Queen of Shadows (2015)

The first two thirds of this book moved very slowly and focused on cleaning up Aelin's past life as Caelena, then the plot switched drastically and moved too rapidly switching out the villain too easily.

As the court surrounding Aeiln began to form, I noticed the same disturbing trend from the later books in the ACOTAR series: that Maas is "heavily "influenced" by Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series. It's not as blatant as her "borrowing" in ACOTAR (*cough* Illyrians *cough*), but the big ones I noticed are the Fae's "spiraling down" to gather their power, having to learn the "Old Ways," Aedion is reminiscent of Lucivar and his position in Jaenelle's court, Lysandra is a weird hybrid of Surreal and Kaelas, and Rowan is basically Daemon (what is with their preoccupation the female neck?).

Maas's writing style is engaging and I do like that she lets us see inside the female characters' minds, much more than Bishop does, but her reliance other authors' characters, magic systems, and world building is troubling. I will continue to hate-read the rest of the series. ( )

Another great entry in the series. The thing about fantasy is that the really exciting parts, the battles physical and magical, the monsters and discoveries all can be overshadowed by a bit of mercy. Aelin has mercy for Manon, and saves Dorian as a result. Aelin gives a cloak to a foe in the dungeon and Kaltin takes out a third of her opponents as she burns through Morath releasing Elide. All this reminds me of the Hobbit where Bilbo has mercy and that ultimately is what saves Middle Earth when Gollum falls to his death in Mt Doom. ( )

Boy, this series has gone on for too long, or this book is too long and there are too many characters that seem to be written in to provide more romance options since Celaena/Aelin appears to be sticking with Rowan for the time being, but I am not feeling it any longer. The writing has gotten sloppy and repetitive with lots of filler.
I really dislike Aelin now. She's secretive for no good reason, impulsive in a way that only hurts those around her, and totally immature. Rowan deserves better. Chaol deserved better. I still like the Iron Teeth witches the most, mainly because they bring something different to the fantasy table, but almost everyone else is forgettable or unlikeable. ( )

Loooong. Still, the action moves along ... there's just a LOT of storyline to develop. ( )

Maybe a 3.5 for this book. ( )