An emotional ending to a fantastic series.

Greetings followers! I first off want to apologize for the lack of reviews over the past couple of months. School has been thoroughly beating me to a pulp this semester so that has severely limited my ability to write reviews. But, I have some free time now and I have many books to review so expect some reviews over the next week or so.

The first review back from my hiatus is going to be over what I believe to be the best book I have ever read. It is no surprise that it is the last book in the fantastic Throne of Glass series. This series is one of my favorite series of all time. Not only that, but the author, Sarah J. Maas, has a way of writing that I find to be spectacular. She is easily one of if not my favorite author of all-time. The final book in the series was two years in the making and it was definitely worth the wait. It was emotional, suspenseful, action packed, and overall just an amazing book. I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum in this review but just in case, I am going to throw out a large SPOILER ALERT right here. You all have been fully warned, and with that out-of-the-way its on to the review.

I first off want to say that this was a massive read. 980 pages long. But, it had to be in order to wrap the immense amount of story lines that are jam-packed into this book. And it does it superbly. No singular story line felt rushed, incomplete, open-ended or forgotten. Every story got its fair share of the limelight. Aelin and Rowan’s story, Aedion and Lysandra’s story, Elide and Lorcan, Manon and Dorian, Chaol and Yrene. These are just the couple story lines. Those story lines alone could have made an entire book. But Maas also had to wrap up Erawan, Maeve, the Wyrdkeys, the witch kingdom and the war. And yet, despite this overwhelming amount of plot points, the book never felt bloated. It had just the right amount of pacing, attention to detail and each story line got a conclusion, even if not 100% satisfying. Every story got its own time in the limelight and I never felt lost when reading the book. I knew when the story had shifted to new character, new place or new plot point. This should be the model for how you wrap up a series (yes Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series, I’m looking at you).

On top of the excellent flow of the book, the overall story is rich with detail and emotion. I have never felt more immersed in a book then I have when reading this particular book. I genuinely felt like I was fighting alongside Aelin and her companions every step of the way. And that is what a good author needs to do, especially in a high fantasy setting such as this one. If you are unable to immerse your readers in your book, you will have a hard keeping those readers. Maas does not have that problem. She continues to expand on the lore, the setting, the characters and just the overall world building, which up till has been stellar to begin with. On an emotional level, this book had me running the full gamut of emotions. And it started off very quickly. By page 40, I had already cried once and it wasn’t going to be the last. I cried, I laughed, I cheered, I got angry. And yet, I never stopped reading. I have never been more emotional reading a book since Empire of Storm (book 5 in the series) came out 2 years ago. And again, that is what a good story needs to do. There was genuine tension throughout the entire book about who was going to survive and who was going to die. I will not spoil the body count of this book, but just know that there is a large body count. And that for me was the genius of this book. Maas was not afraid to take risks. The easy thing to do would have been to let everyone live and sail off into the sunset. But she didn’t do that. She took risks, killed of people and played with your emotions that left you feeling like you had punched in the gut. I was breathless and in tears at the end of this book. The final payoff is 100% worth all the heartache that you are put through in this book.

And for you me, that is the brilliance of Maas and her writing. She plays with your emotions, takes risks, while at the same time immersing you in a fantastic world. She makes you care for every single character and makes you invested in their stories. I have read other fantasy series where I have liked the most of the characters but not all. However, in this series and her other series, Maas makes me care about the fate of every single character. And this book is the prime example of making readers sweat the fate of their favorite characters.

I could honestly talk about this book for days but I’m not going to. Overall, this book was emotional, action packed, suspenseful and beautiful all at the same time. It really shows how far the series has come and just how good of a writer Sarah J. Maas is. This in my opinion is her finest work to date and I can not wait for her adult fantasy series, Crescent City, to be released next fall.

Verdict- 5 stars. No surprise that this book, like all of her other books, earns a five-star rating from me. Easily the best book in the series and quite simply, the best book I have ever read.