Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, 3)

Ok, so... It won't be a long review, as I don't think I am able to add anything more to what has already been said by millions and millions of other TOG fans. Anyone, who has written so many chapters and made them ALL interesting, engaging and simply beautiful, deserves more than the mere 5 stars that are available here. This was a masterpiece. Don't get me wrong... I was worried after the first two books were only ok. Enjoyable but wouldn't read them again. And now? Now I understand and thank the Lord for pushing me through it all. All I can do now is simply bow to Sarah. I have never read anything like this. Perfectly wonderful.

Although I am a Sarah J. Maas fan, I was not hugely in love with the first 2 books in this series so my expectations were pretty low when starting ‘Heir of Fire’ and maybe this was why I enjoyed this book so much. This book starts where the previous one finished; with Celaena in Wendlyn, where she was sent to by the King (at Chaol's recommendation) so she could defeat his enemies there. It’s difficult to explain the plot of this book without giving too much away but we continue on the story with original characters, a whole load of new characters, fantastic world building and brilliant revelations into Celaena’s history. As I said, I enjoyed this book more than the others in the series so far. The new characters were super interesting and I liked seeing the developments happening from the different perspectives of the characters, which was different from the format in the previous books. We meet a fae warrior, a vicious witch, and Celeana's cousin, now the leader of the king's armies in the north. I felt so much more invested in these characters almost from their first appearances than I did most of the key characters in book one, who felt much more generic. The world building in the book is amazing, we just keep expanding our knowledge. We also learn a whole load about Celaena - just when we thought we knew her. Her journey and history is fascinating. We knew she was complicated but we only really get an idea of just how complex she is in this book. I’m really looking forward to the rest of this series. I have purchased them but I am reading at least one other book between each one so I can make this series last longer.

The second book was an improvement on the first - this blew the second out of the park! Do NOT read on if you've not read the first two books! We meet Celaena in Wendlyn, where she was sent to by the King (at Chaol's recommendation) so she could defeat his enemies there. Is she going to do that? Hell no, this is Celaena of course! However, she does not expect to meet the people she does, or uncover even darker secrets and creatures that the King of Adarlan has unleashed. I don't want to say anything else on the plot, because it is too risky to for me to spoil things. If like me, you were a little underwhelmed by the first two, the first 200 pages of this were a bit of a slog for me. It feels completely different to the first book as the chapters flick between multiple characters and there is a lot of world building and history thrown at you. Please stick with it, this book gets seriously good, I couldn't put it down as I was desperate to know what happened with the many characters and I cannot wait to see what happens next. The ending shocked me, Rowan grew on me and I LOVE Abraxos, that's all I have to say. Bravo Sarah J Maas, I am officially hooked.

I really enjoy SJM books, and as a general rule I’m hooked from start to end, and this isn’t so much an exception to that as just... it never seems to grip me as much as some of her others. It’s still a damn good story, but for some reason I just don’t adore it as much as the others. It’s a necessary book, and it does improve the image of the world she had built, it widens it and deepens the characters personalities, I really do enjoy it. I enjoy the story, and the changes to the situation. I like the relationships we see building and the new characters that are introduced, even when I don’t particularly like them. (You know, when you enjoy reading about characters even when you kinda want to punch them in the face? That type of scenario...) There is a lot to be said for the story and the changes that come as a result of this one, but at the same time I still kind of feel like it’s a filler book. It’s the one that Maas needed to write to get it away from the original assassin/cinderella type tale, and weave it into a thicker, more complex story. That being said, I LOVE where this story takes us to! And when I first read it I was curious what was going to come next, with any SJM book there are twists, turns and surprises throughout, and that ending leaves you reading to dive into the next book. If you haven’t read them before, all I can say is STICK WITH IT because by the end of the book you’ll be excited to delve into her world even deeper. I do love how SJM doesn’t have Celaena instantly recover from her grief, instead she works through it. She’s quite frankly a knob at times because of it, but I like that. I like that it takes her time to come to terms with it, and she reverts at times and struggles to cope in many ways. She isn’t a typical “my friend died. I cried and now I’m over it” Character we see so often. We learn more about where our Assassin is from, and she learns more about herself and her limits, she begins to become that an even more badass Character than we originally adored her for being. Take all that sass and attitude, and throw in the magic, and OMG I want to be her! But ya know... only the fun bits. 😂 Manon. Just OMG I LOVE HER. I love that entire element to this world, it gives it a whole new twist! The first time I read about them I have to say I wasn’t sure what I thought, but now knowing what is coming... it’s bittersweet. Knowing what’s coming I just want to give Manon the biggest hug! The first time I read this though, I had reservations. I remember reading them bits and feeling a bit like SJM was trying desperately to merge two totally different stories. Dorian continues to be a sweetheart, and between him and Rowan... omg the feels in this book 😍😭😍😭 I’m glad that SJM didn’t just ignore the scenarios Celaena left behind her when she traveled, that would ...

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas Steph's Rating: 5 stars Overall Rating: 5 stars Steph's Review: *the review itself is for the most part non-spoiler, but the area for my predictions is packed with spoilers for Heir of Fire* What better way to get back into blogging than with a book that also ended with a bang? I think I've read Heir of Fire three or four times over the one month period that it's been out--in other words, I've just been reading some sort of page from this pretty much every day. Still not over it either. The pretty hardcover is still sitting on my nightstand even though I've got other selections I'm reading. The books in this series release pretty far apart from each other so this obsession is really not good seeing as I've got at least another eleven months to go before book four rolls around. Celaena has been cast away from Adarlan for her own safety by none other than Chaol Westfall. She's ignoring her duty to the King while she's slumming it in the streets of Wendlyn. She is approached by a menacing Fae warrior, who leads her on orders to the her aunt, and Fae Queen, Maeve. Celaena knows Maeve knows the information that she dearly needs to accomplish solving the mystery of Adarlan's seemingly overnight triumph, but Maeve is withholding that knowledge with a series of conditions. She is sent back to the peaceful demi-Fae town of Mystward, to master her heritage and the magic that has quietly dwelled within her for over ten years. If she proves successful and rediscovers her conscience, she may become the biggest living threat that Adarlan has ever seen. If she fails...everything is over for Terrasen. Now, I've read tons of reviews for this one. Many people give it five start but then go onto say that it wasn't their favorite book in the series since Crown of Midnight is still their absolute fave. I too, and giving it those five big, obnoxious stars but Heir of Fire is my favorite book within this series so far. I love Crown of Midnight, I do, but I still felt like Crown of Midnight is a "thriller" book of sorts. It's a roller coaster that is exciting and something you'll always remember (at least for me), but once it's over, it's over. Heir of Fire is a much deeper book because of its fantastic character development. In fact, I think this entire book is pretty much dedicated into recreating Celaena's character that will define her for the rest of the series. Heir of Fire is an intermission of sorts, but at the same time also the bridge that is going to connect two vastly differing parts of this series--and I love the new Celaena. HoF also is just a big staging book; its triple POV/triple setting sets up lots of great subplots that will definitely become major contributions to the rest of the story. There's a lot of mystery shrouding the whole series, but I'd like to think some of that is made ...