Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena Sardothien is an assassin that has been put in a high security underground prison, but the crown prince Dorian and the captain of the guard Chaol (among others) come to get her from the prison in order for her to participate in a competition to become the king’s champion. If she defeats the other champions and survives to be the last one standing, then after she fulfills her time as the king’s champion, she will earn her freedom.

There are enemies within the castle, monsters and magic that no one has seen for hundreds of years and Celaena isn’t sure who to trust. With the captain of the guard on one side and the crown prince on the other, can she determine the best path to earn her freedom and help rid the kingdom of the evil lurking beneath the surface?

When I first found myself scrolling through the endless recommendations on bookstagram, Sarah J Maas was a recurring frontrunner. I did a little digging and I found that Throne of Glass was her the first book in her first series, so I decided that would be where I would jump in. I dove into this book because I was dying to find a book that would pull me in by my hair and keep me addicted. Unfortunately, this book did not do that for me.

I liked the world, the magic of it all, the assassins and the king. I wanted to know more about the wars and the politics of the land but I just couldn’t get attached to the characters. I felt that the book centered too much around the characters and their relationships (which felt a bit forced if you ask me) and not enough around the world they lived in and the reasons behind it all. I’m honestly interested to see if this changes as the series goes on.

The whole plot centers around this competition to become the kings champion, but I never figured out why. Why did he need a champion? Why did all of the different members of court get to appoint their own contestants? Why was it sort of a secret? I have finished the book ya’ll and I still don’t really know.

My biggest negative opinion is that the three main characters are sort of empty and inconsistent. They are introduced as one thing and then often act and even appear very different than the way they were introduced. Celaena is a well-known deadly assassin who has no love for the royal family, and yet she doesn’t hesitate to blush when the prince looks her way. Which brings us to Prince Dorian, the supposedly arrogant, self-centered prince who mostly just isn’t that at all. He seems to be a pretty well rounded and descent guy all things considered. For those of us who like broody dark princes with secrets and dark decisions to make, he falls a bit flat. Then there is Chaol, captain of the guard and jealous puppy. I can’t quite figure out the love triangle here and it felt so forced to me. I just could not get on board with her having feelings for either of them. None of it felt authentic to the characters or their motivations.

I did love some of the other friendships and the enemies that Celaena made along the way and I hope to see them blossom into more fruitful things in the rest of the series. I love fantasy worlds, assassins and kings. I long to live in worlds like the one that Sarah J Maas built for this story. It has so much potential and I will be diving into the rest of series eventually in order to live in the world and give the main characters a chance to grow on me.

I give Throne of Glass 3.5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐✰

-Jacqui

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Format & Source: E-book, purchased on my Nook
Publishing Info: Bloomsbury Publishing, August 2013