Heir of Fire

Ugh. “Fae males” and “mates” are introduced in this entry in the series 🤢 — nothing sucks the wind from my sails and makes me want to DNF a book more than “mates” — but I powered through because at least in this book, the romance is not the main focus and those godawful terms were used sparingly.

Manon is still my favorite character and I would like nothing more than a book of just her. The King too — dude is just evil for evil's sake and I'm here for it. He even shrugs his shoulders at Chaol and his defiant speech about hope, and casually tells his men to just kill him.

Celaena is finally using some of her brain. She mopes and complains for the first half of the book, but some stuff happens that makes her sort through some traumas and develop as a person.

Rowan is your standard issue romantasy male love interest (tall, muscles for days, significantly older than her (he's 300, she's 19, totally cool and healthy), tan skin, scars/tattoos, lots of growling and snarling, unrepentant jerk until the FMC breaks through his shield and reveals the softy inside, etc, etc.) but since there isn't a romance (yet), it wasn't as annoying. He did help her come out of her stupor, so kudos where they're due. Oh and he does punch her in the face and tell her she'd be better off dead, so that's ✨romantic✨. To be fair, Celaena did say some reprehensible things. Real healthy relationship over here 🤷

Chaol, Aedion, and Dorian's escapades at the castle were few and far between, but very plot advancing. Interested to see what happens with these guys, especially after the ending.

This is my least favorite (so far), but as long as they don't devolve into ACOTAR style “my mate” romance books, this series will keep me intrigued.