If it weren't for that last quarter of the book, I would've given it a 3/5 stars, but nonetheless, 4/5 stars in the end. 
 For a good portion of the book, I wasn't as into it, maybe it's because I wasn't used to Celaena being without Chaol or Dorian or just not in the Rifthold. And then it took some getting used to the new characters. But in the end, I really did enjoy Manon, but really disliked Sorscha. Maybe it was just in the way she was introduced and how she was portrayed that I couldn't really sympathize with her. 
 But then there was Chaol and Dorian... Chaol was so wishy-washy throughout the whole book and maybe it was because there was already so much angst going on with Celaena too that it just made it too much (view spoiler)[ But I do understand why he would be so unwilling to pick a side because he gave up his life in Anielle for this kingdom. And to see all this shit going down due to this fucking king that he's served for years; that he's way worse than his own father? Fuck, I understand why his morals were being questioned. And I mean he grew up in Adarlan where the king fucking hates magic. He served under this king who hates magic and was raised hating magic. I understand where all his inner turmoil was about, but it kind of annoyed me how much we had to hear about it. If Maas had spent those pages focused on Dorian controlling his magic instead it would have been SO much better (hide spoiler)]. Then Dorian... he seemed so freaking pathetic. SO PATHETIC that he clung to the first thing that let him in. One thing I wished that Maas would've gone into more detail with was (view spoiler)[ how he learned how to control and hone his magic. All we got was he and Sorscha making tonics to suppress it. Not to control it. I wanted somewhat like Aelin's training. I wanted to see Dorian becoming more of his own than rather seeing it rushed at the ending. I couldn't see how Chaol saw him as a king in that moment. (hide spoiler)]. But the ending definitely made up for it. For both characters. 
 But Celaena/Aelin, Aedion and Rowan were the saving graces of this book. If it weren't for them, it would've been agony to go through this book.