Book: Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Mass (#7 in TOG series)

"Here, with her, he was home."

"I loved you before I even set eyes on you."

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary (Including Spoilers)

Nesryn and Chaol travel to another kingdom with the intention on finding a healer for Chaol's spine and also to try to convince the king to join Aelin and Dorian in the war against Erawan and Maeve.

Chaol is appointed a healer, Yrene, as she has healed spinal injuries before and she is also one of the best healers, however, Yrene is not too keen on helping Chaol because of his position as King Adarlan;s, Captian of the Gaurd.
King Adarlan sent soldiers to burn down her home when she was younger because her mother was a healer. The fire killed her mother and Yrene has been on her own from a very young age until she made her way to Torre Cesme. 

Regardless of her past, Yrene helps Chaol, which leads her to finding out some of Chaol's darkest secrets and as a result, Chaol and Yrene fall in love with one another. 

Nesryn and one of the princes - Sartaq - fall in love. Their little story is very cute - though I should admit that I did skip through most of it as I just wanted to finish this book and get back to Rowaelin. 

During all of this, Yrene is being hunted by valg demons. We find later that its because Yrene can cure someone that has been possessed by a valg demon and that she is a very powerful healer and that the other healers can make a significant difference in the war with Maeve and Erawan.

We also find out that Maeve is actually the Queen of the Valg and she's just a lot more evil than we originally thought all because of a broken heart (or smthin. I don't remember those details)

We end Tower of Dawn with Yrene tethering her life to Chaol's. Which basically means that if he dies so does she and vise versa (Freysand I'm looking at you). Chaol won't be fully healed but he will be able to walk with a cane - however - whenever Yrene's magic deteriorates so will Chaols spine.

Chaol, Yrene, Nesryn, Sartaq,100 healers and an army of flying ruks leave on ships - headed to Terresan to help Aelin and the gang. (Good work Chaol) 

ALSO - Chaol finds out that Celaena was the one to save Yrene a while back. CHAOL AND YRENE ARE MARRIED AND A SMOL BABY IS ON THE WAY!!!!

This is me ranting:)

Yrene IS BACK !!!!! I LOVED Yrene in the Assassins Blade! I wanted to see more of her because I enjoyed her so much! I adore her character and how soft yet strong and how kind yet fierce she is. She can be vulnerable but she can do it in such a way where one won't feel sorry for her. I absolutely love her as a character and I am so excited to have read an entire story about her.  

ALSO

Can we please talk about how Yrene is not only there just as a love interest for Chaol??? But she's there because of who she is as a person and how her learning how to heal others has in a way healed herself. I also love that she's the most TALENTED healer!!! Love that for her!

AlSOOO she FOLLOWED AELIN'S INSTRUCTIONS AND SHES TEACHING THE OTHER HEALERS WHAT SHE LEARNED AND WHAT AELIN TAUGHT HER !! HOW amazing is that ?!???! 

"Aelin fights everyone. But not him. I think that's why she fell in love with him, against her best intentions. Rowan beheld all that Aelin was and is and was not afraid."

"She had come to Rowan soul - limping. She had come to him as she was, as she had never been with anyone. And she returned whole."

The fact that Chaol mentions this shows that he finally saw how broken Aelin was before Rowan showed her love and kindness and ACCEPTED HER FOR WHO SHE WAS. And this allowed her to finally accept herself and fall in love with herself. Rowan didn't do anything other than show Aelin exactly who she was through his eyes.

I feel like by Chaol seeing and saying all of this - he realizes what went wrong with their relationship and why they ultimately didn't work out in the end. The problem with them wasn't necessarily him NOR was it her. It was that they -  individually - were dealing with so much heartbreak and pain and even though they sought comfort in one another for a short period of time - they would have never have worked out. Two broken people can't heal one another. 

Healing comes from inside. You have to have the courage to do it and brave the storms by yourself. But I feel like it helps to have someone who loves you - ALL OF YOU - regardless of how much pain you're in. How broken you are. How sad and angry and frustrated you may be. It helps to have someone that loves you regardless of all of that and still sees YOU. And we see this with Rowan and Aelin AND with Rhysand and Feyre. 

Anyways...

I feel like I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I didn't read it in-between Empire of Storms and Kingdom of Ash. Because In EoS we were left with my bby Aelin being TORTURED by Maeve and Rowan SCERAMING AND CRYING ABOUT THE LOSS OF HIS WIFE / MATE ???

Likeeeee excuseee meee they're one of my favorite couples. I CANNOT see my babies tortured in this way :(

....onto the next one...