I love Sarah J. Maas. I am #maastrash, but not as big as some people are. Yet I will read pretty much anything she puts out.
My first series of hers was actually ACOTAR because I started reading last year around the time A Court of Frost and Starlight came out. I finally made my way to Throne of Glass last year and I recent reread via Audible made me want want to write this review. It reminded me of how much I love the world Maas built and the awesomeness that is Celaena Sardothien.
Goodreads summary:
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 offers 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 four 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 normally don’t like to do rereads for books, however audiobooks are an interesting medium to go about it. It’s nice to be able to hear the names and the emotion that you picture in your head. Sometimes hearing it also brings in that additional element to make the characters more four dimensional.
It’s very clear that there is more to Celaena that meets the eye. I always enjoy a strong female character and the fact that she was Adarlan’s most fear assassin, yet not many know what she looks like is great. Very much a don’t judge a book by its cover cliché. I’m sure over the span of history, many of the well known heroes that are portrayed as men were actually women.
There is clearly a love triangle between Celaena, Prince Dorian, and Chaol, and while I do enjoy Dorian I have to say that I am here for team Chaol. I am a sucker for hate to love situations and I remember when first reading this I was all there for Chaol and Celaena interactions. I love how he doesn’t put up with her shit and honestly doesn’t really care to a degree. She certainly doesn’t make it easy for him.
I love the idea of a “champion”. It’s extremely brutal what they have to go through, but the King isn’t the nicest person ever, so it’s not surprising. I really enjoy each trial they have to go through and how Celaena seems to barely make it through some of them. It’s interesting to note that she’s not particular good with poisons, since poisons are normally the route women take to murder someone. I find that kinda cool. Not saying that I would murder anyone, but I don’t think I would be the type to use poison.
The only thing that bugs me about this story is that Celaena can be caught off guard a lot for being such a great assassin that it’s almost comical. Also, the fact that whenever someone seems to die, the obvious person in question is clearly the bad guy? I know it’s not known the our heroes yet, but good lord!
All in all, I gave this book 5 stars upon reading and relistening to it. I’m so excited to continue with her journey!
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