Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, 4)

"It was like dying a little every day. It was like being alive, too. It was joy so complete it was pain. It destroyed me and unmade me and forged me. I hated it, because I knew I couldn't escape it, and I knew it would forever change me." wow wow & wow. Why did I wait so long to start QoS?? I was sucked into this from the beginning and it didn't let go till the very end. I'm starting Empire Of Storms right now. I can't wait to see what happens to Aelin and her court. Also I'm completely in love with Manon & Dorian. Shipping these two hard. Surprise character that I really enjoyed was Elide, I'm super intrigued to see what her lays ahead for her!!

This was such a amazing book I loved it so much! We have reunions, basses fighting scenes and a beautiful climax to some amazing plot points and characters that it was just a beautiful read. I love how badass this is and I can't wait for the next one in the series. Character growth in many areas, hints of the future and the shadows of the last coming to the fore front. I think this book was all about why they main characters act the way they do and I can't wait to hear more about the threat as the books develop. Awsome !

This is and always will be my favourite book in this series! So many surprises along the way, twists and turns I never would have seen coming, and OMG Aelin is so sneaky and clever, she has me snickering throughout. I love how our new and old Characters weave together in this book, and we can start to see how each separate story is linked very cleverly to the whole. In the previous book I’m not keen on Manon, I read the scenes but I honestly wanted to skip them on the first read because I just wasn’t invested in her yet. I didn’t see the point in suddenly throwing in more people and societies just for the same of it, and yet by the middle of this book I ADORE her and her Thirteen. Nothing about this book goes how I expected, in all the best ways, and there’s SO MUCH I want to say but how do I do that without giving none stop spoilers?! I can’t, because the changes of direction and twists and turns at every other chapter are EXACTLY why I love this book. It changes scenario and surprises at every turn and it’s so much FUN with so much excitement! Various characters connect, secrets are found out, repayment for past behaviours start to be visible, and the plots get deeper and more shocking. I want to say SO MUCH about each of the Characters in this one, and why I LOVE to hate certain peoples butthead ways, I want to rave and chatter about decisions made and oh so sneaky scenarios but I would literally do nothing but tell you what was going to happen. In some cases even talking about the characters in relation to one another would be a spoiler, ARGH!! There are CRAZY amounts of things that happen that I want to chatter about, SO many things that I want to say!! What I will say, is that in true Maas fashion she makes you mad, makes you happy, makes you want to cry, and makes you want to whoop for joy, and of course has those moments that are hear wrenchingly beautiful alongside ones that make you cackle in delight at the wicked humour. In most cases, I would rave about the oh so clever and oh so wonderful ending scenes... and BOY do I want to, but... with Maas it’s the entire book! And I can’t say anything more specific without ruining the OH so many “WAIT, what?” What I WILL say, is that you have read the previous books, you’re going to absolutely LOVE this one!!

Queen of Shadows is as blood thirsty as it's murderous characters. I can't get enough of the world Maas has created. This story is full of truly bad ass women, with chinks in their armour, but an unswerving ability to be kick ass. I wouldn't mess with Manon if my Wyvern depended on it! Told in parts, as with the previous book, Queen of Shadows shows us what each of our team are up to. Manon and the thirteen are up to nastiness of course. Am I the only one absolutely in love with Wyverns by the way? I know they're supposed to be all evil and whatever, but seriously, they are adorable. Fierce. But adorable. Maas does such a good job of demonstrating characters who are strong and do not yield, but who still have flashes of good natured humanity and this makes them perfectly imperfect to read about. The flawed, complex characters (and Wyverns!) are the most fun to read about and I can't wait for Manon to take a larger role in the next book - it feels like her story is just getting started. This story shows Aelin (Or Celaena, depending on your preference I guess) as she sets out into a trap. She must rescue her cousin, despite knowing the King has baited her with him, and she has three days to do so before he is beheaded. Which might not seem as bad as wearing one of those grim, life sucking, soul destroying collars like Prince Dorian has (I mean he has the worst Dad in the world right? Who does that?). But still, missing a head sucks. So Aelin needs help. And unfortunately that means she needs Arobynn Hamel - her former Master and number one guy she wants to rip apart piece by piece. She does have a flair for the dramatics after all. But bargaining with the King of being a massive two faced jerk isn't as simple as you might think. Especially when your initial mission was to murder him, and the King, rescue his son, Oh and save your Kingdom too! Who am kidding? You're four books deep in this story! You know the drill! I found, as with the previous books, that I really enjoyed reading about the secondary characters and the history as much as I liked reading about Aelin interacting with them; especially when they tied in to some of the back stories (and novellas) as some of the new characters in this book do. The world building and characterisation are so rich that I get instantly invested in them - especially the slightly broken, more intricate characters. Chaol was chief example of a slightly broken character who I loved previously, poor guy, but actually in this book he seemed less like Chaol and more like he was the dude wearing the collar and sunk into the background a bit - his character development changed in a dark way and I'm not sure I liked it. Maybe it's to help us adjust to the Rowan situation, which I liked, but his bitterness and inability to see the bigger picture was a bit too much for me sometimes. I'm all for a comp...

The series continues at a great pace with introductions to new characters that we know will play a bigger role in the next books and this means that some of the characters we already know fade into the background a bit. That’s all ok, this feels like a natural progression of the story. As always, the characters are complex and interesting. Manon really comes into the forefront and Chaol really fades back. The story pushes forwards at a good pace and I always enjoy being part of the blossoming relationships. I love how we keep finding out new and interesting things all through the books and series. Just when you think you know someone, what they can do, their history and the part they play, Sarah J. Maas flips everything on its head and you’re left brilliantly scrambling for what you thought you knew. This concept is deployed again and again through Sarah J. Maas’ books (not just this series) and it’s really winning for her. There is a bit of romance and teasing in this book but nothing beyond that, although I assume things heat up in the next book. You can see the characters starting to pair off whilst still maintaining a super tight group. Learning about the relationships and family lines whilst the characters do is always fun. I didn’t love this one as much as I did the previous book but it’s a solid continuation. If you liked the previous books in the series then you’ll like this one too and I’m really looking forward to reading the next one.