18006496Title: Queen of Shadows

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Publication Date: September 2015

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Fantasy

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book 4

 

 

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I purchased this book.

 

 

Review:

As I said to my good friend Thuy over at Nite Light – You have to catch up!

We’re at Book 4 peeps, the book where Aelin come back to the kingdom to save her cousin, to save her friend, to see her old lover Chaol and to seek revenge.

Oh, and it is what a revenge.

I can’t go into to much because I don’t want to give anything away but there is some wonderful jaw dropping moments. There are some great double crosses, long cold revenge plans and lots and lots of action. If you enjoyed the other books in the series, this fourth installment does not disappoint. It is hefty, coming in over 630 pages in my hardcover edition, but there are so many storylines to move forward, Maas does an excellent job weaving through the different characters and their motivations. I was never bored, read each line carefully.

The only thing that kinda bothered me was the number of potential suitors for Aelin. I get it. She’s beautiful and powerful and a queen no less. But at once point, it seemed like there were perhaps five potential suitors (I am counting ones where it wasn’t clear in what way they were interested in Aelin, merely for pledging themselves to her court or to her personally.) Thankfully, this is resolved by the end of the book, though I still think one or two might be able to come back from the friend zone. I don’t really care for huge pools of love interests like that only because it is distracting and maybe a little far fetched. Lucky for me it doesn’t seem like it will be a problem in the next book.

Also, let’s just talk about a certain someone who is a big jerk (Chaol). Wow. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t my favorite love interest to begin with, and Maas does a perfect job of reforming their relationship to something realistic, hurtful and sad. I was surprised to find myself so sad about their relationship change, even though I’m totally in love with the Fae warrior. That’s just a testament to Maas’s writing – honest and raw, depicting love and heartbreak in all its forms. I mean, she made me care about a character who I didn’t even want Aelin to wind up with!

Overall, Queen of Shadows is a fabulous fourth book in a heart gripping, page turning series. It just keeps getting better and better. I can’t believe I have to wait so long for books 5 and 6.

Now that is torture.

Rating 9 Ridiculously Awesome like Cookie sand Ice Cream

 

One note: you MUST read the short story collection that Maas did, compiled in the book The Assassin’s Blade. It adds so many wonderful layers to Queen of Shadows, bringing back old wounds and making Aelin’s journey way more satisfying. I read all of the short stories right before I dove into Queen of Shadows and I highly suggest doing that.