Blog post: http://sonichreads.tumblr.com/post/16... 
 Review: I picked this book purely and solely because of Chaol, because I still had hopes in his character. Yet I wasn't excited to read about him as I did in the first three books since Sarah J. Maas destroyed his character... for the sake of Aelin and Rowan being 'mates'. Even having the whole book of Chaol, at this point now, I think Chaol is irredeemable. After destroying him in Queen of Shadows, Sarah J. Maas managed to get him another whole book, which some parts to me were boring. 
 Since Chaol's time in Queen of Shadows was not pleasant and he could not walk anymore, he had to seek help from a healer in a foreign country. The story started in a Antica where everything was new. 
 What's great about it is that this book isn't just about Chaol, it's about the process of healing and what he suffered through. Now I can't say how great of a representation of disability that SJM just demonstrated, but I knew that disability isn't just a physical trauma that you go through; it also effects the state of mind and mental health of the victim. And that was what I got in this book: Chaol in his process of healing and his suffering through it. 
 What I also appreciated was the entire book had the diversity of casts because yeah, it's a foreign country. I liked that. I liked this book had less sex that SJM normally shoves in her readers' faces. Like A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Wings and Ruin and Empire of Storms. Yuck. 
 For someone who's not a fan of Throne of Glass anymore, I wasn't interested in reading from Nesryn's perspective. Since Chaol's perspective was only about healing and disability, I needed Nesryn's to start out strong and it was not so by all means, I was bored. I didn't care about anything afterwards and her perspective wasn't helping. It was really really dull. To be quiet honest, I enjoyed Chaol's point of view a lot more than hers and it's not even because he's my beloved or that I'm biased. On the one hand, she stumbled across a few surprises with this new prince that could help the war. On the other hand, it wasn't much of a hit in the face. 
 Just when I thought this book hadn't had a lot of sex scenes or that I enjoyed Chaol's point of view, I really disliked SJM's sex scenes. I cringed and felt that it was just gross. What also made it bad was that whenever her characters had sex, they just all turn into one. Literally one. They beg for their love interest to 'touch' them. Chaol was pretty much Rowan and Rhysand in that scene, dare I say. 
 Furthermore, I've never really enjoyed SJM's writing anymore. For plot this little, the book shouldn't have been 700 pages, in my opinion. I was so tired of reading/hearing words like 'manhood' so cringe cringe cringe. 
 Overall: I liked aspects of this book, but I wasn't positive towards it. I will finish this series and Catwoman, although anything more from SJM, I would reconsider a few times before purchasing.