Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Reading Level: Ages 12 and up
Hardcover: 416 pages
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Genre: Fantasy
 
Book One: Throne of Glass
Book Two: Unititled (2013)

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Amazon Summary:

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 exhilarating. 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.

My Review:

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas is a breath taking and mind gripping work of art that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! To be honest, books that don't take place in the present usually turn me off, because I don't like the way that they speak and have a harder time following what's going on. That definitely wasn't the case here. Sarah described and explained everything in a precise manner so that I could form the scene in my mind piece by piece until it was literally like watching a movie. This novel was told in third person, but usually focused on Celaena Sardothien, the main character. Their are parts that I both liked and disliked about her. What i disliked the most was her arrogance. In this novel, she had to hide her true identity and pretend to be a nobody. She had difficulty with this, because she had spent years building up her reputation so that she was feared and people ran at the very mention of her name. Yes she was very skilled in all things assassin, but she was definitely not humble about it. However, there are also many things that I admired about this character, such as her bravery, her strength, her intelligence and her determination to survive.

Throne of Glass was obviously packed with tons of action (duh) and it kind of reminded me of The Hunger Games a little bit. 24 champions. 1 victor. Sound familiar? There are major differences though like the fact that if you were eliminated, instead of being killed you were sent home. The problem was, since Celeana came from a inescapable prison where death would be a blessing and would have no choice but to return if she lost, she had no choice but to win....or die trying. The romance was also believable in this book as well. Celeana's love interest or should I say interests are Dorian, the handsome and slightly arrogant prince and Captain Westfall, the Captain of the Guard and the only one who truly understands her. Unlike most of the sappy and unbelievable YA romances these days, the romance in this book was spectacular! It was gradual and not instant "I love you" and "you love me". Both Dorian and Captain Westfall are wary of her in the beginning and don't trust her at all. Yes, they both found her extremely attractive and vise versa but that's normal. What kind of teenage girl can't admire a handsome prince or brooding guard? It's the little things that finally made her start to like Prince Dorian and the Captain of the Guard more than friends.

The comedy in this book was comical as well. Celeana loved getting under both Prince Dorian's and Captain Westfall's skins and found great joy in making them blush and stutter on their words. If your looking for a book with a badass heroine, epic love triangle, witty remarks, and heart stopping action then Throne of Glass is the book for you.


Heroine- 4.5/5
Romance-5/5
Action- 5/5
Comedy- 5/5
Overall- 5/5