This is not the last book! Why did I think this was the last book?!

Well this turned out great. Where I last updated I would have said it was just good but the ending did wonders. Not that it was bad before. This story just gets better and better. At the beginning of this series It felt this was a better than average YA fantasy book with well developed characters. After this book I feel that Maas has given us a more and more complex world with realistic characters that don't get in each others way. Since the rest of my thoughts will have spoilers I'm going to put them under a cut.

I loved Chaol the most in this book. He is so realistic. From his rose-colored thinking when it comes to Dorian to his skepticism about this faerie princess saving the world as they know it. I love how when she came back he was just like uhh, you couldn't let us know what was up? Too often in fantasy novels the non-humans get seen as saviors of their own kind (or even human-kind) and that makes it okay for them to kill or make suffer all those who did them dirty in the past. I like that Chaol is understandably worried that she would burn the human world down around her because of what a few humans have done to her. Yes, she deserves to be angry having only lived 19 years and most of those being brutally abused. But I like that Chaol is the champion of the regular humans.

I said this before but Rowan seems very different than what I remember him to be in the last book. I'll have to reread it, what a shame (insert sarcastic tone here). Things with Aedion went pretty much as expected. We got a little bit of a new "love" triangle in the beginning but that quickly went away. She really shouldn't have lied to him anyway. Arobynn turned out to be much worse than I thought he was. By miles. Miles and miles. I just couldn't believe it because he has been the background. I figured he was out for himself (who isn't honestly) but not to this extent. In that first half with how everything played out with him and Forcan, Aelin showed how clever she is. I loved how she got things done with and without all the guys tripping over themselves to help her or just plain do things for her. Strong female character lead for the win tbh. Lysandra came out of nowhere but I appreciated her.

Manon, Kaltain, and Elide brings it to five amazing female characters. Toss in all of Manon's thirteen, and the unnamed laundress at the end too to be thorough. Kaltain in particular at the end. But Manon impressed me as a realistic character as well. Definitely on par with Chaol. I honestly was reading her parts without a clue as to how she could have done anything differently. I identify with her the most at this point. She did the best she could with the cards, power and knowledge that she had at each moment. And boy was her best pretty good.

So I need to go back and reread the books because I thought Perrington and Vernon were new characters but the ending says that Perrington at least is not and I don't remember him at all. Which was the point I guess. Lastly, there's Dorian and the King of Adarlan. I like that Maas gave us little snippets here and there so that we know what's been going on in Dorian's head. I really feel for him at this point. He's going to have to rebuild his entire kingdom, never mind his household (kingdom) all while facing his demons from the time he was possessed. And his two best friends will not be around. Why neither one of them thought to ask or assume he's having nightmares is beyond me. He already admitted to the guilt and guilt gets bigger in your subconscious. But I am hoping him and Manon become a couple. I liked their two interactions so I have my fingers crossed.

The end of the king was so surprising. Mostly because it was all Perrington this and I was looking for you so you could kill me that. Buti ts good he's dead because he did a lot of wrong consciously as well. Plus, if Dorian in his year of being possessed feels bad then god knows his father must feel 100 times worse. Kinda glad the glass castle is gone because I was having hard time picturing it. If it was just a glass castle, no problem. But a glass castle over the old stone one, my brain said that's too ugly to contemplate. So good riddance.

I think a lot of people complained about the last book being suspected filler or too much stage setting and I can see that now having read this one even though I loved the last one too. But Queen of Shadows brings it all together, the characters the motivations, the relationships. I think from here on out everyone knows who they are and short of the public knowing all the details, the fights will be out in the open. I can't wait to see how things go in Terrasen and how this war turns out now that Aelin is officially out and all the players know about each other.