The Procrastinators Book Club discussion

Welcome to the Empire of Storms & Tower of Dawn Buddy Read Discussion thread! This thread officially opens on February 7th and anyone can join at any time. Please keep in mind that spoilers are allowed in this thread but only up to the group's current reading place. Do not spoil the book if you've read further than the group. Any extra days can be used to catch up!

Each day we will be reading by chapters or page numbers. Page numbers are an approximation based on the hardcover or paperback that is the default on Goodreads. The suggested Buddy Read discussion schedule is as follows:

Week of 02/07
7th: EOS chapters 1-5
8th: TOD chapter 1 + EOS chapters 6-8 + TOD chapters 2-3 +EOS chapter 9
9th: EOS chapter 10 + TOD chapters 4-6 + EOS chapter 11

Week of 02/10
10th: TOD chapter 7 + EOS chapter 12-13 + TOD chapters 8-10 + EOS chapters 14-15
11th: EOS chapter 16 + TOD chapters 11-12 + EOS chapters 17-18 + TOD chapter 13
12th: TOD chapters 14-16 + EOS chapter 19 + TOD chapter 17 + EOS chapters 20-22
13th: EOS chapter 23 + TOD chapters 18-21 + EOS chapters 24-25
14th: TOD chapters 22-23 + EOS chapter 26 + TOD chapter 24 + EOS chapters 27-29 + TOD chapter 25
15th: TOD chapters 26-28 + EOS chapter 30 + TOD chapter 29
16th: TOD chapters 30-31 + EOS chapter 31 + TOD chapter 32 + EOS chapter 32 + TOD chapters 33-34

Week of 02/17
17th: TOD chapter 35 + EOS chapters 33-39
18th: EOS chapters 40-45
19th: EOS chapters 46- 51 + TOD chapters 36-37
20th: EOS chapter 52 + TOD chapters 38-40 + EOS chapter 53 + TOD chapters 41-42 + EOS chapters 54-55
21st: EOS chapter 56 + TOD chapter 43 + EOS chapters 57-59 + TOD chapter 44
22nd: TOD Chapters 45-48 + EOS chapters 60-61 + TOD chapters 49-51 + EOS chapters 62-63
23rd: TOD chapters 52-53 + EOS chapters 64-65 + TOD chapters 54-56 + EOS chapters 66-67 + TOD Chapter 57 + EOS chapter 68

Week of 02/24
24th: EOS chapters 69-end + TOD Chapter 58
25th: TOD chapters 59-end


PARTICIPANTS
~ Brianna
~ Sophie

putting this here for reference as well:

through end of chapter 5 of Empire of Storms:

I genuinely do not recall who Lorcan is - his name is super familiar but that's about all I got. He's a bad guy right? Maybe? And how does he have a wyrdkey? Oh yeahhhhhh - it's a fake!

Darrow - not a great guy. I understand anyone's reluctance since Aelin did disappear for so long but they really need to understand that it was do that and survive or die because they could not protect themselves just yet.

I wonder how Erawan survived if supposedly Elena and Gavin beat him? Or at least captured him so that would be different question of who then freed him?

through end of chapter 9 of Empire of Storms:

I'm pretty sure in chapter 8 in EOS that Rowan is implying that Aelin is his mate. I know he had a mate previously but maybe she wasn't a true mate or maybe it is possible (although rate) to have more than one across their lifetime?

I'm still unsure about what kind of relationship Nesryn and Chaol have. At points it feels romantic (or that they want it to be) and others just super good friends. It'll be interesting to see what plays out there.

I wonder what will happen with Lorcan and Elide. I am still not sure where his loyalties lay. I am also curious why these new creatures are hunting Elide. They said she was a thief and a murderer so I'm guessing they really want that stone back but why?

through end of chapter 11 of Empire of Storms:

specifically in chapter 4 of Tower of Dawn - Yrene Towers references a healer from Fenharrow and that is super familiar - is that the one that Dorian fell in love with? It's been a bit since I've been in this world and just have not done great of remembering some of the details so would not be surprised if I completely mis-remember! Ooh wait - is she one of the ones that Celaena helped back in Assassins' Blade? I remember Manon also mentioning going after a witch in Fenharrow so could they be the same? I am definitely fixating. lol

I swear if something actually happens to Asterin I'm going to lose it.

I'm gonna try and join this BR. I don't even remember when I started the series, but this is where I stopped with reading, hopefully this buddy read is going to make me read it and finish it.

EOS 1-5 chapters
After I updated the read pages, because I started reading this book in 2022 *mind blown*, I saw that this is pretty much how far I got then. I don't remember most of the things that happened in the previous books, but I'm not planning on rereading, I'm even feeling lazy to find a recap, or maybe just read your discussions on the previous books.

So since I'm not going to do any of the things, I have to ask who is Evangeline? The name doesn't spark anything.

TOD chapter 1
Another question recap... what happened to Chaol so that he's now in a wheel chair?

mina wrote: "I'm gonna try and join this BR. I don't even remember when I started the series, but this is where I stopped with reading, hopefully this buddy read is going to make me read it and finish it.

EOS..."

Welcome to the club Mina lol

Evangeline is the girl that Lysandra kind of adopted to prevent her from being roped into that world I believe.
Chaol got real bad hurt by Dorian's dad at the end of the book prior.

So sorry for being MIA, I've had a very unexpectedly busy February so far.

I'm up to the end of chapter 22 for Empire of storms and the end of chapter 17 for Tower of dawn, so I'll mark my thoughts as spoilers just incase.

(view spoiler)[ Right off the bat I'm going to say that I'm much preferring Empire of storms over Tower of dawn. Empire of storms is giving us Aelin & Co's story with them trying to rebuild a kingdom, Dorian popping up and probably my favourite plot line thus far, Elide & Lorcan. I'm LIVING for their scenes. They're such opposites and Elide kind of bossing Lorcan around is hilarious. We just left off at Fenrys & Gavriel arriving by orders of Queen Maeve to kill Lorcan though I think they're going to be unlikely to succeed. I'm really going to need to see an Aedion & Gavriel meet up soon, surely Rowan is going to tell Gavriel he has a son, I hope he cares for Aedions sake.

Tower of dawn, in my opinion, gets really really good, and then just plummets. I will say that I like Chaol a hell of a lot more, I think his injury has put him between a rock and a hard place and now he's done wallowing and not making decisions. Personally, the chemistry between Chaol and Nesryn feels a little forced and too convenient for me, however, I do see a little something between Chaol and Yrene. I think that she's one of the first people not to baby him and it's refreshing. Speaking of Yrene, I do remember that she was in one of the novellas, I just can't remember which one or what happened, nonetheless, I do really like her. I'm unsure in which book the Blackbeak plot line is taking place to be honest so I'm just going to talk about it here. It was pretty ballsy of Manon to try and kill her grandmother, but it was about damn time. Finding out that her father was a Crochan prince was something I didn't see coming at all. I hope we see her take some of that power since she's in line for the throne. I do think she is going to struggle coming to grips with her heritage.

Half of the time I feel like I have no idea what's going on I can't lie, mostly in Tower of dawn. Throwing in another kingdom with even more names to remember has killed a little bit of the enjoyment for me. Outside of Chaol, Yrene and partially Nesryn, I know nothing of Tower of dawn lmao. I am kind of glad that this is a tandem read for that reason though because going from Empire of storms to Tower of dawn would've been a huge let down. (hide spoiler)]

Finished reading
EOS ch10
TOD ch6

I don't really have anything to add. It's "interesting" switching between books, every time a chapter starts I have to check the reading plan because I'm not sure what's next to be read.

So far, I think I'm more interested in Chaol's part of the story, also Lorcan and Elide is a bit intersting.. of course I'm interested in Manon, I remember liking reading about her.

Yes, Yrene is in one of the Assassin's Blade stories.
I also looked up who Lorcan is because you said his name sounds familiar but.... and that's how I spoiled myself something but eh, nothing major. He's one of Maeve's warrior's or whatever, like Rowan was i guess.

I am so sorry that I am so far behind. This month has most definitely gone sideways but I should be able to catch up this week.

through the end of Empire of Storms chapter 15:
We are definitely in the second segment so to speak of the story now that the Valg are out in the open basically. There are basically 3 pending wars it feels like.

I think I like Tower of Dawn better for now but also am pretty sure that I am struggling a bit with switching between the two. Now that most of my other February reading is done (and events) I should be able to juggle a bit better.

No worries, you have a lot of buddy reads so I understand. I haven't been reading it either because I'm reading Atlas six and Sarah-Vanessa is reading it too so there's a bit of discussion. I'm gonna finish that one today and I'll have more time to catch up to you and hopefully have something to talk about.

Finished reading
EOS ch 19
TOD ch 10
I planned on reading chapter 16 EOS so that when I continue reading I just start TOD without switching after one chapter...buuut the 17 chapter was in Manon's POV so I continued reading.

Obviously Manon is my favorite, and I enjoyed reading things that are happening with her, now I'm invested in what's going to happen next.

I also wonder what exactly is left in Chaol's black that Yrene touched.

Aelin... First time I started reading the first book I despised her, then I tried again but first I read Assassin's Blade and then Throne of glass, understood her a bit more and wasn't so irritated by her... however I think that first irritation is still present because I read her chapters and just wait for them to be over.

Sophie wrote: "So sorry for being MIA, I've had a very unexpectedly busy February so far.

I'm up to the end of chapter 22 for Empire of storms and the end of chapter 17 for Tower of dawn, so I'll mark my thought..."

I am also just past chapter 22 of Empire of Storms and end of chapter 17 in Tower of Dawn - slowly catching up!

I agree that I think I am liking Empire of Storms more. I absolutely love Elide and Lorcan. It is probably the story in that installment I am most excited for. I do like Manon's story as well and just realized it feels like it's been ages since hearing from her (probably because of the tandem read switching between each book).

My favorite part of Tower of Dawn is the suspense/mystery kind of vibe going on with what happened to the princess who passed and how the valg got into the tower and what not. It just feels so much slower than Empire of Storms and that is certainly where my struggle lays.

I did it - I finished the tandem read. lol I am so proud. I am also excited to hear everyone's thoughts. I legit gasped a few times in both Tower of Dawn and Empire of Storms. I can't imagine how things will end in the last installment. There were quite a few happy endings (or the start of them at least) which makes me worry how things will go sideways before the true ending.

I didn't have the urge to read these past few days, but I have an off day today so I'm trying to read as much as possible. And I'm bad at keeping up with how I'm supposed to switch between the chapters, so I hope that I'll sort it out by the time it's necessary to actually follow the reading schedule.

TOD read chapter 21
I like reading about Chaol and Yrene. However I just read 150 pages of the book and... that's a lot of pages for basically nothing. It's really filler like. Easy to read but...

EOS read chapter 25

mina wrote: "I didn't have the urge to read these past few days, but I have an off day today so I'm trying to read as much as possible. And I'm bad at keeping up with how I'm supposed to switch between the chap..."

I think it feels so long because of switching between the two books but also it feels like both books were longer than they really needed to be.

I wasn't switching between the books yesteraday. I first read TOD ch 11 to 21, then switched to EoS to chatch up with the chapters that were equal to ToD for that day.. But yeah, reading both of the books at the same time and switching makes it seem like it's much longer.

I’ve been soooooo MIA through this buddy read. I tend to slow down and hit a book slump during February so sorry about that. I’ll drop my reviews down below. I’m down to read kingdom of ash in April, I just think I need a little break from the series for a while.

Empire of storms

Happy to be back in this world! I want to start off by saying that I did tandem read this one with tower of dawn.

Empire of storms was definitely the bright light in this tandem read, I always looked forward to picking this one back up. I will say, similarly to how I felt about Queen of Shadows, I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the earlier books in the series. I still really liked it, I just didn’t feel as though it had the same sparkle that the earlier books had.

Poor Aelin, that ending was so sad, it seems that every time she gets back up someone knocks her back down. I am glad though that the characters we met in Assassins Blade popped back up and returned their favours.

What I’m going to need from Kingdom of Ash:

- For Aelin to be ok!! (Like seriously)
- More Aedion and Lysandra scenes
- More Aedion and Gavriel scenes
- More Elide and Lorcan scenes
- More Dorian and Manon scenes
- The witches to become fully integrated or at least friendly with Aelin, Rowan and the others
- Manon to ultimately bring peace across all witch clans
- Aelin to have some peace and quiet with her husband/mate
- And for everyone to live happily ever after………

That’s not too much to ask for right?

Tower of dawn

Sigh. I unfortunately feel like I’m enjoying the books in this series less and less as they go on. I did tandem read this one with Empire of storms, and that was milessssss better so Tower of dawn didn’t really stand a chance.

Chaol became more likeable to me in this instalment but the constant plot point of will he or won’t he walk was exhausting- I literally don’t care. I wasn’t really invested in Sartaq’s and Nesryn’s adventure purely for the fact that I felt zero connection to either of them. Sartaq only just showed up and Nesryn has been a background character.

I’m begging, hoping and praying that Kingdom of ash isn’t a complete mess.

Long live Yrene Towers though <3

Sophie wrote: "I’ve been soooooo MIA through this buddy read. I tend to slow down and hit a book slump during February so sorry about that. I’ll drop my reviews down below. I’m down to read kingdom of ash in Apri..."

I agree that I enjoyed Empire of Storms more so than Tower of Dawn. Chaol was too wishy-washy with Yrene and Nesryn. I loved Yrene though and I can't wait until she makes the connection between who wrote the note and Aelin.

I am completely okay with waiting until April to pick up the last in the series. I kind of need a break as well.

I'm so in for April as I still haven't finished it.. that way I have time 😂
These past few days when I did read I read ToD because... I don't know, it's somehow easier, and probably because there were more chapters to read there than in EoS, but now I have to catch up with EoS because things started happening.

I'm slowly making my way, in a day or two I'll finish the books.
There's more action in EoS which is good, I'm still annoyed with Aelin for some reason so I'm not that into the chapters where she is because she's a know it all best, but ok. ToD is still easy to read which I like.

I probably wouldn't have made a comment before finishing the books but I just got to the Valg Queen part and 🤯🤯 I'm shocked and regretting that I basically don't remember a thing about Maeve.