Throne of Glass

Before reading Throne of Glass, I highly recommend reading the prequel novellas (which are wonderful!) as they’re referenced throughout the book and will give you a greater appreciation and understanding of Celaena’s character.

Celaena is easily one of my favourite female protagonists. As Adarlan’s assassin, she is strong, sarcastic, willful, and can easily plan a successful escape or murder without a second thought. However, she’s also incredibly vain, loves to dress up and attend parties, and is a voracious reader. This contradiction of sorts underscores one of my favourite points, that being feminine doesn’t make you weak, and made me love Celaena even more.

Following the current trend in YA books, there is a love triangle in Throne of Glass featuring Chaol, the stoic Captain of the Guard, and the flirtatious Crown Prince Dorian. Normally I dislike love triangles, but this case proved to be an exception. Both Chaol and Dorian are loyal companions with likeable qualities who are determined to see Celaena emerge victorious in the competition. The third-person narrative shifts between Celaena, Chaol, and Dorian’s perspectives, allowing us to objectively see the romance from all sides and giving us a better understanding of their personalities and motivations. (That being said, I do have my favourite love interest, though I won’t mention who, so hopefully the odds will be in my favour on that count).

Alongside the action-filled contest to find the King’s Champion, mentions of magic, the Fae, murder, court politics and empire building helped create a gripping plot filled with mystery and intrigue. My only complaint is that there were many points where the events of the competition were glossed over in favour of scenes that involved either the love triangle or Celaena reading in the library; it would have been nice to see more of her skills as opposed to just hearing about them.

Overall, I really enjoyed Throne of Glass, and can't wait to read Crown of Midnight!

17-year-old Celaena Sardothien was one of the MOST NOTORIOUS ASSASSINs in Adarlan until she was arrested and convicted to slow and painful death in the Salt Mines of Endovier. After one year, good luck finally smiles upon her when crown prince of Adarlain, Dorian Havilliard, chooses her as his candidate in contest for King's Champion (glorified name for royal assassin) and offers her freedom in exchange for cooperation. A lot of training are in store for Celaena if she is to regain her strength and defeat all other candidates. You think she has the toughest task? Think again. Because, the most troubles will have Chaol Westfall, Captain of the Royal Guard, as he needs to re-train one of the Adarlan's greatest assassins and stop her from killing any member of Royal family while doing that.

Celaena is so full of contradictions. She's girlish and vulnerable at times but also arrogant, nosy, usually out of line, smart, fast, deadly and kick-ass. Of course I liked her. :) Oh and I almost forgot to mention that she's a complete bookworm who loves to read and adores to talk about books all the time. "What's not to like?"

As I mentioned before Celaena is assassin, so expect a lot of training and fighting, but that's not all 'Throne of Glass' has to offer. There is also sweet slow-building love story. But there is one problem (at least for me it's a bad thing). Yes, we are talking about LOVE TRIANGLE between Celaena, Dorian and Chaol. I must admit I cheered for Chaol from the start because he sees not only beauty but also a deadly side of Celaena. Dorian is more enamored in her good looks, disregard for court rules and that she is not impressed with his tittle. Although I do not say that Dorian loves Celaena less, I just think that Chaol's kind of love offers a real chance of true happiness and that Dorian as a royal heir and prince should regard his position more seriously. Only in fairy tales prince ends up with a beautiful servant girl. In real life, prince marries to achieve happiness for his country and people not for himself. At least good princes do that.

'Throne of Glass' is set in Adarlan, but we do not have a chance to learn a lot about the country, people and customs. I was especially interested to learn more about history: hinted fae ancestors and magic abilities, I hope these themes will be better developed in 'Crown of Midnight'.

So, if you do not set your standards for world building and character development high, 'Throne of Glass' will offer you an entertaining quick read with intriguing plot and sweet love story. It could have been better, but since it's Sarah Maas's debut I'm giving 4 stars to 'Throne of Glass' and I hope that she will not disappoint me in the next installment of the series. 27th August can not come fast enough. :)

I recommend this book to fans of: ya high fantasy, kick-ass heroines, love triangles.

This book met my incredibly high expectations, due to all the raving reviews and complements it was generating. So, I'm happy to announce that it WAS incredible like all those readers, reviewers, bloggers, and publishers said it would be. Here goes my RAVING review!

It seemed to me that it was SO long, even though it was only 404 pages, but then again I AM a slow reader and perhaps that is why it seemed to take forever to read. So, yes, this book took me about 5 days to read. Although, I did stop reading in the middle of it to start another book, but then I continued on with it and finished it! And ended up falling in love with it!

For me, the beginning was slightly slower paced, but all the descriptions were so well written that I didn't even notice until I looked backed and realized not that many days had passed. But, when you continue on with the story, it picks up speed. Also another thing that I noted while reading it was that, sometimes it would just skip ahead a couple days later(or weeks) and that slightly bothered me because I thought maybe something important could have happened in those missed days. I understand, though, that she had to cram about 6 months into the spansion of the book. So, all is forgiven and quickly forgotten as I was swept up into the world of Throne of Glass!

The plot of the story, was what had me loving it SO quickly and made me eager to read more. Everything, you could tell, was so planned out until the very last detail and made the bigger picture just WHAM you in the face when it came. The murder mystery was intriguing, to say the least. It kept me guessing, and although I guessed who the murderer was from the start( and guessed correctly!), I was still slightly shocked that IT ACTUALLY was the person who I thought it would be. Usually I NEVER guess correctly, AND definitely not in murder cases. So even though it may appear to be obvious...I guess just keep reading to find out if you're right? I guess?

The romance was actually kind of invisible during the story. You knew it was there, but it wasn't very distintive. I really liked how the romance was though...very slow and realistic. They didn't rush head long into a forbidden romance. There was actually a love triangle( and I'm definitely team Chaol!), but it was, surprisingly, a love triangle that I liked. I couldn't decided who she liked better: Dorian or Chaol and it kept me guessing throughout the novel! I can sense that there will be some drama in the sequel between Dorian and Celaena!

Overall, this book was such a fantastic read! I would recommend it espicially for high fantasy readers, but I'm sure every reader would end up loving it! Though, it wasn't a cliffhanger book, I will desperately be looking out for the sequel to find out what happens next!