Thursday, November 10, 2016

Let's Talk: Empire of Storms

Title: Empire of Storms
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: "Throne of Glass" #5
Genre: YA High Fantasy
Page Length: 689 pages
Publication Date: September 6, 2016
Date Started: September 5, 2016
Date Finished: September 9, 2016
Rating: Infinity Squared

I'm not even sure how I'm going to be able to write this review...

*NON-SPOILER SECTION*

Okay, let's just get into this. I can really only sum this up by saying that I loved this book. Words cannot describe my love for it. There's not much I can say without spoiling the other books in the series, but I can say that this book blew me away. All of these books get better and better as the series continues. In this installment, the world expands quite a bit. We see new places and go on new adventures as well as revisit some. It was a little mind blowing if I'm being truthful.

When I first read Heir of Fire, I wasn't a big fan of multiple POV books. But I started loving them last book and I was addicted to them in this novel. There was never once a time when I was bored reading from someone's perspective. I loved reading from everybody's POV and getting to experience not only their adventure but also their thoughts. The characters matured and grew in this book and it's interesting to go back and read the first book and see how far they've come.

That's all I'm gonna say in this section so if you haven't read EoS or the other books in the series, turn away now or forever hold your peace.

*SEMI-SPOILER SECTION*

Alright. Wow. This book. This f*cking book.

I bawled in this book. There were multiple times that I cried. Multiple times where I was reading in class and freaking out internally and having to grip my friend's hand so that I wouldn't yell at the book. I loved it.

We got to see 3 different storylines but there were sometimes multiple perspectives in each storyline. I thought that was excellent and I absolutely loved that I got to read from both sides of a pairing (*cough* Rowaelin *cough*)

I think that the world building was excellent. I loved revisiting places from past books and I loved seeing new places. I feel like such an experienced traveler just from reading about Aelin's travels. I loved it.

That's all I'm gonna say for now before I jump into the spoilers.

*SPOILERS*

Oh my god, I bawled like a baby at the ending of this novel. I just needed to get that out before I went in order of the stuff I need to talk about.

First of all, the opening scene with Elena and Gavin was amazing. In the first book we meet Elena, but not Gavin. She's different in the two books and we got to see the contrast of an older Elena and a younger Elena. I was awed by the fact that we got a chapter from her perspective. I loved it.

Something that surprised me was Lorcan and Elide. I didn't expect them to be meeting up and actually working together (seeing as Lorcan is kinda a giant raging douche). What I definitely didn't expect was to start shipping them together. Elide was able to make Lorcan open up and start caring for someone. He defends her. He essentially sacrifices himself so that she can live. And that just shows how good Elide is for him and I pray to the gods that Lorcan is able to make it up to her in the next book. I really really want them to work things out and be together.

Next, Manon. OH MY LORD YES. She finally turned against her Grandmother (I hate that b*tch). I love how in the past three books she has slowly been developing into a person that cares and she finally did something to prove it. Just yes. And she saved Dorian's life (#shipit) by killing a witch and then she ends up with Aelin and Rowan and Dorian and all of them when she fights her grandmother and is injured. I was so excited and so happy.

Dorian, oh, Dorian. He is a freaking beast in this book. In the first book, he's a player prince. In the second book he's not as much of a player prince but there's nothing too special about him. In the third book he develops a relationship and finally defies his father (only for his love to get murdered and him get enslaved). In the fourth book, he's enslaved and when he gets free, he takes out his father and his castle and it was amazing. In this book, he's a kinky amazing beast. He kills enemies with a wave of his hand. He gets Manon, Manon freaking Blackbeak to submit to him. He's got that kinky domineering power in the bedroom that was just amazing to read. I loved everything about him. He's just so freaking amazing in this book that it hurts.

Onto Chaol. Not much to say, as Chaol wasn't in this book. To be perfectly honest, I'm not too angry about that. Chaol pissed me off in the last book (I still love him, though), and in the previous two. He's a great, flawed character and I love him. However, his storyline would not have fit with what was going on in this novel. He's on his way to the Southern Continent to get healers to fix him, and that had NOTHING to do with what was going on with everyone else. Plus, he's getting his own novella (which I've already preordered) in June. So I'm okay with him not being in this book. He will most definitely be in the next one, I hope.

Aedion kinda annoyed me in this book. Not all the time, but a few instances just made me want to punch him. Whenever he got pissy at Aelin or started questioning her about her plans (because she makes secret plans), I got annoyed. He should just trust her and follow her lead and wait for her to open up to him. She spent years alone and has spent all that time making plans on her own, so he should have just waited a little for her to open up to him. If he needed to know, she would have told him.

Throughout the book, however, Aedion and Lysandra's relationship continued to grow. I loved it, especially when he said to her "one day I'm gonna marry you". I almost cried. It was beautiful. At the end, though, it all was tossed out the window when Lysandra agreed to impersonate Aelin until they found her and Aedion blew up.

Lysandra is such a badass in this book. She turns into a freaking sea dragon for crying out loud! That was such an intense and beautiful scene. I thought she was gonna die and I was gonna end up crying my eyes out. She didn't though! But honestly, she's such a badass and amazing friend for Aelin. I am so happy that she has evolved from the bitchy courtesan in the novellas. I love her to death and I can't wait to see her in the next book.

I'm so glad that in this book, Rowan and Aelin aren't denying their feelings anymore (*cough* Rowan *cough*). Every single time Rowan would jump in front of Aelin or do something to protect her I just got hit right in the feels. I would squeal in happiness every single time they did something cute together. And their smut scenes or undercurrents of sexual tension in conversations just made me flushed and happy. But more on that later.

After the ending, we learned that Rowan and Aelin were not only mates, but had secretly gotten married. And then they were separated because Maeve stole Aelin and Rowan was just so freaking heartbroken. I was nonstop crying...


Maeve made me hate her more than I hate Umbridge, and that is hard to do. If you put 12 Umbridges in a room it still wouldn't equal my hate for Maeve. She is such a sadistic manipulative b*tch (pardon my language). For thousands of years she has been playing with Rowan's feelings and then Aelin's when she arrives. She made Rowan think that he had a mate when it was all a lie. She kept Rowan from Aelin and beat him. And now, she had Aelin tortured in front of her friends by a sadistic bastard named Cairn and shoved in an iron coffin so that she couldn't heal and kidnapped her from her mate. If she does not die in the next book, I will flip out. I hate her so much, and whatever torture Cairn inflicts on Aelin, Maeve deserves so much more.

Especially because her actions split up literally ALL of my ships. Elide is furious at Lorcan for leading Maeve there and won't talk to him. I can't remember if Dorian goes with Manon in the end, but I don't believe so. They're split by distance in the end. Aedion and Lysandra is just a hot mess. Lysandra is impersonating Aelin (a deal the two had if anything happened to Aelin) and Aedion is mad and being a downright d*ck about it and saying he wants nothing to do with her. And then there's my babies, Rowan and Aelin. Aelin is on another continent being tortured, and Rowan doesn't know where she is. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm calm...maybe. But let's be real, the smut scenes in this book gave me life. Not only did Rowan and Aelin (finally!) do it, but so did Manon and Dorian. Dorian transformed into this dominant kinky lover and it was amazing to see what he did to this cold-hearted witch. Rowan and Aelin had such an amazing scene on the beach. It was fabulous for me to read. I also think that because this book transitioned from YA to NA with the in-depth sex scenes, it opened the door for Sarah's characters to curse a little bit more. Which I noticed they did in this book. 

All of the side characters were amazing. We had the pirate lord Rolfe for most of the book, Fenrys and Gavriel (members of Maeve's cadre), Elena, and a few more at the end. I loved Aedion and Gavriel's meeting. I loved how that went down, and it happened exactly as I thought it would for Aedion. I was in love with Fenrys. He has this crush that's not a crush on Aelin and I'm so excited that he's one of the people going to find her and get her back from Maeve. I just am so excited. All of Elena's plans and past were revealed at the end and I am just too full of feels to even get into that. Ansel and Aelin's cousin and others also came to the aid of Aelin at the end (even though she had already been kidnapped) and that just brought me so much happiness. My thoughts about all the characters (except Maeve and Carin)...


But honestly, Sarah gets an A++++++ for her plot skills and foreshadowing. There were things foreshadowed in the first book or the prequels or even the last book that all made sense in this one. Like why Aelin used Ansel's name when she was fighting in QoS. Or foreshadowing from Assassin's Blade when she was dancing at that party and said she had no name to a man who wanted to dance with her. "Nameless is my price," and that was Aelin! Sarah actually blew my mind with how she brought everything together in this book. I was stunned for so long.

So my feels were pretty much destroyed at the end of this book (they still are). I actually finished the book, curled up in a ball while clutching it to my chest, and cried for a solid 7-8 minutes. Then I put it on my bookshelf and went to eat dinner, came back, saw the book, and cried some more. When I was laying in bed about to go to sleep, I thought of the ending and cried some more. I cried while writing this review because Rowaelin and ahhhh. Yeah...ahhh!

Words cannot describe how excited I am for the next book in the next year. I think the only thing tiding me over is knowing we get another ACOTAR book (and a coloring book) halfway through PLUS Chaol's novella in June! So excited for that one and to see a part of the world we haven't ventured to yet.

Well, there you have it. I finally posted my review for EoS. It took me forever, but at least I did it. Sorry if it's a bit long but with Sarah J. Maas books, I have a lot to talk about.


ONE MILLION OUT OF 5 STARS

~

Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

No comments:

Post a Comment