Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass (#5)

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Published: September 6th 2016

Summary: “The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don’t.

With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side, and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

In this breathtaking fifth installment of the New York Timesbestselling Throne of Glass series, Aelin will have to choose what—and who—to sacrifice if she’s to keep the world of Erilea from breaking apart.“

Review

I know it’s been a “long” time since Empire of Storms was released but I have a confession. I put off reading this book until right now. Why? I was never in the right mood to read it. But finally, the time has come and I decided on the spur of the moment to re-read the whole series (because let’s be honest… It’s been too long and I wouldn’t remember things that would reveal themselves to be important to the plot further on). And what better than now as the last book – Kindgom of Ash – comes out in October?!

I highly recomend reading The Assassin’s Blade before Empire of Storms. This prequel will answer many questions you might have in this book and you’ll love to see the comeback of many characters.

Without further ado, let’s begin the review. Please be advised, this is a kind of spoilery review. If you haven’t read Empire of Storms yet run as far away from this post as possible.

Didn’t really love the beginning of Empire of Storms. I know we have shifted from the YA groove to a more NA mindset, which is amazing because the book characters are gowing same as we. However, I could deal without SJM’s famous sex scenes, which are mostly, to put it blunty, bad. But I’ll conceed and hope she might improve in the future. Anyway, we start right where we left of in Queen of Shadows with Aelin returning to Terrassen.

Loved the exchange between Aelin, her court and Darrow. I think we were all expecting to have a bit of a rocky comeback to Terrassen and we had an cunning and intriguing exchange with one of the lords of Terrassen straight from the beginning.

Also, can I say that I absolutely love LOVE LOVE Lyssandra. She might be my favourite character right now. Aelin is amazing (more on that later) and I idolize Manon, but Lyssandra is the surprise here. She went from being a forced prostitute to becoming one of the most powerful creatures in the Throne of Glass series and is incredibly courageous. Her scenes with Aedion are also so sweet, shipping them obviously.

Elide and Lorcan’s scenes were surprisingly ones of my favourites. I couldn’t stop reading if I were in the middle of their POVs, even if Lorcan made the best to be the jerk he can be most of the times. That ending between them… Damn. Can’t wait to see how Lorcan is going to deal and grow with this.

By now, we should be used to Aelin’s scheming, but it blew my mind that what Aelin has been doing since the beginning of the series has been carefully planned by her. I applaud Maas here as it must have taken huge planning on her part here.

However, there were several plot holes, I believe. I don’t know what happened but for Maas to drop the huge bomb of the matter of Settling (when a demi-fae can transition from mortal do immortal depending on their bloodline and fate) as if every reader knew about it. Not cool.

I enjoyed the return of many characters from The Assassin’s Blade. You can see here that this prequel wasn’t written just for laughs. Heck, the prequel is better than many books out there and by the end I was sobbing like a baby. Can’t wait to read more about Elias and Ansel!

Aelin and Rowan are perfect together. I predicted that they were mates way before the revealing but it was pretty predicable, if you ask me. I didn’t figure out, however, how Maeve had carefully planned this.

Speaking of Maeve. HOLY SHIT THAT ENDING. Seriously, the ending of Empire of Storms has to be one of the most painful, hearbreaking and intense I’ve ever read (Clockwork Princess excluded because that one still breaks my heart to this moment). That Aelin had everything prepared for the others to win the war, to thrive and have a future.

YOU DON’T GET TO DO THAT TO ME, AELING/MAAS. My heart can’t take it. And now I have to wait 5 more months for Kingdom of Ash to come out. Guess I’ll have to do with Tower of Dawn. BUT WITH THAT CLIFFHANGER HOW CAN I READ ANOTHER BOOK MEANWHILE??

While this is a book that will probably be in my all-time favourites, I can’t give it 5 stars because of some lazy writing and the bomb-dropping info we sometime got.

And no, not even gonna address Manon and Dorian because I’d combust from the chemistry just talking about it.