Review: Empire of Storms

Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas, published September 2016 Bloomsbury.

Read: September 2016
Genre: Young Adult/New Adult/Fantasy
Source: Purchased
#Pages: 693
Get It Now: Wordery | Amazon

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

As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down?

The Book Review

So yeah, I read this a year ago and I’m only reviewing it now… #badblogger. I recently read the latest instalment in this series, Tower of Dawn, and when I went to review it, I realised I hadn’t reviewed this one yet. My bookish-OCD wouldn’t allow that, so here we are!

It took a significant amount of time to read this book, granted it is almost 700 pages long, but the time commitment was more due to the story becoming very detailed and there were some sections I had to read over more than once to fully grasp the story (it doesn’t help that there’s a year between releases, so when I started this book it took me a little while to settle into).

Maas has a habit of introducing new characters and developing new relationships that initially make my blood boil, but ultimately I grow to love them (Manon is a great example of this, she just shone in this book!). Maas really does have this down to an art, because this series has so many romance-jumps and new characters that come on the scene as the story develops, and every time I start off pissed at her, but then find myself perfectly good with it by the end of the book.

This book and series is consistently marketed towards Young Adults, but it has to be said, the sexy-times in these novels are getting more and more intense, and it really does fall more into the New Adult category, or at the very least older teenagers only. It’s also slightly irking that literally every character in this series seems to be getting paired off – is it really necessary? Is it realistic? Who knows. But I’m hoping the hormone-fuelled romance-train slows down for a little while. I mean, the story is set during an epic war for God’s sake, can we focus on that?!

The switch in point of view between chapters is an aspect of these novels I really enjoy (but I’m a multiple POV fiend anyways), and as we now know is typical of Maas, there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing and make you exclaim with angst-filled delight! Although, I’m not going to lie, that ending completely broke me (yet took this from a 3.5* read to a 4.5* read).