Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: Review

Title: Throne of Glass
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury 
Buy This Book: Amazon / Book Depository

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? (Goodreads summary.)

It's time to begin! *sings*

Okay, this is it, it's time for me to review Throne of Glass because I have finally started reading this series. Yes, I know, I am extremely late to the party but I like to see it as arriving once the party is in full swing. There's two books out now, a book of novellas published and a third book is out in two months, so I am able to jump straight in and immerse myself in Maas's world. I am a completely impatient person so that was important to me, I wanted to be able to binge read a few of them. I can't believe I am actually able to say this but, Throne of Glass finally got me out of my two month long reading slump. Hooray!

So, let us start with the basics. Celaena Sardothien is known as Adarlan's Assassin; she's been trained by the King of the Assassins himself, Arobynn Hamel, since she was eight years old. She's always been the best and it's always been known that she will take over from Hamel, or that's what she always thought. But someone betrayed her a year ago and it landed her in the salt mines of Endovier. She's now nothing more than a slave to the King, a man who is responsible for banishing magic from their land and killing millions of people. Celaena has come to terms with the fact that she will slave away in the mines until the day she dies. But that all changes the day that Prince Dorian Havilliard, the King's son and heir, shows up at the mines with a proposition for Celaena. He wants her to represent him in a tournament that his father is hosting, where she will compete for the title of King's Champion. If Celaena can win then she will serve the King, as his Champion, for four years before she earns the right to her freedom, something she craves more than anything. If she says no then she will stay in the mines until she dies. It's an easy choice to make.

That is everything you learn within the first chapter and my general feelings on the plot, by that point, were:

I turned to Throne of Glass because I was desperately trying to find a book that could get me out of my reading slump. I was a little nervous as I had thought this might be a case of the hype being unjustified or setting my expectations so high that the book was unable to live up to it. Luckily for me, neither proved to be true and I want to thank everybody who recommended this series to me. I am truly, madly, deeply, passionately and every over word they used in that movie (if you know it... yay!) in love with this series.

It had my attention from almost the first page. It took a while to get into, but that was partly because of the fact that I was still suffering from a reading slump that had been going on for two months. Throne of Glass was the book I had been looking for, this book didn't just get me out of my slump, it grabbed me and yanked me out of it. It was just everything that I needed: interesting plot, fantastic characters, a totally ship-worthy romance and a furry friend as a companion. What more could I ask for?

This is me... 

with the character names.

I love me some characters, so I have to discuss them at length. I. Have. To! Firstly, I really feel the need to comment on the fact that I hate fantasy books and their obsession with having characters with names that are unpronounceable. This book had a few names that I struggled with a little bit. I eventually got used to all of the names, but I am pretty sure that I was pronouncing most of them wrong. I found this totally useful cheat sheet on the authors website, but by that point it was too late! I got Chaol's pronunciation wrong but I can't change it now, I just can't!

First we have Celaena. Celaena, Celaena, Celaena, where to even begin. I am rather proud of myself now, trying to spell her name used to be hard but after binge reading all three books, and writing the name a million times in my notes, I am a pro. Celaena is a total bad-ass, so much so that she makes Katniss Everdeen look like an utter wimp. There, I said it! Plus, she's absolutely hilarious and has the most wonderful, and at times totally dark, sense of humour and I love her for it. She amuses herself way more than she amuses others, which is hilarious to see. I knew that I liked Celaena from the moment she was introduced, she was so sure of herself and her own skills. I liked her confidence and how she looked down on practically everyone. She also wins a million points for absolutely loving reading as much as I do. Celaena became one of my all time favourite female protagonists after reading this book. Wait, I take that back! She just became one of my all time favourite protagonists after reading this book. This book gave me some serious Game of Thrones vibes for a lot of reasons, and she reminded me of Daenerys as well. Totally not just because they both have long blonde hair and don't take crap from anybody. If only Celaena had dragons.

❤ Celaena & Chaol ❤

Then we have Chaol, who I am just slightly, totally, ridiculously in love with. Yes, I know, he's an entirely fictional character but the heart wants what the heart wants. He is the Captain of the King's guard and given the job of training with Celaena and getting her ready for the tournament. Did I mention that he absolutely hates her? Well, he does. And, as we all know, the best kind of romance to ship with all your being is the kind that starts as hate. We all know it's secretly just sexual tension. So, for pretty much the first time ever, I totally shipped two characters from the very beginning. Chaol is moody, he's brooding and is so serious at times that it's entirely hilarious to everyone but him. If you read this and didn't ship Chaol then we can no longer be friends. I'm being serious, click off the blog right now and go.

Dorian is the other main guy in this book and, so he thinks at least, a contender for Celaena's affections. He's the King's son and his heir to the throne, so any romance with an assassin would be forbidden. Oooooh, forbidden romance - who doesn't love those? I just couldn't ever get behind him as a love interest though. He never stood a chance in my eyes. Chaol just won me over from the very beginning and nothing Dorian did in this book could change that. He's absolutely adorable though, a total sweetheart and is actually a perfect guy for so many reasons. But, whenever he popped up and seemed to get in the way of the good ship Chaolaena, I was all like:

There's one other character that I really want to mention and pour all of my love for them into this post, but I won't. I really want to but I will refrain in case it is deemed a bit too spoilery. It isn't in my opinion, but I will refrain!

I have to get to the romance in this book, which you could kind of call a love triangle situation. You have two potential love interests and a heroine who seems like she should be all I-don't-need-nor-want-a-man but then totally cares what both think of her. It should frustrate me but it doesn't. Maas has been able to pull off something that few authors have, she has created a love triangle that works. I didn't hate either character, I wasn't angry or annoyed at either characters presence. I loved them both in for different reasons, even though I was Team Chaol from page 1. No matter how sweet and adorable Dorian is, I will never change my opinion on this. It best be Celaena and Chaol in the end or I will cry. This is at least a six book series so a lot can happen in that time. But, seriously, Chaolaena has to happen.

I really do just want to gush at you all about how fantastic this book was. I thought the world building and character building was done so effortlessly and perfectly. I felt like I really got to know everything I needed to about the world, but not too much that you aren't left wanting to discover and travel more of it. It also gave you a lot of information about the characters but, again, it doesn't give everything away. It leaves you with questions and a desire to find out more.

If I had to complain about anything then I would probably say that I found the plot to be a little too predictable at times. There's a whodunnit situation in this and the culprit is blindingly obvious that I was actually annoyed that Celaena didn't figure it out sooner. Some things were just a bit too obvious, like who would be the final 2 left in the Championship and things like that. I just wish those plot points hadn't been so glaringly obviously right from the beginning.

4.5/5 Butterflies

I really did adore this book for so many reasons. If it wasn't for my few issues with the general plot then it would have been a 5 star read for me. I think I was slightly tempted to give it 5 stars just for Chaol! I love the characters in this, the world building, the plot and how I know it's a start to an EPIC series that I am going to follow right to the end. Unless Maas kills Chaol... and then me and this series will be over! OVER!!! I highly recommend this to absolutely all of you, but especially to those who are fans of fantasy, kick-ass heroines or totally shipable romances. Read it people! You know you want to.