adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The kings champions mission is to defeat those that attempt to rise against the king. The problem, she herself hates the king. In her search for the kings hidden power source, Caelena finds herself connecting to  her past and the future freedom that she seeks.

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book blew me away. I feel like the story continuously amped up throughout which was really fun pacing. I also had no idea where the story was going so I was hooked. And that ending!! That twist!! I didn’t see it coming at all, though I knew something magical was going on. My only critique is the Chaol- Celaena drama with keeping secrets, etc. It was overly dramatic for barely any reason. But other than that this was the perfect setup for the rest of the series!

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Two years after reading Throne of Glass, I finally read the sequel, Crown of Midnight. 

If you somehow haven't heard of the author, Sarah J Maas, she also wrote the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Crescent City series. 

Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series, was published by Bloomsbury YA. Throne of Glass is a YA fantasy series targeted to older teenagers (though adults can still enjoy them!)

Crown of Midnight continues with Celaena's story after she becomes the King's Champion as to be his personal assassin. Meanwhile, she is trying to figure out what all the secret passageways and riddles she finds in the castle means, and would they have any answers to stopping the king's thirst for power as he continues to dominate other countries. 

I really enjoyed this book--even more than the first one. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5 on the rating scale system because I did enjoy reading it, but there were a few hiccups with the book.

Part of me loved seeing the intricacies of Chaol's, Dorian's, and Celaena's friendship. I loved the character development that happens--particularly with Dorian, though Celaena grew the most as the main character. I didn't like the jealousy trope being played with both Chaol and Dorian. It just seemed a bit childish and annoying.

I also enjoyed the plot and there were many twists and turns, even if I did ultimately guess the big twist at the end. There were a lot of other reveals I didn't see coming. The plot also included a lot of fight scenes, so I was never left too wanting for action. That being said, the first half of the book did move a lot more slowly. I wish the romance in the book didn't come and go so quickly, too.

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

the start of this series has been a bit slow, developing the norms to break them in this book. While the start was slow, and contained some sweet moments, the escalation from the 35ish chapter is intense and fast-paced. It was so worth every minute of world building to get to this ending, I’m fucking pumped to read Assassin’s Blade and learn her true back story now that we know more about our main character. 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A good sequel that expands upon the characters and situations. It does have the common struggle with direction I feel many second books have where it has to turn an initial closed premise into a big expansive story line but it handles it well. The monsters are effectively creepy and the king successfully and compellingly evil, but the ending twist does feel slightly contradictory.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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