Hello, Angels!
Good news! What are they? Well, keep reading!
I bring to your attention the review of "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas.
Book: "Throne of Glass"
Series: "Throne of Glass"
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Pages: 400
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 bes of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.
Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in retrun 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?
I've finished this book and I present to you - the Review!
What can I say - I've managed to finish it in a blink of an eye, in a catch of a breath. Okay, fine, it wasn't exactly like that because I've stayed awake up until 3a.m. to finish it, but it still counts! And it worth every single second of it. I would do it thousand times if I have to.
Just to be clear on this - this is one of those books that usually people say 'Oh, you have to read it' or 'It's amazing, you will love it', and they can't stop flatter the book, so based on people's opinion I was quite eager to find out if the book was really that good or it was just another exageration . Well, there is no exageration with Sarah J. Maas. From the very first word up until the very last one - I LOVED the book.
Sarah introduces us to an amazing fairy tale world, where mystery, danger and palace intrigues combine. Oh, and let's not forget - magic,which is supposed to be forbidden.
Celaena has spent the last one year in Endovier's salty mines but has a deal on the table that she can't refuse. Prince Dorian and Captain Westfall offer her the only thing she wants - her freedom. There is only one little condition - Celaena has to compete in the King's tournament for the next King's Champion and represent the Prince in the tournament. And she has to win. What about her opponents? Oh, nothing much - just regular men, if we don't consider the fact that those are the most gifted and cruel assassins and thieves in the whole Kingdom. And what did Celaena do? She accepts. After all, who can take down all of those men and win if not the Adarlan's Assassin?
Celaena has accepted the deal and now she is trapped between the walls of the Glass Palace in Rifthold, and every single day her time is divided by boring palace and court customs and intrigues and exhausting training and preparation for the tournament. Oh, and Chaol Westfall can best relate to what Celaena is going through and how she feels. Like that's not enough, but there are complicatios, intrigues, and it feels like the magic that was supposed to be extinct is not so extinct anymore... One by one the champions in the torunament end up gruesomely murdered.
That is a mystery that Celaena just can't pass by and has to resolve. No matter the price.After all, she can't just deny the request of the very first Queen of Adarlan, right? She might be already dead (for centuries), but she is still a Queen.
To be honest, I was amazed by the skills that Sarah J. Maas is showing when it comes to expressing the life in a castle and a court - no unnecessary details, but enough of them to keep you in anticipation to find out more. In the same time, you can feel like you've just end up in a fairy tale or a magical Disney world. She is juggling so carefully on the edge of palace intrigues in an ancient kingdom and fairytale magical land.
Celaena is an amazing and carefully created character that is strong, feisty, filled with anger and rage, but at the same time sad, and even scared. There were times that I actually felt sorry for Celaena, although if she knew - she would've hate me for it (if she was real, that is, but let's just all pretend for a secont that she is). I've felt sorry for her because of the scars from the past that she is carrying and from the fact that they might never heal. There were also times that I was so proud of her, although I have ot say that I was annoyed that she has to keep all of her talents hidden (if we could call talents the fact that at any point she can kill everyone around her in ten different ways). Oh, and let's not mention her meetings with the King... I wanted to go inside the book and twist his neck.
Considering all of the above mentioned stuff, there also was suprising love triangle between the beautiful and young Captain Chaol Westfall, the amazing and charming Prince Dorian Havilliard and of course - our precious assassin in the leading role - Celaena. Even though everyting inside of me was screaming for Celaena to choose Dorian (that might be because of his raven black hair and sapphire blue eyes that reminded me so much of Rhysand from "A court of thorns and roses" series...), well let's say Celaena's pragmatic thinking took a twisted turn. Not that I don't like Chaol Westfall, well.. okay... I don't like him - I find him quite boring... Who knows, I might give him a chance and I just might like him ... One day.
The King... I despise him. And he reminded me so much of The King from "The Selection" Series by Kiera Cass - a person who is striving only for power and will get it at any cost. While Dorian reminded me of Prince Maxon again from "The Selection" ... In the times where he didn't reminded me of my beloved Rhysand that is. Okay , fine, was it just me seeing the similarities between Prince Maxon and Dorian?! Even though the storyline of "The Selection" doesn't have anything in common with "Throne of Glass" (later on I will write a review for that series as well, so stay tuned). At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter because America is so far away from Celaena.
In a conclusion, what I can only say is that "Throne of Glass" is an amazing book, with a very captivating storyline and would not be even able to catch your breath, because if you do - who knows, you might miss something very important. It's definitely worth your time and your effort to read it. I definitely can't reccomend this more.
Now, as every review requires a rating with stars or numbers or something like that (otherwise it wouldn't be called a review), although I can't possibly imagine to give out less than this for Sarah's books, yet again I will leave my rating stars in here.
Now I am on my way to read the second book from the series - "Crown of Midninght" .
See you next time and until then - keep reading! In case you're too lazy and you don't want to read - then that's too bad for you. But hey, you can always catch up with the next review!
XoXo, -K.