Birthday Bookhaul

Hi, guys!
Yesterday was my birthday and here are all the books I've got:

End of Days by Susan Ee
It's the final book in the Penryn & the End of Days trilogy!
I've already started it and it's okay, I guess. I've expected better but I still have over 300 pages left, so
there's still room for improvement!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Days of Blood and Starlight
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
all by Laini Taylor
All I actually know about those books is that it's about the forbidden love between Karou and Akiva and it's about angels and demons?
Anyway, I've read some free chapters on my mom's iPad and I loved those.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young
The first book in the Dust Lands trilogy!
The heroine is called Saba, who lives in a wasteland who is constantly ravaged by sandstorms.
One day her beloved twin brother Lugh is kidnapped by four cloaked horsemen and she goes on a mission to save him. She teams up with the daredevil Jack and a girl gang of Revolutionaries, called the Free Hawks.
I've heard that this book has a 'hardcore warrior heroine' and all I could think was: SIGN ME UP.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The first book in the Outlander series!
It's about time travel and really attractive Scots in kilts and that's honestly all I need to know
And my friends and I are planning to travel to Scotland in next year's summer vacation, so I thought it would be pretty cool to read this before and, of course watch the TV Show together.

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
This one's inspired by the fairy tale Red Riding Hood, as far as I know!
Emily May (whose taste I really trust) is loving it and wrote a really convincing review on it!
So, this story is about Rachelle who is marked by a so-called 'Forestborn'. That means either she kills someone in the next three days and becomes a slave of the forest's power or she dies.
She makes her choice and has to live with it from then on.
Now, three years later, she is ordered by the king to guard his son Armand, the man she hates most.
Rachelle forces Armand to help her find a legendary sword that might save their world.

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
The first book in a duology!
It's based on a tale from A Thousand and One Nights!
Khalid is the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan and takes a new wife every night, only to have her executed the following morning.
We follow the story from Shahrzad's point of view. She volunteers to become his wife.
But she has a plan to stay alive and revenge her best friend who died under Khalid's command. Everyone I follow on Goodreads seems to love this book, so I can't wait to read it!

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
The first book in the Eon duology!
This one's, as you can guess from the title, about dragons.
It's set in a fantasy world that supposedly based on imperial China, but don't quote me on that.
Anyway, there are 12 dragons, each one is meant to have a dragon lord.
Twelfe year old Eon has been in training to become chosen as a Dragoneye for years. Being a Dragoneye means being an apprentice to one of the twelve dragons.
But Eon has a secret: He's actually 16-year-old Eona. Girls are forbidden to use Dragon Magic, and if they discover her true identity, they will kill her.
It reminds me quite of Mulan, which is AMAZING!


Have you read any of those books? If so, tell me your opinion in the comments!
Stay funky!
Franzi

May Book Haul and Wrap-Up!

Hi, guys!
Today I'm back with my May book haul and Wrap-Up!
I've read 13 books this month but let's start with those I bought:

I've purchased a total of six books this month (even though, I actually wanted to buy no books at all because in June's my birthday which means MORE BOOKS!)

Here are the books:

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
It's the third book in the Throne of Glass series
   - more about it in my Wrap-Up

                                         

Transcendence by Shay Savage
This book has a really cool concept: It's from the POV of a caveman who is not able to talk or understand any language.
A girl from the future (or present) travels accidently back in time and meets him but obviously he's not able to communicate with her and they have to communicate with each other with gestures.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
First book in the series everybody on BookTube is currently raving about!
A thousand years ago a dark lord came to the land and has ruled ever since.
But now a 'troublemaker' has arrived and there are rumours of revolt.
That revolt depends on a criminal and a young girl who must master the magic that lies in metal.
I can't wait so start this series!

This beautiful edition of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

(it's my third)
Do I really have to say anything about it's content?
MR. DAAARCY

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
It was the booksplosion book of the month for May!
I actually didn't plan to pick it up but as I've told in my post on my internship at my local bookstore,
I found a sample copy in one of the shelves and was allowed to take it home with me.
It was so good, I just had to buy it for myself.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Original Idea: Siobhan Dowd
I found the German copy of this one in the scratch & dent section at my local drugstore.
I didn't recognise it as 'a monster calls' (which I wanted to read for ages) but I am SO glad I picked it up anyway!
It isn't even that damaged!

Those are the books I've bought!
I've already read a few of them - so let's get down to my wrap-up.
My primary goal this month was to diminish my TBR pile - and I did quite a good job!
Seven out of my 13 books were longer than two months on my shelves.
Those are:

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
It's the fifth book in the Vampire Academy series
I had this on my shelf for about 4 months and finally came around to read it!
Sadly, I was quite disappointed. I only gave it 2.5 stars out of 5.
                        I cringed literally every time Rose was talking and really couldn't recognize the Rose I came to love in her.
   I felt so much pity for Adrian but more about my thoughts in my review (which will hopefully come soon).

The Elite by Kiera Cass
It's the second book in the Selection trilogy!
It laid on my shelf since Christmas.
I gave it 2 stars out of 5
It was okay - I guess.
You can check out my review here!

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

It's the first book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy!
          This one was so long on my shelf, I honestely can't remember when I'd bought it!
              When I first read the summary, it remembered me quite a lot of Mean Girls. Just in the Victorian Era
Our heroine is Gemma Doyle who lived all of her life in India.
       After her mother's death, she moves to England to attend a bording school where she befriends with
those typical 'popular girls'. Of course, we also have some fantasy/mysterious elements.
Gemma is haunted by visions and a (very attractive) young Indian man who warns her to give in to those visions.
Together with her friends she manages to travel to some kind of otherworldy realms were they can taste the power they'll never have as Victorian wives.
I really loved that - even though this book took part in the really staid Victorian era - those girls would fit into 21st century, too. They talked about their sexualty, made jokes about it, which is something I didn't expect!
But it took me quite some times to get into this book,
so I ended up with giving it 3.5 stars out of 5.
But I'll continue with this trilogy tho!

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

This book is some kind of spin-off from the Wolves of Mercy Fall trilogy!
It was released in July 2014 I believe but I only picked it up in March at the Buchmesse in Leipzig!
It was great to be with Isabel and Cole again! I loved those two in the actual trilogy and came to love them even more after finishing Sinner!
I love Isabel.
4 stars out of 5

              

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

MP was on my shelf for about two months. I picked up a Jane Auten boxset right after the Buchmesse!
It was okay.
I really didn't like the lovestory between Edmund and Fanny.
It seemed to forced and the ending was wrapped up so fast.
I gave it 3.5 stars out of five.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

God, this cover is horrible.
But it's not about the looks right?
I totally enjoyed Persuasion!
It wasn't quite as good as Pride and Prejudice (but which classic is?)
I LOVED Wentworth (and his letter writing skills)
Anne was a wonderful main character. Really mature, really gentle.
5 stars out of 5

The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien
This little bad boy was on my shelf for - believe it or not - 13 months.
I've started it multiple times but always stopped after roughly 70 pages.
But I - FINALLY - finished it.
This sums up all my feelings: It felt like coming home.
4 stars out of 5

Those were all the books I've had on my shelves for a few months.

Here are the books I've got from my local bookstore to read for free:

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
I really enjoyed the mystery but was quite disappointed when the secret was revealed.
It was a bit too fantastical for me.
This book's about Cadence and her family: the Sinclairs. Everything is perfect in their lives.
There are no addictions. No criminals. No dents and edges.
They have their own island were the whole family - Grandmother, Grandfather and three sisters with their kids - spend every summer.
In Summer 15 Cadence had a terrible accident which left her with even worse headaches and only a handful of memories of those months.
Two years later she's back to unravel what happened to her.
I gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 because it was really gripping

An Ember in the Ashes by Saaa Tahir

It was announced that there'll be a sequel in 2016!
This book was so gripping - it took me not even a day to finish it!
I loved the main characters, Laia and Elias.
Laia wasn't your typical badass heroine (even though, I love them a lot too). She's shy, insecure and really fucking scared.
Elias on the other side is a killing machine who isn't supposed to have any feelings at all.
After the murder of her grandparents and the abduction of her brother, Laia makes a pact with the rebel organisation.
They will get her brother out of prison if Laia disguises herself as a slave and spies on the cruel Commander (who is Elias mother).
Elias is one of the best - if not THE best - students of Blackcliff, a school for soldiers. But Elias wants nothing more than to run away from this ruthless society.
If you love stories about the old Romans, this'll be a good book for you!
5 stars out of 5

10 Things to do before you Crash and Burn by James Proimos

I really didn't like this one.
It's based on the myth of Hercules and his 12 tasks but it's like, the 21st version.
It felt kind of shallow or maybe I'm just too dumb to see the deeper meaning of it.
1 star out of 5

And lastly, all the books that don't fit in one of those two categories!


Transcendence by Shay Savage

It was okay, but sometimes the focus was a little to much on the sex in my opinion.
Like, one time there was one big sex scene which covered about three chapters.
I need some more action and adventure!
3.5 stars out of 5



Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

It's the third book in the Raven Cycle!
Look at that cover, it's so pretty!
Awesome book! Favourite so far!
God, I almost melted at every Blue x Gansey scene.
I loved all the characters.
A review will follow (hopefully) soon!
5 stars out of 5



Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Third book in the Throne of Glass series!
Thank god, this series will have six books in total!
This was definitely my favourite so far!
I loved the new side of Celaena's character and this BIG development in her character!
I adored Ronan (my bae) and Manon and Aedion - JUST ALL THE NEW CHARACTERS
God, I'm gushing again.
Just read this series.
I'm already working on a review, so stay tuned!
5 stars out of 5

What books did you read in May? Tell me in the comments!
Stay funky!
Franzi

PS: If anyone has any idea how to get rid of these weird lighter boxes around the texts, please tell
      me!

Internship at my local Book Store!

Hi, guys!

As you can gather from the title, I'm currently doing an internship at my local book store!

This is just a little post about what I've experienced so far!
The internship started yesterday morning and will end on Friday.
Yesterday I've helped decorating a shopwindow and followed the employees literally everywhere.
I only did little tasks, sometimes not book related at all (like buying polish from the opposing shop).

Today, there was an employee closer to my age and we talked quite a lot, which was really great!
We ate cake together and talked about anything and everything (there weren't many customers in the afternoon).
We rearranged various book shelves and I could do some on my own without making the array looking terrible!
Tomorrow I'll help organizing the "bestseller"-shelf and I'm really looking forward to it!

The best part of the whole internship are the sample copies. Ha.
Publishers are sending those to the book shops, so the employees can read them, rate them and recommend them to their customers. I've already read An Ember in the Ashes (review will follow soon) yesterday and I am currently reading We Were Liars!

       An Ember in the Ashes                                                                      We Were Liars
                                                


Have a great day!
Franzi

[Update, May 30]
I've read another book:
12 things to do before you crash and burn by James Proimos

The Elite by Kiera Cass

Hi, guys!
I'm back with another review for you!

BASICS

Title: The Elite
Series: The Selection Series, #2
Author: Kiera Cass
Release Date: April 23^rd 2013

Publisher: HarperTeen

ISBN: 0062059963
Number of Pages: 336
Genre: Romance, Young Adult

SUMMARY

Only six girls are left to compete for Prince Maxon's heart.
America Singer is one of them.
But when everything seemed settled and perfect, i.e.. Maxon told her he loves her, Aspen, America's ex-boyfriend, appears in the palace. Old feelings stir again and America has to choose.
Does she love Maxon, prince of Illéa, who's willing to give her anything or Aspen, her longtime lover, whom she loved since she was young?

MY OPINION

Okay, let's start this review with a short explanation why I've even read The Elite (after mentioning several times that I'm not fond of The Selection.)
My parents gave me The Elite for Christmas and I don't want them to spend money for me without apprecitating it. So I've read it.
In The Elite we're following the last six girls who are trying to win Maxon's heart.
America is – obviously – one of them. So while America has to decide if she loves Aspen or Maxon, the latter one does everything to convince her he's the one – while dating five other girls.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise: This book is a romance. Not a dystopian novel.
Almost all of the 336 pages are about America's flirts with either Maxon or Aspen or her being heartbroken because Maxon doesn't give her enough attention.
One word to sum up her actions in The Elite? Frustrating.

Me while reading her back and forth between her two lovers:


She obviously still loves Aspen and whenever Maxon did something 'wrong', she runs to Aspen to get comforted. Which leads to quite some distance between Maxon and America.
He then tries to get to know the other girls better in case America should choose to leave him. And then she gets jealous and we complete our perfect vicious circle.
America, you can't have everything.
If you tell Maxon 'no, I don't want you', you have no right to be upset about him spending more time with other girls.
I'm not saying that everything he did was the best way to do so, but he tried so hard to help America in every way and to make her feel comfortable with her surroundings. He has a right to be happy.
But – as in most YA novels with a love triangle – only the main character's wants are important.
The two love interests have to do her bidding.

I can't say that her not being able to choose was my biggest problem but that she did choose. Like, twenty times a chapter. Okay, I'm exaggerating but it felt like that while reading.

Litereally, every time she was like It's him! He's the one I love! I'll stick with him! I could only roll my eyes and think Girl, we're only halfway through, you'll probably change your mind over the next four pages.

Moving on to the plot.
Wait, what plot exactly?
I have nothing against character driven stories, not at all. But please, let there be at least some kind of goal (except for the end of the Selection, that's a pretty shallow one.) Let there be other achievements, new developments or suddenly appearing side questes!

If you're trying to argue with the attacks by rebels than you shoot yourself in the foot.
These damn rebel attacks got boring real fast.
How many times did the rebels get beyond the walls in those two books? Five, six times? If that was my palace I would have replaced the guards as soon as possible!
And what use were these attacks anyway?
To give America and Maxon some alone time to make up?
I don't think that political stuff is Cass' strenght.
And don't even get me started on all these ethnic stereotypes!
Those graceful Asians, stuffy Germans and celebratory Italians.

And even though, all our three main characters weren't very likeable, at least they had some good and some bad character traits.
Which is something you can't say about the maids Anne, Mary and Lucy.
I'm still not sure what unique personality Anne and Mary are supposed to have.
I wouldn't have minded if Cass had written them as one person.

And Lucy's only „characteristic“ are her traumatic memories, which are terrible for sure, but it's her only defining trait and that shows some laziness from Cass' side.

If you love The Bachlor or The Bachlorette (or whatever these shows are called), I recommend it to you. The Selection series are those in book form. And the dude's a prince.

Even though I hated almost every single character, I couldn't stop. I just had to read it, even if the only purpose was to be able to complain afterwards.
I won't stop, either. I don't want some finished series on my shelf.
So stay tuned for a review for The One sometime in the future!

RATING

2 out of 5 stars

Stay funky, guys!

The Disney Book Tag!

Hi, guys!
Today I'm doing my very first book tag!
I wasn't tagged in any of the recent tags but

I thought a lot about which tag I'm going to do, and I finally decided for the: Book Tag
This Tag was created by Katytastic to celebrate the release of The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz.
                                                     

The book focuses on the villans of all Disney movies who where banished to the so-called Isle Of The Lost together with their children. Now, twenty years later, the daughter of Maleficent, Mal, is send on some kind of journey to find a dragon's eye to escape the island and yeah, that's actually all I know about it.
Oh, I almost forgot! The Isle of the Lost serves as a prequel to the upcoming Disney Movie in which the kids of the villans go to the same (boarding?) school as the heroes' children!

Now, without further ado, let's get started!

Number 1: Little Mermaid A character that felt out of place or like a fish out of water.

For this one I chose Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien
He's your average homely, food-loving hobbit.
Then suddleny the wizard Gandalf and the party around the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield appear and Bilbo is more or less talked into being their burglar to retake the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug.
So you get why he's the fish out of water here.


Number 2: Cinderella
A character that goes through a major transformation.
Here I decided to pick Meghan Chase from the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa.
It's been a while since I've read those books but I always admired Meghan for her character development.
She starts as a normal girl who has to struggle with bullying at school.
Suddenly her brother Ethan is captured and taken to Nevernever, the land of the Faeries.
Together with her best friend Robbie, who's actually Puck, a Faery, she goes on a quest to bring her brother back but one thing leads to another and she needs to rescue the Faery realms. I won't tell you what her transformation is exactly about, if you want to know, I recommend you to read the books. (Even though, I'm not a fan of love triangles at all, I enjoyed this series!)

Number 3: Snow White
A book with an eclectic cast of characters.

For this question I chose a quite obvious answer.
I'll go for: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R.Martin
This book series has dozens of POVs and even more characters. I just looked it up. In total we had 32 POV characters in the whole series + the short stories.
All of them, are so complex and realistic, it's amazing
All in all, I adore this series.


Number 4: Sleeping Beauty
A book that put you to sleep.

After some thinking, I ended up choosing Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead.
This book is the fifth in the Vampire Academy series.
As stated in my reviews on the first four books, I love this series quite a bit.
But Spirit Bound just didn't do it for me. Everything was solved so easily and Rose was just annoying.
Every other character we would hate for what she's doing, but because she's our beloved Rose, it's suddenly okay?
And then her rushed opinion change about Victor? Like, no, girl.


Number 5: The Lion King
A character that had something dramatic happen in their childhood.

Well, that's a particularly difficult question. Expecially in the YA genre.
I actually had a hard time choosing someone because there are so many.
But I ended up with Ruby Daly from the Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Bracken!
About six or years prior to the events in book one, the disease IAAN broke out, which caused many children's death. Those who survived, had special powers, like mind control, telekinesis or pyrokinesis.
Because the government had no clue how to deal with those kids, they were send of to Rehabilitation Camps (official name) or Concentration Camps (the truth). Ruby was send there when she was ten years old and I just want to tuck her into some blankets and pat her head!
 


Number 6: Beauty and the Beast
A beast of a book that you were intimidated by but then found to be beautiful at the end.

Okay, number 6 on our list is the Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling!
Lemme explain myself.
When I started reading about our Chosen One, I was hardly ten years old and despite loving books, I've always read thin and easy-to-read ones.
Books with a simple world and either good or bad characters. So I was quite intimidated by a series consisting of seven books and several movies.
But, guys, it's Harry Potter, so how can you not love it?  


Number 7: Aladdin
A character that gets their wish granted, for better or for worse.

This time I chose someone not quite as obvious:

Mrs. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Her one and only wish is to marry their daughters off to some respectable and rich noble man. Which she does. Kind of.
Jane and Lizzie marry some really rich, really respectable and really noble man.
Kitty marries a respectable clergyman, Mary a clerk.
Just Lydia's choice isn't so fortunate (but don't tell Mrs. Bennet)
In the end, her wish is fulfilled (mostly).  


Number 8: Mulan
A character who pretends to be something or someone that they're not.

Also a rather common theme in the YA genre but I decided to go for someone entirely different.
My choice is Light Yagami from the Death Note series by Tsugumi Oba and Takeshi Obata.
One day Light stumbles across a note book and if you write a name in it, the person dies (hence, the title: Death Note).
With Light's father being a police officer, he has really strict morals and uses his new power to kill
criminals. But well, things kinda get out of hand, to put it lightly (ha.) 


Number 9: Toy Story
A book that you wish the characters would come to life.

For this one I picked not a book but a whole series:
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater.
I adore Maggie's characters and they are so realistic and so human, it's really astonishing!
The story's really hard to summarize but I'll give it a go.
Blue Sargent is the only one in a house full of psychics that has no particular powers.
But one thing about her is special. If she kisses her true love, they will die.
Then one night, when she's supposed to watch the soon-to-die cross the Corpse Road together with her aunt Neeve, Blue sees her very first spirit: A boy named Gansey. Which means that either she's his true love or she's the reason he'll die (And by her luck she's probably both).
Only a few days later, she meets him and his friends, Adam, Noah and Ronan, in real life. And she's confirmed in her rule: Stay away from Aglionby boys.
But slowly she's drawn into his world.
Gansey's life consists out of one quest. Finding the Welsh king Glendower's grave.

Well, it sounds crazy but it's just so, so good.

Number 10: Disney Descendants
Your favourite villan or moraly ambiguous character.
On to number 10!
Here, I have to pick my only recently discovered favourite.

Manon Blackbeak from The Heir of Fire by Sarah J.Maas.
She grew up in such an evil and twisted society, that it's no surprise, she turned out
equally evil and twisted. But I enjoyed reading from her perspective so much and I loved following her slowly developing some kind of moral standarts but not entirely. Like, she's still really cruel and drinks human blood for fun but then again she's so fierce and though.
I hope she will join Celaena's clique.

Now, who am I going to tag?
The answer is: Everyone! If you're interested in doing this tag, just go for it!

So, see you!
Franzi

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!