Reviews with content warning for War - Kingdom of Ash (Miniature Character Collection)

I cried for like the entire last 20% of this book… It has been a long time since a book/series had that much of an emotional impact on me!

The way it just all comes together in this finale. 😭 I too am sad to say goodbye to these friends ❤️

Spoilers: SJM does a marvelous job of tying in so many characters and planning out so many crazy tiny details and plot lines.

Some things I would’ve liked to have seen were endings for Nox & Dorian’s mother/brother. I found the whole interaction with the gods to be a little underwhelming, but perhaps that was the point? That we can hope for divine intervention, but ultimately must take our own fate into our own hands?

Spoilers: Despite all this I still give 5 stars because I honestly didn’t think I could care about these characters so much. I remember when Manon and the witches were introduced and I literally kept thinking “I don’t care about these characters at all, get me back to the main people!”

But let me tell you how much I BAWLED at the 13’s sacrifice 😭

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ririslibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

I loved this series, but there are a few things that I didn't like about this book:

There are a lot of romances that felt forced

and, obviously, no one who had a romantic interest died in war

Gavriel death's felt unnecesary and I wanted to stop reading the book because of it...

Otherwise, I never thought I would be so fond of the Thirteen and I cried when they sacrificed themselves (and therefore broke the curse).... "Live, Manon" </3

A great ending that could have been better if the Thirteen and Gavriel were still alive

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sarmarkel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

This was a slog for me. The entire book was building to one battle so felt much more logistical and plot driven rather than character driven which is more what I read for. I found myself skimming a lot more than I usually do.

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literarymary95's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

I really enjoyed the ending of this book. I think it's a bit long and could have been a little bit shorter as small pieces of it seemed repetitive simply because it picks up another character's POV and does a little bit of backtracking.
Otherwise, I think this ended the series beautifully as I thought 6 years or so ago when I first read it.

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pumpkaboola's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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cayliehausman's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Wow!!! What a conclusion to this series. I really loved how fast this book felt compared to the others, and I think the backstory was absolutely worth it to really feel the emotions of this book.

I wish we would’ve gotten a little bit more of their future than we did…and I would’ve loved to have seen more of a resolve in Manon and Dorian’s relationship (I know she would outlive him but still!!). But overall I love how Aelin really finds her way through the trauma by the end and is able to even overtake Maeve’s vision and start to destroy her within it.

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seastheday's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I waited a LONG time to write this review. The emotional pain that the characters AND ME experienced— made it difficult to think about the book critically. I tore through this book and it’s almost 1,000 pages. Aelin is who we live for and kept reading on for is experiencing so much pain. But I’ve come to love so many of the characters— I still feel like there’s so much story to be told. This is hands down the best read of my year so far. I wish I could read it for the first time again. There hasn’t been another experience like it— where the building and building and building finally pays off over and over and over. At least for me so far, and I’ve been an avid reader all my life.

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janeywaneyb's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow! Just wow! What an amazing book and a fabulous ending to the Throne of Glass series. This is a series you become very invested in and this book will bring you to tears as it breaks your heart, mend it to only break it again.
I loved all the characters and was rooting for them through every chapter. The women in this book kick some serious arse and I am here for it, Maas knows how to write strong female characters and this series is full of them and this book shows their true strength.
The battle scenes are a thing of literary masterpiece, I felt like the scenes were plucked from LOTR and I was fighting in those battles; definitely my favourite parts of the book.
I am a little in awe of this book and how brilliant it was, this might be a gushy review but I don't care, it is worthy of all the praise and then some.

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