Book Review: TOWER OF DAWN by Sarah J. Maas

Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass Series, Book #6) by Sarah J. Maas

Blurb:

In the next installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, follow Chaol on his sweeping journey to a distant empire.
Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.

His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica—the stronghold of the southern continent's mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.

But what they discover in Antica will change them both—and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

My Review:

Let's unwrap this puppy before I get to the good stuff. The cover... yeah. I really dislike this cover, it's probably my least favorite of the whole series. Since all the other covers have Aelin on them, I would have liked to see the cover artist's depiction of Chaol... but oh well.

Okay, onward to the story itself. I know a lot of people were unhappy either with this book or  with the fact that it was a novel, not a novella as originally planned which delayed Kingdom of Ash's release by a year. Believe me, I was one of them BEFORE I read this book. I'd been annoyed with Chaol as a character since probably... Crown of Midnight?... yeah that sounds about right. So I went into Tower of Dawn with as open of a mind as I could muster, assuming I would dislike the book but suck it up.

Then I read it... and it blew. me. away! I loved the world of the Southern Continent, for some reason it conjured images of the world of the Wrath and the Dawn books. Chaol really grows in this book in my opinion, learning to accept the events of the past and move forward and I really love the way Maas approached the disability representation with Chaol in this book. My grandmother is in a wheelchair due to spine issues, will probably be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life, and I know how much it frustrates her not to be able to get up and move like she used to and how she hates asking others for help with simple tasks and Maas illustrates that beautifully through Chaol's perspective.

And Yrene! Readers will remember her from The Assassin's Blade, The Assassin and the Healer and I loved seeing more of her in this book. To be honest, The Assassin and the Healer was probably my least favorite of the stories in The Assassin's Blade but now to see so much more of this character I wrote off before, I appreciate the story so much more. 

The character that surprised me most was Nesryn. I like flat-out completely hated her in Queen of Shadows. I thought she was snooty and a total b****, but I got to see a whole other side of her in Tower of Dawn. In fact, Nesryn and Sartaq are my newest OTP! Who loved Sartaq as much as I did???? Ahhhh. Such an awesome character. 

The one character I could have done without was Hasar. I couldn't figure out whether she really wanted to help the cause at the end or not and she kind of felt like a false friend to Yrene. 

There were only two (small) things that I didn't like or left me hanging with this book, the cover and that we as a reader never find out exactly what Kashin said to Yrene that strained their friendship so much. Was it just a proposal or something more?

Overall, Tower of Dawn is definitely worth the read! Naysayers, give it a chance!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 of 5 Stars!

*And thus, fair bookdragons, completes my reading of the currently published books in the Throne of Glass series. I kicked the #ReadThroneofGlass challenge in the teeth and finished all the books wayyyyy ahead of schedule. All 7 books in 6 1/2 weeks! 🎉