Spoilery Book Reviews

Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas

Back of the book

Blood will run. Dreams will shatter. An army must rise.

The assassin-queen has sworn not to turn her back on her kingdom again. Especially when she might be the only one who can raise an army to keep the Dark King from unleashing his beasts upon them all. But Erawan will wield Aelin's past, her allies, and her enemies against her.

With a powerful court trusting Aelin to lead them, and her heart devoted to the warrior-prince at her side, what – or who – is she willing to sacrifice to spare her world from being torn apart?

My thoughts

CLIFFHANGER ALERT (but honestly I kinda love it). Unrelated thought: the whole reason I haven't begun reading Sarah J Maas Crescent City series is because it is unfinished, and I want to binge-read all the books together without the pain of real cliffhangers without resolutions.

The book is so long I don't remember where it begins.

This book is quite depressing. As much as Aelin gave in to her depression in Heir of Fire, the events of this book all lead down a dark path. Firstly, the people of her country don't accept her as Queen. Secondly, Rifthold is sacked which was like a second home to Aelin and is home to her friends. Manon is injured near death, kicked out from her coven and separated from the Thirteen. Many towns are put on fire, Maeve is moving against them as well as Erawan, their forces are insurmountable. I started to get a bit tired of the conflicts, where Aelin is overwhelmed by enemies but still triumphs with her huge power. Lastly, Aelin is still chasing the wyrdkeys and figuring out the Gods' riddles. In summary a lot of things don't go right for Aelin, which creates the depressing vibe.

Now onto the fun stuff, Rowan and Aelin finally bang which is a relief from the painful dragging it out. All their previous excuses such as 'we don't have time' and 'outdoors against a tree is not how I want our first time' seem especially fickle considering they do it on the beach of a small town right after winning a small battle. The other fun thing was Dorian and Manon flirting, which is a little weird but also hot.

I continue to love Manon and Elides' characters and storyline. Lorcan and Elide meeting is fabulous, although enemies to lovers is a bit overdone by Maas but I do like Elide and Lorcans' particular story arc, perhaps even a little more than Rowan and Aelin. The Aedion and Lysandra pairing is frustrating because of all the main characters, Lysandra has the most reason to NOT pair up with someone. Matching everyone up and leaving no singles frustrated me, and they were ALL hetero. For such an expansive story I feel the gay representation could have been a little louder, although it wasn't entirely absent. A list of gay mentions: Rowans cousin, Malakai and his mate, Aedion is mentioned as bi and the Blackbeak matron.

With all the things that went wrong for Aelin, I can't fault Maas for making things convenient. HOWEVER Maas is still able to make the glaringly obvious mistake, when Maeve cuts the blood oath with Lorcan and Gavriel. With Rowan, Maeve was blackmailed into it by Aelin. But letting Lorcan and Gavriel go did not make sense for Maeve in slightest. Ever heard the saying keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Surely Maeve would want the powerful males still under her control instead of working against her as she knows they will because their allegiance to Aelin is startingly clear. For all the subtle and deft plot weaving Maas does, she also manages to undo it with repetitive tropes and obvious plot vices that stick out poorly.

A small note on how Lorcan described being drawn to a female with power: if all the cadre are so damn powerful, why are they not drawn to each other? It has to be hetero?

To conclude, another stunning addition to the series, albeit a very long read but mostly used up that space well. This book has an issue with a happy ending including singledom, and the Lysandra/Aedion pairing is more forced than I'd like. The book started to fill me with despair for all the things that went wrong, and yet also made a few 'too convenient' plot twists. The ending was so powerfully shocking I hate it but love it for the same reason. Part of me wants to skip the next book, drabble about Chaol, and go right to the big finale. I guess this sets the tone for how the next review will sound.