So far you’ve been able to read our reviews of our rereads for The Assassin’s Blade and Throne of Glass. Today it’s time for Crown of Midnight.
Warning: This was a reread for us, so this review can have spoilers if you haven’t read this series yet!
“A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.
It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend.”
From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.
Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.
Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.
Review
Candyce: What I love about this book is that it continues right about after the ending of Throne of Glass. I was really curious to see if Celaena would be able to actually kill the people the King wanted her to. Yes, she’s an assassin, or was raised as one, but she’s changed since being in Endovier. I thought it was clever of her to let the people run and use dead bodies that were badly burned or otherwise harmed that you can’t really tell what they would look like.
I loved seeing Celaena getting her confidence back and her fun shopping. There are some relationships in this book, but I’m actually pretty happy that Celaena didn’t end up with Dorian. Even though it would’ve been obvious. Out of everything though, Mort was my favorite. I kind of hope we somehow see him again in Kingdom of Ash.
A lot of people say this is their least favorite book of the series or even stop reading because of this, but I don’t get that. Yes, it does take some time for the story to build up, but I loved it all. There is a lot of relationships and worldbuilding necessary for the rest of the series. There is plenty of drama and even betrayal that I really didn’t see coming at times.
Isabelle: I totally agree with all that Candyce just said haha. It was great seeing Celaena handle her kill assignments the way she did and I was so proud of her. Even though it was dangerous she showed us that she’ll always do what is right. I think that was a pretty important move for her, she might be an assassin but this showed that she is far from a bad person.
The world is slowly expanding in this second book and I loved all of it. It was also great seeing a little bit more of the things Celaena was doing before she was sent to Endovier. I love her passion for music for example. What I loved most in this book were the twists and betrayals, some things really broke my heart! When reading Crown of Midnight I definitely needed my tissues from time to time haha.
I talked a little bit about Celaena as assassin and while she showed us that she is actually a really good person we also so her other side. She is an absolute bad ass and I loved the scenes where we were shown that side of her. One of my favorite scenes in this book was the warehouse scene, especially since none of the characters realize how the others are! When rereading this again, I just had to chuckle a lot and shake my head, if only the all realized the others identities….
“Why are you crying?” “Because,” she whispered, her voice shaking, “you remind me of what the world ought to be. What the world can be.”
Thoughts after the reread
Candyce: Crown of Midnight surprised me this time around, because a lot of events took place in this book that I didn’t expect until later on. Or maybe even later in this book, haha. I think that happens with reading over and over again. It becomes one long story.
Again this book reminds me of why I love the series. The way betrayal and drama play such a big role, but seeing the main character getting a lot stronger. Even though there were a lot of crushing events in this book for her. I think I started understanding her more after reading these books a few times.
Isabelle: I have a feeling I’m going to repeat myself every day with these reviews and especially this thoughts after the rereads part haha. Because once again, I loved my reread and I love all the hints we got. Since I’m not a Chaol fan I didn’t mind all the events that involved him one way or another. I do think the story in this book is what broke Celaena and what we all needed to go through to get to Heir of Fire. Every time I read this book I NEED to pick up Heir of Fire as you just know this is where the ‘real’ story will start.
Rereading this series has been quite the journey so far. If you’ve read Crown of Midnight, what was your favorite part?
