Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass

Title: Throne of Glass

Author: Sarah J. Mass

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Publication date: August, 2012

Stand Alone or Series: Series–this is the first in a series.

Hardcover: 416 pages

How I got this book: Bought


Why I chose this book: I really loved the synopsis of this novel.  I was standing in the bookstore, not able to wait to get home to start reading about a badass female assassin.  Very original ideas, so I had to check it out.

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I had such high hopes for this book when I first picked it up, that I feel as if I put it on a pedestal wanting it to live up to my expectations.  I know as well as most book lovers that this is not a wise thing to do.  Our expectations get crazily high, and we are undoubtedly let down in the end.

But I got lucky!  This book was completely amazing.  And how could it not be when the protagonist was some badass female assasin who had survived for over a year in death-camp like conditions.

Now I also need to mention this was a fantasy novel.  Now I absolutely adore fantasy novels, if they are done right.  And I will be the first to admit that that is very hard to do.  It may seem easy, but you try coming up with another world entirely.  Not so easy, now.

But this world!  It was amazing.  And not amazing as in “I want to live there!”  More like amazing in that it was very corrupt, yet also realistic in a way that makes you dwell on questions about our own world and how easily it could change.

Now, I’m just going to straight shoot it from here.  I loved this book one hundred percent.  I thought there might be certain scenes were I would get bored with the characters or what they were doing, but no way.  I never wanted to put this tome down. 

And the romance!  Not only is the protag – Celeana – amazing, but she is also able to converse easily with people, but witty, smart, and all around awesome.  I’m sure many people wouldn’t mind picking up some of those traits.  So it’s no surprise that there are two men vying to her attention.  And they happen to be friends to each other.  I need to point out that this wasn’t a competition between friends to get the girl.  I feel like the two male figures were very aware of each other and how their friendship could be affected.  And I loved that.  It shows they have more character and loyalty than men who are willing to throw everything away for a girl they met three days ago (not to diss on Romeo and Juliet here). 

I could go on and on, because this book amazed me.  I got so much out of it, and it’s not even over!  I cannot wait for the next installment to come out, I will definitely be looking for it.