Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Title: Throne of Glass
Author: Sarah J Maas
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: August 2nd 2012
Page Number: 406

Summary:

Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

Review:

 

I got on the Throne of Glass wagon really really late. Everyone on Booktube was hyping it up to be this incredible fantasy book and I needed to read it. I got it in December and read it last month. My views are mixed.

 

The first 180 pages were very slow and not at all interesting. Chaol was dragging her around and around in the castle so that she couldn't find her way out if she were to escape, while the Prince, Dorian wanted to have a word with her. With it being slow it does take away from the experience of reading the book, but Celaena is a character that's very kick-ass.

 

After the 180 pages everything picked up. The story started to develop and we were introduced to new mysteries and characters. With this being a Fantasy I never expected there to be a mystery element involved and I only wished that Sarah J Maas mastered the mystery arts. She did not. I'm known for being a bit of a murder/mystery TV show addict and I can predict the murders being one hundred percent correct. And I was right with this book. I guessed everything from the manipulation to the actual murderer.

 

Another element that annoyed me was that we never saw everything. Maas would say someone had been eliminated or had died, but we never knew. It was like she had these few side characters names and kept them alive. But I couldn't really fault it, too much. But don't stop reading here because the book did get better.

 

The love triangle wasn't polished enough for me, but it was still very enjoyable. I loved all three characters of Celaena, Dorian - MY ULTIMATE CRUSH - and Chaol. I'm still team Delaena and I think I always will be because despite him being a prince he never saw Celaena as someone who is beneath himself. I do wish he'd stand up for himself because a pushover is never a good trait. Celaena is great and Chaol is still a little mysterious for me and I hope I get a better understanding of him in Crown of Midnight (Book 2). My favourite character is Nehemia Ytger. She's a princess with class but also full of secrecy. I really enjoyed seeing her and Celaena's friendship develop and I'm expecting a lot more from her in the next few books.

 

Wrapping it up will be easy enough for me. I enjoyed it. This is a fantasy series that has promise, I can see it becoming better and better with each and every book. Hopefully I can start Crown of Midnight and work onto Heir of Fire - which was recently released - and wrap them up until the fourth book in the series. But I really did enjoy it, despite the few problems. 3/5 STARS!