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Throne of Glass #06: Tower of Dawn

September 10, 2017 / 05 STARS, SJM YA THRONE OF GLASS

Tower of Dawn Book Cover Tower of Dawn
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas
Juvenile Fiction
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
September 5, 2017
Hardcover
432

In this companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, follow Chaol on his own new adventure. Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken. His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica--the stronghold of the southern continent’s mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them. But what they discover in Antica will change them both--and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

WrensReads Review:

This is fighting for my favorite book in the series for so many reasons. Many because Sarah J Maas pulled a back-hand and showed her readers she had a plan all along for Chaol and she didn’t just toss him aside like he was a wasted character.

I loved exploring the Southern continent and how their lands work. We have a powerful royals who have spontaneous and wicked personalities who are fighting for the throne, we have a tower of women (with some men) who specialize in healing and not fighting which is so important, we have library cats because yes that is something we all didn’t know that we needed, we have giant spiders who are more deadly and animalistic than their northern sisters and absolutely something that I am terrified of yet want to know more about, and we have a huge twist that no one saw coming (and if you think you saw it coming, you’re wrong).

I want to touch on the disability part in this book.

I thought it was wonderfully done.

I went to the release party that Sarah J Maas held in Nashville, Tennessee and she voiced that she spent months and months asking people how they do certain things with disabilities and watching videos on how things were done. She went that extra mile to not assume she would know how it would be done, but to ask people and to actually learn about that group of people.

I believe her research paid off in this book. I will say that Chaol’s journey is a great one, and I am comparing this to the rest of the group’s journey’s here as well, but it isn’t all daisies and puppies at the end (which I completely prefer because anyone can be a hero, as long as they want it badly enough). She ended Chaol’s emotional journey in the absolute best way possible and I can’t say anymore because I will start crying for the fifth time.

“you must enter where you fear to tread”

She said one of the hardest things for her was to sit back and not say a word when people were bashing how she was treating Chaol. Letting people believe that his story didn’t matter to her, when she was yearning to write his story, not solely for the reason that his journey tilts the table of the war for Aelin and Company, but because she adores his character and has always had great plans for him.

“Here, with her, he was home.”

I have read some of my friend’s reviews who do deal with more crucial disabilities that I myself deal with, and I am happy to see that they feel represented, loved, appreciated, and like they too could kick the bad guy’s back-end.

Also: I like that she doesn’t shy away from the fact that Chaol is a complete and total jerk when it comes to women in this book either. But do not fright my dears, he sees the errors of his ways one way or another and comes to his senses.

There is also more representation for People of Color and the LGBT community as well!

I have read some comments from people asking if you can read this book without reading the rest of the series. Let me be perfect clear: absolutely not. This is how I believe you should read it.

01. Throne of Glass
02. Crown of Midnight
03. Heir of Fire
04. Queen of Shadows
05. The Assassin’s Blade (all five novellas)
06. Empire of Storms
07. Tower of Dawn

Again, Sarah voiced that her novellas are crucial to the story line (and that has been proven to be correct). She doesn’t write them to get more money or to advertise for her books or anything greedy like that; some stories are shorter than others, but they are still important.

For example, you have to read The Assassin and the Pirate Lord before you read Empire of Storms, and you have to read The Assassin and the Healer before you read Tower of Dawn. You miss crucial parts of the story when you don’t read a Maas novella.

The Healer is named Yrenne and she is one of three (err, four if you count the last two-so pages.. #heartbroken) point of views in this book, Nesryn and Chaol being the other two. I loved there only being three points of views for a change.

Maas has a reputation now for putting a lot of steam in her book, and I want to tell you that this one is very tame. There is one scene. That’s it. So if you didn’t like all the scenes in Empire of Storms or in her other series A Court of Thrones and Roses, this book may be right up your alley.

I don’t want to give too much away in this book, but a lot of it is about healing and forgiving yourself. We went on a journey with Aelin and now we get to see a journey not only with Chaol but also with Yrene. These characters have all been through horrible stuff, but they overcome it and are stronger because of it.

I have been going through a lot of hardships lately and reading this book has shown me that I will be alive tomorrow, I will be able to not get over it but get passed it, and I will and can be happy if I only let myself.

PS: Sorry for the novel.. but not really sorry.

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Throne of Glass #05: Empire of Storms

September 13, 2016 / 05 STARS, SJM YA THRONE OF GLASS

Empire of Storms Book Cover Empire of Storms
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas
Juvenile Fiction
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
September 06, 2016
Hardcover
704

Kingdoms collide in Sarah J. Maas's epic fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series. The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don't. With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side, and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear. In this breathtaking fifth installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, Aelin will have to choose what -- and who -- to sacrifice if she's to keep the world of Erilea from breaking apart.

WrensReads Review:

Get real with me, there’s going to be spoilers.

My thoughts on this review are so scattered and I am not even that sorry about it.

Let me just get one thing across to everyone who is reading this: I would read Sarah J Maas books even if they came in cereal boxes, were written on park benches or were on the side of a public bus. She is one of three authors I will read anything they write by (Kelley Armstrong and Leigh Bardugo).

People who believe that she twist her characters into out-of-character-like-acts, or that she just throws characters away when she gets bored with them, or blah blah blah: I respect your opinion, truly, but you are wrong.

DORIAN
The complaint I have heard the most about so far, for character morphing, is Dorian. Oh, sweet Dorian. You were a lady killer, warrior and friend to all. Just such a sweet guy. Until he got possessed by a demon and saw the women he loved get her head cut off. For some reason, and just stay open-minded here, I feel that would bloody change a person to their core. After watching your own hands kill many friends and innocent people and having the blood of a beloved all over you, I think the scars my run so deep that the person would change. Just an observation.

In fact, I would think that would turn someone completely and absolutely psychotic. So the fact that Dorian is holding himself together and finds it in himself to pursue a certain she-witch, blows my mortal mind. You think that he is acting out of character and a little dark? I don’t think we have seen the dark that he is going to unleash from the hell he just got out of.

The Bromance between Rowan and Dorian though is SO GREAT.

Dorian needs to be treated as an equal to Aelin though. She kind of takes over and even admits when she is just compromising for her own benefit. But he is a KING just like she is a QUEEN. But he is mending from the awfulness of the last book.

CHAOL
Chaol. My beloved Chaol, how I hated seeing your name and not knowing where you are in this whole catastrophe-driven book. I am so looking forward to your own novella (I’m right in saying there’s going to be one, right?). Did I hate that you didn’t have a Point-Of-View in this book? absolutely. Was I debating on writing a very strongly-worded letter to Maas? most days. But you know what? The story still went on and you are going to come back with a fist in the air for victory and you’ll probably going to save us all.

AELIN
You literally bug the crap out of me and I can’t even explain it very well. You don’t tell people about your plans, you are selfish and conceded. But I love absolutely everything about that. You actually come off as selfish when really you are doing the most selfless thing imaginable. I feel like you have met your character arc when you finally owned up to who you were, but I don’t hold out for more surprises from you because I know this last book is going to be kill me.

AEDION
My feels for Aedion (which is WAY TOO CLOSE TO Aelin IN SPELLING AND SOUND FOR MY TASTE) are so strong. He feels like he has been put on the back burner is what I am gathering and I kind of get it. He wanted the blood oath, he EARNED that blood oath, he was trained and raised to protect his best friend / cousin Aelin, and he meets her to find out she made the oath to a hunk of Fae meat that isn’t him. Then he gets left out of all her plans and such.. What do you guys think?

This Gavriel-hatred he has going on needs to stop to. How can you do anything against a blood oath to an Evil Fae Queen? He did what was best for you. MOVE ON AND BE A FAMILY.

ROWAN
DAWG, stop trailing after Aelin and know you are your own man. That is my complaint here. I love him as a character but he kind of was a drag for me because all he thought about was Aelin and his world was Aelin and he didn’t do anything for himself or anyone else who isn’t Aelin. I loved him in the Bromance with Dorian though.

Which leads me to this: Aelin and Rowan started to bother me in the middle of the book. Their love-sickness was just a little much for me. There’s a reason why I don’t read every romance novels. But obviously things started picking up and I loved them again and blah blah blah crying forever and ever.

MANON
This girl is life and I love her to tears. She scares me throughout half the book and I am so afraid that she isn’t going to make it. But that SACRIFICE she makes for those she realizes she actually loves because she isn’t heartless is more than enough to make you scream. You can see her iron-sides smoothing throughout the book. She kind of took to the back-burner when she met up with other people in the book, so I am hoping that she comes back swinging since she is leading her own little army here. Boy I love this girl.

Side note: I was hoping that Manon and Elide would hit it off (like most of you I am sure) and I haven’t actually written that off as something that couldn’t happen. Staying tuned

ELIDE
I have never met someone who has so much dedication to her country and queen more than this girl. She is crippled and she still doesn’t ever stop, and she doesn’t until she finally meets her queen. Her POVs were probably some of my favorite to read. I would find myself almost ready to put the book down and, idk maybe sleep, and then her chapter would be next and I couldn’t put it down. I have a feeling she is going to be an even bigger part in this next book; because even someone without super powers or super strength can save the day.

Elide is resourceful in the mind more than in the physical strength everyone else in the book has and that I have respect for.

LYSANDRA
Lysandra has slowly but surely become one of my favorite characters. I used to want to be Fae but I think I would either want to be a shifter or a witch or probably mostly absolutely a shifter. The fact that the majority of this book she wasn’t even in human form is spectacular. Maas wrote her in so well. Like I don’t even think that Rowan is Aelin’s right hand, I feel Lysandra is since she keeps on the inside of the plans for the majority of everything in this book; which is strange to me because they basically hated each other two books ago. And now they are girlfriends for life. I love their relationship though. I’m excited to see Lysandra wear her new skin for the next book… if you know what I mean.

LORCAN
The true dedication to the evil queen lies within this guy right here. He loves her so much that he is going against her wants to do what she needs. He is a brute but finally seeing him melt a little made me come to love the jerk he is. He isn’t a sarcastic jerk either, just an actual jerk (kind of refreshing since everyone is sarcastic in this book).

OTHER THOUGHTS
My biggest complaint is how everyone keeps falling in love with everyone else around them. Like, can we not just focus on the life and death situation and not screw everyone? I understand you’re in the “these may be my last moments” and “but you’re like, really hot and stuff” phases of your life, but dang….

Then again, I love the majority of all the couples who are together. It’s a bipolar feeling.

Also a few side characters representing the LGBT is awesome, though I know people are upset about her “heterosexual white couples” as they call them. She’s slowly introducing more and more people, so I doubt there won’t be some more representation for the LGBT here soon. I mean, one of the main characters says they are bisexual and no one freaks out about it. So that’s pretty neat.

Is it just me though, or is there a little A Court of Thorns and Roses/Mist and Fury similarities? I’m not mad about it at all just curious on your thoughts.

I was a little frustrated with some parts of the book because Aelin left me in the shadows just as much as she left the rest of her court in the shadows. I just wanted to know what she was planning but obviously couldn’t just tap her on the shoulder and ask. Reading on was the only option and I am so happy with it.

The convenient “letting go of the blood oath” at the end for certain people was very convenient. I feel as if that was a very poor move on Maeve’s part.

Which I hate Maeve. High on the “love-to-hate-because-you-are-awful” scale.

Rolfe was hilarious and the scene were Aelin, or milady, confronted him is probably my favorite.

I loved that the POVs were focused on other people and not just Aelin. POVs are great as long as they are done right, like in this book.

This is grossly long and I am so incredibly sorry for anyone who gets to this point. I just want it to be next year already but I guess I’ll start counting down the days for Maas’ next book A Court of Wings and Ruin

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Throne of Glass #04: Queen of Shadows

August 26, 2016 / 05 STARS, SJM YA THRONE OF GLASS

Queen of Shadows Book Cover Queen of Shadows
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas
Juvenile Fiction
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
September 06, 2016
Hardcover
672

The queen has returned.

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 for her. 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.

WrensReads Review:

Well, Celaena Aelin has finally not just comes to terms with who she is but has embraced it and what she needs to do in order to restore order to the world for her people and loved ones.

RANT:
There is pretty much a full-out war over everything Maas writes. You either love or hate it — and to the extreme of either. Some don’t like the “direction she takes” with characters or how she “twist a character to do something” that they previously wouldn’t have done or a character “changes her/his love interest” and your ship wrecked and is at the bottom of the ocean now.

Because you knew the character more than the person who created it of course. It would be silly of me to think otherwise.

Well let me go get my big red shoes then, because I think ya’ll are absolutely ridiculous.

ANYWAYS:
YOU GET CLOSURE.
A lot of beef between characters get resolved and some people get what is coming to them.

You will stress out throughout the 600+ pages that is this book because lots of people get close to or actually die that you may like. Nothing happens without reason though.

Manon and Aelin meet and boy oh boy I hope you are ready for two alpha females getting their hands dirty. *PLEASE END UP ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE WAR OH PLEASE OH PLEASE*

There isn’t much to say that won’t give things away. All I know is that I am blown away by this series and will stick with it until it ends and then continue to stick with it.

So let me rant a little about the direction she takes, character twist and ship changes… It’s going to be a mess.

Direction She Takes:
I’m sorry, did you write this story? I think the direction she is taking with these books (both series) is superb. When I was finished reading Queen of Shadows, after collecting my thoughts and bringing myself back in, I was in AWE of how much thought she put into it before she even wrote it. You think she could have wrote this story on the edge of her seat and doing it as she goes?

The answer is NO.

She has planned this thing out. I bet she has a whole room of maps, story arcs, character development, pictures pinned together to make a new person… Like to me, this is J K Rowling planned out (because you know she had the plan for Harry Potter from book 01).

And believe me, as an aspiring author, it is HARD to plan out so far in advanced but it is absolutely worth it. She planned the spin offs, the break ups, the deaths, the heart aches and the final love interests from day one.

Twist a Character to do Something:
LOL. I don’t think anyone has acted out of character.

People are just mad that Chaol isn’t with Celaena anymore and they think that is out of character. I’m sorry, is his character development and live suppose to be dependent on his relationship with Celaena? Chaol is a protective, proud and strong headed person. I don’t see that changing. He wanted to save Dorian from… things that happened in this book when Celaena didn’t see that as an option. He didn’t care and was set on doing it. He was crushed by what happened between them, losing his title and position in the Castle AND basically found out everything he was protecting all those years was a lie. Wouldn’t you be in a little bit of a slump and grumpy? He gets better guys. Everyone is allowed to have a bad day/week/month as long as they get over it and move on and realize life is worth living.

People say Celaena acts differently in this book to. and YOU ARE RIGHT SHE DOES. She is no longer wearing her emotions and pain on her shoulders. She finally worked through everything that was holding her down from before book one and she realized she needed to deal with it and move on (not forget). I think that “character change” was a long-time coming and was something that needed to happen in order for people to stick with the series. I loved it. Why didn’t you?

Changes Her/His Love Interest:
I’m not going to get into this. For all those people who believe you only love one person your whole life… I wish you would get your head in the world you live in. I have had three separate love interest in my life. If my life was a book, you would hate the author because things happen, people grow, people move on, people need different things… I LOVE THAT PEOPLE DON’T STICK WITH ONE PERSON FOR A WHOLE SERIES. It makes it more believable, honestly. People “shipped” me with my ex(es) too but it doesn’t mean I’m going to end up with them.

Maas is a great story teller and writer. If you don’t like her stuff, then STOP READING IT AND READ SOMETHING YOU DO LIKE.

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Meet Wren!

Hi my name is Wren and welcome to my page. I like to read books, listen to books, take care of my plants and pet cats and dogs.

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