Monday, October 21, 2013

Review: Throne Of Glass (Throne Of Glass #1) By: Sarah J. Mass


Title: Throne Of Glass (Throne Of Glass #1)
Author: Sarah J. Mass
Published: August 7th, 2012
Source: Bought
Buy The Book: Amazon/Barnes and Noble
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!
Goodreads 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 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 Thoughts:

Throne Of Glass has been on my kindle since forever and I had heard so much buzz about this book and for some reason I still kept putting off reading and I was finally in the mood for some high fantasy, I will admit that I was hesitant when I started this one only because I know that people had some very strong opinions about this book, so many loved it but, I saw that there was some people who absolutely hated it. I personally loved it but, I could see where the people who didn't like it were coming from and I understood their reasons of why they didn't like it.

Celaena Sardothien is the most feared assassin in all of Adarlan, but she is caught and serves a year in the slave camp the salt mines of Endovier. Everything changes when the Crown Prince of Adarlan Dorian and the Captain of The Guard Chaol Westfall journey to Endovier to recruit her as his pick for the King's Champion competition. The Prince promises her freedom after four years of service to the King if she wins the competition, and Celaena accepts. As Celaena competes and lives at The Glass Castle,  her relationships with the Prince and the Captain of the Guard grow. But, as the competition progresses,  her competitors are found murdered in mysterious ways and if Celaena doesn't figure out what is going on she could be next.

Celaena was the perfect main character in my eyes, she was smart, cocky, sarcastic, and just an overall badass. I have seen some reviews talking about how they didn't like her character or that  her character just didn't make sense but, for me it did. Celaena is only seventeen years old and because of the life she as lead she seems much older but, I really felt like she was trying to find herself and meld the two halves of herself into one person and come to terms with her life. On the one side she is the world's most feared assassin and has been training her whole life to be the best but, she is still just a teenage girl who loves to eat sweets and wear pretty dresses. Her personality for me is what made the book so entertaining I rooted for her and I wanted her to find happiness and not just be used as a personal murderer whenever it suited a person's needs.  She was strong and she told her opinions. She was just a fierce person overall she loved fiercely and cared for everyone in that same way, I know that I would want a friend who cared as much as she did. She wasn't afraid of much and she just made this book so entertaining to read.

Ah, the  romance and the love triangle, I loved it. The one side of the triangle is Prince Dorian. The romance with Prince for me never felt completely real at least on Celaena's side. Dorian always felt like he was smitten with her and it never felt like he knew her well enough to have the feelings he was having for her. Celaena did seem like she felt something for him but, I think she was more realistic about it then Dorian was, he was the Prince and she was an assassin, they could never really be together. Now let's talk about my newest book boyfriend, the captain of the guard Chaol. Oh how I loved him throughout this book, he always felt understated and mysterious. He was serious and really respected his job and what he had to do to serve the King. I loved when he got to interact with Celaena because we really got to see another side to him and she definitely brought out a more playful side to him and whenever I got to read about them it made me smile. He was so restrained and respectful even when you knew that he felt something for her, I wanted him to finally let loose and just go for it. Chaol made me swoon throughout the whole book!

I was really happy that Sarah added the aspect of Celaena becoming friends with Princess Nehemia, their friendship began when Celaena met her touring the castle, she was the Princess from the land of Eywelle and was acting on her father's behalf to improve relations between her country and Aderlan because rebel forces had been acting up there. I just loved the aspect of Celaena having a female friend because she lived in such a male dominated world and was a part of a male dominated profession. I always felt this regal and graceful presence coming off the page whenever Nehemia was there. I was glad that Celaena had someone she could completely trust that wasn't associated with the King in anyway.  At times though I was hesitant of her only because it always felt like there was something that she was hiding.


If it isn't obvious from one of the longest reviews of a book I have done in a long time, I loved Throne of Glass. I immediately started Crown of Midnight right after I finished TOG and I  am loving it as well. I am going to be dying when I finish it and have to wait forever for the next book. I recommend this book for fantasy lovers, although it is considered high fantasy, it didn't feel as high fantasy as many of the other books in this genre I have read but, honestly Sarah J. Mass completely swept me away with this story and I never wanted it to end. 

Want some more thoughts on Throne Of Glass? Check out the link below!

1 comment:

  1. I've had this one on my bookshelf for a little while now - I just haven't had the time to get to it yet! Sounds like such an awesome book. Might have to bump this up on my TBR list. :)
    Glad you enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...