Crown of Midnight - Sarah J. Maas

Date Read: January 4, 2016

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A Very Solid Sequel!

          The sequel to Throne of Glass lives up to the expectations set by the first, though without becoming a stunning masterpiece. I liked the first one better. The rapid development of the main relationship irked me a bit; it was simply too solid to be entirely believable and the inevitable result of such a bond felt a bit too predictable and was less than heart-wrenching. The romance taking center-stage was also a bit off-putting, being that it was so well-done in the wings of the first one. Though the competition is over, there still should have been other, more important things receiving more time on the main stage.
          I deeply enjoyed the greying morality, and the struggle of various characters to find the line within self-preservation between duly cautious realism and cowardice. The motivations and moral dilemmas of the characters, particularly of Celaena, reminded me strongly of the same fight occurring inside the main character of Marie Lu's the Rose Society, and I was deeply pleased to see how much more exquisitely depicted the struggle became within Maas's characters. Overall, this is a fabulous sequel within an aptly epic fantasy world.
          The series is taking several turns that I wasn't expecting and haven't quite come around to liking them all just yet, but I am still very eager to see how things develop in book three!

                  Another exhilarating page-turner!