Title: Tower of Dawn
Author: Sarah J Maas
Publisher/Year:  Bloomsbury USA 9/5/17
Length:   586 Pages
Series:  Throne of Glass #6

Overview

In the next installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, follow Chaol on his sweeping journey to a distant empire.

Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.

His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica–the stronghold of the southern continent’s mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.

But what they discover in Antica will change them both–and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

My Thoughts

OMG – if you thought were the story went from the end of Book 5, when mysterious folks re-emerged, wars were fought, Aelin was taken prisoner again by Maeve was enough, well you’re wrong.  There’s still so much more to this story, and we’re now getting to see what it’s like outside of the direct battle that we’ve been in.

So we remember that Chaol’s spine was broken when Dorian’s father tried to kill him, and he and Nesryn are headed to the Torre in the hopes of finding a healer who is powerful enough to fix more of what’s wrong that Rowan wasn’t able to fix already.  The great thing here is that we know of a girl from one of the novellas that we met as Aelin was on her way to the Red Desert who had an ability to heal who she helped get to the Torre.  So it’s this girl – Yrene who we also find front and center.

This story is a really great extension off the main story since it’s happening parallel path  – but in a part of the world that’s untouched by what’s going on in the North, and is comprised of possibly the strongest kingdom or empire in the world.  So Chaol and Nesryn are there in the hopes of healing him so he can walk again, as well as getting them to side with Aelin and Dorian in the hopes that they can build an army that can take on Morath.

What’s so amazing about this story is that we are introduced to another royal family that really shows us another way of living during this time that we have.  There’s a family that seems to be untouched by the evil in the world (or are they) and while they don’t have to deal with that directly, they have their own family struggles in the sense of who will take over as heir when their father passes.

We see some new relationships build here and they really do help keep the story moving.  Chaol and Nesryn come to the Khagan together – sort of in a relationship, but there’s a really odd chemistry between them since she knows that she was never the first choice.  Then there’s Yrene and Chaol.  She hates all that he is because it was the kind of Adarlan who killed her parents, and so she therefore hates him.  it’s quite the fight that she puts up both against healing him, and against her feelings for him.  which we see grow in an odd sort of way.

Then there are the royals – kashin who has feelings for Yrene that aren’t reciprocated.  Hasar who’s close friends with Yrene and has a power/manipulation thing going.  Arghun, the eldest brother who’s tough.  Duva who is married and pregnant.  Tumulun whom we learned died (or was murdered) just before arriving in the empire.  and Sartaq.  He’s the one to watch because we see that he’s possibly the most open to listening to what they have ot say about the need for an army and how it will help them in the future.  Then there’s the way that he interacts with Nesryn – especially since her family hails from their kingdom.

When secrets come out to what’s going on truly with the Valg, and how they perhaps originated in the world – where they came and what’s being hidden from them – we start to learn things that we should have seen throughout the series but maybe just didn’t have enough of the story to know.  I know that for myself-  it’s all obvious now, and i think that we are going to go to a really dynamic place in book 7 – once that makes it certain that there’s no way that all of our favorites will survive – but that we hope for strength and love to prevail.

So all in all – i’m thrilled beyond belief again with this story and how it continues to be written by our author – i still don’t know how she does it but i’m thrilled that she does.  It looks like book 7 will pick up with where Aelin is locked up by Maeve and we can only hope that Rowan or someone will come to her rescue before it’s too late.  we have to wait now until 2018 though…..such a long long wait.  Enjoy!