I just finished reading Queen of Shadows, the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series. Although I loved it, I have to be honest — after several weeks of reading a ton of LONG books (this one is about 650 pages) I want to read something a little shorter for a change. The next book, Empire of Storms, is almost 700 pages, and I’m not ready to conquer it yet.
Because this is the fourth book in the series, this review may contain spoilers for the first three books.
Celaena (now mostly going by Aelin) returns to Rifthold in this book, and she’s ready to bring justice to the world. She has a few goals in mind as she comes back into town. For one thing, she wants to obtain the amulet that her parents gave to her when she was a child. Arobynn has it, and it also happens to have the third Wyrdkey in it. Speaking of Arobynn, she wants to have her revenge on him as well. Then she has a score to settle with the king. While she’s at it, maybe she’ll bring magic back into the kingdom.
It’s a tall order, but if anybody can do it, the Queen of Shadows can. This book is full of action and is not without a dull moment. There are many delicious scenes involving deceit and killing monsters and exacting revenge. It was a lot of fun.
Rowan comes back in the book, which also brought a lot of amusement to me with it. I loved how he bickered with Aelin’s cousin Aedion after he returned; the fae can sometimes behave like humanoid animals, and it was quite a bit of fun to watch.
When I read Heir of Fire, I wasn’t that excited about the chapters involving the witches. I actually enjoyed the chapters with the witches more in this book than in the last one. Manon shows character growth in Queen of Shadows, and I am beginning to like her some. I’m looking forward to see how the alliances shake up involving the witches in the next book.
I definitely recommend this book, along with the books before it in this series.