Monday 22 January 2018

"Throne of Glass" #1 by Sarah J. Mass

Title: Throne of Glass (#1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy
Overall: 7/10



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. He offers 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. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. 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.

Jo's review:
I'm on some kind of marathon of Sarah J. Maas' books. I love her language, writing style and imagination. Although it's filled with action, mystery, likable characters and fun dialogue, it also has a few tacky and boring bits: love triangle and predictable plot twists. Because of that, I couldn't really get into this story but still - it's a really good fantasy book. I like Celaena for her wit, strength and never-ending love for books and sweets. It was a bit bothering that she was supposed to be 'world's greatest assassin' and yet her portrayal was more focused on how pretty she was. I'm definitely going to reach for the rest of the books in the series as the plot in "Throne of Glass" in quite undeveloped and I'm curious to see what happens next (and I'm hoping to see less love triangle drama). 

Favourite quotes (I can relate to all of them, honestly):
“Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.” 

“I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.” 

 He picked up the brown bag of candy on the table. "What's your . . ." He trailed off as he weighed the bag in his hands. "Didn't I give you three pounds of candy?"
She smiled impishly.
"You ate half the bag!"
"Was I supposed to save it?"
"I would have liked some!"
"You never told me that."
"Because I didn't expect you to consume all of it before breakfast!"
She snatched the bag from him and put it on the table. "Well, that just shows poor judgment on your part, doesn't it?

6 comments:

  1. The love triangles and predicable plots would put me off! But everyone raves about Maas's books, and I even own some. So I will jump in someday.

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  2. You know, I've never read anything of SJ Maas :) anything at all! I don't even know how I survive all the hype :D

    Mm, I can definitely relate the "best assassin, but as long as she's pretty" part. That's poor female rep. Meh!

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  3. I definitely agree with you, Jo! I really didn't like this one (because of the cliche plot), but the following books in the series + Sarah's other books are just so well-written! There's something about her writing style that's so easy for me to get into.

    - Aimee @ Aimee, Always

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  4. I have the 2 first books in the series. One day I'll have to try!

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  5. I really enjoyed this one and I'm also looking forward to how it will continue. I agree it is still underdeveloped plot, but I think that was intentional here so it didn't bother me. Like the dual reviews.

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  6. I'm curious to see how you like the series as it develops. I really think Celaena's character matures a lot and you'll come to see much more of her assassin side. The books in general also get a lot more detail as the series goes on!

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