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 four 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.

 

First I want to apologize for my lack of posts last week. I was pretty sick which led to lots of sleeping on the couch and very little reading or writing. But I’m back now and ready to bring back the regular posts!

Throne of Glass is one of those books that’s been out for a while (since 2012) and I had seen it around and heard some people talk about it but I just never felt the urge to pick it up. In recent years it’s been gaining a lot more attention and I can barely read a single blog without seeing immense praise for this series. There are four books published so far out of a total planned six along with a bound set of prequel novellas (which is basically another full-length novel). All of the books are decently long (400 pages or more) which made starting this series a little daunting.

My friend Nicole over at Nikolieohlieoh and I are going to BookCon in Chicago in May and Sarah J. Maas is one of the guests so now felt like an appropriate time to start it, and we decided to read them together just for funzies.

I really liked this book, though I thought at times it was dragged out quite a bit. For a book about an assassin competition I just didn’t feel like there was enough action. The storyline is compelling and the love interests swoon-worthy. Celaena is a strong but flawed female lead which I enjoyed. She is arrogant and vain, sometimes mean, but also has great instincts and a desire to learn to trust and maybe love again.

While this book felt a little slow to me, I also recognize that it is the first book in the series so a lot of time had to be spent on setting the stage and introducing the world. I loved every bit of the action that was included and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Celaena, Chaol, and Dorian in the next installments.

To make things more exciting (or terrifying depending on your point of view), the series has been optioned for a TV show by the Mark Gordon Company which has created shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Ray Donovan. Being optioned isn’t a guarantee that the show will be picked up, but if done well (that’s the key here, folks) this show could be super badass. Here’s the full write-up on Publisher’s Weekly.

 

Have you read this series? Are you excited about the possibility of a TV show? Let me know!