Heir Of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

I've never sped through a series as much as I've sped through this one, so as soon I had finished Crown Of Midnight I was relieved to find out the next sequel, Heir Of Fire, was due to be released in a few days time. I must say, even though I've probably mentioned before, the covers for this series are absolutely amazing and I think whoever designs them need to be awarded for how visually stunning they truly are, especially my UK editions, how I wished they made them in hardback over here!

In this instalment we find that Celaena has already been in Wendlyn for a couple of weeks and has since been scouting Prince Galan's palace, though still contemplating on how to handle the situation she's been tasked to do by the King. But Celaena isn't the only one scouting in Wendlyn as it turns out she has been summoned by Queen Maeve, the Fae Queen and her long distant aunt, who's sent Prince Rowan to retrieve Celaena. Celaena will have to face her fears to unleash her true self in order to defeat the King and find the answers she is looking for, but the most lingering question of all is which persona will she chose in order to take down the his kingdom. Will she be Celaena Sardothien, the worlds most lethal assassin and potential Kingslayer, or Aelin Galathynius the heir to Terrasen who's returned to take back her kingdom thats rightfully hers to rule.

However I did find this one very slow to begin with that I almost put it down, but as I kept reading it certainly picked up the pace. But it was only towards the end when I flew through the pages, every page kept me hooked and once I eventually got to the end I wanted more. So Heir Of Fire has left me thinking of how long I have to wait and I'm especially looking forward to the title and cover revelation, again another readers struggle waiting for sequels.

I like how with every book Celaena is slowly maturing and thinking of others for once, something that she has not done in a long while. Of course the mature factor has to do with the fact that she's getting older every two books, as she turns nineteen in Heir Of Fire and before we know it she'll have turned twenty by the end of this series. Celaena definitely struggles with the responsibilities she's been tasked with and often contemplates of other ways out of her duties, even resulting in her downfall.

We also got a few new characters, Aedion, Celaena's cousin, Manon a Blackbeak witch, Sorcha a healer, and Rowan a full blooded Fae. Now I must say I really liked Aedion and Rowan as some new additions to the story and who's perspective I loved reading from, but I found Manon's part a bit lack lustre. I found her story so boring at times I wish I could of skipped her parts, but I'm guessing she's going to be a major player in the game soon so I couldn't really miss any of the vital details. I also felt that Sorscha was just added just so Dorian could have some company, but her role does spark something at the end, so maybe it wasn't that pointless after all.

The fact that theres always death in these books mean that everyone is mortal, something none can come back from, there are so many books from this genre that have one or two deaths. But I swear this is constantly like Game Of Thrones, no I haven't the books just the TV series, the point being you never know who will be safe, that no one is ever safe in any world.

SPOILERS below...

So we found out from Queen Maeve that the King of Adarlan can use the Wyrdstone collars on the living or dead, and with the power he demonstrates he could easily conjure an army. So I was thinking about an earlier scene, we heard that the king had ordered the slaughter of the slaves at Calaculla and Endovier. Now the King has got thousands of dead slaves to dispose, and he loves testing out his new experiments, well now that he knows his Wyrdstone collars work I'm guessing he's going to use all this dead weight as his own personal army.

Now that Celaena is heading back to Rifthold I'm looking forward to her reunion with Arobynn, he will truly feel her wrath descended upon him, though I do feel he will have a few tricks up in his sleeve, so I wouldn't consider him out of the picture just yet.

I could not absolutely believe what happened to Dorian at the end, whenever he ever gets taken down I hope there are no casualties but Celaena and the others are going to have to do it soon before he rots himself from the inside before its too late to ever come back from.

And one more thing before I sign off from the spoiler/theory department, Celaena said to Rowan she's going to call in as many favours in as she can, so as you can probably guess I think we're going to see all of the characters from The Assassins Blade combine forces with Celaena to fight through this war and settle it once and for all.

****

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You can get Heir Of Fire online or at your nearest available bookstore.
I brought my copy from Amazon.

Crown Of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

So continuing weeks after Throne Of Glass Celaena has been obliging to the Kings requests, we start off where she is in the middle of her third mission. While Celaena's out and about on those missions she still has to come to terms with the fact that she has been tasked and chosen by Queen Elena to diminish this evil that is plaguing the glass castle before it further seeps into the world.

I must say Crown Of Midnight was well written compared to Throne Of Glass Sarah J. Maas definitely toned down the exclamation point department! There were so many twists and turns and yet again more betrayals and hurt for Celaena to deal with, I suppose there comes to a point in her life that she says enough is enough. Celaena awakens the animal within that has suppressed all her rage and seizes to gain control of the situation, only to push and hurt people closest to her.

Again we get to see the point of views from Celaena, Nehemia, Chaol, Dorian, and the King, which is something I love about this series we constantly get to see through the other characters eyes and see how they react to some situations. Whenever it switches between P.O.V I never once mistake who's perspective I'm reading from, which is something that is quite hard to do considering having to write about multiple characters, linking each scene together hoping that it will make sense to the reader.

SHIPS!

Well I think the ultimate Celaena ship was her and Sam but now thats never going to happen, but I'm crazy enough to have a theory that magic could potentially bring him back but I reckon that will be a no go, though you'll never know so I'm just putting it out there for the meantime. The next best ship is Celaena and Chaol, though I'm not sure what the ship name for that is, actually I don't know any ship names but bare with me. The reason I ship Celaena with Chaol is because he reminds me so much of Sam, though I have nothing else to say on that topic. I do have a feeling that Celaena will end up being with Prince Dorian at the end of the series, its just another sneaking suspicion I have.

SPOILERS below...

I know some people were shocked with the end revelation but I happened to see it from a mile off when reading The Assassain's Blade, so Crown Of Midnight confirmed my suspicions. I knew Celaena had a dark mysterious past that she kept hidden within herself which explained why so wanted to experience freedom of a 'normal girl' but what I did not see coming was that she was Fae, I mean I guessed she had some sort of special blood ties within her but reading about her transform that was the ultimate revelation for me. I. Did. Not. See. That. Coming. Which is why I gave it such a high rating over the previous two books.

*****

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You can get Crown Of Midnight online or at your nearest available bookstore.
I brought my copy from The Book People.