So my bestie recommend that I read this prequel book following Heir of Fire and as I now begin Queen of Shadows I can absolutely see why that was the perfect point in the series to read it.

It didn’t wow me as much as the main series but this book finally dives into Celaena’s past. (Sorry yes I’m still calling her Celaena at this point) Detailing her complex relationship with Arobynn and why she hates him so much. As well as, of course, her close relationship with Sam, which gets mentioned but never truly described throughout the first few books. Now we get to see why she prefers not to tell his story.

I really liked the structure of having mini individual stories that connect to form the overall book. I’m a big fan of short story collections, such as those in the Witcher series, because they’re able to tell more unique experiences that quickly reach a final outcome. For example Celaena’s time in the Red Desert allowed us to explore a whole new environment, a new form of training and a new friendship with Ansel (a really likeable character). This short story was also probably my favourite because of the shock twist at the end, I’m not sure anyone would have seen it coming, but there’s no need for me to spoil that here.

Aight now let’s move on to Sam. I’m not really sure what I was expecting Celaena and Sams story to be, but in all honesty their relationship didn’t blow me away as much as I thought it would. Their connection was fine and it had its cute moments, but overall it felt too similar to Chaol and Rowans. It’s yet another guy that she started off disliking and then ended up falling in love with out of nowhere. Sure he was the first, and it felt meaningful because they wanted to run away and build a life together but the switch from not liking to liking was pretty quick. Especially compared to the detail of how her relationship with Chaol had developed in the first and second books. I felt it also diminishes the connection that she later builds with Chaol because now it turns out she pretty much already had the same thing before. Maybe I would have preferred if the author took a different approach and made Sam a chubby, really great brother like friendzoned guy that she loved dearly like family. Rather than just ANOTHER love interest.

Also it’s a shame that all along we obviously knew it wouldn’t end well, so what happens at the end doesn’t come as a huge surprise. In fact I was probably expecting an even worse/traumatic outcome. But nonetheless it was cool for it to take us back to Endovier, where the series began, to see what it was like for Celaena to enter that hell while already completely broken and hopeless.

As mentioned earlier, while writing this review I have already begun Queen of Shadows and it is clear to see how important this book is in relation to it. The events that happen within this book have already been mentioned numerous times, plus it’s now much clearer as to why Celaena despises Arobynn so deeply.