Review: Queen of Shadows

*This review will contain plenty of spoilers*

Title: Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) 
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury 
Year published: 2015
How I got this book: BookDepository (Affiliate Link)
My rating: 5 stars

Goodreads synopsis:
The queen has returned.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire - for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past...

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena's epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

My thoughts:
I don't even know what to say about this book, and I apologise in advance that this review is incoherent and probably doesn't make a lot of sense.

First of all, lets talk about Aelin, or Celaena. I'm going to call her Aelin, because that's what I'm used to after reading this book. She is so fricking amazing, and I love her so much. She keeps developing, and I honestly wish that I was able to be her friends. I think my absolute favourite moment with Aelin was when she visited Sam's grave, and Rowan actually came with her. My heart hurt so much, and I just wanted to hug her. And she collected all of these stones, so she could choose the prettiest ones to put on his grave, and I just wanted to cry. I felt so sorry for her, and it reminded us that she actually cares about the people close to her, and she won't forget them.

Aedion. He really annoyed me in the beginning, with how he felt for Aelin. He just felt way too territorial for me, and that really ruined a lot of his character. He got better throughout the book though, which I'm super happy about. He's still not my favourite character, but he's likeable now, at least. 

Chaol. Oh my god, Chaol. My feelings for him are conflicted at the moment. I've never really been a big fan of him, especially not with Aelin/Celaena, so I'm glad that ship as sunk. I think they can become great friends later in the series, but I don't see them together, at all. He was so distant and irritated the first half of the book, and that made me not enjoy his chapters as much as I might have. I am glad, however, how everything turned out. And not that he might have to travel to the Southern Continents to meet a healer, I'm very excited about what's going to happen. I was so scared that he had died during the last battle, because even though he's not my favourite I still want him to survive, and Maas took so long to tell us wether he would be all right or not. But in the end, he turned out all right, even though he now is paralyzed from the waist down, which will be interesting in the next book.

Dorian. My heart broke every single time I read one of his chapters. I adore Dorian, and I only want him to be happy. I kept telling him to just keep trying, stay strong and so on. I did not deserve to have the collar and the Valg in his body, he's just so nice and wants what's best for everyone, and therefore he should have the best as well. The king made me so mad, and I can't understand how he could do that to his own son. Yes, he tells us that he had a Valg inside him all along, but I don't really believe all of that. He's just a jackass, and I'm glad Dorian doesn't have to worry about him anymore.

Rowan. My dear Rowan. I'm so in love with him, it's insane. I can't get over how good Maas is at writing swoon-worthy males. I had no idea that he would be showing up in this book, and I was so happy, and surprised, when he did. He's so supportive of Aelin, even when she doesn't so what he would. He just wants her to be happy, and he want her to be safe. He's so protective, and at times it's really sweet, and some times it's a bit too much. It's explained with the fact that he is a Fae, and that they are very territorial, and I get that, but I still founds it a bit much at times. One of my favourite moments between Rowan and Aelin was at the dinner at Arobynn's house with Aedion and Lysandra as well. They kept having this conversation with looks, and that's actually put into words so we can know what they say as well. I don't know how they have conversations like this with just looks, or how they understand each other, but it was so funny when Aelin was like "I'm not wearing any underwear" and Rowan bumped his knee in the table, making everyone turn. I actually laughed out loud at that.

Lysandra. This was not the first time we met Lysandra, she also appeared in The Assassin's Blade, but she had changed so much. In the Assassin's Blade she's one of Celaena's enemies, and I didn't like her at all. And then all of a sudden she shows up in this book, and I like her immediately. She en Aelin/Celaena developed this amazing friendship, and I feel like they both needed that. They both needed a girlfriend they can trust and talk to. And when we learn that she's a shape-shifter I just like her even more, because that's just awesome. I'm glad Aelin told her to leave Rifthold whilst they fought in the castle, I was glad. I didn't want Lysandra to be anywhere near that fight, because I wanted her to be safe. But I can't say that I wasn't pleasantly surprised when she changed into a ghost-leopard, after magic came back, and helped them. She's so bad ass! She totally saved Rowan, Aedion and Lorcan when they were in the tunnel.

Arobynn. I'm so glad he got killed, and I'm so glad Lysandra was the one who did it. The only thing is, I wish he hadn't gotten of so easy. I mean, yeah, he choked on his on blood, but still... To me, it didn't feel enough. I mean, this can just be me, but he had done so much horrible things in his life, and I felt he deserved to suffer a bit more. 


Manon. I've loved her from the beginning. I know a lot of people had problems with her in Heir of Fire, but I still adored her and really enjoyed her chapters. But the development she's had in this book is amazing and beautiful. She is, of course, not a good witch or anything, but I don't even think about that when I read her chapters, because in comparison to the other witches and stuff, she is pretty good. I think she's one of my favourite characters every, and I have to say I even like her more than Aelin (though I still really like her as well), and I really hope that they end up not being enemies in the end, because then I wouldn't know who to root for. When they actually met and started fighting in this book, I was so torn. I didn't want either of them to die, and I was so nervous and scared throughout the whole ordeal, but luckily though, it turned out all right. 

Elide. Elide was completely new in this series, as we hadn't heard anything about her before. She's human, but she also has some Blackbeack blood in her, which means that Manon takes her in and protects her. She's at Morath as well, and her uncle is one of the men in charge, and we find out that he as suspected her heritage, and actually want to use her for something horrific. He wants her to be a vessel of some sort I guess, to breed some monsters with the Valg. Luckily, Manon helps her and they escape. I have a feeling that Elide will be very important in the next books, considering the fact that the last thing we learned about her was that she was walking towards Terrassen to aid Aelin. 

I could write a lot more about this book, I have a lot on my heart. But I sort of think I've written too much already, and if you actually read the entire thing I'm super grateful, and I would be glad if you left me comment saying what you thought of this book. I actually hope some of you disagree with me, because it's always nice to learn what other people think to gain more perspective, but these are just my opinions. 

To sum it up a little bit though, I really liked it. It's the best in the series so far, and I'm super excited for the next one.

Link to this book online: 
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Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
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