Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Crown of Midnight

THIS BOOK WAS SO SAD!

Aelin is now the King's Assassin. She goes off on the king's orders to kill his enemies but turns out she's not actually killing them. She's faking their deaths and allowing them to escape into the night. The only problem is, the king will kill Chaol and Nehemia's if he finds out she's lying to him. On one of her assignments she discovers some information that threatens the king and his crown and sets in motion a series of events that will threaten everything Celaena cares for.

This book really delve into the relationship between Chaol, Dorian and Celaena. I really liked that aspect of it. I loved the mystery of it all! Overall, it wasn't a 5 star read for me because it still felt like it was a book that was leading up to another book. Or maybe because there wasn't any smut ;)

The ending was so sooo sad and emotional :(

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nicolastrouse's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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imds's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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brittaneenash's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book really knew where to hit to get all of my feelings all at once. There are so many lovely scenes, and an equal amount of (okay, maybe slightly more) heartbreaking scenes, and plenty of scenes that leave adrenaline coursing through your veins.

I know a lot of people don't like Chaol, probably particularly after this book, but I still adore him. Despite this, I do find him immensely frustrating at times, but I think that's just a massive testament to Sarah J. Maas' ability to write characters realistically. I still stand by the fact that he's a little autism-coded babe, and I would protect him with my whole heart. I think that he needs a hug.
I was devastated by the deaths of some of the characters in this book. Absolutely, genuinely heartbroken.
There were a lot of predictable things throughout the book, though I found there was probably an equal amount of things that took me by surprise!
Archer, in particular, was someone I had my eye on as vaguely suspicious after he ferried out that handful of people from his organisation, but I never would have suspected his character arc to play out in the way that it did.
I would, additionally, like to point out that I knew Celaena was Aelin around 50 pages into the first book. I know we don't hear about Aelin until the start of Crown of Midnight, but I'd heard about Aelin-Rowan ships on TikTok. It was so infuriating to me that nobody seemed to be able to put the pieces together, and even when Chaol did, he still thought that she just knew where the 'lost princess' was.
The ending of this book, once again, fell a little bit flat for me. I think that this is because I'd already guessed one of the major plot points of this novel about a book and a half prior to it occurring.

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melaniepearce's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

This is the type of book and style I would expect from SJM after reading ACOTAR and Crescent City.
Solid reads with decent plot and pacing. I can tell something good is brewing.

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