Book Review: Throne of Glass By Sarah J. Maas

7896527 Title: Throne of Glass

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series #: Book 1 of the Throne of Glass series

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s

Date Published: January 1st 2012

# of Pages: 404

Source: Library

Summary: (Goodreads)

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 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.

I have read a lot of fantasy novels but Throne of Glass is quite a unique story on all its own. I really, really loved this book as it is such a great mixture of numerous YA genres. Yes the book was primarily fantasy but Sarah J. Maas incorporated romance fantastically. It wasn’t over bearing nor did it over shadow the fantasy element, to me, it was just right. Prior to reading this novel, I’ve already heard so many great things about it and a lot of the book tubers were recommending it and saying how awesome it was. I honestly did not expect it to be this awesome! I love, love, love it! There was so many elements in the story that was… phenomenal!

From the beginning the plot had already had me hooked as the book instantaneously took me to Celeana’s world. Now usually it would take me awhile to adapt and to picture how the world in this book was mapped out as it did talk about a lot of kingdoms. Having a map printed on the first 2 pages of the book had really helped me and that was ten- thousand bonus points to the author and publisher. The map was so cool and I feel that it really helped me in getting to know the characters a whole lot better and made it easier for me to understand the politics of the book.

The characters. Oh my goodness the characters! I don’t even know where to begin in explaining how extremely bad ass Celeana Sardothien is! I think I’m going to cosplay as her on Halloween. She’s just…wow! She’s is like Lady Lara Croft of her world except, the assassin version. And the guys! OMG! The guys! Ok so we have Chaol, the Captain of the Guard and Dorian, the Crown Prince… I honestly don’t know who I would give my heart out to. It’s like choosing between these two…

Throughout the novel, Celeana spends a fair amount of time between the two (obviously) and the way each character changes and develops throughout the story is amazing. Being who she is, Celeana isn’t the damsel in distress type of girl and both men come to accept and respect that part of her which leads them to realizing, “boy, I gotta step up my game to keep up with this girl.” And I loved that!!! Any guy who who willingly accepts and respects a girl for who she is and does not even come close to trying to shape her into a barbie doll, gets a high card from me!

Chaol and Dorian (ehem* Sam and Dean) =

Aside from the protagonists of the novel, the antagonists are quite exceptional themselves. They (I don’t want to mention any names as it would spoil some aspects of the story) are very evil and have such a dark and cruel persona to them that just makes you fear them and hate and that to me is a concoction to a perfect villain. They are all so good at being bad hahaha. And with the way the book ended, we will definitely be seeing more of them in the next book.

Overall, this is such an amazing read! I devoured this 400+ page book in 3 days. I love it! I can’t wait for the next book 😀

My Rating: