We are having a lot of fun sharing our reviews of our rereads of this amazing series. You’ve already been able to read our reviews for The Assassin’s Blade, Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire. Today it’s time for our review of Queen of Shadows!
WARNING: This is a review of our reread. If you haven’t read Throne of Glass, you will encounter spoilers in this review!
The queen has returned.
Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…
She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.
She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.
The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.
Review
Isabelle: This was such an action packed installment in the series! Up until reading Empire of Storms this was my absolute favorite book. I loved all the characters together, the pacing of the book and the ending left me so happy.
The first part of the book is all about rescuing Aedion and getting revenge on Arobynn. It was great reading about that rescue, it was in true Celaena/Aelin fashion and ensured an action packed start to the book. While I loved the revenge on Arobynn, I did always think he got off easy. Sam will forever be in my heart and is such a beloved character, I think he deserved to be avenged in worse ways than we got.
The second part of the book is more about saving Dorian and getting rid of the King. I loved the role Manon played in all this and it was so much fun seeing her storyline converge with the others. It was amazing to read how it all played out and like I said, the ending was great. I was left feeling so hopeful and happy when I closed the book and that’s very different from how we left Empire of Storms 😉
Chaol annoyed the hell out of me in QoS, Lysandra however went the other way. I didn’t like her one bit in the Assassin’s Blade but she quickly became one of my favorites. It still surprises me how Sarah got us to care about her so much after making her such an unlikeable character to start with.
Candyce: Queen of Shadows is a book filled with a lot of action and betrayal. Aelin decides to be Celaena one last time to tie up some things that she needs closure with. Like Arobynn, I really loved how that all played out. But now i’m ahead of myself, haha.
Aelin heads home and faces a lot of her demons. To start off with her cousin being captured, her first priority is to get him. Chaol isn’t a welcome person at the castle anymore, but will do anything to also get to Dorian who is stuck in his own prison.
I understand this was the book a lot of people started disliking Chaol. He even got on my nerves, haha. The funny thing with books is how your opinion can change while reading a series. Lysandra became one of my favorite characters during this book. She was so different than I expected.
With magic still being trapped, they have to do a lot the old fashioned way. I think my favorite part in this book is learning more about Manon. She becomes such a strong character. Especially when it comes to helping Elide (who I really think is going to play a bigger part in KoA).
I couldn’t put this book down once I started! Even though this was the third time around, Queen of Shadows still had me on the edge of my seat! Especially the ending of Dorian’s father. Even though I knew the author would have more of a background story there, it was still very surprising.
She looked at them, at the three males who meant everything—more than everything. Then she smiled with every last shred of courage, of desperation, of hope for the glimmer of that glorious future. “Let’s go rattle the stars.”
Thoughts after the reread
Isabelle: While this isn’t my favorite book in the series anymore, simply because the books keep on getter better and better, I still highly enjoyed it. This was my third time reading it and once again I had forgotten a LOT. I still can’t believe some of the details I completely forgot.
The one thing I possibly love most about this book and the series in general is all the little hints you get about future events and how everything comes together. For example, the rescue of Aedion has some great details like Aelin’s hair. Once you read the other books and you come back to those details you can only marvel at all the planning that went into these books!
Candyce: Once again I have forgotten a lot of details. Or I even expected certain events to happen earlier or later in the book. It’s weird. I knew certain things were going to happen, just not when, haha. Reading this time around really made me appreciate Manon even more! I forgot how strong she becomes. Abraxos is also amazing! I love the little responses he has to Manon.
Seeing the characters come together during this book definitely made me scared to read Empire of Storms again. They really care for each other and just want peace, but then I remember what we’re going to experience in the next book. It was definitely going to be a hard reread, haha.
Tomorrow will be our last review for our reread. We both didn’t have time to squeeze in Tower of Dawn. On top of that we just read it last year, but something on our list for in the future. What is your favorite book in this series?
