Author: Sarah J. Maas
Book Title: Empire of Storms
Published: September 6th 2016
Pages: 689
Type of Book: Book 5
Read From: March 19, 2021-March 24,2021
Format: Hardcover
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SYNOPSIS
The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those don’t.
As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.
Aelin’s journey from assassin to queen has entranced millions across the globe, and this fifth installment will leave fans breathless. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down?
(Source: throneofglassfandom.com)
MY THOUGHTS
THIS IS GONNA BE A SPOILER & EXPLICIT REVIEW ,
ALSO I WILL BE RANTING A LOT SO THIS IS GONNA BE A VERY LONG REVEIW
I’m still gonna write a review about this book even tho it was like released five years ago(Like my thoughts even matters?). So I really really liked this series from the very first time I read the first two books in the series which are the “Throne of Glass” and “Crown of Midnight”. So for me the whole story line of this series drastically changed when the third book came which called “Heir of Fire”, so many new characters were introduced and everyone hated Chaol in this book (except me ofc).
So its been like 2 or 3 years since the last time I read “Queen of Shadows” which was the fourth book in the series. I don’t wanna re-read from Throne of Glass to Queen of Shadows so I decided to just read some recaps from the website called bookseriesrecaps and it was very helpful because the recaps were so detailed and I was only supposed to read recap for Queen of Shadows but I forgot the whole thing that happened in book 1-4.
Anyway let’s move on to Empire of Storms, which was the 5th book in the Throne of Glass series. I just couldn’t believe that I actually had two copies of this book, I had the UK edition and the US hardback edition (Yes! I was an SJM trash…..but that was before). I really had high hopes for this book because I actually did liked Queen of Shadows and I was like “This book will be good since Queen of Shadows didn’t disappoint me” and yes I started reading this book like 2 years ago when I was still in Uni, but I’ve got very busy and I had a big reading slump. So I actually decided to DNF the whole series but I was a sucker for a booksales and I just bought Kingdom of Ash ( for very cheap price) and my first book purchase this year and yes here I am finally done with Empire of Storms and will be reading Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash soon.
Empire of Storms, so many shit things happened in this book. I was like “I’m reading this book for Manon, Dorian, Elide and Lorcan, Lyssandra and Aedion a.k.a the side characters”. I don’t really give a f*ck about Aelin and Rowan because I freaking hate their ship since HoF. So in this book its actually kinda like ‘things-that-happened-before-the-finale’, basically the story now focuses on the upcoming war/clash between Erawan (Valg King, dark lord, villain) and Aelin & Friends. Base on the book cover Aelin was wearing a pirate-outfit type of shit, so I had the idea that its gonna be set on the sea or ship with pirate stuffs. So before getting into the exciting parts were details of war and plans for war, there are so many unnecessary things happened in Aelins POV. Meanwhile on Manon’s POV everything seems interesting and gripping (as always), and for Elide & Lorcan POV (the star of this book) was very exciting and fun to read.
The Characters, its the same shit, except Dorian….am I really reading Dorian’s POV? it seems like he was not himself and sometimes he is Dorian again. He gets very disgustingly flirty towards Manon, which he doesn’t seem to do in the previous books (with other girls ofc) because he had this ‘good-boy-prince’ vibe on him and I was totally shocked when he was being aggressive and suddenly became the typical-sarah-j-maas-male vibe. As for Aelin/Celaena (IDGF about her name’s spelling) she was so freaking bossy and being a bitch as usual. The reason I really don’t like this series anymore because of the lead character, she doesn’t have any character development for me. I don’t really get her personality like she’s a baddass bitch outside and sometimes very soft and sentimental inside to gain empathy and love from her Fae lover (which I will talk about more soon).
The problem with Aelin is that she doesn’t even communicate with her allies about her plans, she was just keeping it a secret and will reveal later (So that she will be crown as the GENIUS of the group). Which I can also see in other fantasy books that I’ve read (insert Six of Crows) but her plans were very shallow and its not even nerve wrecking 🙂 Also I really couldn’t forget the part were she was like getting crazy about her plans to defeat Maeve’s troop or looking for the Lock (I totally forgot which one) then she was actually out of ideas and she was like complaining and yelling then suddenly “Yo guys, what to do? I ain’t gonna handle this shit” and throw the problem to Aedion and Rowan and the dudes was trying to solve the problem for her. Also I was cringing and laughing at the same time when Rolfe (Pirate Lord) was asking Aelin what she would do or something like what she will do to make Rolfe join her war troops and she answered him in boastful tone shit “I’m Aelin Galathynius, Heir of Fire, Flame whatever blah blah blah” like what the actual fuck was that???? She was like this student in a class and the teacher asked her and she answered not accordingly to the question because she wasn’t listening to the teacher. I used to really adore Sarah J Maas writing but as her book series came to the finale I started to realize that it was getting worse.
Rowan, for the love of god why he is so fucking horny all the time???! Why the hell he was always nibbling, nipping, biting Aelin’s fucking ear or neck? In public and even in times of fighting the bad guys????? Like Dude can’t you keep your velvet wrapped steel on your pants??.(WTF Sarah J. Maas? she reminds me of the guidance counselor in the movie 10 things I hate about you)
And guess what Aelin was fucking OK with it? Like ghorl you’re supposed to be planning and in the middle of a WAR and your subjects were around you all the time and you just let this dude get his horny shit on you every time?? Ugh! utterly disgusting. Also I couldn’t stop cringing with all the use of FEMALES & MALES in this book like its too much.
Also don’t get me started with all the GROWLING & PURRING! Are the characters in this book were ANIMALS??? the last time I checked only Lyssandra can shift into a leopard or whatever wild cat she wants (which can growl and purr). Yikes for SJM’s writing this also reminds me of her other series ACOTAR and it also has a lot of growling and purring.
I’m not gonna talk more about the side characters since I only care about the TWO MAIN CHARACTERS *insert sarcastic smile* because they were too perfect despite having physical flaws (like for me it was supposed to be considered as not too perfect because they were also flawed type of shit). But I’m gonna talk about Sarah J. Maas trying to make her book characters “Bisexual” or “Gay” for LGBTQ+ representation that all of her previous book/series lacks and I was like “here we go again, the same shit from ACOWAR”. So being able to have sex with both male and female was considered BISEXUAL, but still prefers female as the love interest?? It was just so fucking messed up. Also let’s talk about the lack of POC representation in the TOG series, all the characters here were all white people (except Nehemia and Nesryn ofcs which was 99% MIA in the series)
The Plot, as I’ve said before the storyline was ‘things-that-happened-before-the-finale’. I really don’t care about Aelin’s POV in this book which was 80% the majority of the storyline. Because it was boring and full of unnecessary scenes to make the book 700 pages long. But there are so many important details that would be necessary in the finale book (Kingdom of Ash) I guess.
The fighting scenes in this book were short like there’s no struggle or fighting drama to it. Specially in the part when the main characters were attacked by 500 Ilken (Valg creatures?). Because no worries, Aelin and Rowan were too powerful enough to kill them all anyway. Also the way the characters deliver their lines in every conversation in this book was just so bland and always cursing “Bitch” and “Shit”.
The Climax, is where the story started to get interesting but suddenly went downhill for me. So much fighting and new troops and allies were coming which was good, thanks to our genius girl Aelin (secrets finally revealed). Also the part where Queen Maeve (Villain no.2) finally appeared and I finally had the ‘struggling-almost-defeated-main-character’ scene that I’ve been looking for so long. But what went downhill for me was when Queen Maeve, revealed Aelin and Rowan will gonna have a very perfect & powerful offspring (just like them) in the future which sounds very familiar isn’t it??? Hello! SJM its the same shit from ACOMAF or ACOWAR (don’t know which one but yeah its the same) like she was really running out of ideas yikes!
The Sex Scenes, Let’s admit it, we’re all here for the steamy smut scenes from SJM books. But what the actual fuck Aelin & Rowan having sex on the beach and they were on flames like literally burning. Ofc they don’t give a fuck if they were having sex on the beach and in public because they were always horny all the time anyways. Also WTF! the characters in this book (specially the Faes) can sense arousal and smell of after sex from other characters (who just had sex right?)???? This made me really think they were all wild animals. Its just so weird like everything that was supposed to be steamy and romantic sex scenes or love scenes in this book was so weird. yikes!
All in All, I really couldn’t stop ranting about how I felt when I was reading this book. But I’m so proud of myself that I was able to survive the almost 700 pages long. But anyway I’m still two books away to finally finish reading this series. So all I can say is that this book was hella messy, but somehow there was something good in it. For me this book felt like I was reading another version of ACOTAR series (specifically ACOMAF & ACOWAR which was much better for me). Also the lack of POC, LGBTQ+ representation in this book and let’s not forget that everyone was perfectly handsome, beautiful and having a perfect/sexy bodies in this book series. For me it felt like SJM really did ran out of ideas because there are so many similarities in the ACOTAR series, but at least there’s a villain drama in this book, coz’ I seem to noticed on her previous books both ACOTAR & TOG series that she was kinda lazy to make a point of view for her book villain characters on how ruthless and dark they are. I REALLY WANT SOME ANGST!!!!!
This was really typical SJM book because again everyone was perfect, powerful, horny and weird. Also did I forgot to mention that all the male characters in this book were very territorial and claiming their female lovers as their property??? The nerve? Also you can spot SJM’s favorite word “MATE” in this book. Reading this book really did felt like I was torturing myself reading nonsense of 500 pages before the exciting and less weird and cringey part of the book.
Again I used to adore SJM but now I just realized she’s not my favorite author anymore, no offense to all SJM fans out there but I’m sorry I just couldn’t stop ranting on her recent books.
Am I still gonna continue reading this book series? –YES!! because I love writing RANT REVIEWS and ALSO TO FINALLY BE DONE WITH IT!
Do I recommend this book series to everyone?? — IDK, read at your own risk.
How would you rate this book?? — I rated it 3 out of five stars on goodreads right away after reading this book but I would changed it to 2.8 out of five stars after writing this book review.
2.8/5 stars
-thereadingdove
🌿 thereadingdove 