Queen Of Shadows (Throne Of Glass)

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Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series reaches new heights in this sweeping fourth volume.Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire-for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past...She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight. She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.Celaena's epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena's story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

Series: Throne of Glass (Book 4)

Paperback: 672 pages

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens; Reprint edition (September 6, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1619636069

ISBN-13: 978-1619636064

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.7 x 8.3 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,353 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #1,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #24 in Books > Teens > Romance > Fantasy #27 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery #31 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Fantasy

*****Shorter Spoiler Free Review*****There are a few things I both love and hate about Sarah J Maas (SJM) at the same time. For YA novels she takes a few risks, she kills off characters that are loved, she gives the heroine a plethora of love interests that break the reader’s hearts every now and again, she adjusts accepted lore to fit the story better and she has no problem adding new characters that are not all black or white but shades of grey and all the more interesting because of it.The great thing about this is that it is hardly ever boring. The bad thing about this is that it can give you visceral reactions to what is happening in the story. I had visceral reactions to Queen of Fire more than the rest of the seriesThe Best Parts of the Story:✔ - Girl Power to the max. There are some awesome women already in this series and a few more were just added.-- ' Lysandra -- Okay you might have seen her in the novellas but not like this. She was more than I thought she was going to be and the new development in her relationship with Aelin is great. I immediately loved her and her backstory.-- ' Elide – Marion’s daughter and Aelin’s cousin. WOW she was an unexpected surprise and hanging out with the witches no less. That girl keeps some dangerous company.-- ' Nesryn – Let’s just say as soon as she showed up I knew why she was there. But despite that she is a kickass new female character that was really fun to hang out with. Her involvement with the rebels in the city and helping Aedion and Chaol made her a valuable asset to have in a fight.There are still Aelin of course, Manon and her 13 but the addition of a few new strong female characters was well needed after the loss of our beloved Nehemia.*** “Swords are boring,” the queen said, and palmed two fighting knives. Manon sheathed Wind-Cleaver along her own back. She flicked her wrists, the iron nails shooting out. She cracked her jaw, and her fangs descended. “Indeed.” The queen looked at the nails, the teeth, and grinned. ****If all those women end up on the same side I’m sure the world will never be the same.✔ The Witches Story Arc – Not only do we get Elide hanging out with the witches but there are some very interesting and horrible plans afoot in the black mountain. In the first half of the book Manon’s chapters were actually my favorite because I am solidly on Team Abraxos!!! I love that soft-hearted wormSide Note: I tell you what if Abraxos ends up having a human form and ends up with Elide I will *squee* like a gaggle of teenage girls at a One Direction concertWOW Manon has her work cut out for her. Between What Duke Perington wants to do with the witches and the new direction the king wants to take it becomes pretty clear that maybe the Grandmother Blackbeak doesn’t have the coven’s best interests at heart and she will have to pick a side…eventually.✔ The Reinstatement of Magic – It should be no surprise that most of the book is spent on this. The part I loved was how everyone came together to complete the task and the surprise twist (if you guess it before it happens you are psychic). I was so surprised…So surprised in fact that I’m still trying to figure out if it was all really true. Do I buy into it??? Well I will get back to you on that one.✔ Dorian – His part in this story is as captivating as it is heartbreaking. Trapped in his own skin, reading how the collar affected him was hard but also so completely interesting. I will say that until the very end I didn’t know if they would be able to save him or not…AND you will have to read to find out.*** The demon made him sit on a dais, on a throne beside a crowned woman who had not noticed that the thing using his mouth wasn’t the person who had been born of her flesh. ***✔ Totally great Girl Fight - What happens when Aelin and Manon run into each other….GIRLFIGHT!!! And it is fantastic.A Few of the Things I Didn’t Like:✔ The Resolution of the Celeana/Chaol situation. I really have A LOT to say on this please see the spoiler section if you are interested in the full of it. But right here I will say that Chaol was written very un-Chaolesk in the first 60% of the book and it felt weird, I didn’t buy it and I’m still a little angry over it. Good news in the last 40% he was back to himself mostly.✔ Big build ups to final situations that sorta fizzled at the end of them. I refer specifically to Arobynn here. He was such a force even though we really only saw him in the prequels and this book but I really wanted a little more in the wrap up of that ARC.✔ Celeana/Aelin running around doing everything by herself off page and then it being revealed at a later time when something goes the teams way. It was because of something that she did while running around in the middle of the night without her big strong Fae protectors. *shrugs*✔ The introduction of the new love interest – WOW it was fast! I like the character who might even be Aelin’s end game person but it went from 0 to he is everything to me who were we kidding all that time in like 2.3 pages. Don’t worry SJM sold it a little better along the way but seriously he was a lovesick lusty fool falling all over his need for her super fast.OverallIf like me your ship didn’t work out, don’t worry there are enough consolation booby prizes and some other great things going on it the story that are awesome. It should be interesting if not angsty for at least the first 50% ride but then the pacing got a lot better. Honestly the Witches carried the first half of the book for me. But there were a few good fights, some great plot twists and fantastic new characters plus one of the happier endings to her books.******DANGER!!! After this point there are spoilers Everywhere*****spoilers in54321.....Relationship Rant:I will no longer ship Aelin/Celeana/Lillian/Elanytra with anyone. There are two books left and my shippy heart cannot take it anymore. Seriously she has had more love interests than any heroine in a YA series. First there was Sam…I didn’t ship them because I read ToG first and knew he was dead. Then Dorian, followed by Chaol and now Rowan two more books means that there could be at least one more time SJM messes with me. I don’t trust her with my poor shippy heart.Okay it was pretty clear from less than 10% in that my ship burst into flames and was sinking to the bottom of the lake that fish monster lives in for HoF and I was a little upset. Not so much because it sank but because on my reread of all the books there were mate signs everywhere that Chaol was her mate. Even my book BFF, who hated Chaol, by the way was convinced that he was her mate. So I totally felt a little blindsided that first meeting Chaol acts very un-Chaol like and is pretty much an ass. Aelin is pretty much a brat and blames him for EVERYthing that happened in her absence and them boom there is Nesryn who he used to sleep with (really???)…well the writing is literally all over the wall there so I suck it up and try to move on…really I do.Then enters Rowan. *Waves at Rowan* I really liked him as a character in HoF. Sure he was an ass for a lot of that book but I loved him as her mentor and friend. But I never got potential love interest from him at all. He’d been mated already and (don’t Fae mate for life???) also how many times were we told in the last book there was nothing sexual between them….HOW MANY TIMES???…I totally believed you SJM. But he gets to Rifthold and there is lip biting and lusty looks and prancing around in negligees (Aelin not Rowan) and he is like 300+ and she is 19 and it is just super fast and too soon and gah….I HATE IT!!! I had them as a Giles/Buffy relationship not an Angel/Buffy relationship…I wasn’t ready and SJM didn’t use any lube and my poor Chaol : (But I try to calm down and like it but I don’t because Aelin is lying to everyone and sneaking around and blaming Chaol for everything but not owning anything and Rowan is falling over himself to tell her she is not wrong and has all the puppy love/lust for her suddenly and maybe it was just me but it was weird.Also besides the age difference, immortality issue and former mate thing there is also the blood bond and Carrarum bonds. Aelin can make him do anything she wants just like Maeve. I’m not saying she would ever be like Maeve BUT…that is a lot of power to hold over your potential lover….just saying.Relationship Rant Over:But because of what I included in the relationship rant the first 50% of the books for me ran really slow. Sure they do the Aedion rescue but besides that the rest of it that involved Rifthold just dragged on and on and on. I’m sure a little of that was just my uncomfortableness with the entire situation. But some of it was also the writing.Thank goodness for the Witches Storyline or I would have gone insane here. Because Manon, Elide and Abraxos saved the first 50% of the book for me. When the Duke tells Manon that he wants to use the witches to breed with the Valg, well WOW that hits hard and seems like a horrible idea.*** “Do you believe monsters are born, or made?” From what she’d seen today, she would say some creatures were very much born evil. But what Manon was asking … “I’m not the one who needs to answer that question,” Elide said. ***There isn’t anyway she should go for it. Besides the human enemies all around Manon and the Valg infested humans Manon also has a possible spy among them.Elide might look non-threatening and small but that is just what she wants you to believe. It seems that she also has a few secrets and a secret admirer.*** “You soft-hearted worm,” Manon hissed at Abraxos once the cunning, many-faced girl was gone. The girl might be hiding secrets, but her lineage wasn’t one of them. She had no idea that witch-blood flowed strong in her mortal veins. “A crippled leg and a few chains, and you’re in love?” ***This is the only ship I’m willing to have for the rest of the series… Abraxos and Elide, I’ll be fine if it doesn’t work out but omg…how cute is that.We also get to see what has become of Kaltain and while in ToG I didn’t think I’d ever feel bad for her in CoM I had some pity and by QoS I wanted her find some kind of revenge for what was done to her. I loved her storyline in this and how things wrapped up for her. Very interesting things at work indeed.Meanwhile back in Rifthold. Aelin finally gets another female friend. She needed one after Nehemia. Also with both Fae men around spouting alpha-ness a girl is a nice change. They get to talk about dresses and chocolate and killing Arobynn. Well good to see he has a long list of enemies. I wish his death was just a little more drawn out and that we got to see Aelin/Celeana in some stabby-stabby assassin action. It isn’t that I minded how he is killed it all worked out. He just caused her so much pain that I would have liked it to end a little different.The rest of this is the team figuring out how to free magic, possibly save or kill Dorean and destroy the king. There are some twists and turns and it gets really confusing in the Magic Moment of it. I’m not totally sure what happened and the big reveal and plot twist I loved it and at the same time I don’t trust it. SJM tried to sell it to me but I’m not sure I bought it. There seemed to be a few plot holes in it and that it might not be entirely true.I have no idea what happened between Aelin and Dorean when they combined magic and all that other weirdness happened. This is one of those moments were I try to just go with it…but something is nagging in my head that maybe it isn’t quite right. I’ll ponder this a little longer.The best things in the book1 – Abraxos protecting and cuddling Elide under his wing to keep her warm2 – Manon’s fight with Aelin3 – Manon’s meet and great with Dorian….could there be a few sparks there. Only she could understand the darkness he just went through.4 - Lysandra killing Arobynn5 - This moment when I am going to pretend SJM apologized to me the reader for making me think that Chaol and Celeana would be together forever.**** “It meant something to me. What you and I had. More than that, your friendship meant something to me. I never told you the truth about who I was because I couldn’t face that truth. I’m sorry if what I said to you on the docks that day—that I’d pick you—made you think I’d come back, and it would all be fixed. Things changed. I changed.” ****Yes SJM you did change and maybe your original storyline changed too…I will try to be okay with it. but seriously 81% couldn’t we have done that around 20ish%6 – Lysandra kicking ass in the tunnels and saving the boys…Silly boys never send a man to do a woman’s job.7 - Finding out who Aedion’s father was…O.o so interesting.8 – The Bite….Okay SJM, you got me here and I’m trying to be okay with them. But I trust nothing at this time. I will not trust anything until the last page of the last book9 – Manon telling Elide that Aelin was alive and to find her.10 – Kaltain showing them all what she can do…*** She was a wolf. She was death, devourer of worlds. The guards found her curled up in the cell, shuddering at the carnage. They didn’t ask questions, didn’t look twice at her face before they hauled her down the hall and into the catacombs. ***

This book was beautiful. I’d heard both amazing reviews and awful ones, so I was a little terrified going in. I was not disappointed. Heir of Fire was a book about hitting your bottom and overcoming yourself. There was so much growth for Aelin. Queen of Shadows took that growth and spread it to all of the characters. Every single character in this book grew into who they were meant to be.Aedion started out so hell-bent on finding Aelin and was hot tempered and unrestrained. (Much like Celaena). He grows into someone respectful of others around him and realizes he’s not the only one in her life who can protect her. Not to mention she can protect herself.Chaol, Chaol, Chaol. My sweet stars. I loved Chaol and rooted for him so hard. I know one of the main problems people have with this book is that they feel his character was disrespected. (Another reason I was scared going in). And at first, the reunion between him and Aelin made me want to curl up in a corner and cry. They were SO horrible to each other. But that’s a normal human reaction. They were both still so angry about everything going on around them, they didn’t have anyone else to blame but themselves.Rowan? I was not okay with this romance budding between them. I started out like this:nopenopenopenopenope.But the longer I read, the more I realized I needed this to happen. I was Team Chaoleana from the start. But I now know that it was not meant to be.Team Chaol/Nesryn. Nesaol? Chaoryn? Idk…MANON. Dear heavens I have grown to love her. Not only is her appearance terrifying, but she’s one of the most ruthless, cold, and calculated people I’ve ever come across in a book. And not only that, we get to see her, albeit VERY slowly, get a heart.Anyone else here rooting for a Manon/Dorian team up?? Yissss.Freakin’ Dorian, man! I don’t have any words for Dorian right now. None. Well, here’s some. I heart Dorian. That’s all I’ve got.Queen of Shadows feels so much more mature than the previous books, and I’m sure that was Sarah’s whole goal. Her writing has some technical issues, (she definitely favors some words/expressions), but the story is so dang solid and amazing, it’s easy to overlook it. I tried stretching this book out as long as I could, but that ended up only being a week and a half. How many days until the next book?

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