Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas

My rating: five stars

Genre: YA, fantasy

Edition: paperback

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 have been meaning to read this book series for SO LONG. One of my new year’s resolutions for 2020 is to read the entire series, and so I have finally started it! The series is still daunting to me because those last few books are enormous, but I feel ready to tackle them!

Likes: I love how the main character is this bad-*** woman who everyone is terrified off and who can kick anyone’s butt, but at the same time she is witty and for the lack of better words – human. In so many fantasies, if the main character is an assassin or fighter of some sort, they tend to take themselves too seriously. They seem to just be all about being strong and scary, and it can seem unrealistic. Celaena, however, has hobbies and likes that have nothing to do with killing and that is so refreshing. She loves reading and fashion, she cares about animals and people, and she has a sense of humor that leaves me laughing out loud. I also like the trials that she goes through to become the King’s Assassin. I won’t give any of them away, but there are quite a few of them and they truly seem like a test of a skills that assassins should have – I enjoyed how realistic it was. The build up and tease of magic makes me want to read the second book immediately to see if there will be more in it. Also, very little was told about Celaena’s backstory and though that was frustrating, it also made me excited to read the next in the hopes that they will explain more. Lastly, Captain Westfall (Chaol) was so adorable! I love his personality and how he can be so soft sometimes when most of the time he tries to be the tough Captain that he is supposed to be.

Dislikes: I know I just talked about how I love Chaol, but I really don’t really care for the love triangle in this story. How Celaena treats both of the men is annoying. Especially at the very end, I was just so confused. I also had problems with how un-assassin-like she was. I know that I discussed how I liked how she had hobbies and she was down to earth, and that is all great, but she didn’t exhibit qualities I would expect her to have as an assassin. For example, people would just go into her room all the time while she was sleeping without her realizing it. They wouldn’t even be quiet about it! I’m not a light sleeper and even I wake up most times if someone comes into my room! I just expected her to exhibit more skills. Also, after a year in one of the worst jails in the world; after a year of being whipped and tortured; I expected her to have some type of sign that all this had happened to her. Sure, she had scars, but I expected her to mentally have some sort of sign that it had happened to her. I understand she is strong willed, however, no matter how strong willed you are, I feel like after an experience like that she would exhibit some sort of symptoms.

Overall, this was an incredible book. It had quite a few strong female characters which was refreshing, the character’s personalities were fun and creative, and the storyline itself was enjoyable. I love the style of writing, it is easy to read and yet really descriptive and fun. Though there were some negatives in regards to the love triangle and her assassin abilities, I still had a great time reading this book! I honestly think that all of the positives overshadow the negatives and that is why I am still giving it five stars. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!