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

Title: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's
Publication Date: August 7th, 2012
Rating: 3 Stars

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. -Summary from Goodreads

            This is another one of those books that I have been wanting to read since the first book came out but kept putting it off until now. While Throne of Glass had a compelling world and storyline and interesting characters I had one major problem...I couldn't believe some of their actions.

            Celaena Sardothien (can we just pause to admire how cool a name that is) is an assassin who has just spent a year in a death camp. Then one day she is called on by the Prince and is asked to be his champion in a tournament that will determin who would become the King’s personal assassin. She accepts because anything is better than her current situation. Though I love kick-butt main characters I had a hard time believing some of Celaena’s actions and emotions. She seems a bit too petty for what she had gone through. She seemed to care way to much about her looks, clothes, and other peoples opinions. She had just spent 12 months breaking rocks and years before that being a top assassin with a rough upbringing so I'm couldn't quite wrap my head around her being that person.When she fell into assassin mode however I became totally enthralled in the story.

            There was also a love triangle and while I’m not a fan of them to begin with this one was kind of confusing. Celaena hates the King and anyone who shares his name, she repeatedly says so, and how she could never love someone like the Prince because of who he was… then she turns right around and flirts with him and is undeniably attracted to him and wants him to be attracted to her. It’s the same with the Captain. She is basically their prisoner but she gives them a lot of genuine smile, flirts with them, craves their company, and gives some of her own personal history, including some hints at a former love who she still mourns. Her emotions were everywhere and I just couldn’t believe a lot of it. 

            The world was interesting and well built. Even though this is a fantasy I didn’t expect there to be hints of fey mentioned. I think the fey world is extremely interesting and though they didn’t get into it much in this book I can definitely see this popping up later in the series. There is actually a lot in this book that I can see showing up later for more page time. Like the characters Nehemia and Nox (I would totally love to see them again) and I want to see Celaena’s former mentor sometime. I liked the action in this book but it mainly seemed to be a set up for the rest of the series. 

            While I seem to be complaining a lot I actually did enjoy this book. I was just perhaps a bit disappointed. I’m definitely going to try the second book out and see how it is but it may be a while.

           

            -Sarah