Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, 3)

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.

5 Flaming and fiery 4 stars for Heir of Fire and the best in the series so far. Immersive, captivating and oh so satisfying. Why? Well this one was all about the character development which made a refreshing change but still accompanied with all the beautiful fantastical storytelling, intriguing world building and cleverly plotted events and threads to the story. A continuation of the dark fairy tales that I feel addicted to but am now having to pace because I am running out of SJM books. The Plot - Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King's Guard sends Celaena away to fulfil her destiny, but not as friends - this is a lovers to enemy parting because Celaena holds him responsible for the death of Nimena and not supporting her against the King of Adarlan. Nevertheless, Celaena is on a voyage of discovery that is likely to turn her into one of Adarlan’s toughest enemy. A threat and a woman with a grudge, but then there is an interesting twist. Landing in a new world, Celaena’s powers, prowess and fighting skills appear very ordinary, because here we see “the greatest assassin” (a cheesy title I must confess) made to look very ordinary and flawed. And so, under the watchful eye of Rowan (drool) she is to be trained, weaponised but not just in the fighting arena but also in life, attitude, and in her mind. Review and Comments - I am enjoying Fantasy because it is total escapism!!! Where the imagination has no boundaries - with its magical worlds, dark storylines, and half human characters but with some very real themes of power, greed, love, and betrayal. Then we are dished up ‘Heir of Fire’, with superb character development in the main character Celaena that made this book a cut above the rest. 6 ⭐ for superb character development which was the essence of this book 5 ⭐ for the storyline and world building that just keeps coming in this series 5 ⭐ for the action packed fast pace 5 ⭐ for the writing style that is magical and effortless The universal themes of Love and lust, war and power, friendship and betrayal continue to dominate this magical kingdom created for us to enjoy, experience, and love, and I did love this ‘flaming’ great book.

’She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.’ For me this novel is a game changer. Don’t get me wrong, I adored the first two books in this series just as much truly but this is the novel that really starts to set everything in motion and changes things around. It brings some pretty major new characters into the series, it see’s space spring up between the central three characters of the previous books and it contains some truly monumental developments concerning Celaena. As I always do my absolute best to avoid all spoilers I won’t say anymore about those developments however. They’re absolutely ones that you’ll relish discovering for yourself. In fact everyone has a lot of development over the course of this novel, as does the world that you manage to explore a bit further than before, thanks to events at the end of the previous book. The new characters introduced are fascinating, bringing new viewpoints into the novel along the way. And the previously mentioned space makes the original character’s viewpoints evolve further too (although I will confess to somewhat missing the previous banter whilst simultaneously adoring everything new). There are so many major new characters to meet over the course of this novel, ranging from one another vastly and bringing all sorts of new danger and heart stopping action in their wake. There’s stirrings of new love. There’s appearances from the fae – and oh how I adore any book containing them – and there’s a whole host of witches and wyverns. Manon, the witch whose viewpoint you get to view, makes one hell of a first appearance in this novel and there’s so much to learn and discover whilst following in her footsteps. Her viewpoint brings a whole other side into the future conflict that is stirring. Altogether I adored this novel immensely and can’t wait to do my re-read of the next book too. The more that I read these books the more I wonder how on earth it ever took me so long to finish this series. It’s easily proving itself to be an all time favourite, after all, and I truly can’t find a single thing to fault. Needless to say I need more. This is definitely the sort of fantasy world that you just can’t help falling in love with.

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 ...