Review: Empire of Storms

“You do not face this alone; you do not decide that you are unloveable because you have the powers that can save and destroy.”

Rating: 4/5 stars

I finished this book May 4th, it’s now the 12th and somehow I still can’t find the correct way to express how much this book actually wrecked my soul. I figured I would give myself a few days to try and heal from the wounds that Sarah inflicted upon my heart, but so far no luck. Do you want to know the best part though? This got spoiled for me, thanks to people not knowing how to tag a damn spoiler on Goodreads, so I thought it would be fine, I thought I would be prepared. SPOILER: I WAS ANYTHING BUT PREPARED. I AM NOT FINE.

The Throne of Glass series has been one my favorites and I feel like with each book released it slowly creeps higher and higher up on my list of favorites. Queen of Shadows totally set the bar for this series and somehow I think Empire of Storms might have blown right past it.

The only reason I rated this 4 stars is because the first half of the book was a bit dull for me. I am very much the type of the reader who loves the action and is partial to the planning. It’s just not really my thing, and while I understand it’s crucial to the story it just dragged at times. Especially, because Aelin is always scheming and has something up her sleeve, so you know the plans being made are only like half plans, and Aelin is just keeping everyone in the dark with her epic mastermind skills.

Otherwise this book was just another reason to solidify that I love Sarah’s work. I find reviews on books that are smack in the middle or towards the end of a series incredibly hard to write because basically everything is spoiler, so this will be a very brief review in an attempt not to spoil anything!

What you can expect from this book:

• Epic and intense battle scenes, there’s SO MANY
• New ships to love, Elide & Lorcan anyone?!?!
• Old ships to love even more
• Lysandra saving the day just about every single time, A TRUE QUEEN
• Some names and faces from the Assassin’s Blade will make an appearance, 10/10 would recommend reading that before this book
• Chaol to be absent, which is understandable given the events in QoS, but honey, you weren’t missed
• Heartbreak like you’ve never felt before
• Betrayals, on betrayals, on betrayals
• An ending that is so beyond anything you could ever imagine in terms of sadness and being once again awestruck by Aelin’s brilliance
• To randomly think of this book weeks after you’ve finished it and want to cry all over again

What you will not expect from this book:

• How devastating the ending will be – seriously, even if you’re like me and go into this knowing the ending, it will not ease your pain
• A dreadful feeling of hopelessness
• The intense feeling of wanting to ugly cry for the last 100 pages of this book
• How incredibly far away October feels until Kingdom of Ash releases

So there you have it guys. Overall, this book was yet another fantastic addition to the series and while I’m not sure I will ever fully recover from the current distress that all of my favorites are in, I guess I will have read Tower of Dawn, to see what’s going on on Chaol’s side of the world. Even if I really, REALLY don’t like him anymore. (I swear I used to ship him and Celaena so hard).

P.S – I hope my one true love, Rowan, is doing okay.

Until next time!