Crown of Midnight: Sarah J. Maas: 2 (Throne of Glass)

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Celaena and Dorian hang out and it’s lovely and Dorian is precious and please don’t hurt him, Sarah. The assignment turns out to be more difficult and dangerous than Celaena could have imagined. There is a lot of action in this book and a lot of mysteries to unravel.

As you may remember, Celaena won the battle in Throne of Glass and is now the King’s Champion, which basically means she has to kill everyone he wants her to kill. Except… she doesn’t actually kill any of them. No, she has started faking their deaths, because unlike what she thinks of herself, she’s not a monster.

Celaena is hanging out in Chaol’s room and they start talking about people they loved. Celaena tells him about Sam and Chaol tells her about a girl he used to love that Roland stole from him. Then they also talk about Rourke Farran, the asshole who killed Sam in The Assassin’s Blade, and how Farran has been dead for nine months. Chaol tells her that Farran was murdered by Wesley (PRECIOUS WESLEY), Arobynn Hamel’s former bodyguard who tried to warn Celaena that getting revenge on Farran was a trap, a trap which lead to her being sent to Endovier. Then Chaol tells her that Wesley is dead as well, murdered by Arobynn and spiked on the gates of Farran’s house. Celaena finally lets herself consider the fact that it was Arobynn who betrayed her over a year ago (duh). The book is about an 18-year-old assassin, Celaena Sardothien, who is training to win the competition to become the King of Adarlan’s champion. The competition is the only way for her to free herself from the slave mines.

There had never been any line between them, only his own stupid fear and pride. Because from the moment he'd pulled her out of that mine in Endovier and she had set those eyes upon him, still fierce despite a year in hell, he'd been walking toward this, walking to her. So Chaol brushed away her tears, lifter her chin, and kissed her.”

Celaena and Nehemia fight because Nehemia wants to free Eyllwe and Celaena thinks it’s madness to go against the king. Nehemia implies that the king has magic, because how else could he have ruled.

And then," Ress was saying, his boyish face set with fiendish delight, "just as he got her into bed, stark naked as the day he was born, her father walked in"- winces and groans came from the guards, even Chaol himself-"and he dragged him out of bed by his feet, took him down the hall, and dumped him down the stairs. He was shrieking like a pig the whole time." He wouldn't let his servants change the sheets on his bed because they still smelled like her, because he went to sleep dreaming that she was still lying beside him.” The king drummed his fingers on the arm of the throne, still playing with Nirall’s ring in his other hand. “There are several people on my list of suspected traitors, but I will only give you one name at a time. This castle is crawling with spies.” Celaena was Aelin Galathynius, the greatest living threat to Adarlan, the one person who could raise an army capable of standing against the king. Now, she was also the one person who knew the secret source of the king’s power—and who sought a way to destroy it.Dorian Havilliard stood beside his father’s throne—and she could feel his sapphire eyes fixed on her. At the foot of the dais, always between her and the royal family, stood Chaol Westfall, Captain of the Guard. She looked up at him from the shadows of her hood, taking in the lines of his face. For all the expression he showed, she might as well have been a stranger. But that was expected, and it was just part of the game they’d become so skilled at playing these past few months. Chaol might be her friend, might be someone she’d somehow come to trust, but he was still captain—still responsible for the royal lives in this room above all others. The king spoke.

One thing I found whilst reading Crown of Midnight was that my opinions on the characters had changed from Throne of Glass, as true colours began to show and characters started to unravel. Chaol, Calaena’s love interest in the novel is someone I very much championed for in Throne of Glass, because he had this sense of simplicity and warmth about him that made him highly attractive. However, Chaol really seemed to struggle with who Calaena really was in this novel which left me wondering whether he was the one? Dorian, the Crown Prince and a close confidante began to mature and grow as a person - this somewhat brought him and Calaena closer together. Celaena decides to conveniently run into Archer Finn, and Chaol comes with her because he’s protective and jealous. Archer and Celaena decide to have dinner the next night, and he’s not suspicious at all. Fool.

Then Celaena goes to pay her respects to Nehemia, and sings her an ancient song. Chaol overhears, and he starts wondering about Celaena’s past. Celaena realizes Lady Kaltain and Roland have both been having terrible headaches, which probably has something to do with the evil magic. From a book, she learns that Kaltain’s bloodline had magic, just like Cain’s used to have. She thinks that the king is using them as pawns in his game. Duh. She’d heard whispers of rebel forces before she’d gone to Endovier—she’d met fallen rebels in the salt mines. But to have an actual movement growing in the heart of the capital; to have her be the one to dispatch them one by one … And plans—what plans? What did the rebels know of the king’s maneuverings? She shoved the questions down, down, down, until there was no possibility of his reading them on her face. Vivid Celaena, loving and brutally violent in turn, is a fully realized heroine… An epic fantasy readers will immerse themselves in and never want to leave.”