I read two more Sarah J. Maas books. I may have to keep reading her. Just so I know what happens. And I do like her books. And they’re easy reading so I can read something deep and then go back to her. So I decided to do books two and three together. Why not right? It is a series and I can do them together. There will be spoilers.
I liked Celaena in the second book. She held her feistiness and her strength and then in the third book I felt she turned into a child. She felt things differently in the second book. But then the situations between the second and the third are pretty drastically different. I loved her with Chaol in the second book. I loved her that happy. She was like a cute, little kid, she was happy. And then it got ruined. Nehemia dying and Celaena started flipping out. There were times I when things were coming to fruition that I stopped and thought about who Nehemia was working with. She wasn’t a delicate princess. I knew she was a rebel and I had a moment, just a slight one. And when Nehemia called Celaena a coward and it followed Celaena killed me. I know how much things people say follows you. It’s not fun. I can see why Celaena freaked out when someone called her a coward. I didn’t like Celaena as much in the third book. I feel like she regressed some. I feel like she was way more of a teenager in the third book than in the second. Celaena did mature through the book. What she did for Rowan at the end of the book was pretty noble. And then there were times were I felt that Celaena and Rowan were going to have a thing (which they didn’t) and I was upset and I was like Celaena, you whore, you are supposed to be with Chaol. But I liked them more together, as friends, after Rowan starts opening up to her. I did like her talking about her past.
There were a lot of new characters in the third book. I’m undecided on how I feel about that. I was comfortable with how things were working and then Celaena was in a new country with stupid people/not people, there’s witches. I understand why new characters were introuduced because if you didn’t have new characters the story would go stale. It’s understandable. I just don’t deal with change very well. I did like some of the new characters the cook and Celaena’s counterpart in the kitchen I liked. I like they got protective of her. Every girl, assassin or not, need friends like them. And what’s with the witches. I know it was because of the king they were in there but are they going to have more of a presence in future books? They must. I didn’t like those parts. The witches and their beasts kind of remind me of what I know of Game of Thrones and Daenerys and her dragons.
Dorian and Chaol are weird without Celaena. Their relationship was strained. And why wouldn’t it? They went after the same girl and one got her heart and then he sent her away. Chaol was trying to deal with leaving his post and Dorian was just hurt. They got it together at the end of the book though. I wondered at one point if this was supposed to be the end of the book and then Maas or the publishers decided it was going to be 3 more books because everything started tying up nicely and then it leaves you knowing there’s going to be more. Yes, you would call that a cliffhanger but it’s no more a cliffhanger than book 2. I don’t consider it a cliffhanger because I wasn’t yelling at the third book wanting to know more. No one was literally hanging off a cliff. Anyway, at the end of the book, I liked the way that Dorian and Chaol kind of came back together. I think it was because Chaol knew how it was losing a loved one.
Dorian and Sorscha were convenient and fast but I liked it. When they started sleeping in the same bed together I was pretty sure she was going to be a pawn of sort. She seemed like a good fit in the book. I really liked Sorscha and wish she could have stayed around more. Dorian and Sorscha were a good fit. I felt like it could have been a good marriage and that it could have been stable. But then Sorscha’s head.
And here’s my random thing I don’t like: the covers. I’m obviously not too old for the books since I’m reading them and pretty much enjoying them but too old to enjoy the covers. How does this work? They fit the books, they fit the world but I’m sitting here picking them apart. I’m thinking how unrealistic the hair and the skin is and then accepting what’s on the page. I’m a hypocrite. I know. No need to remind me.