Book Blog #55: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Title: Throne of Glass
Author: Sarah J. Maas
# of Pages: 432 (paperback)
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance, Assassins
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.


Review: Well, that was disappointing. It looks like assassin books aren't really my thing. I found this book very similar to Grave Mercy, which I strongly disliked. However, I would say that this book is a smidge better. Just a smidge.

What really annoyed me was the fact that two guys were swooning over Celanea. Sure, I get it if you become attracted to her slowly, as the book goes along, but an immediate attracting? No. And I couldn't understand how Celanea's personality changed so much from the beginning of the book. At first, she's acting all tough and thinking of all the yways she can kill a person and then a few chapters later she's acting like a normal person. Very strange.

I was a little disappointed of how much romance there was. I wanted the whole killing, assassin package where there's constant killing and stuff. And while, yes, people die and there's plenty of weapon use, it felt like her relationship with her new dude friends was in the forefront.

I strongly dislike how obvious the bad guys were. I thought that there was going to be this major discovery of a traitorous, mastermind who wasn't EVEN a suspect of being a bad guy. But the antagonists were pretty much established in the earlier bit of the book; Cain, the Duke, that lady person, and the king. All bad guys. Plus some.

So, yeah. It wasn't as good as I hoped. If you haven't read this book OR Grave Mercy, but want to read them, I'd recommend reading Throne of Glass. If you really liked this one, then try Grave Mercy. Or vice versa. But I didn't like either book very much.