Queen of Shadows

By: Sarah J. Maas

Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans

Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Goodreads Choice Award Winner, Best Young Adult Fantasy, 2015

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire - for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past.... She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight. She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

©2015 Sarah J. Maas (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Unexpectedly excellent

First off, I should point out that yes, this is book four of the series, and I've read none of the previous three. Also, there's a good bit of Grimdark about this, with everyone doing or having done awful things, and mostly willing to do more awful things. And at the end, we have a resolution to the story within this book, but no resolution of the larger issues, and much more bad stuff to come in future volumes.

So, really, at some point, I should have been overcome with the desire to throw it against the wall, except for two things. One, it's the audiobook. Two, I loved it.

Aelin Galathynius (guessing on the spelling of the last name), rightful heir to the throne of Terrasen (another spelling guess) has quietly returned to Rifthold, the capital of the bitter enemy who killed her family and conquered her kingdom. She wants revenge on the King of Adarlan, but he's not the only target of her vengeance. She was hardly more than a child when she fled her family's killers, and she's just nineteen now, but she's packed a lot into those years. She trained as an assassin under Rifthold's king of the assassin's guild, under the name Celaena Sardothien. Part Fae herself and possessing Fae fire magic, she traveled to the Fae lands and learned the use of her magic there--and made a valuable friend in Prince Rowan. She's back now to rescue her friend and cousin General Aedion and her friend Prince Dorian. She needs to know if Chaol Westphal, captain of the guard, is still a friend. She's been through horrors, she has done horros, and she has more to face and do before she can hope for anything vaguely resembling peace.

This is a dark and bloody story, but I like Aelin, Rowan, Aedion, Chaol and his second, Nesryn, and Aelin's old rival Lysandra. Along with the darkness and blood, Queen of Shadows has romance, male friendship, female friendship, and male-female friendship, all treated in adult, satisfying, compelling way. Because, as I mentioned, I've read none of the previous three books, there's a lot I was trying to pick up as the story went along, but Maas salted in enough background in unobtrusive ways that if I didn't always know exactly what was going on at first, I was picking up enough to enjoy continuing to listen.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Audible in exchange for an honest review.

Standard YA girl series, which I loved

I've noticed trends in a lot of the YA scifi books that I've read, particularly those with a strong female lead, and this one followed all of them. It has the usual love story/triangle, and the usual rise from the lower class, and a strong female protagonist - which to be clear, I always enjoy, AND, this book still managed to give you a plot line to love, even though you've kind of heard it all before.

This one brought me back, I had lost a little hope in the last book, but this book brought me back to loving the story, and I've already set alerts on my phone to remind me to check when the next book will be released.

SOOOO GOOOOD!!

I cannot explain how much this series keeps getting better and better. This book gave me something that I never knew I was waiting for HAPPINESS! the whole book is just intense and action packed. So much happens and so much that I expected to happen and not to expect happen. True bliss! Now I cannot wait another year....ugh. 😢

I didn't want it to end!

this book is everything and more that you've come to expect from this series. Seldom is the sequel better than the first book however this was the culmination of many different story lines and none of the main characters were compromised. I hope this is not the end and there is a follow up to come because while there was great wrap up there were also possibilities for another one if not two great stories to follow.

Best book yet in the Series! Wow!!!

Absolutely gripping! My heart skipped a few beats! I shed tears! I can't wait to get to the next one so that I can see my friends again! So many fantastically strong and unique characters! LOVED LOVED LOVED it!

Queen of Shadows

I'm very new to the book universe. The last time I've actually sat down and read an entire book was when The Fault In Our Stars by John Green was popular. My mom started reading TOG and she said I really should give this series at try and she had me read The Assassin's Blade first. That book had me instantly hooked. I started this series around the Middle/end of January, 2024 and I'm now on to the tandem read of The Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. Queen of Shadows is so far my favorite book out of the series. You learn sooo much important things about the world of TOG, but you also fall deeply in love with characters, while hopping everyone makes it out alive. Hand down you need to read this series. 1000/10

This story is amazing! If you want fun, listen.

Sarah J. Maas is a fantastic author. I love these books and love her other book, A Court of Thorns and Roses and can't wait until the rest of both series come out.

Elizabeth Evens voice is rich and so..... diverse! each character voice is distinctly different and most importantly consistent! It's always very easy to know which character is talking.

I highly recommend these and all her books to anyone looking to get lost in a world of magic, adventure, and a world of impossible things that are so detailed you'd think it should all be possible already.

what an amazing series of books

I can't get enough of these books! I'm always going that there will be more.

better and better

five stars for me is epic and life changing. don't be fooled by the four stars though. this was a really good book!

Best in series, so far - great book

This book shows just how much Maas' writing has evolved. The plot, dialogue, action, character arcs - all of these things are much better than the first book. Can't wait to read (listen to) the next one!