Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

I believe I am what the kids call shook. Or what they used to call shook. I am shook none the less. 

Chaol has been my favorite male character in this series since book 1. Obviously, favorite character is Manon, because Manon. But I do really love Chaol. So I am shocked that it has taken me this long to actually read this book. KoA is literally out today, those are the lengths to which I have procrastinated.
I really loved this book, totally made up for Chaol being MIA from Empire of Storms. It added to much to the world of Throne of Glass. 

And it continued in what I see as the pattern of Sarah J Maas listening to the criticisms of her books and instead of commenting upon them she seems to just make the corrections (or try, I don’t want to claim she has done perfectly here but I do think you can see the changes in her books). Sarah, you don’t have enough people of color, responds by adding more main players in her series that are people of color and this book is like 98% people of color. Not enough wlw, making an effort there, this can obviously still be improved on but I’m not sure we want a SJM wlw sex scene, idk if she could do that well. Maybe. Speaking of sex scenes this book HAD NO CRINGY SEX SCENES! So hopefully that was listening. Also, this book could have been horribly abelist, or it could have been low key abelist with the magic preventing disability but I think this was managed well in this book. I am not a person who uses a wheelchair or a cane so I will probably look into reactions from those people. Also she is obivously a bit into some toxic masculinity things but I felt like she sort of didn’t have issues with this that I saw in this book. But obivously I could have overlooked things. Don’t hate me internet I am figuring things out. Obviously, I can critique her work, but I also love her work. People can do both.

The plot really gives depth to the issues faced in this series. This book is absolutely required reading for the series, you receive vital information about the world in this book. 

I love Nesryn. I was MASSIVELY disappointed that <spoiler> her and Chaol were not going to work out romantically. </spoiler> But I ended up loving how this whole situation worked out. I like sobbed because of Nesryn’s storyline multiple times. It was fantastic. 

I love Yrene. She is a wonderful kind character. A lot of the Throne of Glass characters can be kind, but she is a breath of fresh air. ANd her kindness does not make her boring or unable to do bad things. Girl can lieeeee. 

Chaol! I still completely love him. He is 100% the case for lawful good being interesting and engaging. Not that he is always 100% lawful good, but he is a pretty consistent guy. I love that he grew as a human in this book. That he faced his wrongs and learned how to move on from them without denying responsibility (but could Chaol ever not feel responsible for everything that happens ever?) and learns what he can actually tackle. And I loved the resolution to his storyline in this book. 

Though we get ANOTHER off page wedding. SJM this is rudeeee. We want the mushy. We read your books. We know romance is afoot. 

I cried like seven times in this book. And two, maybe three, were pretty much sobbing.

I think these are all my thoughts at the moment. I mean I have tons (and sorry I didn’t summarize, other people summarize I just feelings vomited) but I want to go read Kingdom of Ash. I might skim some of my favorite bits from earlier in the series to continue to jog my mind and read Kingdom of Ash tomorrow. But I don’t have tons of self-control so we will see.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and finished reading it on October 23rd, 2018.