Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas – Review

Title: Tower of Dawn

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.
His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica–the stronghold of the southern continent’s mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.
But what they discover in Antica will change them both–and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

Rating: 4/5 stars

This review contains major spoilers.

Hey readers, here we are with our monthly appointment to talk about the seventh book of my 2023 reading challenge! Even this time, Maas knew how to keep me hooked to the story, even though I had some initial difficulties. But let’s talk about it better.
First thing first, I’d like to say that it was interesting to focus the entire story around Chaol and his injury. I was very curious about his POV and it didn’t disappoint. I’m very pleased I got to know him more and better, I really like his character and I think Maas did a great job. In my opinion, since Chaol and Aelin are the two characters that we are able to see completely, they feel so real and human like no other.
And it was so nice to see Yrene back in the game again. I really liked her novella and I’m very glad I finally had the chance to fully meet her and discover her past life. I like her and I can see why she is the perfect fit for Chaol. I was so entertained by the interactions and fights between Chaol and Yrene, but mostly I adored to witness their love blossom. I was ready for them being a couple since their first meeting. And every time Yrene mentioned the scrap of paper that was given to her by Celaena, my heart dropped. I was ready to throw the book if the author wasn’t going to make at least Chaol realise that it was Celaena the one Yrene met all those years ago, but I’m glad this happened in the end (even though Maas decided to wait until the last chapter).
The main problem I had while reading this book was the pace of the first part. Usually, the author is very good in taking her time to prepare the ground for what is about to happen in the next pages, but this time I think Maas took too much time. The first part was too slow for my taste and the various moments of action and pathos were few and small. The second part was, luckily, faster and enjoyable and I was so happy about that. To be honest I think that another reason why I felt the book going so slow was the same one that occurred when I read Heir of Fire: the drastic change of location and the new cast of characters that we meet in the first pages. I had some difficulties in understanding who was who and this got me a bit frustrated, but that’s totally on my side because I’m slow in remembering things.
Anyway, apart from that, I enjoyed reading even this book of the series and now I can’t literally wait to see how everything will wrap up. I can’t believe I’m about to start Kingdom of Ash, it seems yesterday I started reading this series. I’m not ready to say goodbye to all those characters, but mostly I’m not ready to face the hugeness of that novel.

So, these were my opinions about Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Mass, hope you liked reading about them. If you would like to let me know your own thoughts about this book or what I said in this review, just leave them in a comment down below. Thanks for reading!