In September I revisited what I call the ACO series, by Sarah J Maas. Though it's not my favorite of the series, it is still a delight to reread A Court of Thorns and Roses because you get to see how airtight it is. (That's vague, but whatever, I try to keep things spoiler-free here.) Since I last talked about this series here, a novella came out in May that continued this series and, as I understand it, serves as a bridge between the first trilogy and the next. As the briefest of reviews, I will say that A Court of Frost and Starlight was just okay, but that teaser for the next book has me dying for the next installment. ANYWAY, the ACO series is my favorite, go read them.
After I finished that series, I figured that I should probably go through the Throne of Glass series again, seeing how the final book was to be released on October 23rd, and it would be a good idea to refresh. Truthfully, I didn't want to. I've reread some of the books in the series before, but none of the books that came before Heir of Fire. To me, the main character personality is a bit insufferable in the beginning, and I didn't really begin to like her a whole lot until the middle of the series.
So I thought it would be enough to just reread Tower of Dawn, which I did. And then I thought, man I just have to read all of them. So I went backwards and started The Assassin's Blade and it took me a whole month to read it because I just dragged my feet the entire time. By the time I finished it last week I was like, carp, I have to read five books in six days to catch up before the last book comes out.
All of this to say: I reread the Throne of Glass series and took copious notes for each book (because hell if I know how to keep everyone's connections and backstories and histories straight without them), and then on Thursday I started reading Kingdom of Ash.
I finished it last night and feel satisfied and sad and happy and and and... I simultaneously wish I could read them for the first time again and also feel a little bit relieved that it's over. There were so many moments that gave me goosebumps and a few that made me tear up, and one particularly devastating scene that I am FURIOUS about but still semi-accepting of (BUT COULDN'T THERE HAVE BEEN ANOTHER WAYYY?!?!? 😭😭😭). Jon is still making his way through the book and it's fun to talk about the parts we liked or got chills from as he progresses through.
(I am DYING for him to get to page 800 though, because that part had me freaking out more than anything else in the book. "Jaw-dropping" is not an adequate adjective, it was more like I felt like my heart was going to come up and out of my throat.)
My final recommendation for the completed series:
Go for it! It's an adventure and there are so many characters to fall in love with.
My advice for reading the series:
- Read The Assassin's Blade first, even though it wasn't the first book written in the series. If you read Throne of Glass first then read The Assassin's Blade before you go on to Crown of Midnight.
- Make a character sheet with some notes for every person you read about. The list will be long, but it will help you keep things straight.
- If you're not feeling the series after a couple of books in, don't give up until you read Heir of Fire. (It's my favorite of the series!)
- Tower of Dawn is unexpectedly necessary, don't skip it! (It's tied with Queen of Shadows as my second-favorite of the series.)
And lastly, my advice for binge-reading:
- Dudes, read as much as you can/want to BEFORE you have children and/or have any responsibilities at all. In the last week and a half my overwhelming thought has been man, I should have read more before kids/when I WAS a kid. And, I read plenty! But once you've got little ones who need looking after and interrupt those high-stakes, tension-heavy moments, you start thinking about all the time you wasted in your life NOT reading.
- This recipe is a great one to make at the beginning of the series you're bingeing because it's basically the only thing you have to cook for a week, and you never have to interrupt your reading to make dinner. Somehow the most annoying reading interruptions are the ones you make to keep on living as a human being. Sleeping, showering, eating... I'd give it all up during a binge-read week if I could.
- Get a Kindle Paperwhite! It's super lightweight, and your wrists will thank you after a week of reading that you weren't holding giant tomes or heavy tablets. It's easy to hold in one hand (even laying down), which means book in one hand and snacks in the other. And! It has a search function, which is a total game-changer. I can't count how many times in my life I wished that a book I was reading had a CTRL+F function.
- Make sure you've got your whole series in one place. There's not much worse than finishing one book and having to wait to get the next book. (Made that mistake when I read the Throne of Glass series the first time!)
- When you get home and tell your husband I have to find out what's going to happen to my babies! make sure he knows you mean your Book Babies and not your Real Babies.
Maas it up friends, Book Babies are waiting for your adoration!
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