Idk how to rate this book. I absolutely adored so much of it, but there are also several parts that just disappointed me greatly, most of it being from Aelin's and Aedion's storylines.

Aedion's I found mostly repetitive, with little character development. That storyline did not need that many pages in a book that is massive.

I mean it's reading battle after battle with the same process result at the end...
I also regret that we don't get to see Lyssandra and Aedion actually talk about their problems, they're just friends again without ever settling anything.

Once again in a SJM book, the characters are terrible at communication and it's never talked about, and neither does any attempt to be better.

Aelin's storyline I liked a bit more, especially the first half of it, but just like in the rest of the series, she makes up plans without telling everyone all about it. Even worse than before, she pretends to be telling the plan, without actually doing so.

The pinnacle of that is the Lock. She made her allies vote between
- Option A : forge the Lock before the battle to destroy Erawan and thus save thousands of lives
- Option B : go to battle, loose many people, and if they survive then forge the Lock.
Obviously they choose option A, but the thing is she actually never intended to make the gods take Erawan, and just went and lost her powers for... what ?! Nothing.
If it was to do that then she could've berry well done it after destroying Maeve and Erawan, and thus not risk jeopardizing the victory.
Also it feels really immoral to have her allies, her friends, vote for a plan that would likely kill her without ever intending to do what they wanted it to. Like, what if she'd died ? They'd feel soooo guilty that Erawan was still there, without ever knowing it was Aelin's decision.
Also bargaining Elena for Erawan, really ?!?! She already had thousands of year of lives, and was gonna pay for her mistake, and she's literally one sould, whereas Earawan was killing thousands everyday. Elena was worth getting rid of Erawan quickly.
It feels like SJM just realized that Aelin was way too powerful to fit into a 200 pages long battle (cause if she can cover an entire city in her fire (HoF), then she can easily kill all Valgs in Theralis), and so this feels like a cheap way to balance her power.

Other than that I really loved that book, especially Manon and Lorcan's storylines !

Even tho I don't get why people are mad at Aedion for how he acted with Lyssandra, but not at Elide for how she acted with Lorcan. It's literally the exact same thing...
[12/05 edit : I keep seeing people online get mad at Aedion for "throwing Lyssandra out in the snow", but like. HE DID NOT. He yelled at hear to "get out", and she "strode off" outside. Doesn't he have the right to yell at someone to get out of his tent ?! All the things he said before were awful and mean, yes, but totally understandandable (more than Elide's words).
Also people are acting like him being so mad about Aelin and Lyssandra's plan for the future is unreasonable ?! WHAT ?!
Lyssandra helped Aelin likely go to her death of course he's gonna be mad ! And then there's the plan of Lyssandra shifting into Aelin for Aedion to impregnate her and for those kids to be raised as Rowan’s. That is so (gross but also) incredibly insensitive and unconsiderate of his mental situation. He never had a choice in his life and was raised without knowing who his father was and suffered from it (and is in the thick of dealing with at atm), and they're trying to force him to have kids and abandon them ! Taking away the things he would finally have control over his life and body ?!
That's borderline cruel !]

[20/05 edit : In defense of Darrow.

Why are people mad at him ?! Of course at first he's against Aelin ! You just need to try and see it from his POV. As far as he knows, Aelin could've been coddled by Arobyn, he has no idea what she's actually been through (since Aelin mostly gloated about all the perks). And for the people who say "well she was a kid, yet he acts like she could've done something to help". WELL. If Aelin was old enough to go around be a killer for hire surely she was old enough to join the Resistance. So from Darrow's perspective Aelin abandoned them to instead live a life of luxury, and then she comes back and expects all of Terasen to be at her beck and call even tho she's a 19yo stranger without any military training.
Of course he's not gonna like her. But given time, he turned around and changed. For the better. That's character development, people. That's good. Why do people hate on him ?!]

I wish we'd had more Sartaq & Nesryn, I missed them !
And Yrene being pregnant, REALLY ?!?! Does a war seems to be the right moment to be pregnant ?!?!?!?

Also I was expecting a higher death toll lol, like at least either Lorcan or Fenrys, and Nesryn or Sartaq/Kashin/Hassar.
Booksta is marketing it as the most heartbreaking thing ever, and well that was not it (Star Wars - The High Republic and Supernatural have forever ruined my standards for heartbreaks lol 😃🥲😭)
But in all seriousness, I cried more in ToD than I did in KoA