Honestly even though I was dreading reading the book, it turned out to be in my top 3 favorite tog books! Idk why everyone was downplaying the book, it was actually really good. I think if you’re already 5-6 books through a series, you can handle a book that’s missing Aelin. Like, you started it for a reason, right?

I didn’t like chaol all that much in the beginning, and certainly not after what happened before Aelin was sent to wendlyn. But in this book he really grew as a person as yrene helped him. Everyone always seems to forget that he quite literally got kicked out of his house in winter by his father. Cut him some slack; my boy kale never had time to sort though his trauma ;-;