Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1), by Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Mystery

Rating: 5 GAZILLION STARS

Publication: August 7, 2012, by Bloomsbury USA Children

Format: Hardcover Edition (Borrowed)






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 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:

   Coming from my thoughts of this book, no words can explain my love for this book. It's unreal and unbelievable at the same time. Throne of Glass is my favourite book. There, I said it. (Well, it's one of them.)

    

      High-fantasy? Naw, not usually my type. Okay, it's never my type of genre to read from. But I think after reading this book, the genre and concept of high-fantasy is going to get a lot more purchases from this girl. *points to self* High-fantasy and heart pounding romance? Just my type.

      For as long as I've been reading YA fiction, the Throne of Glass series has been raved about over and over again. I never stood to give it a chance because of my bad reputation with reading fantasy novels. I usually could only stand a touch of fantasy, but even those books never end up getting a 5 star rating from me. I'm a tough judge, and fantasy used to be one of my biggest pet peeves. After reading this book, everything has changed completely.

       I just have this feeling in my heart right now that just wants me to gush and gush everything out. Like I don't know how to sort my thoughts out into words, but I will try my best starting now.

        Like I mentioned above, I was very afraid to read this book. I didn't want to be the black sheep again (as I usually now am). This book was intimidating me for a long time, especially because of the number of pages that it has. I knew it that I'd get bored easily and get shot down by the amount of info-dumping, but I was straight on wrong. I would like to send a personal thank you message to all of the people who proved me wrong. Haha, I'm now just like you Throners. :) (My personal fandom name for us.)

       If you haven't read this book already, then lemme give you a tiny recap. Celaena Sardothien has been working in the salt mines in Endovier to pay for her crimes. Yes, she's a slave, and yes, she gets whipped. Just to mention a few things: she's an assassin, and she's 18. So don't imagine a wimpy teenager. This girl can fight and she's known for her reputation. When she's dragged to a whole different city and found by the Crown Prince, she's wondering why was she chosen to come and bow down in front of Her Majesty. Prince Dorian offers her freedom. Freedom was all that she's ever wanted after everything's she been through, and that includes freedom from the memories of waking up on a frozen river next to her dead parents. Celaena must compete in a competition to become the King's next Champion, his next royal assassin. The competitors are feisty as ever, and they're all sponsored and represented by different members of the royal council. Celaena is sponsored by Dorian, the Prince, and feelings that are more than friendship begin to sprout up between them. If she beats her opponents and wins the duel match in the end, she is granted as becoming the King's Champion, and stays in the castle for four years, and then gets her name washed away and becomes free. But it's also the Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall, who understands Celaena the best because he's been through similar situations all of his life. Adding to that mystery, Celaena's fellow opponents begin to turn up dead, and it's all behind the master plan of one killer, and it's basically up to Celaena to find out who this is. But the most important thing: she needs to win.

        From beginning this book to the end, I was having an insta-love relationship with the characters and plot. From page one, I was in love with the whole reality. Everything about this book was perfect, and I wouldn't stand to miss a second of Sarah J. Maas's beautiful words that just haunt the reader until it's all over. Having the whole assassin idea taking place was beautiful. I normally hate assassins, but Celaena was just the most badass out of them all. I still can't believe that Sarah wrote this (at least the first draft) when she was sixteen! Gosh, she's talented.

      All throughout, Sarah had a great idea going on. The main idea that TOG decided to portray was that:

      It's not fair and it's never going to be. You can be beautiful and wise, but that doesn't mean that you're going to end up being royal, as in Celaena's case. Seeing an author write a whole other story in between the lines of this book was just fascinating, and only some will see that.

      The setting was just spectacular. I guess we don't really know if this is a dystopia setting or something historical, but either way, it's stunning beyond words. I love the world that these characters live in, despite the unfairness going on. In many ways, it's similar to ours, and that's even better because us readers can relate to things that are going on. The world developed to a great standing very quickly, and it felt so natural to just dream and live with the characters. During those 404 pages, I was in Celaena's world.

      Now, I saved the characters for last, because well...

        Put my thoughts together about them. They're just so perfect. *sheds tears*

        Celaena: Everyone's been giving mixed thoughts about this chick. Some good, some horrible thoughts. I loved Celaena, so dearly much. I don't care if she was "girly," or "too in love to not give a shit about anything else." Just because she's a freakin' badass assassin doesn't mean that she has to be all tough. SHE'S UNIQUE AND HER OWN AWESOME CHARACTER. I feel that people are being too judgemental about her. She's special in her own way. Adding to that, she's the best fighter, bro. Like everything to her comes naturally. *plays Selena Gomez* All of her moves and fights, they're so gorgeous to read about and watch. The visualizations that play in my head are like a movie. Speaking of which, this should really be a movie or TV show. *gushes*

         Dorian:

         My BAE is another character who gets hated on. He's gorgeous, he's beautiful, he's wanted, HE'S MINE. I don't understand why people hate him so much, but he's all perfect. I find that I usually fall for the royal ones. Teehee. 

         "Well, who wants to be hated? Though I'd rather be hated than invisible. But it makes no difference." 

         Well, I don't know how else to explain my love for Dorian, but there you have it before I go full on blabbing about his beauty to me. *plays All of Me*

                

          Chaol:

                 

         I simply can't and am not able to choose between Chaol and Dorian, and I probably won't ever be able to. Please, just look at this lovely quote:

         "Celaena." He stopped a few feet from the guards. His eyes were rich, molten brown. "Yes?" He heartbeat steadied. "You look rather pretty today," was all he said before the doors opened and they walked forward."

         When I read this quote, my heart skipped a beat, literally. I seriously don't know how Celaena can remain so calm and easy-going around these two beautiful men. I'd just fawn over instantly. 

         And then we had the awesome side characters as well. My favourite would have to be Nehemia. If you've read this, you'll understand why. *grins* She's Celaena's guardian angel, basically, and their friendship is so brilliant. 

         By the end, I just couldn't believe how much I adored this book. It was so addicting, so petrifying, cryptic, and so inspiring and life-changing at the same time. And I'm officially having a book-hangover. I just can't stop thinking about the characters and story and I can't get over the world.

          Local library, I'm running over to you to get Crown of Midnight!

  Some Other Beautiful Quotes:

"When she awoke every morning, she repeated the same words: I will not be afraid. For a year, those words had meant the difference between breaking and bending; they had kept her from shattering in the darkness of the mines. Not that she'd let the captain know any of that." (p. 2)

"You don't care for salmon?" "I hate fish. I'd rather die than eat it." "That's surprising," he said, taking a bite. "Why?" "Because you smell like one." (p. 92)

"I like music," she said slowly, "because when I hear it, I ... I lose myself within myself, if that makes sense. I become empty and full all at once, and I can feel the whole earth roiling around me. When I play, I'm not... for once, I'm not destroying. I'm creating." (p. 230)

"No matter what happens," she said quietly, "I want to thank you." Chaol tilted his head to the side. "For what?" Her eyes stung, but she blamed it on the fierce wind and blinked away the dampness. "For making my freedom mean something." (p. 350)

"But she barely heard him. Huddled on the ground, hot tears slid down Celaena's face. She'd won. Through the pain, Celaena began laughing."(p. 369)

"He was done with politics and intrigue. He loved her, and no empire, no king, and no earthly fear would keep him from her. No, if they tried to take her from him, he'd rip the world apart with bare hands. And for some reason, that didn't terrify him." (p. 371)