Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Throne of Glass

Title & Author:
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
Publisher:
Bloomsbury USA
Publication Date:
August 07, 2012
Pages:
416
Source:
ARC from BEA

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. – Amazon

I picked up Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas and literally could not stop reading it all day unless I absolutely had to go do something else. Throne of Glass is an amazing, engrossing fantasy that captured me from the early pages.

I’m a huge fantasy fan. I admitted a few days ago that I liked Tamora Pierce’s books more than the Harry Potter books. So Throne of Glass was right up my alley. There’s swordfighting, knives, assassins, princes, soldiers, magic, castles, foreign lands, and more! Everything about the world Sarah J Maas created appealed to me and she built it splendidly. I’ve never seen a castle made out of glass, but it was so easy for me to picture in my mind because she’s definitely a fantastic world builder.

Celaena was ballsy and brave with a biting wit, but she also had a soft, girly side that wanted to look pretty and I can see her appealing to many readers because of how complex of a character she is. I really admired her and a lot of decisions she made throughout Throne of Glass – which is kind of rare cause usually I’m reading a book and shaking it like I can actually shake the protagonist.

Throne of Glass does have a love triangle, but it wasn’t annoying to me. We got bits and pieces of information from the point of view of Dorian and Chaol that kind of showed us how each of the guys felt about Celaena and allowed us to see their developing feelings and that was an added bonus. But the relationship with Dorian just didn’t really work for me – and I was definitely rooting for Chaol from the beginning – so I’m interested to see where the romance subplot goes in the next book.

The story in Throne of Glass was typical enough to remind me of all my favourite fantasy books, but at the same time was an original and engaging – and complex, with all its subplots – story that essentially kept me trapped until I finished the story. I loved the idea of all these assassins competing for the title and a lot of things were hinted at that I think will become very interesting in the next book.

I can definitely see Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas being a series that I reread time and time again, just like I’ve done with all of Tamora Pierce’s books. If you’re looking for a fantasy with a complex characters, not to mention a complex story – and fantastic world-building – do not miss Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas.

While you’re here, you can subscribe to my feed :)