Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Hey, guys, how's your weekend so far?
I hope better than mine. I've got a terrible cold and have like a billion assignments due next week.

Anyways, I'm back with another review! =) Enjoy!

BASICS

Title: Crown of Midnight
Series: Throne of Glass Series, #2
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Release Date: August 27^th 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
ISBN: 1619630621
Number of Pages: 418
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

SUMMARY

After winning the battle in Throne of Glass, Celaena is now officially the King's Assassin.

But instead of killing the people he orders her to eliminate, she just pretends to.

A dangerous game because the king has sworn to kill all of her beloved ones if she does exactly what she's doing right now.

Then he orders her to kill an old friend, Archer, who seems to know a little bit more about the rebel organisation...

MY OPINION

It took me quite a while to get into this one. (I feel like I'm saying this in every review)
Not because it was terribly written or anything, I just couldn't convince myself to pick CoM up after putting it down. I've read around a hundred pages and then it just lay on my night stand and it lay there, and lay there. Then suddenly – thank god – I forced, literally forced, myself to pick it up again. And then...I kinda started an obsession.
I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD LOVE THIS SERIES AS MUCH AS I DO NOW!
After the initial difficulties I couldn't put this book down. I literally flew through it and as soon as I was finished, I ordered Heir of Fire (which I loved even more. One of my favourite books in 2015.)

A summary of this book in one word: MORE
It has more action in it, more kickass Celaena scenes, more world building, more mystery, more magic, more blood and more hilarious moments.

“Enough! We have enough enemies as it is! There are worse things out there to face!"
Celaena slowly turned to him, her face splattered with blood and eyes blazing bright. "No, there aren't," she said. "Because I'm here now.”

"If they wanted Adarlan's Assassin, they'd get her.
And Wyrd help them when she arrived.”

I'm still getting goosebumps while reading these lines.


All of our characters get so much more depth in this book, thank you, Sarah!
Her writing improved so much in comparison to book #1.
The characters seemed a bit shallow in the first one. I've never really, like, felt connected to them. After reading Crown of Midnight it kind of feels like Throne of Glass was just some kind of 'prequel' to show us the first constellation of characters and the setting for the rest of the series.

I liked to see that Dorian finally became more indipendent and more developed. In Throne of Glass he seemed like an obstacle between Chaol and Celaena's love story because right from the beginning it was quite obvious who she's eventually going to choose. So it started with a hint of a love triangle and some authors would have probably developed that in some huge plot point in the second book, but not Sarah J. Maas and I'm deeply grateful for that. I don't like love triangles at all. Just mention 

The Selection, and I run away screaming (YOU'RE SO FRUSTRATING, AMERICA).

But more to their relationship later, now I want to focus on my dear Dorian.
I feel so, so sorry for him because he really gets neglected in CoM. He has a huge secret and he has to hide it from everybody. Celaena and Chaol are busy with each other and no one's really there to listen. And oh, baby, let me hug you. Over the course of the series, he grew on me. He's the one I just want to tuck into some comfy blankets and hand a cup of tea. Then we would rant over books. Yeah. One can dream.

 

Anyway, moving on to Celaena. She's such a badass. I love her. I really do. The moment where she really shows what she's capable of? O H  M Y  G O D. It was so intense.

We get to know a bit more about her character, good and bad, even though I really liked how Sarah J. Maas showed us the dark, hidden depths of Celaena. We get to see her make mistakes and our ability to like her is tested quite a bit (not only with Celaena but with the others too.)
In book one, most of the time Celaena's quiet happy and light-hearted. Here, shit gets real. There are things Celaena has to accept, a lot of guilt, traumatic memories and true identities. Of course, it doesn't help that there's a new threath out there and it's roaming the library in the palace. While the tests in ToG were more physical for Celaena, they are of the emotional kind in Crown of Midnight.
Another thing she has to deal with are her relationships. Some are taken to new levels, some fall apart – and every single one makes you be, like

Then there's Chaol, and I really did love him in CoM but now, after reading HoF, I'm not quite sure anymore because RONAN. Chaol did some stuff I'm not very fond of but more about that in my review of Heir of Fire.
He and Celaena finally admit their feelings to each other and start a relationship. They're pretty cute and I did blush quite often, like, look what a cutie he is:

“I worry because I care. Gods help me, I know I shouldn't, but I do. So I will always tell you to be careful, because I will always care what happens.”

"Dance with me Celaena," He said again, his voice rough.

But he's not the right one for Celaena (don't hate me, it's just my opinion).
There's a lot of stuff she can't tell him (or SPOILER ALERT: he doesn't accept when she tells him), so there's always a wall between them. They can't be totally honest with each other and, again I'm talking about HoF now, there's a lot that went wrong.

As long as he can't fully accept who she is, it doesn't work.

Celaena and Nehemia's relationship is still a mystery to me. I enjoyed Nehemia's character in book one but didn't love her as much as others did. She never really appeared like a fully developed character to me and had a lot more potential.

And what I really enjoyed reading about, was the small scraps of information about other 'cultures', like the Irontheeth Witches. They are so creepy. I love them.
With CoM we start to get a glimpse of just how big the picture Maas is painting for us actually is.

Oh, and by the way: THE COVER IS SO GORGEOUS I LOVE THE SOFTNESS OF IT

RATING

4.5 out of 5 stars!