Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Tower of Dawn

A four star? To a Throne of Glass book? From me? Yeah, I didn't see this one coming either. Truly, I still can't fully believe it, but I thouroughly enjoyed this book. I guess they'll just never make me hate Chaol, no matter how much of the fandom might do. No, my enjoyment of this book has nothing to do with the fact that I love Chaol. Well, it's not just that. I truly think this book and Empire of Storms are the best books from this series (so far) and which one you'll like more depends on your prefferences.
This isn't as action packed as Empire of Storms. It's pretty slowly paced. Most of it is spend healing Chaol, getting to know this different part of the world, and most importantly learning more about the Valg. We also got introduced to a brand new cast of characters with only Nesryn and Chaol returning from our old cast within this book. It did get some getting used to at the start of this one, but I still had a blast reading this book.
My biggest compliment for this book is that it didn't feel like its size to me. Like, this is a pretty long book, and considering not a whole lot happened this just flew by. It was an incredibly compelling read, and I did not want to stop reading. I thought the new land we were in was really interesting. I also loved the healing scenes. I mean, it was full of ableism, but when it comes to the magic and how the healing magic works I do think it was really interesting. Nesryn's storyline was also incredibly interesting in this book. We learned a whole lot about the Valg and their history as well, and I loved those parts as well. That came with some crazy reveals as well, so I can't wait to see it all play out in Kingdom of Ash.
The new cast of characters were great. I didn't care for all of the royals, but the characters that really took center stage this book I quite liked. As I mentioned before I have never hated Chaol, like most people, so I also loved that we focussed quite a bit on him in this book. Yrene was easily the best character of this book. She was just absolutely incredible. With new characters also come new romances, and I also really liked those. One of them is probably my favourite from the series as well. I won't tell you which one to keep you from getting spoiled but if you've read this book you can probably tell from this review as well. So yeah, not a perfect installement, but easily my favourite and I truly can't wait to get into the final book now.

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merrow's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

An almost relaxing turn in the midst of this series, but still maintaining the mystery and global stakes. The book feels generally hopeful and introduces a new part of the world well, and is only let down by the characters’ very occasional childish behaviour.

Yrene is a very engaging character, and Chaol and Nesryn both grow to find their places in the series. Very interesting revelations and the setting contrasts very well with the northern continent.

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oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

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

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I did the tandem read of this book and EoS and I’m very glad I did! As a non-Chaol lover, this story

was a nice comeback/character development arc for him.

I think I would have likely been frustrated and bored had I read this after EoS, so my more favorable review is likely due to my choice to tandem read. I feel like we already had plenty of characters and plot lines to keep track of, so I’m not sure we needed all these new characters (keeping all the siblings straight made my head spin at times) but I nonetheless enjoyed the depth and intrigue they bring to the story once they’re there. I am on the fence about Chaol’s

redemption arc

but loved the addition of Yrene and learning more about the healers. It was another compelling piece of the puzzle leading up to the culmination of the story in Kingdom of Ash.

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