Reviews with content warning for Murder - Empire of Storms

Wow. I did the tandem read with Tower of Dawn and it was honestly such a long haul but also so enjoyable. The plot progression and the character growth throughout this book is so good. My one gripe would be that everyone is coupling up which feels a little obvious/contrived. I wish there was a little bit more variety in the relationship statuses. But I adore these characters and my heart broke at the end of this book 😭.

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emis_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book broke me. I absolutely love it.

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savage_book_review's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really wanted to try and do the tandem read with 'Tower of Dawn' via audiobook, but I don't have the patience to try and set up all of the bookmarks, nor have I figured out a way to make it work smoothly, so I'm reading then one at a time this go round... I'm interested to see what difference it makes to the flow of the overall narrative, at any rate! And nervous about having to now wait another 22+ hours before getting to the resolution of the climax of this book...

Despite the different story threads happening contemporaneously, they are woven together so well that it all still forms a cohesive narrative and it doesn't feel disjointed. Likewise, while I'm not sure that each thread receives equal page time, they are all well thought out and the whole thing feels very balanced.

The book serves a dual purpose - it absolutely moves the overall series plot along apace with a great story in itself, giving you a great mix of action, adventure, romance and jeopardy. But equally it's clearly another case of a book serving to move all of the players into the right places at the right times to make sure they're ready for the grand finale. You are rewarded with a lot of payoffs from earlier books in the series, and with the development of newer characters and so it is certainly not lacking in elements to pull you in and keep you reading, but there is a small part of me that keeps saying 'just get on with it already!'

There are a few moments that I found harder to follow via the audio, for example Elena's story and the events that laid the foundations for the current predicament. I get it, but it's not a particularly straightforward backstory (IMO) and, once again, because it takes so much longer to listen to than to read, it just didn't make as much sense. On the other hand, I think I spotted an error in the text that I would probably not have picked up on when reading the physical book. Although it's a throwaway comment, it contains quite a big spoiler for later in the book (although saying that, you're 100% expecting it by this point if you're familiar with the Maasverse).

On to 'Tower of Dawn'!

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scarlett_f's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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emce821's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Man this book really saved the series for me. I am working through the last of the tandem read now but this book in particular is SO much better than the last. So much is revealed but the plot is still so good. I can’t wait to see how it resolves in the final book next!

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miss_berry315's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Oh my gosh I think this is my favorite book in the series even with

it absolutely shattering my heart into a million pieces with the last few chapters

Not a boring chapter to be found in this book. I already want to reread it to relive everything. Wow.

*Read in tandem with Tower of Dawn, following online guides for chapter order. Would HIGHLY recommend doing so when reading.*

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merrow's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A very good and exciting book, that’s generally let down a bit by the ending. The characters are very engaging and the book does a good job of strongly connecting the reader to each.

Aelin’s level of planning was probably my main gripe with the body of the story - always either 10 steps ahead or 10 steps behind, sometimes in the space of two chapters. The end was just cruel and miserable however and significantly dulled my excitement for the final book.

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