Kingdom of Ash
Kingdom of tears, heartache, and badassery. I honestly feel lucky to have read such a masterpiece. SJM is a creative genius and I’m in awe that she created such amazing characters. At 986 pages, this is the longest book I’ve ever read and I still wanted more, particularly a novella of Manon and Dorian!
This was everything season 8 of Game of Thrones should’ve been.
In this book we again saw Lysandra be the real MVP. She not only was brave enough to impersonate Aelin to give hope to Terrasen and lead the war until Aelin could actually get there, she went into high stakes political meetings and held her own against some real assholes. AND she did a lot of damage on the battlefield as many different animals and zero combat training. I’m so happy Lysandra got a happy ending because she put in the WORK! I was so happy she and Aedion worked everything out and have a happy little family with Evangeline!
There are so many POVs in this book and while I could see it being exhausting for some readers, I really enjoyed that aspect as it felt very reminiscent of Game of Thrones. I will say though that some POVs were definitely more interesting than others for me. I have to admit that the Dorian and Manon POV was my favorite. I loved those chapters and got excited every time it shifted focus to them. I loved the development for both of them. They both still have rough edges but they have compassion for the people they love and don’t have many boundaries when it comes to helping them. I also loved their romantic relationship. Lots of people were unhappy with their open ended ending and no update on them in the epilogue (I do wish we got an update), I feel good about their open ending as it reminds me a lot of the beginning of Aelin’s romances with Sam and Rowan which turned out to be major loves in her life. In both relationships they had time apart while they traveled and came back together. Manon had also just suffered a major loss and both she and Dorian had work left to do as leaders to their respective people. I really felt like they’ll have a long distance sort of relationship for a while until they decide to settle down. It would not have felt right for Manon and Dorian to get married. Neither of them are conventional people and are drawn to each other because of it. I could see them having children and both settling in Adarlan with Manon travelling every so often to do her witchy things but ultimately see them in a stable relationship. I can’t see Dorian with any other woman after falling for Manon. There is also the fact that Dorian is human so their relationship already has that obstacle built in. Manon can spend time with Dorian and fully focus on her witch stuff again after his lifetime. All that to say, I don’t see either of them being happy in a conventional relationship anyways so I was happy with their ending.
It was hard to read the chapters where Aelin was tortured. Cairn basically did to her what Farran did to Sam daily but would heal her and do it over again. I would get claustrophobic in the times that she was trapped in the iron coffin with the iron mask on. My heart broke when she finally escaped, and she was panicking to get the mask off her and no one was able to do it for a while. I felt her panic.
Elide and Lorcan’s story was another favorite for me. The scene where she saves him from the battlefield on Farasha with time ticking on the dam breaking was SO stressful and amazing! Aelin coming through with her fire power was so cool and I was so relieved when Elide and Lorcan made it to safety and admitted their feelings to each other. I also loved seeing the soft side of Lorcan! He was a such a grumpy asshole when we first meet him but he is so gentle and sweet with Elide and I just loved it.
The whole book felt so epic and while there were stressful parts, it was always so worth it. I was so relieved when Fenrys was able to break the blood oath and Aelin FINALLY got to escape and be reunited with Rowan. It also took FOREVER for everyone to be reunited at the end, after Lysandra and Aedion were just taking L after L the whole book. I get why Aedion was so mad at Lysrandra, but he was also such a douche to her. Lysandra dealt with the wrost of men for her whole life and then to get treated as poorly as she did by Aedion was hard for me to let go of. I was glad they worked things out but part of me wanted her to just be with Ren, someone who was good to her the whole time. You can be mad at someone without calling them a bitch or throwing them to the snow, Aedion!!
I was happy that Dorian and Aelin went into the gate together and stoked they got to live! I was stressed thinking Dorian might have to die but was really happy it worked out.
I am in awe of SJM and her creative mind for making this incredible story that will surely give me a mega book hangover because there’s nothing like it.
