Monday, May 23, 2016

Review of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas


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 four 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.


(Summary from GoodReads)


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Throne of Glass is one of the most hyped up series in YA literature right now.  I’ve been excited about this book since ALA several years ago and only just recently got around to reading it.  I love fantasy, so I knew I was going to have to pick this one up.  It’s intended to be a Cinderella retelling and the plot of this story feels a bit like The Hunger Games, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a rip off.  Throne of Glass is a story of a badass girl and the world of political intrigue she finds herself caught up in.

Going into this book having already read The Assassin’s Blade made a huge difference in my reading experience, because it gave me such a big understanding of who Celaena was.  If you haven’t picked up that book, do it now.  Celaena is a total badass, like I said, and she’s confident, but we also see her moments of insecurity, and we learn what really drives her.  We also see her struggle over her feelings for Dorian and Chaol.

Throne of Glass was pitched as a Cinderella retelling when it first came out.  There are definitely traces of that, but this may not be the book for you if you want a more exact retelling of Cinderella.  The plot moves quickly, and the book is filled with intrigue all throughout. I loved that Maas gave the reader some characters that we would clearly love to hate.  The ending wasn’t necessarily astounding, but there were some good twists in the last scene.

Maas’s debut is a solid start to this fantasy series. Given what I’ve heard about the other books in the series and my experience with The Assassin’s Blade, I imagine it will only get better from here.  Pick this one up if you want fast paced adventure, court intrigue, and an amazing heroine.

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book at a conference, but have since purchased a hardcover of that.

3 comments:

  1. So glad you enjoyed the book! I can see where reading The Assassin's Blade first helped with Celaena's character. I love the series but parts of me wish the first book could have been a littler more Cinderella-ish! Would have been interesting :) But they are definitely badass, intricate books. Such fun reads.

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  2. Just read this amazing new YA fiction on Ganesha - Part 1 of the Temple Wars series - I think everyone should check it out!

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  3. I am about to embark on a 3 month trip backpacking SE Asia with my fiance, I have thought a lot about blogging…. but don’t want to start while I’m there. This will be a big first for both of us and we don’t want to worry about bringing our laptops as we are unsure what the trip will bring and don’t want to risk losing or breaking it. Have you or any bloggers you know started blogging after your trip as more of a reflection on the events rather than staying current with your posts?
    Regards

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