Crown of Midnight

This book starts off with Celaena fulfilling her tasks as the King's Champion until her next task is to get rid of a person from her past. This makes her toy a very thin line between completing her task and also getting to know about the rebel movement building up against the King. She and Nehemia are still best of friends but their paths lead to different ways and to devastating consequences. Dorian is keeping secrets of his own which if revealed, could prove deadly. And Chaol has unwittingly fallen in love with the Assassin but still obeys the King. When all the secrets collide, all of their lives change in ways from which there is no coming back.

Celaena in this book definitely is more like the Assassin we have heard so much about till now. There are scenes where we see her deadly side and I was totally amazed. I also liked to see Celaena in love (though I don't like Chaol), making plans for her future and freedom just like any young girl. But the tragedy that occurs and the circumstances leading up to it left me reeling with terror because I was not expecting it. Just like Celaena, it took me a long time to get over the shock. Everything that happens in the book in the aftermath is thrilling and I loved the book more because of the action, the revelations and the fact that I had no clue where the story was going next.

This book also has a lot more world building including the history of Terrasen, it's conquest at the hand of the King, the possibilities for the King's dark powers and his future plans for the continent. Even though it was easy to figure out Celaena's true heritage through the subtle clues left here and there, I still enjoyed watching Chaol piece together the info and come to the conclusion.

I really really liked Dorian having powers because now he will have a much more larger role to play in probably defeating his father. As I love magic and when Dorian is currently the only magic wielder in the continent, it just makes me super excited and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Despite everything that happens, I can't make myself like Chaol. His loyalty to Dorian is commendable and I understand what he tried to do at the end but after all this time, the fact that he still thinks that the woman he loved might kill his best friend makes me mad. What the hell Chaol !!!!!

On the whole, this book is way better in terms of world building, fantasy elements and plot than ToG and has some great emotional moments that makes this a wonderful sequel. One thing that I realized, there is no going back for me and this is probably going to be one hell of a memorable series.