my thoughts on the TOG tandem read

I have been reading an insane amount of books for my summer teaching job but haven't been writing reviews for every single one of them. The way I see it, I'm mainly writing reviews here for the books I chose to read -- for pleasure, yes, but also because I always have my own writing in mind when choosing the books I want to read. That being said, this review is for two books, but a little shorter than a normal review because I mainly want to talk about my experience reading them at the same time for something the Throne of Glass fandom calls "the tandem read." I also don't entirely trust myself to not mix up the series of events that happen in one book with another. Okay -- so reading these at the same time is something I definitely recommend for those already reading this series or debating starting (if you're still debating, just do it. C'mon.). I recommend it as a Chaol tolerator especially because you get to read Chaol and Yrene's slightly slower storyline (with a 10/10 storyline for Nesryn and some of the khaganate royal family) alongside the more upbeat plot of Empire of Storms. The original characters of the series, accompanied by some old faces (courtesy of The Assassin's Blade!), make for a more action-packed, fast paced story (the water dragon scene with Lysandra is beyond epic), but I liked having Tower of Dawn's balance with heavy emphasis on certain character development and healing. I even grew warmer to Chaol by the end of it all, and he really bugged me during Queen of Shadows. The emotional payoff of seeing the Yrene of The Assassin's Blade become the Yrene of Tower of Dawn was so so satisfying as well. I also see how reading these two books that take place over the same amount of time on different continents makes sense for the packed punch of some plot twists and big reveals. Specifically Maeve's origin story, why the kharankui are more important to the grand scheme of things than originally thought, and the price that must be paid for the world to be saved in the culminating installment, Kingdom of Ash. I'm only about 100 pages into Kingdom of Ash right now but I know no amount of emotional preparation will be enough, at least according to many people who've warned me. With all that being said, I once again recommend the tandem read and might be sobbing over Kingdom of Ash in a corner soon, we'll see!



Some of my favorite quotes from Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn:

"Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will always love you." (EoS)

"It is not such a hard thing, is it - to die for your friends." (EoS)

"The fear of loss . . . it can destroy you as much as the loss itself." (EoS)

"You know, you ladies can let us males do things every now and then." (EoS)

"He’d almost told the princess that she could keep Hellas’s Horse, but there was something to be said about the prospect of charging down Morath foot soldiers atop a horse named Butterfly." (ToD)

"'I loved you before I ever set eyes on you,' he said." (ToD)

"This was not the end. This crack in him, this bottom, was not the end." (ToD)

"He supposed he'd learned that strength could be hidden beneath the most unlikely faces." (ToD)

"She would have an adventure. For herself. This one time. She would see her homeland, and smell it and breathe it in. See it from high above, see it racing as fast as the wind. She owed herself that much." (ToD) (I <3 Nesryn)

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