Queen of Shadows

De: Sarah J. Maas

Narrado por: Elizabeth Evans

Goodreads Choice Award Winner, Best Young Adult Fantasy, 2015

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 just to see her again. 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 and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

©2015 Sarah J. Maas (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Unexpectedly excellent

First off, I should point out that yes, this is book four of the series, and I've read none of the previous three. Also, there's a good bit of Grimdark about this, with everyone doing or having done awful things, and mostly willing to do more awful things. And at the end, we have a resolution to the story within this book, but no resolution of the larger issues, and much more bad stuff to come in future volumes.

So, really, at some point, I should have been overcome with the desire to throw it against the wall, except for two things. One, it's the audiobook. Two, I loved it.

Aelin Galathynius (guessing on the spelling of the last name), rightful heir to the throne of Terrasen (another spelling guess) has quietly returned to Rifthold, the capital of the bitter enemy who killed her family and conquered her kingdom. She wants revenge on the King of Adarlan, but he's not the only target of her vengeance. She was hardly more than a child when she fled her family's killers, and she's just nineteen now, but she's packed a lot into those years. She trained as an assassin under Rifthold's king of the assassin's guild, under the name Celaena Sardothien. Part Fae herself and possessing Fae fire magic, she traveled to the Fae lands and learned the use of her magic there--and made a valuable friend in Prince Rowan. She's back now to rescue her friend and cousin General Aedion and her friend Prince Dorian. She needs to know if Chaol Westphal, captain of the guard, is still a friend. She's been through horrors, she has done horros, and she has more to face and do before she can hope for anything vaguely resembling peace.

This is a dark and bloody story, but I like Aelin, Rowan, Aedion, Chaol and his second, Nesryn, and Aelin's old rival Lysandra. Along with the darkness and blood, Queen of Shadows has romance, male friendship, female friendship, and male-female friendship, all treated in adult, satisfying, compelling way. Because, as I mentioned, I've read none of the previous three books, there's a lot I was trying to pick up as the story went along, but Maas salted in enough background in unobtrusive ways that if I didn't always know exactly what was going on at first, I was picking up enough to enjoy continuing to listen.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Audible in exchange for an honest review.

Standard YA girl series, which I loved

I've noticed trends in a lot of the YA scifi books that I've read, particularly those with a strong female lead, and this one followed all of them. It has the usual love story/triangle, and the usual rise from the lower class, and a strong female protagonist - which to be clear, I always enjoy, AND, this book still managed to give you a plot line to love, even though you've kind of heard it all before.

This one brought me back, I had lost a little hope in the last book, but this book brought me back to loving the story, and I've already set alerts on my phone to remind me to check when the next book will be released.

SOOOO GOOOOD!!

I cannot explain how much this series keeps getting better and better. This book gave me something that I never knew I was waiting for HAPPINESS! the whole book is just intense and action packed. So much happens and so much that I expected to happen and not to expect happen. True bliss! Now I cannot wait another year....ugh. 😢

I didn't want it to end!

this book is everything and more that you've come to expect from this series. Seldom is the sequel better than the first book however this was the culmination of many different story lines and none of the main characters were compromised. I hope this is not the end and there is a follow up to come because while there was great wrap up there were also possibilities for another one if not two great stories to follow.

Best book yet in the Series! Wow!!!

Absolutely gripping! My heart skipped a few beats! I shed tears! I can't wait to get to the next one so that I can see my friends again! So many fantastically strong and unique characters! LOVED LOVED LOVED it!