Second in the series, Crown of Midnight blows its slightly-better-than-average preceding novel out of the
water.
Summary:
Celeana Sardothian is now the King’s Champion but her problems are far
from over as she must do the heart-of-stone King’s bidding, killing men he
claims are traitors. When the King tasks Celeana to kill a familiar face right
in their own backyard of Riftfold, she realizes that being the King’s Champion
has thrown her deeper into the tumultuous kingdom. In the midst of traitors,
death, and sleeping magic Celeana must sort through her ever complicating
feelings between the Captain of the Guard and the Crown Prince.
Commentary:
Last week I spoke about Throne of Glass, Maas’s debut. All the concerns I had about that that novel are
non-existent here and all the things I loved are amped up. Celeana continues to
be a dynamic, developing, head-strong character. Readers will fall even further
in love with her sassiness, if that’s even possible.
Maas has a very magical sleeve
full of an infinite amount of secrets and plot twists. I have high expectations
for the rest of the series. I was pleasantly surprised at many points in the
novel.
The romance is also amped up a bit
in Crown of Midnight. Maas creates the perfect amount of angst and swooning
without turning the story sappy or undermining Celeana’s independence.
Overall, Maas perfectly executes
the adage it gets better with practice. Her first novel was that practice and I
can only see things getting better from there, starting with Crown of Midnight.
The next book in the series, Heir of Fire, comes out September 2. In the meantime you can check out the published collection of novellas that take place pre-Throne of Glass and two
unpublished stories from between Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight (beginning
here and here).
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