Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas, published September 2017 by Bloomsbury.

Read: October 2017
Genre: Young Adult/New Adult/Fantasy
Source: Purchased
#Pages: 660
Get It Now: Wordery | Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis: 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.

The Book Review

When I first saw the cover for this book, I was SO disappointed that it was so different from the rest of the series, but after finding out that this instalment focuses on Chaol and Nesryn’s adventures (during the same timeline as Empire of Storms) as opposed to continuing Aelin’s story, it made much more sense. How I missed that key information is beyond me!

With my expectations put firmly back in their place, I was still disappointed that we weren’t going to find out what happened next with Aelin after THAT ending to Empire of Storms, so I went into this book with low expectations. This is a Maas book, and I should have known better.

It took me a little while to get into – there was a new cast of characters to get a feel for, and Chaol’s shit-show of a love life to contend with – before the story properly took off. But once it did? I was hooked. I’m a big fan of Yrene, and the world Maas is building continues to surprise me with its intricacy, but to be honest, I’m really looking forward to this series being finished so I can binge-read all of the books together. Most of these books are tomes, and with so much going on, I’m sure this is going to make for one hell of a read when I can get through them all without a year-long wait in between releases.

This book is action-packed and allows for some great character development, with much more diversity than we have seen before from Maas. The story-line is starting to come together, but I struggle to see how it will be wrapped up with just one more book left to go (in this series anyway, I hear there may be more books set in this world, but following different characters? It seems that Maas is going to pull a Cassandra Clare).

I don’t envy Maas at the minute – there’s going to be a lot of expectation for the final book in this series, and all I can say is:

The Rating

4.5/5

Have you read Tower of Dawn? What did you make of this instalment? Let me know in the comments!