This was a good book. Honestly the best thing about it are the descriptions. Every person and every tent and every experience is described with such attention to detail you cannot help but feel you are there. All of the senses are catered to. That being said, these descriptions are, I'd estimate, 60% of the book. I borrowed this book from the library and I can read most 300-400 page books in a day or two. This one took me 3 weeks to reach the 100 page mark and by then my book was a week overdue with other holds on it so I sent it back.

The first 100 pages or so are lots of setup. The entire story takes place over a roughly 30 year time span. Most of that time happens in the first third of the book. This is honestly, a really well-written and unique plot, but my god if you do not like lots of descriptive language, spare yourself. I do, that and the bits of mystery in the plot kept me coming back to it. The last hundred pages or so start to move much quicker. Some questions are answered. and new mysteries take their place but you start to realize that that is the point. It wasn't gripping, didn't have me at the edge of my seat, but it was so fascinating. I am glad I requested the book again and I'm glad I finished it.

I think only someone who could write as Erin Morgenstern does could describe the feeling I got from reading and finishing this book.

Before I review this I have to say that I stopped about halfway through for a few months. Partly because I was busy but also partly because it could not keep my attention and I was bored by it. So this book may be better or worse than I think it is having read the last half in two days. There are some spoilers in my review so beware.

This was recommended to be by a friend who is older than my thirty years and she loved it. I finally picked it up so I could read it and then watch the movie. Honestly, having finished the book, I think the entire section where Simon

gets changed into a mouse and the go rescue him from the vampires and then the werewolves put in an appearance to start a fight with the vampires,

etc could have been left out. That was where I stalled when I first started reading this in early August. Even when I restarted it a few days ago it took me awhile to get through all of that and gain my liking and momentum again. Those scenes only add small bits to the rest of the book so its not strange when Luke

is a werewolf, or Jace and Cary fly off the roof

at the end.

Ultimately, I think what took away from this book was the author trying to stuff all the supernatural creature reveals into one book when she's clearly writing a series. There's too much going on and too many characters that just slow the plot down because they have nothing to do with it. You get no real time to appreciate the main characters and get to know them so their actions are not flat or strange. There are some big reactions and huge emotional points that mostly fell flat for me.

The only reason this did not get two stars is because of the ending. The scenes with Valentine were great. The Hodge surprise was unexpected but felt a little like a prop. But Luke

coming back and finally giving a full explanation of the past was great. After all the lies and mistruths it was nice to hear a full true story from someone who was actually there and had no real agenda. But Jace learning about his father and mother was amazingly heart-wrenching. His indecision, Cary's anger and Valentine's reactions were perfect. It was honestly surprising that they are siblings. And its so weird what with their relationship.

So obviously there is more going on with this story and that is what will have me picking up the next book when I get a chance.

I tried really hard with this book but could not get into it enough to finish it. Ah well.

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.

DNF. This was really boring. I tried to push past the beginning but its just not interesting. Which is sad because I love all of Jacqueline Carey's other books. The main character is not drawing me in.

The killers didn't turn out to be very interesting. They just happened to be very lucky. Otherwise a solid interlude in Eve's world.

Holy shit that ending. I forget how much I love thrillers until I randomly pick one up again. Tami Hoag is one of my favorites in this genre.

I liked this book. A lot. I wasn't sure if I was going to. Non-fiction doesn't usually grip me and I don't tend to read self-help (I'm guessing this falls in that category) but I had heard about the KonMari method and decided that reading it straight from the creator was best. Honestly, the tone this was written in was great. Personable but not overly friendly and definitely not monotonous. I had heard about "discarding what doesn't bring you joy" but put into context it makes more sense. It could be I was already open to this since I forced myself to do something similar on a very small scale recently and it helped. It also helps that as a witch and a believer in all things having energy this method is not ridiculous to me. There is also a practical side to this method. Taking everything in one category out and touching each item forces you to look at everything you have and forces you to get it done so you don't have an even bigger mess or more clutter than you started with. It forces you to feel and take action in healthy ways. I don't know, but I can see this working for me so I'll give it a try. I am not expecting miracles or to lose ten pounds or to find my passion in life; just to declutter it which I already know will make me happier.