Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Pages: 565
Overall: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot and Themes: 4/5
Cheers Factor: 4/5
Pairing: Flaming Crown

This is basically a basic margarita just the lazy way that I like making, but I gave it a fun little twist. It reminds me of a bar here where I live and they cover everything with Tajin and I love it so I even bought my own.

“Hide from fate all you like. But it shall soon find you.”

Ingredients
2 oz lime juice
1 oz orange juice
1 ½ oz tequila
½ oz agave nectar
Tajin salt
Ice

Instructions
-Add ice to a shaker and combine lime juice, orange juice and tequila
-Shake well
-Add agave and shake again
-Use a lime wedge to rim a glass and on a plate add generous amounts of tajin
-Roll class gently and coat rim with tajin
-Add ice to glass and strain cocktail in
-Enjoy responsibly!

“You have lived your life aware that you will never escape certain burdens.”

Take a Shot: Celaena has been crowned the King’s Champion after narrowly winning his competition. Now she must journey to dispose of the enemies of the king. After ending her romance with the Crown Prince things start to heat up between her and the Captain of the Guard. However, it seems everyone is keeping secrets that might put them all in danger once again.

Setting
Again this book takes place in Adarlan which is meh. We still don’t see too much outside of the castle, but I do like the addition of the library and the secret library as well as the balls in the grand ballroom. 

Characters
I love the way the story starts to splinter in this book and we really get to see more of Dorian and Chaol. I also love getting to see more of Nehemia. This book really starts to get into the psychology of each of the characters which is beautiful to see how deep they really are as well as the level of familiarity the author has with them.

Plots and Themes
This book is full of twists and turns from cute romance to devastating heartbreak. I do really love the way that all the events unfold and it sets the whole rest of the series up quite well with a lot of events that will likely inform the characters and their decisions moving forward throughout the rest of our time with them.

Overall
This is a really great second installment with a lot more character development that makes you even more excited to keep reading about the characters. It also makes you really learn a lot and truly care for the characters in a way you didn’t in the previous book.

Reasons to raise a glass: Believable circumstances, character development, character insight
Too Strong: the love triangle (it’s a worn out trope I just don’t love it when it’s in a fantasy book and yes I’m looking at you Twilight)


“Death was her curse and her gift and death had been her good friends these long, long years.”


Warning spoilers ahead after the read more button. Proceed at your own risk.

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“For my part, I am sorry for what I did to you.”

    I love this book. I mean I love this whole series but I truly love this book. I really do mean that I love the character development. We get to see Chaol and Dorian’s friendship get tested for likely the very first time in their lives. We see Celaena desperately clinging to her friendship with the honorable and righteous Nehemia and then feeling distrust when she begins to realize she was lied to. We see Celaena and Chaol fall in and out of love. And we get to see Celaena interact with people from her past that help to inform us that much more about who she really was before Endovier. 
    I will admit that even my first time around reading this I knew Nehemia died. It was thanks to Pinterest fanart that I was spoiled. I didn’t mean to spoil anything, but it happened. However, something truly incredible about Maas’ writing is that even though I knew Nehemia died, I was still incredibly upset and moved by her death. In part because of how it was written, but mainly because of Celaena’s reaction and how she handles this death. The description of the grief is amazing and really reminiscent of Tris losing her mother in Divergent and how those deaths both feel very informative of the character’s motives moving forward. 
    I also love that our characters get split up at the end of the book so we can start to see them as individuals as opposed to in conjunction with the other. It feels very real to growing up and how that happens to all of us when we grow apart from the people we knew as kids (I say kids full well knowing that I’m calling 18-22 year olds kids because that’s what they are don’t come for me.


“Go to Wendlyn and do what needs to be done.”