I think I might be a bit of a black sheep when it comes to this series - I hear everyone raving about how amazingly wonderful the Throne of Glass books are on a regular basis. And while I enjoyed the first one, it was only an average read for me. I was interested in reading the rest of the story but not in a huge hurry to do so. I finally got around to picking up Crown of Midnight, mostly because I heard it was better than ToG (and the cover change was so, so beautiful). After finishing it, I have to agree - CoM did keep me a lot more engrossed than its predecessor did. I still don't think it's the greatest thing I've ever read, but I'm excited for Heir of Fire. 
 Part of the reason I'm not as into it as other people is probably due to the fact that I didn't always like Celaena. And that's really weird because normally I'm completely on board with tough female protagonists. But she had this extreme sense of arrogance that constantly grated on my nerves. Yes, I realize she's really good at her assassin job, but I don't need to hear it every other page. She just really bothers me at times. I appreciated her moments of humanity in this book, when she got upset or really sad. It humanized her a little. Otherwise she's this awesome, almost god-like person all the time who's impossible to feel emotionally connected to. I don't hate her or anything, but I don't really like her, either. I know that some people complain that she doesn't do enough assassinating, but I didn't blame her for being selective of who she killed - if anything, it made me respect her. Besides, it's not like she shies away from it when it really counts. 
 I feel like the love triangle was dealt with, and it was a major relief that it ended this early on the series (of course, I could be speaking too soon). I was Team Chaol in TOG, and that never wavered while I read this. He's still a really honorable, decent man. He worries over Celeana and just genuinely cares for her. I enjoyed the forbidden feeling to their romance, and the slow progression of their relationship. I was practically screaming internally for them to kiss in the middle of the book. I sincerely hope they are endgame, because together they just work (Celeana is much more tolerable around him). (view spoiler)[The part where she tried to kill him and their ongoing fight after that kind of broke my heart. It was definitely the most emotional part of the book for me. (hide spoiler)] 
 I didn't much like Dorian as a love interest in TOG, and I still didn't. He spends a considerable amount of time just moping about Celeana and being uninteresting in general. However, in the second half of the story he actually begins to stand up to his father a little and deals with a really pressing problem. So I was happy with that much character development. I liked the side characters - Baba Yellowlegs in particular genuinely gave me the creeps, and I hate the King of Ardalan with a fierce passion. Nehemia also grew on me a lot more than the first book, and I thought Archer was pretty complex as well. 
 The writing is still really good, and I love the world. You can tell that Maas put a lot of thought into it because it just feels real. It can be hard (what with all the fantasy books out there) to create a land that's memorable and remarkable, but these books have it. I also feel that CoM had a much stronger plot. In ToG, one of my main complaints was that the foreshadowing was way too in-your-face, but it's not the case here. There are no unnecessary POVs, and there's a definite sense of mystery throughout. The climax in particular was thrilling, and I loved learning about the Wyrd keys. I still feel like my love for this series doesn't quite match everyone else's but hopefully I'll get to the third one pretty soon. 
 4 stars