Review: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

Title: Queen of Shadows
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: September 1, 2015

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.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

Well, talk about a difficult book to review.

Was I excited for this book? Yes.  Did I like it?  Sure.  Love it?  No.

I'm going to start with everything critical I have to say so I can get that out of the way first.

The characters.  I love that new characters were brought in, but it seemed a bit much at times, with bringing back the old ones as well.  Not only that, some of the older characters were not particularly how I remembered them being.  They seemed to have changed.  And while I expect character growth and development, I don't expect so much change to happen in a character before the next book starts.I expected Rowan and Chaol to still have the same attitudes that they always had.  But they were rather different.

The ending.  It wasn't a bad ending by all means.  But this is the fourth book of six.  And there was so much closure, not much left hanging, that this could have been the series finale.  Do I want it to be the finale? NO!  It's an excellent series and I dread the day that it actually does end.  But Queen of Shadows was not ended in any of the cliffhanger way that Heir of Fire was.  I'm not sitting here going out of my mind to read the next book.  Because there wasn't much left unsaid.

With that out of the way, I would like to give my praises now.

My ship.  It happened.  <3  That is cause enough for celebration in my eyes, but alas I must continue on.  The book is written as one would expect something from Maas.  It's beautifully descriptive with lots of action and gore.  There were a few heartbreaking parts.  I actually cried once (kudos) while reading about Sam.  It does help to have read the novellas, but it's not necessary.  I think the parts about Sam are more emotional, though, if you have.

And Dorian.  Oh my gosh.  With the end of Heir of Fire... that was... horrid.  I'm amazed that Maas took the risk to show us what it was like in Dorian's mind with the Valg Prince in there.  His chapters were heartwrenching and cruel.  I wanted to look away, but I couldn't stop reading them.

Overall?

I mean, if you're a fan of the series, you have to read this.  I took a few issues with parts of it, but it's still amazing.