Review: Throne of Glass

One of my all time favourite books(amongst others) is Throne of Glass. The edition of the royal purple embossed hardback collectors edition of Throne of Glass to my bookshelf led me to re read it after such a long time. In the first instalment of Sarah J Maas’ breakout series I re-read all the time, is a bold feminist statement of a novel filled with dark and soft humour, thrilling escapades and alluring characters with relatable joys and sorrows. Get ready to dive into the kingdom of Aldarlan, and be introduced to Celeana, an assassin with a mysterious heritage and razor sharp skills and wits as she meets an prince and a guard, as they change each other lives forevermore.

An intelligent, deadly and beautiful assassin is freed from slave labour in Endovier by the Captain of the Guard to represent Adarlan’s Crown Prince in a tournament. Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan’s anonymous and notorious assassin, trained from the age of ten after her parents’ murder but she made a fatal mistake. She was caught and sent to Endovier’s salt mines as a slave. Chaol Westfall – Captain of the Guard – offers her a deal.

The benefits? After four years, she will have her freedom. The catch? She must serve those four years as the ruthless King’s Assassin in his corrupted kingdom. A position she must win representing Dorian Havilland – The Crown Prince – in the brutal tournament of the best thieves and assassins around under a false alias, if she gets through it in one piece that is.

Celaena accepts these terms and travels with Adarlan’s court to the Glass Castle while she competes in the tournament. The assassin soon finds her frozen heart melting with a new alliance in the mysterious Princess Nehemia and forbidden sparks flying with Dorian and even Choal finding themselves intrigued by her.

Suddenly, everything becomes much more complicated as candidates in the tournament start dropping like flies. Celaena must risk everything to solve the mystery concerning herself and the ancestors of a life she has long stopped caring about, on the way to her destiny.

This was a book I had seen around before, but I didn’t think it was for me years ago when I first encountered the book, which is shocking to me now. One day I decided to give it a try. I read it and I was hooked! It mixes detailed fantasy, blending both violence, romance and drama, ending on a cliffhanger of what fate may have in store for Celaena, Dorian and Chaol.

I highly recommend this as something a bit less mainstream to read. This book and its’ series offer complete escapism from everyday life. If you weren’t a reader before you certainly will be after reading Throne of Glass.