Title: Crown of Midnight
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: 2013
ISBN: 9781639730971
Synopsis:
Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become the King’s Champion. But she is far from loyal to the crown. Though she goes to great lengths to hide her secret, her deadly charade becomes more difficult when she realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. Her search for answers ensnares those closest to her, and no one is safe from suspicion-not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a 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 decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie . . . and what she is willing to fight for.
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Maas just keeps on delivering! I’m so late to the game with these books that I’m not going to warn you against spoilers for this post since the Internet is full of them nowadays. This second book in the Throne of Glass series follows Celaena now that’s she’s become the King’s Champion, aka dispatcher of all of his enemies. She does anything but follow his orders. As she receives her directives, she comes to learn of her targets and that they are nothing but kind people who pose a threat to the King’s reign. And so begins her deception and her quest for truth.
Celaena uncovers secrets hidden deep within the castle, and finds herself discovering one of Prince Dorian’s own secrets, bringing them closer together after they’d drifted apart. I did feel for poor Dorian throughout this book. He’s often isolated and left alone, all for the purpose of everyone protecting him against knowledge that could turn him against his own father. But the poor guy is deeply struggling with magic outside of his own understanding and he’s left to drift and discover what he can on his own, while a rift forms between him and the friends he’d become so close to. His is a tragic tale so far and I hope that we see a good redemption arc for him later on in the series. Time will tell.
Like book one, I found Crown of Midnight to be a bit slow, with the majority of the excitement and occurring at the very end of this novel and finally kicking the story into high gear. There’s more of the same with Celaena’s storyline with very few major revelations throughout. There’s some character development, and a few secrets revealed through Maas’ world building, but I found the story to be primarily a driver of context, rather than a really driven plot. I enjoyed it, but it was very slow going, and if I’m being honest, a bit boring. We come to like Celaena a bit more, but perhaps dislike characters like Chaol and Nehemia a bit less. But truly, so little happens in this book. I wonder why it couldn’t be combined with the first book. Neither really warrants their own standalone book.
However, it is a good set up for the following book in the series, Heir of Fire, which I’ve already read and have a review to come. Wink, wink! I’m all in for this series, so I hope you’ll bear with me as I work through these reviews.
Happy reading!
Worn Pages and Ink 