Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

About the book

Crown of Midnight is the second book in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. It was published by Bloomsbury on 15^th August and the book is 432 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy for review.

Plot Synopsis

After suffering a terrible year in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen year old Calaena Sardothien has come a long way. By winning the King’s contest, she is now the royal assassin and must do whatever missions the King sets for her. Even though she is ordered to kill in cold blood and go against everything that she believes in, Calaena is far from loyal to the crown and has an agenda of her very own. Calaena must decide whether following her heart is worth the risk, because she may just lose everything if she does.

What I thought

Throne of Glass was one of my favourite books of last year and I have been dying to read the sequel ever since finishing the first book.  

Calaena is a character that I loved from the very beginning and that feeling only got stronger in this sequel. As an assassin, she really does kick ass… literally. Calaena is strong, fierce and completely bad ass but she still manages to show her softer, more feminine characteristics throughout the book. In Crown of Midnight we get to find out a hell of a lot more about her background and where she comes from. I truly enjoyed these aspects of the book as it gave Calaena more depth and also made her more interesting at the same time. There has been so much mystery surrounding her up until this point so it was nice to have some things explained.

The plot follows Calaena in her new role as King’s Champion after beating all of the competition in the previous book. She’s quickly learning that she doesn’t want to do what the king is telling her to and that her new job is very different from what she was expecting. As Calaena decides to defy the King and go against his wishes, she’s is more danger than ever before because she knows that being found out could mean her death. There is a lot in this book about deception and figuring out who Calaena can really trust and who she can’t. This also includes some people who she thought she was extremely close to and there are some shocks throughout.

Speaking of people who Calaena is close to… oh Chaol Westfall, the Captain of the Guard. He and Calaena have a growing relationship through this book and the plot expands upon feelings explored slightly in book one. I absolutely adored the relationship and friendship between these two characters. Both are very headstrong and stubborn but also passionate about what they do. I wanted to see more of Chaol in the first book and I definitely got that here. There isn’t much time where he isn’t with Calaena or doing something to do with her. Their relationship is quite complicated due to the positions they hold but it is also extremely sweet and lovely as it develops. However, there are some twists in this department but I loved them!

Something that I loved about the first book was the action and excitement that surrounded the competition to become King’s Champion and I missed that in Crown of Midnight. That isn’t to say that there isn’t action and excitement though, because there is, but there is a lot more mystery to the plot this time. There are secrets and lies all over the place and not nearly as much fighting and killing as I would have liked. There are some pretty gory scenes though which I did really enjoy as they fit perfectly into the world Sarah J. Maas has created.

I didn’t quite love this book as much as the first but it was still really good. There were some great developments in regards to characters and plot but I missed the fighting to be honest. Still, a great sequel and I can’t wait to see what is in store next.