree to reconvene the next day. That night, Nesta says there is something wrong, but the rest of them, unable to sense anything, stay. The next afternoon, Nesta begins profusely vomiting and they all feel a huge blast wave. Nesta then explains that they are too late and the King of Hybern used the Cauldron to bring down the Wall. They immediately leave and prepare for war. They first go to the Summer Court to beat back Hybern's invading forces, and then go north to ensure they don't reach the Winter Court. It was a trap, however, and the mass of Hybern's army went and invaded the human lands. Elain is kidnapped by the Cauldron, and Azriel and Feyre infiltrate their camp to retrieve her. They barely make it out alive with the assistance from Jurian and Tamlin, both of whom were double crossing the King of Hybern, and rescue a human girl named Briar while there. The final battle begins in the human lands with Hybern holding the high ground. Feyre reveals that she went and retrieved the Ouroboros mirror and freed the Bone Carver and Bryaxis, and Rhys reveals he freed the Weaver of the Woods to fight for them. The battle is going alright until Nesta feels the Cauldron about to wipe out the Illyrian forces. She screams for Cassian and he rushes to her, just in time for him to avoid being incinerated by the Cauldron. The Bone Carver is also wiped out. Their forces begin to lose, only for the Autumn Court army, the remaining Spring Court army, and a human army led by Grayson and Jurian to join the fray. Feyre, Amren, Nesta, and Elain plan to neutralize the Cauldron, but Nesta is damaged by the affects of the Cauldron being used, and Elain was too shaken. The rest of Hybern's army appears on ships, largely outnumbering them. But then another fleet appears, along with an aerial legion from Rhys' long lost friends, Miriam and Drakon. The ships belong to the sixth firebird queen, Vassa, who was temporarily freed from her bond to the death-god by none other than the Archeron sisters' father. The tide starts to turn in their favor, and Nesta and Cassian agree to be distractions for the King so Amren and Feyre can neutralize the Cauldron. Nesta is about to kill the King, but he had captured her father and kills him, making Nesta lose focus on her powers. Cassian is brutally injured, and they are about to die when Elain stabs the King through the neck and Nesta finishes the job by beheading him. At the Cauldron, Feyre realizes that Amren lied to her about neutralizing the Cauldron. Amren uses Feyre as a conduit to free her from her High Fae form and she becomes the creature that she came to Prythian as 15,000 years ago. In one fell swoop she kills the entirety of Hybern's army and then fades away. Her doing this breaks the Cauldron into 3 pieces, and reality begins to unravel and be sucked into a void. Feyre uses Rhys' magic to heal the Cauldron, but it kills him. She begs the High Lords to bring him back to life as they did with her, and they all agree, except for Beron, who is forced to by Mor. Even Tamlin steps forward, and wishes Feyre to be happy, and agrees to bring him back. Amren also appears in the Cauldron, except only High Fae this time.

The High Lords and humans and all other remaining factions meet and discuss a new Treaty. It doesn't go badly, but also doesn't go well, but they all have a path moving forward.

Feyre Archeron (Feyre Cursebreaker): The one thing I especially love about how Feyre is in this book is that she makes mistakes. In the first part of the book she is so angry and hellbent on revenge against Tamlin (rightfully so) that she doesn't consider that destroying his court would make it easier for Hybern to take hold. While she doesn't necessarily apologize to Tamlin for this (because he acts like a real asshole), she does realize her mistake. Also, after she looks into the Ouroboros, she tells Rhys that she loves and forgives everything she saw in the mirror, all aspects of herself, the good and the bad, and I found that to be really beautiful character development from her and a lot of growth from the self loathing she felt in A Court of Mist and Fury.

Amren: There has definitely been a lot of speculation of what Amren really is but my favorite interpretation (and one I think might have been confirmed?) is that she's a biblically accurate fallen angel. Which is so cool and makes her ten times more awesome and scary in my opinion.

Tamlin: Tamlin became even more unlikeable than I thought possible in this book, but the ending really leaves it open for him to get a redemption arc. The scenes with him in it can definitely be difficult to read if you've ever had an abusive ex though.

Storyline: Once again, Sarah J Maas did not disappoint with the plot twists and heart stopping scenes. I've reread this series more times than I can count but Rhys' death and then subsequent resurrection at the end still makes me shed tears. There are a few minor plot holes and convenient occurrences, but in my opinion it doesn't do much of anything to take away from the story.

Representation: Madja, Tarquin, Varian, Cresseida, Helion, Rhysand, Cassian, Azriel, Miriam, Drakon, Vassa, and quite a few other characters are described as being POC. It is revealed that Lucien is mixed, as his true father is Helion, not Varian. Lucien still has his mechanical eye, Nuan, an alchemist from the Dawn Court, is an amputee with a mechanical arm, and Nephelle, a Seraph from Miriam and Drakon's land is described as having malformed wings. Morrigan is revealed to be bisexual (or perhaps a lesbian, it's left a little unclear), Thesan has a male lover, and Nephelle has a wife. Mor also mentions that Rita, the owner of the club she frequently visits, is also "like her".

Summary: This was a great end to the first part of the ACOTAR series. The plot was always compelling and kept you sucked in, and all of the characters, while flawed in their own ways, are deeply loveable and you are rooting for them the whole time.