Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jul 23, 2015 Emily rated it really liked it

solid 3.5
i really wasnt sure that i like Celeana but she did grow on me. who says an assassin has to not like fashion? obvious love triangle, but deftly handled, good intrigue, excellent violence... sinister bad guys, unlikeable evil foes, did i mention intrigue? lots of good questions set up for the rest of the series, good pacing... solid fantasy

Celaena Sardothien was knows as The Assassin of Ardalan, but now she’s just another prisoner in the salt mines of Endovier, a place where life expecta ...more

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Jul 27, 2015 Dawn added it · review of another edition

Looking to fill the Katniss void?

Look no further if you are in need of a Katniss-esque heroine. While the cover does NOT match Celeana's description in the book. Writing is clean, fast paced and has lots of plot twists. There are lots of baddies to despise and even more heroes to cheer for. The end was a satisfying mix of resolution and cliffhanger. If you find yourself sad that Hunger Games is over give this series a go. Oh, for those who need help pronouncing the names, there is a very helpful ...more

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Sep 14, 2016 Molly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-the-classroom-shelf, ya-lit, fantasy, kindle, 3-and-a-half-stars, fya-finds, read-in-2016

This reminds me a lot of Grave Mercy, but with more focus on assassin-ing than romance. Of course the romance is still there, but it's not quite as much of a central focus. Also, having read the first two books of Maas's Court of Thorns & Roses series, I kind of anticipated how this was going to play out. I didn't even really mind the love triangle. Don't get me wrong, it's still kind of dumb, but at least in this case it's perfectly believable why both Dorian and Chaol (my god, these names!) wo This reminds me a lot of Grave Mercy, but with more focus on assassin-ing than romance. Of course the romance is still there, but it's not quite as much of a central focus. Also, having read the first two books of Maas's Court of Thorns & Roses series, I kind of anticipated how this was going to play out. I didn't even really mind the love triangle. Don't get me wrong, it's still kind of dumb, but at least in this case it's perfectly believable why both Dorian and Chaol (my god, these names!) would be drawn to her, and she doesn't do that annoying thing where she can only focus on whoever' right in front of her. She's basically all about the prince, and their banter reminded me a bit of Rhys and Feyre (without all of the sexy times).

So. Plot. Celaena is a trained, deadly assassin. But when we meet her she's already serving a prison sentence for...something. There are a lot of backstory gaps to be filled in here, which on the one hand is sort of annoying, but I also kind of like beginning the story in medias res. Anyway, crown prince Dorian approaches her with an offer: return to the castle with him, compete to become the king's champion, and earn her freedom after four years of service. Seeing as she's never *really* been free in her life, it's a pretty attractive offer. Plus she's a badass assassin, so the competition shouldn't be any problem. Except no one can know her true identity and she has to hold back in training and competition. But then champions keep turning up dead and it seems like someone...or something might be trying to tip the scales *out* of Celaena's favor.

And also there's magic (even though the evil King has outlawed it) and a fairy queen and crazy marks called Wyrdmarks all over the place that might be for summoning unspeakable demons but might also just be decoration... It's a lot. And the focus does end up being more on pretty dresses and kisses with pretty princes than I'd like. I also kept trying to figure out where, or if, this fits in with Maas's new series. There's talk there of some sort of fairy war that happened once (and might be happening again by the end of the 2nd book). So I'm wondering if those books take place in this series' version of the past? I mean, it's all vaguely medieval in the way most high fantasy tends to be, so there's really no way to tell. Or maybe Maas just likes fairies.

I liked this more than I expected, although I didn't have super high expectations going in. I feel like that's a terribly backhanded compliment! But I was sort of meh about Court of Thorns & Roses and ended up really liking Mist & Fury. There are 4 more books in this series (so far? Is it over?), so I'm looking forward to things picking up in the next one. More assassin-ing! ...more

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