Book: Crown Of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Published August 2013 by Bloomsbury|418 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: Throne Of Glass #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

“A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend.”

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.

Why on earth did it take me so long to read Crown Of Midnight?  Why??!?!?!  I really liked it, and I wish I had picked it up sooner!

We see Celaena as the Kings Champion and we actually get a glimpse of Celaena as the bad-ass assassin that was mentioned and hinted at in Throne Of Glass.  I didn’t really get why she was this feared assassin in the first book, and we don’t get a lot of it in this book, but we do get a few glimpses of it in this book.  I really liked seeing that, and part of me is hoping we’ll see more of that Celaena in the next couple of books.  And we definitely learned quite a bit about Celaena and her family in this book…I still wish we knew more about her childhood, but I have the feeling that’s something that might be coming up in the next couple of books.

I’m not sure why I was so surprised by a certain revelation about her family history- I don’t if it’s because I remember basically nothing from Throne Of Glass (I actually wish I had re-read it, because I did feel a little lost) or if I just didn’t put it together and should have.  As for feeling a little lost, there were points where I was a little confused about what was going, and that’s probably because I got a little distracted at times.  But it did come together, and I’m feeling pretty good about the idea that we’ll be learning a lot more about what’s going on.

I did feel really invested as Celaena tried to figure out the riddle and everything else.  There are quite a few things that people don’t realize/figure out until it’s too late, and it makes me wonder what that means for the books to come.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Or is it something that falls somewhere in the middle?  We all know it’s coming to come out sooner or later, and when it does…I don’t know what that will mean for some of the characters, especially Chaol and Dorian.

I’m feeling pretty ambivalent about Chaol and Celaena, who certainly has more important things to worry about. And yet, how differently would things have gone if he and Celaena didn’t have so many issues?  He did seem to realize the error of his ways, but it was too little, too late.  And even though he tried to protect her, in the end, it may or may not be his best decision.  We will see how that works out.

Oh, Nehemia!  I feel like we haven’t seen the last of her, and even though I was not expecting things to go a certain way for her, I’m still curious if she will continue to have a role in things.

4 stars.  I really liked it, and I can’t wait to see where certain revelations take us!