Author: Sarah J. Maas
Release Date: August 7th, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 416
Edition: Hardcover
Cover Judge: Eh, I neither love nor dislike it.
Cover Judge: Eh, I neither love nor dislike it.
Quote Choice: No quote since it's a DNF review!
Source: Gifted
Source: Gifted
Goodreads: Link
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.
So I usually don't write reviews of books I don't finish because I don't feel I have enough to say about whatever it was. But I got more than half-way through Throne of Glass by the time I put it down so I feel I have enough to say to write a review!
1. Let's start with the main character, Celaena. I just...throughout the book, you're constantly told that she's an assassin, the most famous of all the assassins. They tell you she's killed dozens but you never see this in her personality. I wanted to see a girl, yes, but a girl who is a assassin. It might just be because I have high expectations of my thieves and assassins (see Thief's Covenant or Grave Mercy, two of my favorite books) but the author is constantly telling you and not showing you. Not to mention the fact that Celaena is nearly perfect in every way: she's funny, witty, nice, everyone falls at her feet once meeting her, she can do just about anything when it comes to skills, she's good with men, she was beautiful and could play the piano, and she comes from a magical lineage. Just...all the things. People can argue her fatal flaw was her arrogance but it really wasn't enough for me to make her a well-rounded character.
2. I think the main theme of my review is probably going to be: All The Things. Because the plot? Was all over the place. The whole main thing is that this girl is competing for her freedom but then they bring in magic and an evil and all these other things that really made the whole point of the story become...nothing. I would've been perfectly happy leaving the magic element for another book (this is a trilogy, right?) instead of bringing it into something that already had a plot in the first place. Ironically enough, it was around the introduction of the whole magic-plot that I started losing my interest in reading, which is weird because guys, it's me. MAGIC.
3. Did Harmony like anything, you ask? WELL YES I DID. I loved Chaol. Seriously, I thought he was great. He was stoic and rough while still being caring and a nice person to the people he cares about. He is the ONLY RESPONSIBLE person in this whole books as well, even though he does give Caelena a tour of the castle to make her stop whining which made me facepalm because seriously? You're going to give the ASSASSIN a tour of the castle? Aside from that, I thought he was a great character and sadly, we don't get to see enough of him in this book. But who DO we get to see a lol of?
4. Oh my god, I hated Dorian. Like seriously, I cannot stand him. He was a carbon copy of every other "princely" character that appears in books: arrogant, suave, "charming", and he behaves like a child. Seriously, he reminded me of a five years old most of the time. It's not because he wanted to marry for love or anything but he was so insolent and would stir up trouble even when there shouldn't have been any. And then his romance with Caelena was seriously of no interest to me. I would've HUGELY preferred there to be no love triangle and instead have Dorian and Caelena having found a friend in one another since they both talk so much about not having any friends outside of Chaol.
And that's it for me! Down below I have some good reviews of this book because a lot of people really loved it so you might not take my word for it and want to see some positive reviews.
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