Throne of Glass

I’m obsessed with this story and where it’s going. The characters, the plot (ugh!), everything—I just love it so much! This world is now one of my favorite high fantasy worlds. The story switches POV a lot and dips into all these different storylines and political agendas, making the world that much more rich. First of all, Celeana is so cool! I love a good badass, arrogant, but broken character. She’s so complicated and deliciously wonderful. We get to see tidbits of her tragic backstory and how she came to be this seemingly heartless assassin. Then we’ve got the whole competition aspect of the story that only gets more complicated when the competition starts getting gruesomely murdered around her. It’s a who-done-it story with a twist. Celeana has to train and compete against all these intense scary men. I loved when she stopped trying to hide her awesomeness and took down her sparing partner without even drawing a sword, making him look like a fool. She spits out one of my favorite lines in the book with her boot in his face, “Here’s a lesson for you, weapons master. Give me real men to fight and maybe I’ll bother trying.” Can we be friends, Celeana? Right now? Awesome, just don’t snap and kill me, please. And then there’s Dorian and Chaol. Her relationships with them are so different but cute in their own ways. First of all, there’s Dorian (the pompous prince who’s slept with half the women in the palace). He might be a little naïve and arrogant, but he learns to connects with Celeana over books and wit. He brings her books he’s enjoyed so they can talk about it. So cute! And then there’s Chaol (my favorite of the two men). He’s stuck guarding and trainer her, so he’s almost always around her (much to both of their annoyance). To start off, they hate each other. They’re snarky and mean in a fun sort of bantering way. Because he’s always around, he slowly gets to know and understand the sides of her she doesn’t let anyone else see. I could sit here and go through all the wonderful character, but it would be an incredibly long and rambling post. That’s the problem (not really a problem) with trying to explain a high fantasy story. There are so many characters, plotlines, and political schemes. Trust me when I say I’m only grazing the surface! I’m so excited to see where this story goes. Sarah J. Maas has only scrapped into the surface of this world. This is the first of six books (the first three of which are already out). There’s no rushing this story. Maas is letting it develop and grow in such a beautiful way. It’s gonna’ be massive with a bunch of different lands, characters, agendas, kingdoms, and let’s be honest here, a whole lot of death. If you’re a lover of fantasy, you NEED to check out this series. The first book is good (but I’ve already finished the second and third one) and I can promise that the story and the writing ups itself with every book, becoming more and more epic. This book is good. The next one is great. The third one is fan-friken-tastic! So get reading and catch up…so you can wait the torturing year until the fourth book is released (itcould be longer, since the third book was only released like a month ago).show more

This book. Is amazing. I loved every single page. Celeana, thumbs up, most awesome character EVER. Her history is very interesting and added to the tension between her and basically everyone else. Dorian, the Crown Prince. Well he was hot. Didn't see that one coming. It wasn't until a bit over half way when I changed my opinion about Dorian, originally sharing Celeana and Nehemia's view that he was arrogant to say the least. But after a few cute romantic scenes, and some stunning blue eyes that melt your heart, I couldn't get enough of him. But time and time again I felt that he let her down. He stands up to his father only a couple of times, and at the least helpful times. I'm just like, come on Dorian, pull yourself together and be a man and ACTUALLY help her when she NEEDS help. Not just when she's almost dead. Hence, this made me feel less inclined to be rooting for Dorian and look towards other alternatives. Pah, flirting and snogging just didn't quite pull off as a guise for chivalry. Still, he was smoking. Chaol on the other hand. ;) I felt that for a lot of the book Chaol was there but pushed aside because of Celeana's fascination with flirtatious, and ridiculously good looking prince. And all that time I wanted to give him a hug for being her subtle knight in shining armour, who, unlike Dorian, was there whenever she needed him, despite his heart slowly being pulled to pieces as he was pushed aside. He never gives up on her and their love/hate relationship is absolute gold. The only issue I had with Chaol's character was that I couldn't create him right in my minds eye. That made it hard for me to really get along with the character because I couldn't shake the incorrect image I had forged in my mind's eye, and that obviously kept clashing with what the book was telling me. Nonetheless, he had to be my favourite character aside from Celeana. HERE'S TO TEAM CHAOL! I really thought that without him this book would NOT have been so amazing. Whilst the flirting between Celeana and Dorian was enjoyable, it was cliché and made me feel sad for Dorian because that's not who he wanted to be - but I felt like he would have treated all the other ladies in the court the exact same way if he wasn't so obsessed with Celeana. Poor guy. Chaol and Celeana don't like each other from the beginning, there's more of a tense friendship between them, which makes their progression to "something more" wayy more genuine. It's a subtle shift, and not pushed. And damn, that scene with the chalk line - where can I find one of these men. Looking for a few people to really hate? People to sink those fangs of yours into? Let all that angst out? I present to you; Kaltain, a spiteful woman who suffers from frequent headaches, as do most pompous snobs in books. I hate her, and she's annoying, and she's horrible, insufferably clingy and selfish, and did I mention I hate her? Oh but there's more, after her take a good long bite out of Cain, and Perrington (if you dare get close to those smelly beasts). So yeah, let it all out, there's some good hating to be done. And let's not get started with the pure awesomeness of Nehemia. She redefines friendship on so many levels. From the first moments her character and Celeana's just click. The fact that they can both converse together in another languation just makes me want to go, ooh burnnn, to people like Kaltain, as they show her up in some seriously deceitful translation "mishaps". They compliment each other through their personalities. She better have a big role to play in Crown of Midnight, or I'll get my pitchfork out and start waving it around in protest. Where's the line for Team Nehemia? I'd like to join, and also buy a t-shirt with some fancy Wyrdmarks on them so I can cheer her on from the sidelines. The creepiness of the Wyrdmarks bring the books to a whole new level. Adding the excitement that was needed to make this book tick all the right boxes: unique setting, wonderful love triangle, action/fighting/death, awesomest friendship, a cute dog, solid fantasy and a bit of a thrill. READ THIS BOOK. Or you are missing out. Big time.show more

I decided to read this book because of the recent hype surrounding Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) and other reviews for Throne of Glass. The library had a copy, so I picked it up, extremely excited for a leading lady as a kickass assassin. Unfortunately, this book didn't break the stereotypical YA mold for me for three reasons: 1) It contained an unecessary love triangle, 2) It advertised lots of action, but those few scenes were severely lacking in depth and description, and 3) Our leading lady, who starts out as a ruthless, cunning, and beautiful warrior is reduced to an often blundering, not very observant, and dress-obsessed girl, like so many before her. I don't want to make it seem like I hate this book! I actually enjoyed reading it, but I had quite a few problems with it as well, some of them probably stemming from some unrealistic expectations on my part (I've grown accustomed to expecting lots of action scenes when the book synopsis screams lots of action scenes), but others resulting in my sheer frustration with our main character, who seemed a little bipolar and at times totally clueless. What I did really like was the worldbuilding and Celaena's flashbacks scenes. I loved slowly getting information about Adarlan and its conquest of the other nations around it. The subtle hints to magic and magical creatures was fascinating, and I loved how it tied in with Celaena's background. Her upbringing as an assassin when alluded to was really interesting and lent a lot of needed depth to her character, especially during the second half of the book. Her experiences in the salt mines of Endovier clearly hardened her, and I enjoyed her cynical and sarcastic personality during the first part of the book. However, her character goes downhill for me after she rejoins court life in order to compete to become the king's champion (hired assassin). She devotes her social life to annoying the captain of the guard, Chaol, gossiping with a neighbouring land's princess, and reading books that the prince recommends to her (in addition to commenting on his good looks). She also obtusely ignores a very very clear "I'm the ritual killer!" hint in favour of suspecting someone who is only slightly suspicious. I literally sat there for five minutes, thinking to myself, What just happened? Why is she even suspecting this person when it is clearly the other? Similarly, the whole reason behind the killings seemed so unncessarily convoluted that I was let down by the ending. All-in-all I was very disappointed with Celaena's approach and thoughts about the mystery surrounding the killer. She was supposed to be this cunning assassin, but she just acted like a court lady the whole time. I also wished that the author had spent as much time devoted to developing her action scenes as she was describing the dresses Celaena wore. I wanted assassin action; she was a in a contest among other mercenaries, thiefs, and assassins, so I wanted more of that as well. There were probably two scenes devoted to actual contest action, and then one at the finale. Very disappointing for an action lover. Finally, that love triangle. I liked the part where it ended. Overall, this book is pretty entertaining, has an interesting main character (for the first half at least), and great worldbuilding. I'll be reading the next book because I'm intrigued about Celaena's background (before she became an assassin) and the magic of Terrasen, but I'm not looking forward to any remnant of that love triangle or under-developed action scenes.show more