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Oh thank god she's making more than 3 books in this series. there is just too much to fit into one last book.

YAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY

I'm reading something else atm, but when I'm done....

ALSO THE SIZE OF THIS. HOW EXCITING. AND SCARY. I'M A BUNDLE OF NERVES AND EMOTIONS AND AND AND...

3.5
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I've never truly, fully liked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and, yes, it is weird to start off a book review by talking about another one, but bear with me.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has always been, to me, a boatload of happy times, a jumble of info dumping, and a plot that progressed solely because it had to in order to set up the next book. In short, HPatHBP is too much of a happy book in order for me to like it. It's also a connecting book; it gets us from point A to point B in order for the story to continue.

I've always liked Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire more. I tend to be a middle book person.

Queen of Shadows is my Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

It's happy, a lot of things/info happens, and it steamrolls a lot of plot points relevant in the last books (view spoiler)[Aelin's former master, the King, Rifthold really, etc (hide spoiler)] in order to set us up for the end of the series.

Maybe that's why I don't feel much for this novel. Yes, I read it very steadily over the course of two days. Yes, there were a lot of things I really enjoyed, but I didn't love it. It wasn't my Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; it wasn't Crown of Midnight either.

And I know the romance did have something to do with that. (view spoiler)[I've talked about my queasiness over couple pairings with big age differences in other books. The Immortals quartet is, honestly, the best example of this as the MC does end up with a character quite a bit older than her (view spoiler)[and is also her mentor... (hide spoiler)]. I've read that series at least 3 or 4 times now, and I still have my reservations. Immortal/mortal pairings don't often fair well with me either.

Which probably didn't help in this case either.

I also think Rowan is also really boring. And stereotypical. Tough, unemotional man for 500$ please.

And "I think I was waiting for you" ?

How epic are you going with this Maas? You still have two books to go; hold your punches a little bit.

I also don't care for Aelin swaggering around in her nighties in order to get the goat started.

*sigh*

I also thought Chaol was a better fit. I won't deny it. I hoped his and Aelin's love story would be an evolving one where they become friends again after the heartbreak of Crown of Midnight and then realize how important they were to one another.

At this point, I'm hoping Rowan ends a la Dragon (is it Dragon?) from The Song of the Lioness Quartet or Maas somehow, somewhere, brings back Sam.

Because I'm probably never going to fully ship Rowan and Aelin. I'm not shipping her with Chaol either, but that immortal thing is just never going to fully work for me sadly.

Urg, I so take back my thoughts at the end of A Court of Thorns and Roses. (hide spoiler)]

Overall, I really liked a lot of this novel: especially the first part. But I couldn't love it like I have the others. I've thought a lot about this since finishing it on Monday, and while I will continue to read this series, I'm hoping the next book does do better.

And, for fuck's sake Maas, can you use any other description but "like midnight" for someone's voice? Velvet encasing muscles is not a turn-on either.