This review was originally posted on my blog, Sav Scribbles. 
 HOW DO I EVEN START. 
 Lots of laughing. Lots of shoving my fist into my mouth to stop from screaming out loud. Lots of crying. AAAAAAAA. 
 I seriously will never have enough words to describe the range of emotions ACOL forced me to feel. 
 [strangled noises] okay, let's try to start. 
 C H A R A C T E R S 
 Kell. Oh, my. OHHHHHH, MY. All the love!!!!!!!! To think, I didn't even really care for Kell in ADSOM. I feel all the feels for him now. I feel ALL OF THEM. <3333333 
 Lila. WHAT A WOMAN. She is who I want to be when I grow up. also, #CONFIRMED ANTARI. WHAT A LEGEND. She is alllllways in my heart. 
 Alucard. My WONDERFUL sassy guy. I'm so sad that he lost his emerald, but like THE SCENE WHERE HE SHOWS RHY WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE DISAPPEARED. SCREAMING. 
 Rhy. MY BABY. I relate to being dead inside. (Okay, but not really, obviously Rhy's got it worse. MY POOR BABY.) I'm so happy he's king, but not happy how it got that way. I just want him to lead a happy life, and apparently that wasn't too much to ask! 
 Holland. HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. I can't get over it. He is... wow. I heard that everyone didn't hate him after reading this book, but I expected that I wouldn't be that way. BOY, WAS I WRONG. I forgive him for basically everything. (Not Barron.) 
 Hastra. Okay, he wasn't a main character, but IT STILL HURTS. A LOT. 
 P L O T 
 Okay, I could not have seen anything in this book coming even if I looked into a scrying bowl. ;) I'm just shook from head to toe. I wish I could remember certain plot points & events to discuss intelligently, but instead, you're going to get a numbered list of random thoughts! 
 1. WHEN LILA BASICALLY SAID KELL WAS HER SAFE. LIKE, SHE'S SAFE WHEN SHE'S WITH HIM. AOBGNLDZLSRNA. 
 2. "Love and loss," he said, "are like a ship and the sea. They rise together. The more we love, the more we have to lose. But the only way to avoid loss is to avoid love. And what a sad world that would be." TIEREN OVER HERE SERVING THE TRUTH. 
 3. A N O S H E 
 4. s t i l l not over the fact that kell and lila are canon 
 5. when Rhy went to face Osaron and came out of it alive ([cough] "alive" [cough]) EVEN THOUGH HE HAS NO MAGIC. my STRONG CHILD. 
 6. when Cora (or whatever the heck she's called) tried to kill the king??? excuse me??? nah 
 7. RHY TOOK THE SWORD FOR HIS MOM (he knew he would live but STILL) AND DESPITE ALL HIS EFFORTS, HIS MOM STILL DIED. IM FURIOUS 
 8. HASTRA DIDN'T DESERVE THAT 
 9. AND A PRINCE BELONGS WITH HIS KING (or something like that) MAKES ME CRY EBAOERNOSDN 
 10. did Schwab lowkey call Leigh Bardugo out with that one thing about how some people compare love to an arrow??? I'm ready 
 11. ALL THE BANTS. I want to highlight every single scene with banter (and the tense scenes that involved Lila too, because they made me laugh for some reason) and read them all when I'm sad because they ALWAYS made me cackle like a madwoman. 
 12. WE DON'T CHOOSE WHAT WE ARE, BUT WE CHOOSE WHAT WE DO. Lila spilling the TRUTH. 
 13. wHEN HASTRA DRUGGED LILA AND THEN KELL WAS LIKE "you gon die lol" 
 14. "'Amazing,' [Holland] said dryly. 'There are still things you haven't learned.'" ABDFASBDAN CALL HIM OUT 
 I will never be over this book or this series. It will always hold a place in my heart, and I hope to reread it someday when I'm older so I can appreciate it more than I already do. 
 Anoshe.