Source: Gift
Format: Paperback
Series: Throne of Glass #1
Released: May, 2012
Goodreads | B&N
SUMMARY
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.REVIEW
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.
It probably isn't very fair for me to review Throne of Glass at this point, having read the short stories and the second book in this series. I probably should've been smart enough to write my review right after I finished it. Because right now, I almost can't bring myself to say anything bad about ToG when I know that it I enjoyed it a lot but didn't love it.
However, after reading the other books/stories in the series that have been released thus far, my love for this series and this book are far beyond the four star rating ToG gets all on its own. Like I said - not fair, right?
Allow me to make an attempt at writing an unbiased review.
For starters, the main character, Celaena Sardothien, is touted as Adarlan's assassin, the greatest assassin for all intents and purposes. Dangerous, unbeatable, etc. Without factoring in what I know from the other books, I was a little disappointed that we barely saw any of Celaena's mythical skill. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Celaena. She is smart and witty and funny and a little bratty which I can definitely appreciate being a huge brat myself, but I wanted to see her being assassin-y and we actually don't see much of that.
Throne of Glass takes on a weird paranormal subplot that at first didn't seem to fit and didn't interest me. It was annoying, didn't make much sense and I wished at some points that it would just disappear. Needless to say it all comes together but it was just weird.
The romance - oh the romance. I hate love triangles. With that being said, while this has a very frustrating love triangle, I loved it. I truly found myself torn between the two men and that has never happened to me before. Usually in a love triangle, one guy is like awful and everyone knows it, and the other one is perfect for her and the only reasons the awful guy has fans is because he's a bad boy and "knows" the MC better than anyone else (cue eye roll - give me a break). However, that is not the case here. I obviously am Team Chaol For Life but I couldn't help but find reasons to love Dorian, too. They are both such great, lovable characters and I got a little mad when Dorian was making me love him too much!
All in all, the book comes together, weird paranormal subplot and all, enough that I wanted to read the next book. Like I said, since the time I read Throne of Glass, I've read Crown of Midnight, The Assassin's Blade (novellas) and am eagerly awaiting Heir of Fire, so right now none of those things matter because the rest of the series makes up for the good but not amazing first book. I almost don't remember a time when Celaena wasn't being a super assassin!
THE BREAKDOWN
RATING: ★★★★ - Enjoyed it!
CoM notwithstanding, I really liked ToG. It has great characters that just unfortunately didn't reach their full potential in this book, such an interesting world with pretty good world-building (which just gets better), and a frustrating but amazing and perfect in every way love triangle. TEAMCHAOLFORLIFE.Have you read Throne of Glass? What did you think? I hope you loved it and didn't let the lack of Celaena showing off her mad skills effect your opinion about the book like I almost did. If you didn't love it, can you tell me why? I'd love to hear what your thoughts are!
Also, Heir of Fire comes out in just a few days!!!! I'm so beyond freaking excited I can't even EVEN. That's right, that's what I said, you didn't read that wrong. I NEED THIS BOOK NOW! How excited are you (and simultaneously horrified at the thought of waiting another year for the next one aghhhh)?
Let's talk books!
A.
We are entirely on the same page here - I definitely liked (maybe even loved?) this book, but regardless it wasn't a 5 star read. But come CoM holy COW!! I think it's why there are so many of us who look crazy to the people who didn't like the first book - they should all just read that and the miniseries and they'd understand!
ReplyDeleteAnd I've talked ad nauseum about why I love Celaena, but I just...she's vain, and selfish, and good at being an assassin - and she isn't afraid to flaunt it. I LOVE THAT. In a world where being in power as a woman usually means you have to be crazy modest all the time...I just. Yes. More!
I'm with you: I adored this book but it wasn't a solid 5-stars for me. Yet... Maybe if I had started with Assassin's Blade it would have been though because TAB is EPIC and blew my feels for Celaena out of the water. TAB and CoM were beyond ANYTHING and now I'm (clearly) addicted. I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this book didn't quite turn me into an obsessed fan but hey, it's the first book so we needed to be introduced to it all somehow and for a first book this was pretty amazing nonetheless. Brilliant review ^^
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