Book Review : Throne of Glass // Sarah J.Maas

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 four 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.

Rate : 2.5 / 5 ⭐

Review :

I knew this book was hyped up to the point one would expect it to be as great as Harry Potter. But thankfully before I read it I did catch a gist of it being dissappointing so i didnt have high hopes when I read this book.

To talk about the writing I must say its quite okay. I dont like the way she um.. describes certain things (wish I could get you an example but I cant really remember the page numbers) and her sentences sometimes are lacking.

Regarding the plot, it was interesting and a bit typical for a YA fantasy novel and I, sadly, guessed a lot of them beforehand but pretty shape. But you know the book promises us a deadly assassin and I am very dissappointed that it didnt keep it.

I expected there to be alot of the tests (Tests to determine who will be the King's champion) and for her to show off her badassery and mad action but nah. It was like Celaena was all talk and no show. It was frustrating that only very few scenes showed how capable she is.

I did love some of the side characters. Nehemia, my favourite character, is this strong princess who sacrifices a lot of her things to protect and help her people. I also like the friendship between her and Celaena. It was something I never really expected, the depth of their friendship. Because books always focus on the romantic aspects, mostly.

And speaking of romance, the love triangle was horrid. You had this one sudden burning passion and lust sort of thing and this other slow burning beautiful sorta one. I of course prefered if both of them werent love. I would just want both of them to be wonderful friends. Especially the latter man.

And speaking of the male species the main two leads are Dorian who is the crown prince and has a funny jester sorta character but also has this side of him where he wants to prove himself to his father, the king who has tried to conquer the land, and then we have Chaol who is the Captain of the Guards and is a brooding grumpy sorta person. I love Chaol because of his loyalty. He is very loyal to Dorian, a good friend of his, and he is this practical and vigilant person.

I must say the side characters were better evolved than the main character which can be really dissappointing. I honestly expected a lot from Celaena. I did like her (although annoying) arrogant attitude and I wanted to see her evolve and develop from there but it didnt happen in this book. It was more like she took a step back from who she is supposed to be.

All in all I can say that I didnt very much enjoy this whole book but I think its because this is the first book in the series and so there had to be a lot of world building and introductions and creeping in mysteries and so I will read the second book, hopefully it will be better.