Book Review: Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas

 
Title: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas 
Release Date: August 2nd 2012
 Publisher: Bloomsbury

Source: Gifted by my awesomesauce sister ♥

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?

I'm not exaggerating when I say Throne of Glass blew me away. I expected to like it, but not this much. It'll certainly haunt me for the next few days.

So we have Celaena, an eighteen-year-old girl who is on a whole new level of badass. When I learned about this book last year, I already knew I'd like her. She was the heroine I'd been waiting for: strong, beautiful, intelligent, and sassy - unlike most other brooding heroines. At times I thought she was becoming too perfect, but she had one constant flaw: her temper (which wasn't too different from my own; sadly, my ass-kicking skills are pathetic compared to hers).

Another thing that made Celaena stand out was her love for dresses. At first I thought it wouldn't work with her being an assassin and all, but it really did because she had been the best and most sought-after in her profession, which meant she'd earned a lot to buy her sparkly gowns and trinkets. And then there was her inner bookworm which made her even more relatable.

But because she was an assassin, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow every time she showed concern or sympathy over the numerous tragedies in the story. It showed her good side, yes, but to me it made her character a little inconsistent, especially because she often bragged about her killing prowess. That said, I really loved her snarky, piss-me-off-and-I'll-skin-you-alive attitude.

Celaena's two love interests, Dorian the prince and Chaol the captain, were equally interesting and entertaining as well. At first glance, their personalities seemed very different, so it was fun to see their similarities come to light as Celaena got to know them more. I was surprised when I discovered the love triangle - and nervous, too, because love triangles don't often work well, but this one was good, I tell you.

Unfortunately, Throne of Glass didn't come without faults. The world-building, which is crucial to high fantasy books, didn't satisfy. I felt like a lot of needed information about the other parts of the world aside from Adarlan were left out, and that also made it quite difficult to understand their history. I guess it'll come in the next books, though. I was also disappointed by how the competition had to take a step down to give way for the underlying parts of the plot. When I added this book to my TBR list, I was looking forward to reading about a girl who could prove herself better than men who were bigger and older than her. I got that, sure, but the action was less than I'd expected. But all that said, I'm still very eager for the sequel, Crown of Midnight!

MY FAVORITE PART was this:

My name is Celaena Sardothien, but it makes no difference if my name's Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I'd still beat you, no matter what you call me.

RATING:

(cover and summary from Goodreads.com)