Week 36 Review: Tower of Dawn

From Goodreads:
In the next installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, follow Chaol on his sweeping journey to a distant empire.

Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.

His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica—the stronghold of the southern continent's mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.

But what they discover in Antica will change them both—and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

My Review:
Oh, wow, this book! While this does mean, that the final book is going to be pushed back a bit. Ah, well, we came out of this book with 2 major pieces of information, and 2 awesome new relationships! Oh, plus a major ally who will be a big help in the battles to come!

First off, I want to talk about the cover. I know, it doesn't have Chaol, or a human figure, on it. But it has the owl, which is an important symbol, because it's the symbol of the Goddess of Healing, and healing is a really important part of this book. And remember how there was an owl on the mural back at glass castle? Yeah, not random! And how the one object was said to be made by one lady, but she was in love with another guy? Oooh, look, it was made by this lady!

This is the first time we've been to the Southern Continent. So we got introduced to this fantastic world that was inspired by Genghis Khan, I believe. Of a group of people who took over ruling the continent, and beyond. Of the ruler, the khagan, having multiple children, and picking his heir among them-and after that heir becomes ruler and has a few kids of his/her own, kills his/her siblings. Harsh. But so fascinating!

Like, how each sibling had an area that they specialized in. That Sartaq was in charge of the aerial, the Rukhin riders. Who was interested in Nesryn, and took her to the Rukhin riders because of tales his hearth mother told that could confirm her story of the Valg. Hasar who was in charge of the navy. Who was friends with Yrene, and was lesbian, and was in turns soft and hard, and who has a fierce intelligence! Kashin, in charge of the ground army and is the consummate soldier and following orders. Who thinks someone killed his youngest sister, Tumelun, and who wants to marry Yrene, which Hasar is OK with, Yrene is not. Which makes sense, since whoever becomes heir, and eventual khagan will kill any children their siblings have, and make any spouses unable to have children at least, killing them at most. And probably killing their siblings. So, understable! Each of the 6 siblings have an important role to play, whether they're alive in this book or not, whether I mention it here or not, because this paragraph is getting long!

I didn't really like being in Nesryn's head. She believed the hype that the khagan was a living god, and loved the continent, and didn't know why her dad stayed  Erilea, given the way that they were treated. I got over it, mostly, especially when they were discovering the one big piece of information about female Valgs, and what Queen is one of them. Yeah. That was really interesting! So I'm really glad that she narrated a good portion of this book!

I read that this book was like Heir of Fire for Chaol. Sure, he has his healing of his spine. But also, healing from everything that's happened to him, how guilty he feels for everyone he feels he's harmed. That he feels like everything he touches, he hurts. Sure, he made mistakes. Plenty of them. He wasn't perfect, but he wasn't as bad as he thought. It was hard to read, and it was hard for him, but he works through his issues, like Aelin did. And that was an amazing journey to read!

Yrene and Chaol were fantastic together! She watched her mom burn alive because she was a healer, and despises Adarlan. Which carries over to Chaol, who served the king who gave the orders. But still she heals him, even if they verbally spar a lot! And they discover the other big piece of information regarding the Valgs and defeating them, which is really great! The fact that healers were concentrated in the Southern Continent was explained by a faction of Fae with healing abilities passing them onto the human population for this precise moment and reason! So fantastic!

That ending was just epic, and it's like, wow, all the players are on the table, and coming, or already together. Now just to face off in the battle! And oh, finding out that Aelin was the one who saved Yrene in the short story...it was fate bringing everything together, and it was such a fantastic ending!

But it wasn't, not really. The final pages were Fireheart, and Maeve waking up Aelin and oh, man, given what we learned in this book, that was just awful! I have no idea what's going to happen next, but I know it's not going to be good!

I need more, I need the final book, pronto! This book, and this series, has been so fantastic, and I to know, desperately, how it's going to end!  

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #6
Read: September 4th, 2017
Source: Bought
Reason Why: Love her books and this series so much, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2017 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books
Published: September 5th 2017

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars