If I had a nickel for every time characters secretly got married before they tried to sacrifice themselves to save the world...I'd be a millionaire.

Empire of Storms is the fifth book in the Throne of Glass series, and while I know a lot of people love it, this book is definitely far from my favorite in the series. Also, shoutout to this book specifically for being one of the first books I can remember with an explicit smut scene that made me almost throw up.
The stakes are higher than ever as Aelin and her court search for a lock for the wyrdkeys. There's so much that happens in this book, but simultaneously I feel like so little of it actually feels relevant. I definitely think this part of the series is devoted more to character growth in the sense that most of the book is spent building up for One Big Plot Thing, and the little scenes leading up to it feel rather uneventful. Maybe I'm just tired of this series, or maybe it isn't as good as I remember, but the pacing felt really slow in this book, and most of the plot twists felt predictable (even the first time I read it).
Because it's such a character-focused book (in my opinion), I think it is fitting that we get more interactions with characters we haven't met or have spent little time with before. That being said, I'm just kinda tired of these characters. Like I've said before, Aelin is fine, but she and Rowan just feel sort of bland to me. I used to like Dorian the most, but his instalust gets on my nerves, and the same goes for Manon. Aedion is okay. Lysandra's probably my favorite. I don't really care for any of the cadre, and for some reason, I do not like Elide as much as I did on my first read-through.
I know this review feels rather negative (and I'm going to go into more spoiler-y details below), but I did enjoy it, especially the ending. It just feels like Empire of Storms isn't my favorite part of the series, and it was a slog to get through.
3.75/5

Character Rant
This section will include spoilers.

I just want to take a moment to discuss the characters in greater depth. Typically, the character sections of the review are focused exclusively on whether or not I like characters, but I wanted to take some extra time to look at these characters in a bit more depth.
More specifically, I've been trying to figure out why this arguably "found family" doesn't have the same vibes and why none of the romances in the series feel particularly interesting to me.

I think it's firstly important to also mention that Empire of Storms (like SJM's other works) lacks diversity. There are very few POC characters, and none of them are main characters, despite the main cast in this book numbering at least 8 characters. Additionally, there is a lack of queer characters. I know Aedion is technically bi, but given I didn't know that until I was reading one-star reviews earlier, the representation is minimal. I've seen reviews discussing how queer-coded some of these characters are and how intriguing their arcs could have been, and I have to admit I agree. However, I know it's not usually appropriate in book reviews to judge books based on what they DON'T have...I just thought it needed to be mentioned.

Which brings me to my next point: all the relationships feel the same, and, by extension, a lot of the characters are really, really similar.
Rowan and Aelin are two crazy powerful royals. Cool. I can deal with that.
But then Aedion and Lysandra are also two crazy powerful people. Okay...
Oh, and Manon and Dorian are two crazy, powerful royals, too...
Obviously, I know there are differences between these characters and their various relationships, but they all feel eerily similar, and I think that's a lot of the reason I don't enjoy the romance parts of this book (which, admittedly, are a LOT of them). I just wish the author could've played around more with other relationship dynamics besides, "Oh, we're both two super hot, super powerful people, so we should bang but then pretend to be cold towards each other until everyone else inevitably notices."

And I know this isn't necessarily a remark about the characters themselves, but I think this "sameness" of the characters and the fact that they're all incredibly powerful people negates the effects of the "high stakes." These people are too powerful for any sense of danger to genuinely feel real (at least for the first 90% of the book). They rarely face consequences during bloodshed, simply wiping entire armies off the map with minimal injuries that are typically quickly healed. And, yeah, sure, their enemies are powerful, too, but it never seems like any of them are legitimately in danger, and I think it ruins some of the tension for me.
I also think the "sameness" is what takes away the found family vibes for me. I usually imagine found families as a ragtag group of heroes from different backgrounds and with different personalities, opinions, etc. Aelin's court just all feels so strong, mostly in the same ways, and it just feels...off to me.

Apologies for the mini-rant, I just wanted to explain my sudden drop in excitement regarding this series. It's not living up to how I remember it, and I think there are many reasons for that, but these are just some of them.