REVIEW: ‘Empire of Storms’ by Sarah J. Maas

As a huge fan of Sarah J. Maas’ work, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of her latest novel.

The blurb:

The assassin-queen has sworn not to turn her back on her kingdom again. Especially when she might be the only one who can raise an army to keep the Dark King from unleashing his beasts upon them all. But Erawan will wield Aelin’s past, her allies, and her enemies against her.

With a powerful court trusting Aelin to lead them, and her heart devoted to the warrior-prince at her side, what – or who – is she willing to sacrifice to spare her world from being torn apart?

I have to admit that I wasn’t as blown away by Empire of Storms as I have been with Maas’ previous novels. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel –  I was just a little disappointed with some elements.

One of the things I noticed was a lot of similarities to Sarah J. Maas’ other series, A Court of Thorns and Roses; and particularly to A Court of Mist and Fury, the second installment. Yes, they’re both books involving Fae, and the rules are similar; but I couldn’t help constantly thinking of Feyre and Rhysand when I should have been concentrating on Aelin and Rowan. Maybe this is just personal to me, my own thoughts wandering.

This next point is something that I never noticed when reading the series previously, however I believe it has been noted by other readers. There are and awful lot of dashes and ellipses used in Empire of Storms, and in the previous books. Yes, sometimes they provide drama and suspense and are a great addition; but this time I found myself getting a little sick at the amount of them.

Another thing that bothered me was when the point of view would jump between characters…and miss huge events out. There are a couple of times within Empire of Storms, when a new chapter occurs, and something is revealed to the character whose point of view we are now reading from. I enjoy reading from different characters’ viewpoint; and I like having snippets of their individual lives thrown into the masterpiece as a whole – but I sometimes found it annoying that big events which I would have liked to read about were jumped over, and simply mentioned in passing.

Alright, negativity over. I love the Throne of Glass series, and I love Sarah J. Maas. Empire of Storms was another beautiful addition to one of my favourite series. One thing I was particularly happy about was the ending. No, I won’t spoil it. But I will say it was brilliantly well done, and I applaud Maas for her bravery with it.

The character developments within the series, and Empire of Storms individually are fantastic. Lorcan’s stood out to me in particular, as did Manon’s – and I hope to see more from them in the following novel. I did start feeling a little stuck with the Rowan-Aelin relationship but towards the end of this book it gets there, and we finally start to see some development.

We are graced with more heart-wrenching, heart-pounding scenes. Some that make you laugh, some that worry you so much that you race through the next pages in an attempt to calm your wildly beating heart. It’s emotional, exciting, and excruciating; but it’s so, so worth it. I suppose I don’t really need to tell any SJM fans this, but if there are any doubterss PICK UP THIS BOOK. Sarah J. Maas has done is again with a beautiful read that leaves you begging for more. It is definitely worth the read, and Aelin’s story is one that should not be missed.

I honestly can’t get enough of this series. Yes, I felt a little disappointed with Empire of Storms after how incredible the rest of the series has been, but that did not stop it from being a good book. The story is incredible, and pulls at your emotions in all the right ways. I can’t help yearning for the next in the series (and I’m terrified of the wait for it!)