Genre: Fantasy
Source: Barnes and Noble
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Synopsis: "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 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."
Review:
Throne of Glass was much more than I expected it to be. It was much more exciting; much more fantasy centered; much more everything. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to experience because of some of the complaints my friends were expressing over this book, but I think that this book was a fantastic start to a series.
Celaena Sardothien was such a relatable character. Not in the sense that she was an assassin who was punished to a harsh life in a salt mine; or how she had two guys like her(I mean who has that problem in real life?). The really amazing thing about Celaena was how real her emotions were. She wasn't a robot and she wasn't too incredibly sappy or emotional. She felt and acted like a person. I want to send a letter to Sarah J. Maas thanking her for achieving this incredible feat.
The fantasy and magic that had a role in the novel actually really surprised me in a good way. I wasn't expecting magic to have such an integral part in the book. Plus, the magic was actually good and was explained enough that I understood it. For me, the magic really added an exciting element to the book.
Even with all the amazingness that was Celaena and the really cool magic, two things bothered me: the plot and the romance.
Momentum-wise, Throne of Glass, was exceptional. The action was always continuing (with the exception of the beginning). What irked me was the writing style at points. For me, the events that were supposed to be plot twists were pretty easy to guess. There was just too much showing and telling, instead of withholding (or even showing just a little bit less) for suspense. This ended up taking a lot of the fun out of reading this book. I felt like the bad guy was so (INCREDIBLY) obvious and this really annoyed me. It would've been better with a little more suspense, but overall the plot was okay.
Romance. Do I even need to say more? I was thinking of this marvelous love triangle (maybe even done right?) and the love in this book was just too...empty. It felt fake and really rushed. I was so frustrated with the pacing of the romance and how much it dictated the plot at points. Some of the romance was really sweet, but for much of the book, it seemed so artificial and phony.
Overall, I'm really happy that this book exceeded my expectations. I'm definitely reading the rest of the series and am really excited for the potential of the sequels.
**I'm still trying to figure out layout and formatting (because windows live writer hates me) so please deal with the weird formatting
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