BOOK REVIEW - THRONE OF GLASS by SARAH J MAAS - THRONE OF GLASS # 1 - BLOOMSBURY - 4 CHAOL STARS!

By: Sarah J Maas

Published By: Bloomsbury

Released : Available Now

Details : Paperback , 404 Pages

Received from publisher for review

RATING : 4 CHAOL STARS!!

Blurb: Goodreads

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 best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return 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?

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle :

We begin this story with Celaena Sardothien, eighteen years old, a notorious assassin in slavery in the Salt Mines of Endovier.

A paid killer.

Enter the Captain of the Royal Guard, twenty two year old Chaol Westfall to drag this filthy assassin from the mines and escort her to stand in front of the Crown Prince of Adarlan, Prince Dorian, nineteen years old and childhood friend of Chaol.

The Prince needs a champion, he has a proposition for Celaena, one she can’t refuse.

We meet Duke Perrington straight off the bat and I must say he is not very appealing. The guy plays hardball and is dangerous. He does play the part well.

My first impressions of Celaena were, very tough, and smart, but underneath, feminine. Her age and career choice were hiding a girl that has missed the more feminine things in life..... a kinder life. Hence why I think she has such interest in clothes, gowns, and hiding her scars. There was still a girl underneath all the bravery and verbal defence mechanism she has in place.

Orphaned at eight years of age, mentored by the King of the Assassins, Arobynn Hamel, her life was never going to be that of a normal girl. I was a little disappointed to not read much about Arobynn. He is still a bit of a mystery to me. I have a feeling he is going to pop up in a sequel. After all he is King of the Assassins.

My impressions of Chaol as the book progressed were, he was my Team guy, he had his limitations to how he could express himself around Celaena and the Crown Prince. He cared. He had things he wanted to say, but.......

Chaol, although Prince Dorian’s friend, he can’t look at Celaena. He must stand back. Me thinks he wants to go forth. He is also just a guard, not of any standing, compared to the Prince. He gave up his title to his brother.

Prince Dorian although we are led to believe there is a love triangle brewing, I would not choose Dorian as he seems not man enough at this stage. He appears more pampered Prince who is bored by his court duties and doesn’t at this stage have any real direction his life is taking. He has his good points, he is not like his power hungry, mysterious father, The King, who has acquired himself all sorts of dangerous knowledge, a man who will kill hundreds for his own means. A very, very, dangerous man......be afraid.

I would have liked Chaol and Dorian to have had stronger personalities. I did like these guys but it felt like their characters were being held back.

I loved the glass castle of Rifthold. I thought it was described well and it had quite a mysterious feel to it. Hidden passages , Wyrdmarks and tombs. This castle has some secrets in its closet.

The blurb for this story states a ‘to- the-death tournament’. I was under the impression that it was like a ‘Hunger Games’ style, champions against champions fighting it out.

The tasks they had to complete, and not be eliminated or accidentally killed from, were more about skills. The winner at the end was to receive freedom after a set contract with The King. Even the actual finale duel was not about killing to the death, it was the death blow that counted, not the act of killing the opponent.

Trust me, there is lots of gorey killing going on, but of a different nature.

I did predict who the villain/s were and where the plot was taking me, but I enjoyed the ride. There were some twists thrown in that turned the story about, which I loved!

The fugly squad of sub characters were brutish and challenging for Celaena. Sometimes I thought her character was far too cocky which took away some of the tense feel of the book. Chaol and Dorian were too confident in Celaena. I would have liked there to have been more emotion for the reader to hold/grip their book when reading the tasks. We did get one task that was great to read and involved Nox, a fun sub character who I would like to read more about. The scene was nice and death defying and it showed me what Celeana could do. I felt like I knew Nox more than some of the other champions.

Nehemia is a lovely character who is shrouded in mystery , I think she has a lot more to show us. I would actually love to see her with Prince Dorian. I think they could pull the kingdom out of the mess The King has placed it in. Plus beautiful babes. 

Dorian won me over a bit more when he produced Fleetfoot. There is a kindness there that needs to be heading a kingdom, not reading books.

Philippa is a gorgeous character, I loved watching her bring out the girl in Celaena. A lovely character who is very caring, motherly and loyal. A very funny scene with candy and Philippa.

I think there is a mystery waiting to be solved with Celaena and her family and past. Sarah eludes to things and I thought they were like little seeds being left to grow in a sequel.

How Celaena ended up being caught and enslaved in Endovier, I am still a bit fuzzy about, but I am sure that will come out in the sequel or prequel novellas?

I don’t read a lot of fantasy and I admit to getting a bit tongue tied by some of the character’s names. I was reading an ‘uncorrected proof’, I would love to know that a pronunciation section was added to the final copy.

I enjoyed Throne of Glass and look forward to reading where Sarah will take me in the sequel. I shall move on to the four prequel novella’s next and see what they tell me.

This is the start of a very promising series.

Michelle