Book Title: Tower of Dawn
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 660
Started/Ended Date: February 13 – February 21
Total Reading Time: 13 hours 1 minute

Chaol Westfall and Nesryn Faliq have arrived in the shining city of Antica to forge an alliance with the Khagan of the Southern Continent, whose vast armies are Erilea’s last hope. But they have also come to Antica for another purpose: to seek healing at the famed Torre Cesme for the wounds Chaol received in Rifthold.

After enduring unspeakable horrors as a child, Yrene Towers has no desire to help the young lord from Adarlan, let alone heal him. Yet she has sworn an oath to assist those in need—and will honor it. But Lord Westfall carries shadows from his own past, and Yrene soon comes to realize they could engulf them both.

In this sweeping parallel novel to the New York Times bestselling Empire of Storms, Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene will have to draw on every scrap of their resilience if they wish to save their friends. But while they become entangled in the political webs of the khaganate, deep in the shadows of mighty mountains where warriors soar on legendary ruks, long-awaited answers slumber. Answers that might offer their world a chance at survival—or doom them all . . .

I have been working on Throne of Glass for years now at this point. Not due to lack of interest – I loved this series. There were a series of unfortunate events that stalled me from finishing any book and sent me into a reading slump. I was especially procrastinating Tower of Dawn due to the fact that it was focused on Chaol, and I didn’t really like that guy. I contemplated skipping it to get back to Aelin’s timeline. Thank God I didn’t.

This book ended up being one of my favorites in the series. For one, I left actually giving a hoot about Chaol and him actually becoming one of my favorite characters. And I love how everything started coming together in this book. Things from past books where I thought, “Hmm. That could be important. Oh, we’re not focusing on it? Okay, I guess it’s not important,” came back around in Tower of Dawn. It kind of felt like a reward for paying attention earlier in the series. I am always amazed when I’m reading fantasy – not only do these characters and storylines come from someone’s brain, but this entire world would not exist if one person had not thought of it and written it down. But I am even more amazed by authors who can write fantasy series. I mean the planning that that entails! Like, she created a character in the third book who would not come back (and in a big way) until the seventh book. So for those three books in between, she just had a note somewhere saying “Don’t forget about Yrene”? Masterful.

What did you think of this book? Let me know in the comments!