Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass | Review

Description from Goodreads:

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 offered 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 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.

I never really thought of myself as a fantasy girl, contemporary, yes, dystopian yes, but fantasy? I wasn't convinced. But since joining the bookstagram community, and watching booktubers (new obsession) I noticed that everyone was talking about Throne of Glass. I wasn't going to miss out on the latest big hyped series, so I went ahead and ordered the first two books. I read Throne of Glass with some trepidation, not sure if the high fantasy would be up my alley. I can tell you now that it is, oh boy it is! So I took a look at some of the books that have made their way onto my favourites list, and what do you know there's a serious fantasy presence!

There was a whole load of factors that made me love Throne of Glass, one of which being the kick-ass character Celaena Sardothien. The book starts off with Celaena being taken from prison to the prince, and although she's in a vulnerable state, noticeably thin and malnourished, she still manages to sass the guard and the prince. You have to be a strong person to go through what Celaena went through and come out (mentally) fighting fit. Her internal commentary on the whole situation was really amusing, all in all it added up to me loving her immediately.

Celaena was not the only character that I really liked, Chaol Westfall caught my eye almost instantly. He takes his job of guarding Celaena really seriously, he doesn't trust her at all. One of the things I really loved about Throne of Glass was that as the story developed so did Celaena and Chaol's relationship, as did Chaol's trust in Celaena. I liked Chaol so much!! He was my favourite male character, I found Dorian far too interested in himself, and what he was getting from his dealings with Celaena. In my humble opinion, Chaol has more to him than Dorian, there was so much left to discover in Chaol's character, I'm not saying that Dorian is a boring one dimensional character, but Sarah J. Maas left me wanting to read the next book in anticipation of the development of Celaena and Chaol's relationship.

If you hadn't guessed, there's sort of a love triangle in Throne of Glass. I do not like love triangles, I think they're pointless and infuriating. Yet, I did not feel that way while reading Throne of Glass, in fact I may have actually liked the love triangle! That's right, I finally understand why people on booktube have said that the Throne of Glass series contains their favourite love triangle! At first I scoffed when they said it, never thinking that I'd enjoy a love triangle, but I was wrong. I have an OTP, it may be clear from what I've already said that I was very pro Chaol. Honestly, I didn't see the attraction to Dorian, other than the small detail of him being a prince. I really hope that in Crown of Midnight they'll be more Celaena/Chaol action!

After finishing Throne of Glass I can only say that Sarah J. Maas is a master of dialogue. I could have read a book full of nothing but conversation, not something I say about every book I read. I basically loved everything about Throne of Glass, the world building was fantastic and meant that the book was easy to follow, I'm not ashamed to admit that some fantasy books can loose me in vivid descriptions of multiple mystical creatures.

The only thing I can honestly critique about Throne of Glass is that the names are extremely difficult to pronounce. It took me watching a YouTube to video to realise how to pronounce Celaena's name, and to do this day I don't know if I'm mentally saying Chaol right!

I absolutely adored Throne of Glass, as soon as I've finished my current read I'm jumping into Crown of Midnight!

Have you read Throne of Glass? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

'Throne of Glass' by Sarah J. Maas

5 Stars