Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Release Date: August 15th 2013

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Add it: Goodreads

Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥

Okay, I don't even know where to start with this. After reading Throne of Glass the first time, I didn't pick this up and wasn't in a hurry to read it. Thankfully, some lovely friends of mine told me I HAD to read the sequels...  In my experience, the second book in a series is almost always worse than the first so I didn't have high hopes for this installment at all, but thankfully Maas proved me wrong! 

HOLY SHIT GUYS. 

Crown of Midnight was everything I wanted its predecessor to be. Everything that had pissed me off in the first book, was rectified, including Celaena being an arrogant bitch for no reason - oh, she is still arrogant in this book but we get so much more development, her reasons for being arrogant are somewhat justified. There is more action, more excitement, more twists, more character development and everything about this was just wonderful. Oh, and smut. There is much more smut (and no love triangle) AND IT WAS GREAT. 

Chaol, you sexy man.

The plot was thrilling, exciting and I had no idea what to expect. Unfolding the mysteries that lie within the castle was intriguing and one of my favourite parts of the book. Actually, scratch that, every part of Crown of Midnight was my favourite part of the book.

I felt like my heart was going to burst every time something major happened because the action and drama is never-ending. It's also full blown 'my heart is beating so fucking fast from anticipation and excitement', I was so engrossed and I felt like I needed to take a break a few times because my emotions were all over the place, but I couldn't put the book down. So I enjoyed my suffering. This book doesn't do things half-assed and on a scale of 1-10 for any emotion felt during reading, it's all 10.

In this installment, you see Celaena grow so much as a character and as I said earlier, her arrogance is much more justified. While I am still firmly on Team Chaol, Dorian grew so much and unlike the first book, I found myself actually caring about him as a character. We discover Dorian has secrets of his own, and he seems like so much more of an important aspect to the story now, and I can't wait to see how it pans out. You even get to know the King somewhat in this installment, which by the way was simultaneously awesome and terrifying.

I don't know how much more I can go on about this book because it's still hard for me to form coherent thoughts about it. All I can say is this; if you didn't like Throne of Glass all that much like I did, please consider this. It's like an entirely new series. I didn't think a sequel could  be so much better, it's incredible. Although I haven't yet read the novellas or Heir of Fire onward, this installment is definitely worth the read. I was up until 3am and felt like I was riding a fucking roller coaster but couldn't get off. 

This book just kicks ass and I'm so glad I have the next book waiting for me.