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

I absolutely adored that book. So much more than I did EoS. It's probably my favorite SJM book.
I don't understand how people can not love it as much.
There was never a dull moment, I was always eager for more (can't say the same of EoS)

The worldbuilding is absolutely wonderful, I got so attached to some new characters really quickly, and the kakhanate was so interesting !

Yes, the book is relatively slow paced, but that's because it's full of the characters reflecting, introspectng, growing (not "bim bam boum" action, fight, blood like EoS).

The characters were just incredible, they grew so, so much in that book, and it felt real, and both sad and sweet, and earned (which imo isn't something common in SJM books, at least for the MCs. They usually never question themselves and rarely grow past their main defaults (or even consider them)).

This book made me cry so much ! I was bawling on my chair at some parts.
Booksta has lied to me in depicting this as the "lesser" book of the tandem read !

I loved the exploration of the link between physical healing and mental healing.
I felt like Chaol was much more relatable than Aelin ever was in HoF (her equivalent to what ToD is for Chaol). I understood him so much better than I did her, and it felt more real, relatable somehow ?!

The first chapter starts by Chaol reflecting on how his wheelchair is what he hates most, and by the end of the book he doesn't hate it anymore and sees himself as valuable anyway. Nesryn found somewhere where she belongs, where she can make a difference. And Yrene faced her past and empowered herself.

That's arguably more growth than any other character in this series

I also don't agree with the people who say this was Chaol's "redemption arc", because he had nothing to be redeemed for. I was him healing. Also ToD isn't "Chaol's book", it's Yrene & Nesryn & Chaol's book.

Oh and the lore ! So much new lore !

Why do people say this is better than Tower of Dawn is beyond me.
It's good, really, but still there were so many moments (

especially at the end

), where I wanted to throttle the characters (and the fandom).

I still can't find Aelin likable. I know so many people love her but she's just too unsuferable for me sometimes. My main problem is her lack of communication.

The cliffhanger at the end could have been avoided, of maybe at least made easier if she'd just communicated, dammit !

But since Feyre is the same, maybe it's just how SJM writes her FMCs...

My other main problem is how some characters are being hated at, while Aelin is always depicted as someone who can do no wrong, even tho she can. Aelin probably would've done the sale thing that

Lorcan, or Chaol, or Dorian

did, but she would never ve been treated like this afterwards. Why does she get a "Get out of jail" free pass ?!?!?

For me, it feels like she's the only character who's not evolving (perhaps with Aedion). All the others are learning to be in a group, a court, a war, to be together. They compromise. But Aelin doesn't and everyone acts like that's totally normal.

And like, I've seen people say how devastating that ending is, but I was too busy being mad at Aelin and Lyssandra to actually feel devastated...
I had the same issu with Nehemia's death, i was too mad at her for setting this up and confused as why Aelin was mad at Chaol to actually feel devastated.
Hopefully KoA wont have this issue, I wanna cry ! (watch me regret ever saying this in 2 weeks lol)

My secondary problem is the arrival of "spice". Why ?! Oh WHY ?!

Otherwise I really enjoyed that book !

Seeing some Assassin's Blade character come back was great

, and I loved seeing Dorian and Manon and Rowan !

– Why, oh why do people hate Chaol ?!?!? I. Don't. Get. It.
First of, HE DID NOT call Aelin a monster, he said "Who is to stop the monsters from coming out again? Who is to stop you". That is NOT the same as calling her a monster, he's simply expressing how scared he is of what could happen with all magic-users having their power, and raises the VERY GOOD POINT of Who could stand against Aelin of she goes dark side (which us an understandable concern since last he saw her she gutted Archer, and now she told him how she threatened to burn an entire city of mostly innocents to have 1 person released from an oath). He was raised to fear magic, and all his experiences with it were traumatic, OF COURSE HE'S GONNA BE SCARED.
He cares very deeply about Ardalan and is scared that aelin doesn't (which, let's be honest, she doesn't much), and he's actually concerned for the good people doing bad things because they've been raised to believe it was the right thing (like he was), whereas Aelin kinda seems to consider that nobody good can be there.
Also when she thinks "how could he stand in the same room as the king and not kill him? How could he work for him?". HUM ?!?!?!? Aelin ?!?! You did the same. But you don't even have the excuse having been raised this way.
Honestly both he and Aelin are to blame for their misunderstanding, yes Chaol should've been so vehement, but Aelin should've tried to understand Chaol's POV. They where both just as stubborn as the other and refused to tried another perspective.
But Chaol is definitely not more to blame than Aelin, so WHY DOES SO MANY IN THE FANDOM HAYE HIM ?!?
[– (Edit 22/04) So many people on Booksta are like "Oh, why is he surprised/chocked/disgusted by what Cealena did in CoM ?! What did he thought assasins did ?!"
He is not surprised she kills people, he's was surprised to see her enjoying it and doing such gory things, THAT IS NOT THE SAME. His problem wasn't with the killing, it was with the how.
And again that's a very human and very sane reaction.]

– Chaol say  that Aelin left Endovier "not even a year ago" (p.537), and Dorian'  birthday is on the summer equinox (june 21st). WHAT ?!?!?! Shouldn't it be at least a year ?!?! I thought ToG was like July-December, CoM should be something like February to March, HoF a month later so April, but it takes at least 3 months, most likely 4 (given the walks and travel time and many "a few weeks later"), so that's like already at least July, but now somehow 2 weeks later is QoS, starting 3 days before June 21st ?!?!?! How ?!?!?!
I need the nooks to have a timeline like the Star Wars books have.

The first part was a but too slow imo, but then it picked up and it git really good !
I could've done without the which's storyline tho, wasn't a big fan of it.

– The country is named Adarlan and not Ardalan ?!?!!? 4 books into the series and I'm realizing it only now ? (It's 100% too late to correct my brain's way of saying it now)
– There's a character named Ghislaine. GHISLAINE. That's such an old people's name, it's weird for me to hear it.
– I realized by page 500 that Rowan has long hair ?!?!?! What ?!?! All the fanart I saw shown him with short hair.
– MMCs named Rowan >>>>>>>
–

That scene with the theater and the songs ?!?! Awsome. Pure perfection.

– I need Doranelle & Co to be on the map pleaseeeee
–

I loved Sorscha but I know from booksta spoilers that Dorian's gonna have a thing with Manon ?!?!? So I was scared something bad was gonna happen and hum, it did 😭

–

Guess I also figured why Dorian fanart shows him having scars around his neck

– Does the king have a name that I missed ?!?! Or he's just "the king" (or "the evil #$%##") ?!
–

STILL DON'T GET WHY PEOPLE HATE CHAOL ?!?!? What did he do wrong ?!?!?! I mean he didn't do much but it was nothing wrong