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 three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. 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.
SPOILER FREE REVIEW
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Another amazing book which I could not bear put down by Sarah J. Maas! I am continued to be amazed by this woman's literature that she releases. It has been so long since I have read something which has enabled me to read for hours on end and not stop. Compared to her latest novel, "A Court of Thorns and Roses", I feel like I can tell that "Throne Of Glass" was definitely her first novel but the fact that this book took ten years to be published astounds me. This is truly an enticing read about Celaena Sardothian being chosen by the Crown Prince of Adarlan to participate in his father's contest to become the King's Champion. Right now I am dying to start on "Crown of Midnight" which is currently less than an arm-stretch away from me, but right now I have to focus on pouring my thoughts and feelings out onto this page and I know that will be inevitably hard with such an amazing novel as I can't quite explain how much I loved it.
Celaena Sardothian first appeared to me as a very selfish, ostentatious, stubborn young girl who had been broken and teared down by the difficulties of her life, before and after being thrown in the Salt Mines of Endovier which is practically like a death sentence to most. Fortunately, Celaena was a strong enough assasin to survive a year of slaving away there which impressed me for a girl at eighteen years of age. Gradually, as I got to learn more about her, her backstory and understand the reasons she acted a certain way, I found myself to be quite fond of Celaena and felt strengthened by her know-it-all attitude and confidence in her skills. The way she didn't fall for Dorian immediately like most of the girls in the castle did but appreciated his appearance, along with Chaol's, was pretty settling as well because it showed that love and fornication weren't the main things on her mind. Celaena is a strong yet swift character, a powerful heroine. The way she inspires the people around her and gathers eyes when showing off her skills at the tests makes me aspire to be like her in the way that she can do so well at one or a few things and make people realise that they underestimated her. She is definitely a protagonist that I look up to, among many other great female characters. The way she doesn't let a man or relationship define her is what I love the most about her sassy character.
The relationship developments in the story were all well played out and scripted! I feel like even though Celaena and Nehemia, the princess of Eyllwe who took a liking to her because of her respect and the fact that she spoke Eyllwe as well, clicked at their first introduction, there was a major development with their friendship throughout the entire novel and by the end there was real trust and respect between the two girls. Chaol was obviously the one that took the most convincing from the beginning as he is the Captain of the Guard and his duty was to protect everyone, especially from assasins such as Celaena so he was really conflicted through most of the novel but I liked how their friendship grew easier as the novel went on and there was more trust gained through talks, training and even reading together. Nox was a surprising match for a friend as I didn't think Celaena would be very trusting of the other Champions, but he proved his worthiness and I feel like he was a good friend who understood the pressures of the competition well enough for Celaena to relate. I hope in the future that they meet up again and become good friends. Dorian was the guy that I shipped (in non-fangirl terms that means "want them together as a couple") with Celaena because he was so sweet and shared the same interests as her, not to mention that he has his own library which he granted Celaena permission to take from and read in her moments of boredom and loneliness. Which girl wouldn't love that? Dorian turns out to have a kind nature and eventually proves to Celaena that he is nothing like he seems to be or that he is anything like his father, the King of Adarlan. I love how they get so embarrassed around each other and their faces always go red at the slightest hint of something personal about themselves or intriguing about the other. Their friendship was ultimately my favourite.
Overall I was absolutely blown away by this book and I have to give it a 5 out of 5 because there is literally nothing at fault. I'm not saying that it's perfect, but it's perfect for me! I'm ready to finally bury myself away in Crown Of Midnight and never leave the house. Thank you Sarah J. Maas for creating my happy place.
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Celaena Sardothian first appeared to me as a very selfish, ostentatious, stubborn young girl who had been broken and teared down by the difficulties of her life, before and after being thrown in the Salt Mines of Endovier which is practically like a death sentence to most. Fortunately, Celaena was a strong enough assasin to survive a year of slaving away there which impressed me for a girl at eighteen years of age. Gradually, as I got to learn more about her, her backstory and understand the reasons she acted a certain way, I found myself to be quite fond of Celaena and felt strengthened by her know-it-all attitude and confidence in her skills. The way she didn't fall for Dorian immediately like most of the girls in the castle did but appreciated his appearance, along with Chaol's, was pretty settling as well because it showed that love and fornication weren't the main things on her mind. Celaena is a strong yet swift character, a powerful heroine. The way she inspires the people around her and gathers eyes when showing off her skills at the tests makes me aspire to be like her in the way that she can do so well at one or a few things and make people realise that they underestimated her. She is definitely a protagonist that I look up to, among many other great female characters. The way she doesn't let a man or relationship define her is what I love the most about her sassy character.
The relationship developments in the story were all well played out and scripted! I feel like even though Celaena and Nehemia, the princess of Eyllwe who took a liking to her because of her respect and the fact that she spoke Eyllwe as well, clicked at their first introduction, there was a major development with their friendship throughout the entire novel and by the end there was real trust and respect between the two girls. Chaol was obviously the one that took the most convincing from the beginning as he is the Captain of the Guard and his duty was to protect everyone, especially from assasins such as Celaena so he was really conflicted through most of the novel but I liked how their friendship grew easier as the novel went on and there was more trust gained through talks, training and even reading together. Nox was a surprising match for a friend as I didn't think Celaena would be very trusting of the other Champions, but he proved his worthiness and I feel like he was a good friend who understood the pressures of the competition well enough for Celaena to relate. I hope in the future that they meet up again and become good friends. Dorian was the guy that I shipped (in non-fangirl terms that means "want them together as a couple") with Celaena because he was so sweet and shared the same interests as her, not to mention that he has his own library which he granted Celaena permission to take from and read in her moments of boredom and loneliness. Which girl wouldn't love that? Dorian turns out to have a kind nature and eventually proves to Celaena that he is nothing like he seems to be or that he is anything like his father, the King of Adarlan. I love how they get so embarrassed around each other and their faces always go red at the slightest hint of something personal about themselves or intriguing about the other. Their friendship was ultimately my favourite.
Overall I was absolutely blown away by this book and I have to give it a 5 out of 5 because there is literally nothing at fault. I'm not saying that it's perfect, but it's perfect for me! I'm ready to finally bury myself away in Crown Of Midnight and never leave the house. Thank you Sarah J. Maas for creating my happy place.
