Title: Throne of Glass
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass
Genre: YA Fantasy
Published: August 7th, 2012
Format: Paperback -won in blog giveaway
Okay, so I really did enjoy A Court of Thorns and Roses, and so figured I needed to go back and start this series since everyone loved it, and it came first. The funny thing is that I had an ARC of it from the first time I went to BEA back in 2012, but at the time I didn't think I wanted to read it, and so I think I traded it away. Circle back a couple years and I decided to go ahead and enter to win it on a blog giveaway, unfortunately I don't have written down who I got it from. I won, and now I'm finally getting around to reading it. And I wasn't disappointed. I'm very excited to read on in the series, although I don't have any more of the books, so I'll probably end up checking them out from the library. I keep telling myself I don't need to own every book I read. Right? If you haven't read the book or series yet, here is my little summary of the story.
The main character is Celaena. She was once considered one of the most dangerous assassins around. Until she was caught, and thrown into a horrible prison. But now the king has decided he needs to find the fiercest warrior to be his own assassin or protector. And the prince, Dorian, has chosen her as his champion in the competition against 23 other contestants. She is one of only a few that are kept in handcuffs at first, when they are not locked up in a room where they cannot escape. There are different types of people, some are soldiers for the king, some are thieves, and there are even other assassins like herself there. No one really expects Celaena to be much of a threat. In fact the prince and the Captain of the Guard, Chaol, who is there to keep an eye on her, suggest that she start out by not showing just how good she is, but also not losing. She does her best to stay kind of in the middle of the pack as long as she can.
Around the castle, Celaena will be dressed up, and brought around as if she is a lady. Dorian will allow her to read books from his library, and there is something about her that he finds interesting, much more than the normal ladies of the court that are vying for him to marry them. But Chaol doesn't quite trust her, and tells the prince to stay away, that she isn't safe. Only Dorian doesn't listen. And soon he spends more and more time with Celaena, and something grows between them. But there also seems to be something between her and Chaol, as the captain of the guard, he is a warrior, and has more in common with Celaena in that way than Dorian does.
The competition is tough, she often has to fight men who are much larger than her. And there is something happening to some of the contestants, something is killing them. I say something, not someone, because the bodies are found mutilated, with markings as if an animal had attacked them. Something I didn't mention is that the king has outlawed all magic, yet someone seems to be using some in the castle. Celaena will make friends with a princess from a country that the king is also trying to take over. But it will be another person she won't know just how much she can trust.
This is a series, so as you can guess, she will make it quite far in the competition, and go far enough that she can continue on in future books. Books which now I must go on and read. There is a definite love triangle coming in future stories I would guess, for those that don't like those. But I really was okay with how it may end up going. A great strong girl, girl-power type of story. A fantasy world that is very well imagined and one you want to know more about.
