Jaclyn’s Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)
written by Sarah J. Maas
published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2013

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Target, Walmart, Kobo, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book? Book 1 of this series definitely reset my expectations–perhaps set them a little TOO low. I went into this book expecting to hate it. I actually went back out to the internet before reading this, just to be sure I didn’t misunderstand the talk about this series. It seems that the general consensus is that the series gets better as the books go on, so I kept plugging on.
 
Book 2 is definitely better than Book 1 in this series. If nothing else, we finally see Celaena do some actual assassin stuff! Her character starts to move from the whiny kid to a real assassin. In another great move, the author starts to develop the other characters in the story as well. I wasn’t really sure where the author was going to take the plot for this book or for the rest of the series.
 
All in all, I thought this was a good Book 2. This was definitely better than Book 1 and did a great job setting up the plot for future books. I didn’t love it, but it was a huge improvement.
 

 

Would I recommend it? I’ll be honest, I still couldn’t put this book down. Not only that, but I really looked forward to starting Book 3 in the series. I don’t know that I’ll be able to recommend any one of the books by itself, but I’m starting to understand why the other commenters recommend “suffering” through the first books to get to the end of the series. If Book 3 improves over Book 2 as much as Book 2 improved over Book 1, I will be a very happy reader. Stay tuned for reviews on the rest of the series!

 

 

About the book – from Goodreads: From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

 

 

 

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** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on June 2, 2018.