Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury 
Pages: 416
Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley AND from RUBY who growled at BEA people for me
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, Special Shelf

Summary

From Goodreads:

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 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 exhilirating. 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.

Review

It's like all of my favorite books wrapped into one package of awesome

Sarah J. Maas must love every book *I* love, because reading Throne of Glass was like taking all the best bits of all my favorite books ever and rolling them all together to create a gigantic homage of love to such epically awesome series like The Banned and the Banished, The Queen's Thief, and The Black Jewels.

Yet it STILL felt totally original and not at all like a rip off. It was like, when you read a fairy tale retelling and you get to spot all of the little references back to the original. Like that, but it was like a personal scavenger hunt of all my favorite books.

Usually, for me, it's all about the book. But every once in a while an author gives me such a spectacular gift that my feelings go beyond the text and I want to bestow the author with lots of hugs and thank yous. If I ever meet Sarah J. Maas in person, lord help me, the squees will be epically, embarrassingly loud.

Apparently, I'm a total sexist

It took me a little while to warm up to Celaena. I read the first novella and I thought, with no small degree of horror and shame, that, "Oh my, I'm not sure if I can like her." She was brash, arrogant, lazy, crude and, really, arrogant needs to be mentioned again.

It wasn't until a few chapters into Throne of Glass that I had a light bulb moment: If Celaena was a guy, I would be completely in love with her.

And then it clicked. Celaena is Eugenides. Celaena is Lucivar. Celaena is Han freaking Solo! I may not be able to swoon over her the same way, and she may not be the typical sleepover party friend, but, you know what? I can totally get on board with a female Han. I mean, can you imagine the sleepover hijinks possibilities with the Millennium Falcon?! 

Plus, on second thought, Celaena also kind of IS a typical sleepover party friend. She might be a tough as nails assassin, but she thankfully doesn't shun girly things. You know in the sleepover party movies how they have the fashion montage where they all try on lots of pretty clothes and make funny faces? Celaena would totally do that. She appreciates important things in life like sparkly dresses and candy, and that's a girl I can get along with.

The love triangle I actually didn't hate

Yes, there is a love triangle. But NOOO, I didn't hate it! It's not really a triangle in the sense that Celaena has two equally awesome stereotypical guys and she's too indecisive to choose between them. If it were like that, then I would have hated it.

It's more like, she has two different relationships with two very different guys (neither of which fall into the "good guy/bad guy" mold) and her feelings for them progress in logical ways given the circumstances throughout the book. Vague? I know, I'm sorry. I don't want to spoil it.

Plus, I'm TOTALLY biased. There's one guy I'm rooting for and he'd BETTER WIN IN THE END. He's just, oh swoon. He's stoic and has a strong sense of responsibility. He has Sherlockian powers of observation, and he's also steadfast, loyal, and he has a soft spot the size of an elephant (even though he'd be aghast to admit that). His awkward attempts to show he cared about Celaena were heart-meltingly aww-inducing and fit in perfectly with their combative hate-turning-to-love relationship. I spent the better part of the book twisted up in *THAT* kiss anticipation.

I'll tolerate the other guy because he's nice and all, but he's so young and he has a lot of growing up to do. BUT, that growth will happen and I'm curious to see how he develops (and he may very well become a real contender for my heart then). His path and position make him more than just a pretty face and I'm looking forward to seeing how his character develops across the series—not just as a love interest for Celaena, but as a full character in his own right.

And that's what I love about this series. The secondary characters could all easily become main characters themselves (like the warrior princess? SO cool!) They have history and arcs and secrets and growth and personality that are all detailed and strong enough to command Main Character status. Their paths intertwine now, but they each have journeys they need to take separately as well, and I'm very curious to see how Sarah J. Maas develops them in the sequels. 

But what about the plot?

Oh, right, the plot. I'm a character girl, and clearly I'm in love with these characters enough that the plot doesn't really matter to me much. But, I was still pretty invested.

First off, there's a contest between the assassins to see who is the assassiniest assassin of them all. Is there any question who will win? Erm, no, not really. But that doesn't matter. It was still fun watching the contestants compete and, for me, the competition plotline never gets old even though it's always pretty darn predictable. Also, that fight scene at the end? Talk about nail-biting!

THEN there's the mystery of what or who is killing the contestants, because, yeah, something is turning them into pretty grotesque corpses and while this is great from the whittle-down-the-competition angle, the fact that something is killing contestants and Celaena IS a contestant is a little troubling.

So she sleuths, and I love her for it. She utilizes both the library AND secret passageways, two things that are near and dear to my heart. And, in this case, both lead her to buried secrets from the past, which pretty much makes the whole scenario explode with win. There are also red herrings and side reveals that were fun and definitely had me barking up the wrong tree once or twice.

And, while I wasn't totally in love with the Big Reveal and the eventual villain reveal was a little, erm, deflating, it also didn't really matter much because the journey was so much fun. Plus, this is only part one of a series, so I know there's more to it all than I'm learning right now so I'm ok with suspending judgement for now. (Also, honestly, I don't really care because I'm a character girl).

Bottom line

Throne of Glass is not a perfect book. But it IS a perfect book for me. The characters make me smile, the romance gives me that prickly anticipatory tension I love, and the 416 pages and promise of sequels makes me think, "Hm, I'm not sure if that's going to be enough for me." Because I want more. Now, please?

And that's not because the story ends mid-way through. Granted there are loose ends that need wrapping up and there is now the entire chapter of Celaena's new life that's been opened wide, and, most importantly, I still need to witness *THAT* kiss, but I'm not dangling from any cliffs here.  I want more simply because I love these people and this world and the fact that everything is dripping with vibes of all my favorite books.

Simply put, Sarah J. Maas is now one of my very few auto-buy authors.

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about Throne of Glass that I haven't addressed?
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