This felt like an intermission from the whirlwind of action left off Empire of Storms. Personally, I didn't tandem read them, so at first it felt like an unwelcome break from the fast pace of the action, but after a few chapters, I was invested in this story as well. Despite my expectations, this books sets up so many important characters and pieces of lore and actually contributes to the overall story more than I initially gave it credit for. Chaol gets the spotlight for once, without being in rapport with Aelin or Dorian, as we've always seen him, and he holds his own as the protagonist. It was an enjoyable read, not as action packed as we've become used to, but meaningful nonetheless.

I did not finish this book, this book finished me. The emotional rollercoaster this story carried me on left me gasping for air: plot twists upon plot twists and so many characters, so much drama. We finally see Aelin reach the mystical North and it's not all smooth sailing. She has a tight knit court around her, but the path to the throne isn't as straight forward as the previous book made it seem. Again, we have different POVs, but again they manage to merge together somehow. We see some characters mature in this book, some unfortunately remain stagnant and others are absent altogether. We keep pushing towards the big finale, but we're not quite there yet. Overall it was a well rounded book, but some characters begin to resemble each other a bit too much.

This book truly impressed me. Here we see everything come together: all the plot points we've been introduced to in the past installments, all the characters finally meet (and their meetings are so well written). For me it marks a very poignant end to Celaena Sardothien and a hopeful hello to Aelin Galathynius. Every single one of the characters gets to shine and to have a compelling arc, which is honestly what every good book should deliver, hence the first 5 star review in the series.

This book thoroughly, completely, undeniably destroyed me. It consists of 5 novellas in chronological order, revealing the details of Celaena's life before the events of Throne of Glass. If you happened to read that one first (like I did), you more or less know what to expect from this prequel (and some of it isn't pretty). The stories are compelling and help shape Celaena as a multi-dimensional character, delving into past crucial events in her life.

This book was A LOT. A lot of characters, a lot of plotlines, a lot of backstory and a lot better than its previous ones. Despite having to follow multiple threads of the plot, I felt like it made sense that all of them be told to the reader, in order to have that overall picture of what's happening simultaneously in all these different places. We finally see some characters without what I call "other-character-crutches", meaning we see who they are without being paired with someone we've always seen them with and the story progresses naturally. Sometimes I felt like we were focusing too much on specific events from the past, but I guess everybody does the same in real life too, so can't fault the characters too much for doing it too. The ending is something to behold in this one.

This was better than its predecessor by a long shot. As it is with sequels, it's always smoother this time around because we already have the characters, the world and its workings are mostly established, basically we have status quo. That we now meddle with. So Celaena is the King's Champion and she actually has to deal with this here; careful what you wish for, am I right? So while she has to grapple with these moral and logistical implications, our boys Dorian and Chaol are busy handling and preserving their friendship, which believe me, is no easy feat. There are some truly emotional moments in this book and let's just say, some mistakes are made, because thankfully this isn't a perfect mystical world. The story indeed fulfills more of its potential in this book.

This book set up a fantasy world full of potential and it only managed to put some pieces into play, but in my opinion it was mostly the right ones. To no one's surprise, this is the first of 8 books, so I was actually glad to see we didn't skim past some event quickly. The FMC is an assassin with a traumatic past (shocking, I know), but I liked that she is fallible and actually makes some mistakes out of which she has to learn. The male characters are fine, just a little bit bland and underdeveloped. The plot makes sense (most of the time); the world building focuses on the main cities and fictional types of beings, so you only know about what you're dealing with, not all there is to know, so it could give the reader some more details. The map of the land really helps though. Excited to see what happens next because the potential is there, the first execution just wasn't memorable to me.

It was a cute book, a nice follow-up to Icebreaker, considering most of the characters make a reappearance here, but it was so slow-paced, I struggled keeping my patience a few times. The main characters were experiencing similar heartaches, which brought them closer together, but they didn't wallow in them, thankfully. They were good together, but I couldn't tell you much else about the other characters because they felt like filler. Much like the rest of the plot, they weren't actually relevant. It's a nice Sunday read, but skippable from my point of view.

A satisfying ending to an adorable trilogy (or 6-book saga, if counting Caraval too). I've been waiting for this for like 6 months to come out and I wasn't disappointed. We pick up right where we left off and Steph does not waste time in the aftermath of the last book. If you read that one, you'll know this means backtracking a bit, but everything pays off as you read along. This book brings us the conclusion of Eva and Jacks's arc and boy is it a wild ride. I was so invested in their story, I literally got teary a few times. It's currently one of my most prized posessions and the book cover is gorgeous! 5/5 for me

OH MY GOD. That could be the entire review because how did Stephanie achieve this level of romance, excitement, pure sass, betrayals, twists and turns and overall amazingness?? The world-building was immaculate this book, the setting descriptions so vivid, the feelings were turned up to 11 and you won't want to get off this emotional rollercoaster. The ending of this book had me crying and gasping for air and couting down the days until the last book came out. I would definitely recommend this one, 5/5 stars!

Such a good premise for a trilogy and an even better continuation for the Caraval series fans! I've been dying to see more of Jacks and this book really delivered in showing us more facets of the antihero/villainous character (depending on who you ask). Being a sucker for morally grey MMCs and believable, multi-dimensional FMCs, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the ending had me hungry for the sequel.

The book arrived fast and in perfect condition, as always :) content-wise it had plenty of marital issue analysis, strong motivations from believable characters and plenty of groveling. Ale and Dom were fleshed out enough so you could see both of their perspectives and actually root (and swoon) for them. It's not a perfect score from me because I wish we'd gotten more of the happy moments as well and the pacing was less than perfect, but it's still a worthwhile read in the Kings of Sin saga.