Crown of Midnight

The Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas, 2013 Bloomsbury

      After several months acting as King's Assassin and running the king's errands Celaena Sardothien finds it necessary to step up her game. With murder after murder Celaena becomes more detached and her friends become concerned as the Celaena they've known disappears and the heartless creature which is Ardalan's Assassin.
     Celaena cannot stand her friends discovering the dangerous path she treads. She offers each assigned target the option to flee and become another person, never use their real name again, or die at the hands of Ardalan's Assassin. She hasn't killed a single target; while the king believes she does his bidding he maintains her secrets and discovers a few belonging to her captor.
   The ancient Queen Elena's ghost appears to Celaena, but she hasn't appeared since the creature attacked Celaena in Throne of Glass. When a cloaked creature appears in the castle near the library Celaena seeks the queen's wisdom, but discovers - from the talking doorknocker, Mort - Elena is weakened from her prior appearances. Between assignments Celaena is surrounded by the Wyrd and finally asks Nehemia to teach her to read Wyrdmarks.
     The two begin, but the king assigns Celaena to kill a prominent courtesan and childhood companion: Archer Finn. Archer is highly recognizable and in the capital surrounding the Glass Castle - Celaena's prior tactics will not work to convince the king of his death. Celaena cancels her lessons to work the problem. Believing her friend will murder the young man against her own will, an argument between the two creates a rift in their friendship. When Nehemia is brutally murdered in her rooms Celaena retreats into Ardalan's Assassin and seeks vengeance.
     Choal and Prince Dorian are worried for their friend. Dorian still hopes to tie Celaena to him romantically, but she cannot allow the king to believe his heir may betray him. Chaol does form a romantic connection with elaena, one she allows until the betrayal of Nehemia's death. The two men have concerns in other arenas when Dorian's cousin appears and suddenly is thick as thieves with the king and his chief advisor Duke Perrington.
     The rebel threat becomes more prominent throughout the novel, Celaena does not want to associate with it, but her actions aid the group. Archer becomes a figurehead from the King's perspective and becomes the target of his paranoia. Celaena must muddle through any clues she can gather and the information hidden from her to escape the all-powerful Wyrd.
     Celaena must choose to lose the self which keeps her from sinking into the Assassin and embrace the role, or to grasp the self which keeps her from becoming the monster she believes herself to be and continue to fight the forces at war within Ardalan. With Choal and Dorian to stand behind her Celaena must discover what gives the king his inhuman control over all around him. She must figure out how to make a stand. Celaena's story is still one of survival, one mature readers will enjoy.