Every month we will read a book together and tell you guys what we thought about it in our buddy review. At the start of September the sixth novel in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas was released; Tower of Dawn. We actually met during a Throne of Glass read-a-long and since we obviously needed to start reading this book immediatly we also thought it a great idea to use this as our first buddyread/buddy review. Lets see what we thought about Tower of Dawn.

Cover

Candyce: When the cover was revealed I didn’t know what to think of it at first. It’s a beautiful cover, but I think I was kind of expecting Chaol to be on the cover of the book. When I received my copy I was stunned. The pictures of the cover don’t do it justice. After reading the book and realizing how many little hints are hidden in this cover I am very impressed!

Isabelle: I completely agree with Candyce on this one haha. I love the cover but even though the blue of it fits really well with The Assassins Blade I didn’t feel like the front fit with the rest of the series. However knowing how much Sarah loves foreshadowing and told us there were hints on the cover I just can’t not love this cover. It fits the story so well and it’s just stunning, definitely in person! Pictures don’t really do it justice.

Plot

Candyce: Tower of Dawn follows Chaol on his journey in Antica in the same timeframe as Empire of Storms. At first I had my doubts. Not that I don’t like Chaol, I just really wondered how it would all play out. I have to say Sarah J Maas blew me away once again. I can totally understand why she decided to deliver this story as a full length book and not just a novella. This was information we really needed. So much new information about the war that is taking place, what they are up against and some background information about other characters. My mouth was hanging open in surprise a few times.  Sarah was able to connect Chaol’s journey to everything that was happening in Empire of Storms and then some.

Isabelle: I was never a big Chaol fan so I wasn’t overly excited when this ‘Chaol novel’ was announced BUT I am a big Sarah fan and if she writes it then I will read it. She also said this book was important to understanding things before you go into the last book and I have to agree with that. There are some new characters that we will definitely see in the next book. They’re introduced in this book and you get to know them during this story so you’ll be missing out if you skip this book. Same with some discoveries that are made in Tower of Dawn, I can’t imagine not knowing about those before going into the last instalment. It was great seeing some things coming together in this book, as happened in Empire of Storms and I’m sure will happen in book 7. I loved the plot and didn’t think it was to long at all. We got a whole new world and new characters so that takes time to develop. There are some amazing plot twists and I didn’t see most of them coming!

“It was agony and despair and fear. It was joy and laughter and rest. It was life, all of it…”

Characters

Isabelle: This book has been called ‘Chaol novel’ but it certainly isn’t just about Chaol! Obviously Nesryn also travelled south with him and it was already revealed Yrene Towers (the healer from The Assassins Blade) would be in it. But we got so much more then just them! The new characters I loved most are Sartaq, Hasar, Kashin, Borte and Hafiza. At the start I had some difficulties keeping the khagans children apart put as the story progressed that got easier and easier and by now I’m not sure how I mixed them up in the first place haha.

Candyce: As Isabelle already said you get so many new characters and learn more about a few old ones. I wasn’t really sure of Nesryn, but I loved her journey in this book! We get to see a different side of her than in Empire of Storms. I think Yrene is one of my favorite characters of this book. She was feisty, but caring and showed so much development in this story. The Khagan and his family were quite interesting. I think my favorites from them are Sartaq, Kashin and Borte. Just like Isabelle I thought this family was very confusing in the beginning. There were quite a few of them and it was hard to tell them apart.

“You must enter where you fear to tread.”

 

Worldbuilding

 Isabelle: As I mentioned before, we basically get this whole new world in Tower of Dawn. The whole book takes place at Southern continent and that’s not a place we knew that much about. I loved reading about the Torre Cesme, the tower filled with healers, and thought that place was well developed. We also learned a lot about the culture on the continent and I enjoyed that immensely. It just shows how much of an effort Sarah puts into her books and into developing this whole world. But what I loved most about this world were the Ruks and their riders! I cannot wait until we get a face off between ruks and wyverns, that is going to be amazing. I could go on and on about how much I loved this whole part of the book haha.

“A gift. A gift from a queen who had seen another woman in hell and thought to reach back a hand. With no thought of it ever being returned. A moment of kindness, a tug on a thread.”

Candyce: I totally agree with Isabelle about this as well! We are given a whole new world and culture we really know nothing about. Sarah is able to describe this world in a way that you feel like you’re there. I think Torre Cesme was my favorite new part of the world that we were introduced to. I love how the healers work and their history. I wouldn’t mind learning more about them. I’d say my other favorite new part of this world are the Ruks. They are so interesting. I can’t wait to see them face the wyverns. The ruks and their riders are such an interesting group. It’s a whole other culture itself. I love the dynamics. Even though I think Abraxos will always be my favorite, haha.

All in all this was an amazing book! If you are having your doubts about reading this book please don’t. This book gives so much information we all need before diving into the last part of the story. It’s going to be really hard to wait until next year for this final book. We both want to read the last book, but don’t want to say goodbye to these beloved characters yet. Have you read Tower of Dawn? What did you think?