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Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)

Sarah J. Maas

Start date: July 1, 2014

Finish date: July 31, 2014

Discussion: Group Read

Why we're reading this: Fantasy Book of the Month
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What Members Thought

Jun 27, 2012 Katie_la_geek rated it it was ok · review of another edition

For this review and more visit my blog

*I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review*

I cannot tell you how excited I was to read this book, I even did a little dance around my living room when I found out I had been approved for a review copy. My expectations for Throne of Glass were admittedly high. I had heard so many positive things about it, the synopsis made it sound like my kind of book. Who doesn’t want to read about a kick ass assassin who runs around on front cov For this review and more visit my blog

*I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review*

I cannot tell you how excited I was to read this book, I even did a little dance around my living room when I found out I had been approved for a review copy. My expectations for Throne of Glass were admittedly high. I had heard so many positive things about it, the synopsis made it sound like my kind of book. Who doesn’t want to read about a kick ass assassin who runs around on front covers with daggers in her hands?!? I expected action, adventure and a female character that I would utterly adore…what I got was something else and I found that all of my excitement and expectations were dashed pretty quickly.

The first problem I had was Calaena who is not very easy to like, I found her to be a little too perfect. She is the best assassin ever and is also extremely beautiful. She is smart, humorous and witty. She can put anyone in their place and most men appear to swoon in her presence. For me it was all a little too much. It was not the perfectness that made me dislike her sure it was annoying but what made her irritating was the one bad characteristic she appeared to be in possession of, her arrogance. Calaena knows she is an amazing assassin, she knows she is beautiful and she knows that she has amazing taste in fashion. She talks about these things a lot and I couldn’t help but hope someone would come along and knock her down a peg or to so she wouldn’t think so highly of herself.

Another problem for me was the action…or the lack of it. I found the cover (UK) and blurb to be a bit misleading. There is an overwhelming lack of action to be found here, this book is about an assassin but she doesn’t actually kill anyone, if fact she barely even hurts anyone. Instead she spends most of her time talking about or admiring pretty dresses, hanging out with royalty or thinking about boys.

Instead of there being written accounts of the trials and training Calaena has to go through there is romance, which was a lot more central than I thought it would be. The love triangle left me feeling a little confused. At first she has no feelings for either Price Dorian or the head of the kings guard, Chaol, then she has feelings for both of them, then she is making out with one of them…a lot and having a secret relationship with him. But at the end I am pretty sure she changes her mind and chooses the other one. At least I think she did. There were clues all a long about who she was going to end up with but it wasn’t explained very well at the end so I cannot be sure. She really struggles to make up her mind, which in a way I could understand but what it did for the book was create a really strong element of teen angst which I wasn’t expecting. In the end this book felt a lot more like a teen romance than anything else.

Despite appearances I didn’t hate this book. Calaena was arrogant and annoying but she did have moments of greatness and I really enjoyed the action scenes when they were there.

The best thing about this book was the male characters. Both Dorian and Chaol had great personalities. I think most readers will struggle not to like both of them. Dorian is a flirt and a charmer. He is sarcastic and humorous, I like him a lot but he was no match Chaol who I utterly adored. This guy just got under my skin and was by far my favourite character. He is the silent and deadly type but despite the cold exterior there is a wicked personality underneath and a sense of loyalty that Dorian just cannot match. I often wondered if he was too good for Calaena which is a first for me, normally I back the guy I like in the romance.

Is Throne of Glass a bad book? No, not really. Had I gone into this with no expectations then this review might be very different, but the fact of the matter is that there is a lot of expectations and unfortunately I felt this book groaned and struggled under its weight. This book could end up being a victim of its own hype.

...more

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Aug 03, 2013 ♥♡¢σσкιє♥♡ (Krystle) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: series

This was so freaking good!!!!!

Review to come!

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Aug 01, 2015 Justin rated it really liked it

Overall, I loved the Throne of Glass. There is a lot of action, and the characters are very lively and can really jump out of the pages at you as you are reading them. I love when authors put so much life into their characters.

It makes books so much more enjoyable to read. While I loved all the action and the depth of the characters, I did feel like there were slight pacing issues. I can usually overlook them, but with a book that is focused on a lot of action oriented scenarios, I found it har Overall, I loved the Throne of Glass. There is a lot of action, and the characters are very lively and can really jump out of the pages at you as you are reading them. I love when authors put so much life into their characters.

It makes books so much more enjoyable to read. While I loved all the action and the depth of the characters, I did feel like there were slight pacing issues. I can usually overlook them, but with a book that is focused on a lot of action oriented scenarios, I found it hard to just ignore the pacing issues.

Celaena has become one of my new favorite heroines. She is truly an incredible character in every aspect. She is strong willed and very open about when it comes to expressing her thoughts to people she has encounters with throughout the book. I felt as though this was a very important part of her personality, and it really helped to make her a character you can easily become attached to.

I will never like love triangles. I’m sorry. I will not argue that sometimes they are written very well, but I will never like them beyond appreciating the ones that are well written. Throne of Glass is no exception.

Regardless of how much I love the characters on an individual level, I despise the love triangle. I just never understand the need for these. I always feel like the books that have them can be so much better if the authors don’t focus on something so silly, and put that focus into other aspects of the book while allowing just one prominent relationship to play out without all of the added drama that comes with a love triangle.

It really aggravates me when we can have such a fantastic book such as Throne of Glass but whenever you see people talk about the book a lot of it is just about what “team” the person is on which is essentially just them saying which boy they wish Celaena would pick. While that is fine, I find it highly annoying when there is so much you can focus on instead.

I honestly don’t care about the relationship between Celaena and Chaol OR Dorian. It’s not an important part of the book for me, and quite frankly I don’t feel as though any of it is truly important to the success of the story. Celaena on her own is such a strong and amazing character that I feel the idea of this love triangle between all of the characters just really diminishes some of that spotlight on her, and I wish that didn’t happen.

I am never opposed to romance in books, but I am when I feel is damages the integrity of a character that is already so strong on their own. A lot of the romance in Throne of Glass feels like it was just thrown in there to make the story appeal to more people than it would if it wasn’t there.

I am really glad that I finally got around to starting this series. I think that overall Sarah did an amazing job with this book. Aside from the minor issues with pacing, I am looking forward to continuing the series, and seeing how things might improve as the series goes on. ...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Kimberly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

(*Screams*)....this book is just wonderful...or awesome.....no words could really describe how much I like it. It has most of the stuff (*elements*) I look for in a book. There's romance, assassins, Faes, magic, prince/princess, a mask ball, puppy, competition....etc. Its like all in one. Love how the author merge all those elements together.

The story reminds me of Grave Mercy and The Inheritance Cycle. Grave Mercy because it revolves around an assassin, which is Celaena, who agrees to join a "c ...more

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Jan 26, 2020 📖 Yazzie 📚 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Good book, Loved that Celaena was a pretty vibrant and powerful character. She was simultaneously like a child but also an assassin. Like she every much showed her age unless she was fighting or doing assassin things.
I also loved Dorien and Chaol, as well as Nehemia. Gotta admit I kinda hated everyones names cos they were a little weird and would pull me from the story while I tried to remember how they were pronounced, but the characters themselves were very cool.
I do with there had been a bit ...more

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Jan 06, 2018 Damyanti Biswas rated it liked it

Fast read, good descriptions and dialogue, but the main character is an assassin who doesn't kill any humans in the duration of the novel. Did not find her credible or likable.

It was recommended by a friend as a light read, and I read it at one sitting, but don't think I'm the intended audience.

Venturing no further into the series. ...more

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