Book Review: Crown of Midnight

"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 (goodreads).

Plot: Compared to Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight has a lot going on. If you read my review of Throne of Glass forever ago, you'll know that my biggest complaint in the book was lack of assassination. Thankfully, Crown of Midnight makes up for that one, and Caleana does her job, and she does it well. I've come to terms that these books are 50% plot and the other 50% is love triangle/romance shenanigans. While I do enjoy the direction the story seems to be heading (I love a good revolution), I grew tired of the in-your-face love triangle.

Character: I warmed up to Caleana as a character, although I still have my doubts. In Throne of Glass she was portrayed as an assassin sent to do hard time in salt mines, I was expecting more of a hardened character. I just couldn't believe that a girl could lose her entire family, be sent to slavery, and kill people for a living and act like the indecisive girly-girl she was portrayed as. I liked her more in Crown of Midnight mostly because we learned something about her home life and there were surprise connections to her past. 

What I still can't handle; however, is the romance. This series seems to be super set on one pairing, and it wasn't the pairing I want (which I can handle, I usually seem to be in the minority). I just wish the romance wasn't such a focal point. Since the novel is told from all three perspectives (Caleana, Chaol, and Dorian), we get to see how they react to Caleana's attitude, whether are are high off of endorphins, or drowning their sorrow because Caleana gave them the cold shoulder. These are men in high power for God's sake, stop sulking because one girl can't figure out her feelings, there is a war brewing that needs to be addressed!

World Building: The magical aspect made this world a lot more interesting, and I'm interested in seeing different lands in future books. 

Short N Sweet: Crown of Midnight offers more magic and plot twists which kept me flipping pages. I could do without the romance though. 

Labels: 3.5 stars, bloomsbury USA Children, book review, crown of midnight, sarah j. maas, Throne of Glass