Review: Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Published by Bloomsbury

Genre: YA fantasy

$17.99 (US hardback)

416 pages

 

 

What it's about:



After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined


My thoughts:
I was seeing lots of people saying this was a fantastic book. One of the best they have ever read. It's been on loads of Top Ten lists and at first, I didn't understand this. It took me a while to get into the book. I'd read a few pages here, a few pages there, but it wasn't catching and keeping my attention. After a week of this and only being 60 or so pages into the book, I almost gave up. But so many people talked about how good it was, I pushed through. Now I get what people are talking about.

Once you get into the story, it's fantastic. Celaena is arrogant, cocky, and a little frustrating, but she's also an 18 year old girl and that shows through. She loves clothes, she loves going to dances, and she can't resist chocolate. She was such a complicated character. At first I wasn't believing her. Could one person really be that  good at everything? Then I'd remind myself that she was raised this way. She was raised to be the best and definitely had the motivation and the right trainer to become the best. I ended up really loving her, even if she was an assassin.

One thing that did surprise me about the book was all the new things that were constantly being introduced. When the fae and magic was introduced, I was a little thrown back. I wasn't really expecting that. Then there were a few other things that were introduced and I was sort of like "wtf?" Then I just kept reading and it all sorta fit. I wish that it would have been explained more but that is what the second book is for.

The book is full of surprises. There are twists in it that I wasn't expecting, a love triangle that is actually well done (I'm definitely Team Dorian ;) and very lovable characters. Now I'm really excited for the next book in this series.

My rating: 9/10