Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads)

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . .

Aelin has risked everything to save her people―but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…

With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation―and a better world.

And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen―before she is lost to him forever.

As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.

My review:

This review is full of spoilers. I wouldn’t have been able to make this review make sense if I tried to be vague. you have been warned!!!

So I just went through the emotional rollercoaster that is KoA and my mind is still reeling from it. I did enjoy ToD but I just really missed all of these characters so much. This is going to be my longest review ever. Please forgive me for this one. Asking in advance  I will give a summary not really summary, I don’t really know what to call it, of the book then just recap what the characters went through and my thoughts on all of it. I also have a short list of my favourite moments.

Kingdom of Ash was focused on the war. When we left of from EoS, Aelin had assembled an army, which she couldn’t lead into battle because of Maeve. Rowan, Lorcan, Gavriel and Elide were going to look for her to rescue her, Manon and Dorian were going to try and find the Crochan witches to join their cause and also find the third wrydkey. Chaol and Nesryn went to the southern continent to get more help and for Chaol to get a healer to help him. Lysandra and Aedion led the army Aelin managed to put together with Lysandra disguised as Aelin. There is a lot of war going on in various places, which did get exhausting to read through at times. Some of these couples are not really on the best of terms so there is a bit of them fighting and eventually forgiveness. I think that’s what this book focused on mostly.

This book was about war. Even before I read it I knew those war scenes would be good because the war in ACOWAR was epic. It had a lot of what I wanted. The disappointments were there a lot and I lost hope a lot but there were times I got that hope back just to be disappointed again. It was an endless cycle. I’m a fan of every couple in this book and they all lived. We even have a baby on the way. There was a lot of action and madness from all angles which made it hard to put down too. I think we were really able to see our heroes and heroines being badasses and that made it fun for me. The week I spent reading this book was one of the best weeks of the year. So amazing.

As I said the war scenes were getting too much for me. I think some of those parts could have been left out because this book was really long. We could have done without them. A lot of the storylines finally came together but while I was reading I thought, ‘okay, Maas is really good at putting puzzle pieces together but the coincidences are just too much.’ Was there only one stygian spider in this world? Why is it the same stygian spider Falkan got his spidersilk from is the same one Manon tricked. And the spider shows up with its shapeshifting powers to fight Manon. Oh and Falkan is related to Lysandra and has also met Aelin before. And Nox also shows up in the end. This is a bit crazy. All of the other things I can overlook but there were two big problems for me. The first one is I have waited so long for the moment Aelin finally destroys Erawan. I got that taken from me, same as I didn’t get Aelin killing Arobynn, Lysandra did that. I also didn’t get Aelin killing the King, Dorian did that. I guess she had to be the one to end Maeve then. She has a beautiful mind but destroying Maeve with all that magic she had reserved for her would have been good too. And then despite all the people who died, no one in the main gang died. I mean we could have sacrificed Chaol? Just saying. Yes, this is fantasy but after all those near death experiences, no one dies and that is just too unrealistic. The side characters that died had an impact on the main characters. I don’t know if I should be relieved by this or not. Still conflicted.

So our girl went through a lot at the hands of Maeve and Cairn and it was painful to read through all those torture scenes. It was actually a bit too much for me. As much as I kept saying to myself hold on, Rowan will find you, I also really wanted her to be the badass she is and save herself and she did just that. I have to say I loved Aelin in this book right up to the point she lost most of her magic. That was a huge disappointment for me. I feel like I was robbed of the great scene were Aelin would obliterate Erawan using her fire. I wanted her to get to that battlefield and obliterate those ironteeth and the ilken. That is what I had been hoping for, a great show of power. I did not get that. Yes, her mind is a beautiful thing which is way she was able to defeat Maeve in the end and trick Erawan but I just needed the fire breathing bitch queen for that show down. That being said Aelin’s story ended beautifully and she finally gets to be happy.

Moving on to Rowan. I wasn’t a Rowan fan until this book. Everything he did to save Aelin made me love him. The way he was just there for her like she needed after. It takes a strong person to love that crazy girl honestly. And I will forever be grateful to him for giving Cairn exactly what he deserved. I can’t say I’m 100% sold on Rowaelin but they are good together and they need each other and I finally connected with them as a couple in this book. So I am content knowing those two get to live happily ever after. When Gavriel died I didn’t feel the emotion from Aedion’s pov. I don’t know if I was still in shock or hoping he was still alive but I didn’t really react. Rowan just had to get me in my feelings though. Those two had known each other for a long time and I really felt his pain. That was just awful.

I have always loved Dorian and I loved every time I got to read from his pov. I have to say my baby can scheme just as much as Aelin. I love his confidence and even though he doubted himself at some point he did it. I was worried to death the whole time he was in morath but he blew me away. I’ve never been prouder honestly. His magic is the coolest and I love him and Manon together. The guy turned himself into a Crochan witch, that part just killed me I couldn’t stop laughing. He did a lot in this book and deserves respect for fighting so hard. And then that deal with Maeve. I was so worried for him. Marry Maeve really? That was too insane. I freaked out for a moment. Like hell I’m going to let my bae marry a valg queen. No.

Manon, Manon, Manon, my favourite witch. Of all the things she could do I did not know she could be petty. The girl went to sleep in asterin’s tent because Dorian told her he cared about her. I’m surprised no one found out about her being responsible for the ironteeth attack on the Crochan camp, I thought that would be revealed at some point but I guess we had so much going on. I was disappointed in her for that. My heart broke for her when the thirteen sacrificed themselves. That was just painful and I really wish they had lived long enough to see the Wastes. Even though there were no proposals or promises in the end, I will gladly tell myself her and Dorian get to be together and become the most interesting couple ever.

So Elide and Lorcan weren’t on good terms when this book started. In my opinion Elide was drawing this out longer than necessary. And why does it have to take a near death experience for people to forgive each other. So annoying…I mean the man took the blood oath for you…what more do you want girl?? Anyway when they got back on good terms they went back to being fun again. I love that those two just work, Lorcan really loves Elide which is so cute considering how dark and mean he was before he met her. He really changed for the better and even though Elide won’t live forever they should still be together for as long as possible. One more thing I wanted to happen was for Elide to meet Yrene because I just knew Yrene would take a look at that injury and want to help. I’m glad that part was included in the book. I can see those two becoming besties.

I don’t really like Chaol but I really love Yrene. Me and Chaol are on okay terms now and that is thanks to ToD. In KoA I cared more about Chaol and Dorian instead of him and Yrene. I think they have a great friendship and they had been apart for soo long. I really liked their reunion. I do feel like Chaol’s greatest achievement in this series was marrying Yrene. I mean yes he convinced the khagan to send his army and all but to me that is the greatest thing he did…actually getting her to fall in love with his cranky ass.

So Yrene turned out to be the big hero in this book. The moment I thought belonged to Aelin actually went to Yrene…killing Erawan. I somehow wasn’t worried about if she could do it. Yrene has always had this confidence that I really like and the moment Erawan showed up she was ready for him. I was worried about her and all the work she was doing silently praying she wouldn’t lose her baby because in the middle of all the chaos that is definitely something we didn’t need. I wouldn’t have been able to handle that. Or her dying, I love this girl too much. She is just soo strong and the moment she met Aelin…that was so precious. I’m happy she gets to have a family now. The world really does need more healers.

The two people who really went through hell in this book are Lysandra and Aedion. They went through it all, the hope, small victories, defeat, losing hope. It was painful to read from their povs most of the time. Despite those two not being on good terms they didn’t have any news on what was going on with Aelin and everyone else. Fighting and not knowing if any of their friends were going to come through with more help. There was no guarantee anyone was coming to save them and they still fought like crazy. That was very brave of them. I hated every moment I knew they were this close to dying and it felt like no one else was in a hurry to get to the north except for Aelin. Most of them were so caught up in their other missions it was infuriating. Again I did not like that it took a near death experience for Aedion to forgive Lysandra. And then she gets mad at him too. That was exhausting. Could the two of you just make up and move on already, we have a war on our hands here. Damn! After the war these two deserve a long vacation far from everyone else.

I would talk about Nesryn but she didn’t really have that much going on. She was just part of the team, fought the war and survived to go and be empress elsewhere. That is all I remember about her. I am okay with the way her story ended. I love her and Sartaq together so those two should just go and live happily ever after.

Top OMG moments

1. When Aelin cut Maeve’s cheek and saw black blood. (too bad she wasn’t clear headed enough to really make sense of it)

2. The king’s name! so he didn’t have a name for a reason. (that was very clever. And appreciate it even more because it saved Dorian)

3. Manon’s fight with the three matrons. I was worried for her at first but she was totally badass, even her grandma ran. That was satisfying.

4. That moment Aelin passed through Prythian and saw Rhysand and Feyre. As a massive Rhysand fan that was it for me. This part had me reeling for the rest of the book.

5. Yrene and Dorian finishing off Erawan. After the huge disappointment with Aelin’s power I guess these two had to do it. And Yrene was just resilient. That girl is so brave.

This book was really long and it took me five days to finish it…another week of writing this review just to try and get all my thoughts in because it is the last book of my favourite series so there was definitely a lot of emotion while reading this. I remember yelling at the book, putting it down and trying to sleep but opening it up again. I just had to know what happens next. I will really miss these characters but I’m sure there will be a lot of rereads in the future. Once again, Maas managed to wow me with her brilliance.

xx fayetino

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