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

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Pages: 404
Published: August 2, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Price: £3.99 (Paperback from Amazon)
           £13.50 (Hardback from The Book Depository)
           £3.79 (Kindle Edition)
Series: Throne of Glass
Source: Bought

Triggers (in the book, the review is safe): Rape, Abuse, Death, Vomit, Blood, Serious Injury.

About the book (Taken from the blurb):

Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the filthy salt mines of Endovier, an 18 year old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfell offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the Prince in a to-the-death tournament, fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Calaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassins heart be melted?

My review:

!Very mild spoilers present!

What a huge let-down. A colossal, humongous, stupendous waste of time. I'd rather eat my own shoe than say Celaena is a good assassin. My hunt for the perfect assassin story continues...

Despite what you may think, I don't enjoy writing negative reviews. It may be two really pessimistic reviews in a row, but I really wanted to like this one! From what I gathered from the hundreds of people who recommended this to me, in one way or another, I expected assassins and swords and epic battles and treachery and all that fun stuff.  But all it had was a dipsy girl and a love triangle. I thought YA was moving away from love triangles now after the Katniss catastrophe, but nope, YA authors just can't let that trope die.

I don't see why Dorian and Chaol would even like Celaena, the wannabe assassin. Both are unbelievably good for her. I was so excited every time there was a chapter from their perspective because it gave me a little break from being inside her head. Dorian was a sweetie pie. I really fell in love with his character! He just had one fatal flaw... he thought of Celaena every. Single. Second. Complete obsession isn't healthy. He's up there with all the creepy lovers! I'd put him snuggly next to Edward Cullen in my creepiness scale, and that's never good. He snuck into her bedroom in the middle of the night, he stalked her when she trained, he got incredibly jealous, and that's just a few of the reasons!  And why did he fall head over heels for her? Because she was gorgeous, obviously. If there were any other reasons, he must have kept them very hidden. I ship Dorian with Chaol. I know it's never going to happen because any mention of any kind of diversity must make Maas feel sick, but I reckon they'd be pretty cute together. Choal thought about the o so wonderful Caleana a lot as well, but that was his job, so that's a bit more excusable. But amazingly, Chaol fell for Celaena too, but just for her beauty, obvs, which created the universally loved love triangle. Not! Does anyone still actually like love triangles anymore? It was exciting in the first couple of books, but still? Bleh.

Maybe I set my expectations a little too high? I compared Celaena to the assassin I hold incredibly close to my heart, Lady Shiva, and the rest of the League of Assassins (even though she isn't with them at all times). If you didn't know they're semi-villains to Batman. She is a huge badass and knows how an assassin should behave. She's cold-blooded, highly trained, and incredibly deadly. Celaena, however, is not. An assassin should know that there is a lot more to a person than their appearance, so they should not think about it. Celaena judges everyone on their attractiveness as soon as she meets them. Assassins should not let their weaknesses be known, to anyone. Celaena does this several times. She is clearly incredibly embarrassed by being dirty when she leaves the salt mines, she tells anyone who asks about her still highly sensitive lost lover, and she makes her feelings to the two men so clear that everyone in a 10 mile radius can see it. Even the King picks up Chaol, and he was the 'lesser' of the two ships! Not to mention her obsession with crossing her arms like a moody teenager. You've no idea how much this annoyed me. I hated her as soon as she said 'Had her arms been unshackled, she would have crossed them' on page 10. Seriously! Do you want me to hate this character,  or want me to treat her any less than the annoying little brat she is?! That's not sassy, that's pathetic. It legit made my skin crawl when I read it. I put a post-it note on it and everything, and I never make notes like that. Then I was inspired to post-it note the rest of the book when I didn't like a bit, and nearly my whole pad was used.

Why does EVERYONE hold this series so dearly? If I could never read another book from this series, I'd be a happy girl.

 Did you enjoy this book? Does the series improve? Can you recommend a good assassin story? Let me know in the comments!

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A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1) by Sarah J. Maas: Review *SPOILERS*

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy, New Adult Fiction
Originally Published: May 5, 2015
Pages: 416
Price: £16.56 (Hardback from Amazon)
          £5.19 (Paperback from Amazon)
          £4.93 (Kindle Edition)
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Source: Bought

About the book (Taken from the blurb):

Feyre is a huntress. She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers mercilessly beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a high price...

Imprisoned in an enchanted court in her enemy's kingdom, Feyre is free to roam but forbidden to escape. Her captor's body bears the scars of fighting, and his face is always masked - but his piercing stare draws her ever closer. As Feyre's feelings for Tamlin begins to burn through every warning she's ever been told about his kind, an ancient, wicked shadow grows.

 Feyre must find a way to break a spell, or lose her heart forever.

My review - *SPOILERS*:

This was one of the few books I trusted the social media's on. I bought this after all the hype surrounding the sequel, A Court of Mist and Fury (but you already know that) and there's a few things I don't understand. PLEASE DON'T SPOIL IT FOR ME ACOMAF IS CURRENTLY SITTING ON MY SHELF AND I WILL READ IT SOON!! THIS LITTLE CONFUSED RANT IS PARTLY FOR YOU TO LOOK DOWN AT ME AND THINK 'OH LITTLE FLOWER, YOU'VE STILL GOT SO MUCH TO DISCOVER' AND PARTLY FOR ME TO LOOK BACK AND ANSWER MY OWN CONFUSION. DON'T WORRY THE CAPS LOCK IS BEING TURNED OFF now.

Thing number 1) Why does everyone have so much beef on Tamlin? Yes, he almost attacked Feyre but he did warn her several times to stay inside but no no no, Feyre heard some drums outside her room so she had to go wandering straight into an orgy. So a bite is her getting off lightly. And it's ok because that bite sets up a delicious sex scene, so it's ok. That sex scene was so , I waited many many chapters for that shit. If a bite after an orgy was all it needed I would have gladly arranged it for them. 

Thing number 2) Why is everyone so madly obsesses with Rhysand? I know that this, and probably the first thing too, will be answered when I get to reading ACOMAF but he's such a huge dick.Yeah, it's horrible that Amarantha exploited him, but that doesn't mean he can be a meanie! He blackmailed Feyre and made her act like a total slut (even though I don't like that word) against her will. And unless he has a crystal clear explanation in ACOMAF it's never going to be cool. 

Thing number 3) Why did Tamlin wait so long to turn her into a Fae. Did she have to almost die for it to work or something? He knew full well that she wouldn't be safe at home. Rhysand knew her face and Amarantha would have figured out that the girl she tortured wasn't her eventually. Surely she would've been a lot safer if she stayed as a fae. Unless Tamlin could only do it once his powers had been fully restored... I don't know and it didn't make it very clear.

But despite all my confusion, it was a fabulous read. I was hooked from page 1 and couldn't stop reading. The anticipation of that sex scene kept me on edge for an exceptionally cruel length of time, but I'm not that mad about it. I don't think I'm more excited to read any other sequel right now, so ACOMAF will definitely be read by the end of the year. SO PLEASE DON'T SPOIL IT FOR ME. Please. Please. Please.

What are your thoughts on this series? Which is your favourite S. J. Maas book? Dying for book 3 already? Let me know!

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