Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass

Sarah J. Maas
Bloomsbury USA Children's
Goodreads


Synopsis:

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 kings 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.

Raving reviews for this book have been aplenty, but I'm not sure I share their enthusiasm. I thought this book was really good, but I think there may be a bit too much hype around it, and that always leads to disappointment. For me, it wasn't EPIC, but I did really enjoy it.

The storyline was pretty good, and I think most people will enjoy it. I wish there would have been more of the assassin thing going on though. I'm not necessarily one who likes fighting or conflict, but I would have liked to see more of what makes her so amazing. Maybe a bit more of her backstory? I did like the trials and the fact that she was doing all this to try an escape an almost impossible situation though.

It was very reminiscent of Poison Study and Grave Mercy. I think if you liked those books, I definitely recommend picking up this book! Celaena is such a strong character.She has her flaws just like anyone, and I think that made her a bit more realistic. I liked that she was tough, but also a bit girly too. Who says you have to be all rough and dirty to be a strong character? Not that Celaena is afraid to get dirty, mind you. The other characters were great, too. I loved who her love interests were, and who she meets and befriends along the way. Her enemies were really easy to dislike as well.


One last thing I have to mention: the cover. I just don't think it fits this story very well. It's definitely pretty, but there is just something I just don't like about it for this story. The UK cover fits it much better, in my opinion: