Throne of Glass

Celaena Sardothein is an 18 year old assassin who finds herself 12 months into hard labour at a salt mine, knowing that she has no way out. She watches those around her die, wondering if she will face the same fate. Out of the blue, she is summoned by the Prince of Adarlan who offers her freedom provided she wins a competition to become the King's champion. If she beats the other contestants across the gruelling tests, she will become the King's assassin for a number of years before she finds herself free. Faced with sure death or a chance a freedom, Celaena knows this is her only choice. Training and enduring the tests at the castle don't seem to be going too badly for Celaena, however one day one of the competitors is found dead with no explanation. Celaena now not only needs to win the competition, but also avoid facing the same death as her fellow competitor faced and see if she can uncover what is going on. OK - so I didn't love this book and I'm really sad about it. Having loved Sarah J. Maas' ACOTAR series, I had seriously high hopes and I think that perhaps nothing will ever compare for me! Celaena is supposed to be a well known assassin, the best of the best who has trained from a very young age. However, I really didn't see that in her character, she soon became consumed with the fancy gowns and life she was living with two handsome men and very quickly seemed to forget her assassin type nature. Early on in the book, it was made very clear how beautiful Celaena was... this was repeatedly made clear throughout! It seemed she was so beautiful that people (including herself!) forgot how dangerous she was and Celaena even got to the stage she was smug with it that when someone didn't make it clear that they found her beautiful, she didn't know what to make of it! I was not a fan of this side of her character. The book felt a little slow for me to begin with, a lot of character and scene development which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I needed more to happen. Things did happen, but nothing grabbed me until about 60% of the way through which, in my opinion, is a little TOO slow. I enjoyed the last 40% or so of the book and know I will read the next one as I'm keen to find out where the story goes next! Not my favourite but I hope I will like it more as I read the series further.

Throne of Glass has been on my list for a long time and I FINALLY got around to reading it. I really enjoyed it, and binged the last half of the book because it was so gripping. Celaena, a captured assassin, is blackmailed into participating in a competition to become the King's Champion. If she wins, she'll serve as Champion for four years and then be granted her freedom. But the road to winning the competition is filled with obstacles, not least because someone is murdering all the other contestants. As Celaena digs into the Kingdom's history, she uncovers dark magic that shouldn't exist anymore. Can she figure out how to stop it before the murderer comes for her? Oh, and the Prince is handsome, too. But she can't fall for him. Not after what his family did to her lands. Can she? I thought Celaena was an intriguing protagonist. She has a lot of interests and she's amusing to read. She does come across as three-dimensional, but a lot of what's made her who she is seems to have happened off-page so I get the feeling I'll have to read the next three books to fully figure her out. I agree with other comments that she bounces around from being deadly and wielding swords to being girly, wearing dresses and swooning over princes. But she's also a teenager, so I think you have to take that into consideration. The ending was satisfactory and whilst there isn't a great deal of pressure to continue reading the series, it's definitely not a stand alone. I felt like there was a good round up of the competition and the dark magic Celaena found, but yes, if you start this one, you're probably in it for the long haul. That said, the world is well constructed and I would be happy to read on. Give it a go if you're looking to dip your toe into a strong fantasy world. (Then maybe your ankle, knee... and well, you get the picture...)

I'm genuinely struggling to put into words how gripping and compelling this story truly is. When it comes to novels based in new worlds I normally struggle to get gripped on the story, but from page one I could easily see the world Sarah masterfully created. And from page one I was hooked. It's the kind of novel I couldn't wait to finish, but at the same time I didn't want to read it as it came to an end. Sarah created a new world, one full of mystery and wonder. The story had me hooked so much that I went through the motions with the characters, I laughed, flushed, cringed, and cried throughout. The third person, head-hopping writing perspective is becoming a new favourite reading style for me, it gave a broader outlook on the story as a whole, and gave a closer look at the characters. Celaena, she wasn't what I expected, in a pleasantly surprising way. It became quite clear early on that those in her close company could only grow to love her as I did. She was written so well she didn't feel like a character in a story. I feel like she is a good judge of character, so when she liked someone I was immediately drawn to them, and when she hated someone I felt that too. “When she missed – well, even the fires of Hell couldn't compare to the rage that burst from her mouth.” This has to be my favourite description of Celaena written from Dorian's point of view. I laughed, probably harder than I should have, but that moment was completely priceless. I love Dorian, Chaol, Nehemia and Elena in equal measure. I hope to see Nox again too. I truly cannot wait to get lost in Sarah's world once more in Crown of Midnight, also, how amazing is the cover artwork on these novels?!

First, before I'm hung by all the fans, let me tell you that I LOVED Sarah J Maas' A Court of Thorn and Roses series. That is why when I came into this one it felt like such a huge let down. In essence, I could care about these characters more, but I just don't. I feel like I'm not given enough to care about them at all. Caelena could be very interesting, I mean, she's a freaking assassin, and yet, she's not given enough emotions, background, character, for me to give a damn. The story in this book is also very lacking. There are so many other ways that this could have been so much more interesting. It feels like such high stakes for her, but I don't feel it. It feels like she's just going to win, from the beginning. In ACOTAR I knew Feyre was going to triumph, it was that kind of story, but the journey was so much more interesting. It may also be that this book is written for a much younger audience, but I don't think so. I read YA all the time, and this felt flat compared to her other work. I feel like the depth into the characters and story is just not there, which left me regretting I even started it. I'm glad that I bought the single book and not the series, because I would have wasted my money. Someone said on YT that it picks up around book 3, but who wants to stick around for 3 books before getting the kind of satisfaction that you want from the beginning. I feel that Sarah J Maas must have grown as a writer, because she did with ACOTAR what she couldn't do with this one, learning from its mistakes. As a writer, thank you, so I can learn from yours.