For a moment, the world stopped.

This is a review for the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series. I listened to the audiobook version.

First off, I really like the narrator. I think she adds a lot to the books in this series. (They are very long books and I think would become a bit tedious at times were it not for the dynamic narration.) It also helps to not have to figure out how to pronounce the names in this one…

Warning, there will be some minor spoilers since this is the 4th in a series.

Anyways, Calaena has (almost) completely embraced her new identity of Aelin. She is finally showing more evidence of why she was repeatedly! called the greatest assassin in Adarlan so many times in the first book. Yeah, she’s a badass now. We also get to spend some quality time with some half naked men of the fae (which is quite pleasant). I can also say that many of the characters in this series do not follow a lot of the traditional tropes of the genre: we repeatedly get fooled into new potential love interests (no insta-love here!) and she goes off and does what she wants (without informing the men in her life) and we later realize that she was being totally awesome while she was off on her own (unbeknownst to anyone, even the reader). There are lots of strong female roles in this story and I find that I am often surprised at how great they are.

We also follow a secondary plot line about a group of witches who are being “employed” by the king of Adarlan. Manon is the new and upcoming leader of the witches and has to be pretty ruthless in order to maintain control. She’s kind of bitchy… but to be fair, her grandmother doesn’t help the situation at all. Manon makes some pretty weighty mistakes and does not take kindly to those who point it out, but also doesn’t take kindly to those who deceive her.

I also feel like her characters take turns in their personality which we do not expect and can be frustrating to those who prefer more traditional romances (*cough*bethellen*cough*), but I conversely find that they follow more realistic pathways… because who among us lives in a romance, really? (I guess this is why I don’t read much romance.)

Anywho, I have had my moments where I was losing interest in each of these books. They tend to drag for about the first half, but always pick up towards the end and become much more engaging. (I still maintain that they could be about half the length.) I wish I had realized how long they were when I began because I am not one to quit on a series unless it is really bad. So yeah, they’re long, but overall worth it. I just don’t think I’ll be rereading these ones.