Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Book Info:
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.  

Waiting on Wednesday: A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've picked another sequel.  This was the first time I'd read this author, and now I'm sold!  But I need to read her other series.  Here is my review of the first book in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses.  Now, I'm not sure I like the cover of this one quite as much, it's a little, I don't know, faker?  I don't know, it's good, but something about it I don't like as much as the first one. Anyway, here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court--but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms--and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future--and the future of a world cleaved in two.





So, that is my pick for the week, what is your eagerly anticipated book this week? 

And while you're here, I've got a couple giveaways you should go check out!

• Either book from The Haunting of Sunshine Girl series by Paige McKenzie, ends tomorrow!
• Complete Rebel Belle series by Rachel Hawkins, ends in 8 days

Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

First of all, thanks to Bloomsbury USA Children's Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  This is my first book by this author. The other series by her just never quite grabbed me to even pick up. Even when I did get an ARC of the first or second one, I forget, the first time I went to BEA in 2012.  This one did intrigue me with my current infatuation with all things fairy tale retelling.  I have to say I really enjoyed this one, and will maybe even give the other series a try if I get the time!  I have seen some not so great reviews, just a few, and I feel like I want to counter all their bad things, but I will step back from that, and just tell what I really liked.  At least I'll try.

The main character is Feyre, a name that my tongue did trip over every once in awhile, but a name that I do really like.  She's 19 years old and lives with her two older sisters and her father.  Her mother died from a sickness a while back.  Her father lost his living and all their possessions with some risky deals, and now they live in a shack.  He is unable to do much for them because the creditors broke his leg and beat him really bad. Since then he's just carved wooden things and pretty much left it all up to Feyre to take care of the family.  She learned to hunt in order to get food for her family, as well as to sell what she didn't need to the villagers in order to get money for the things they had to buy.  Her two older sisters are kind of ungrateful and don't seem to appreciate Feyre for all that she does.  The story begins in a winter time, and food/prey is scarce, so she must travel farther from the house for any game.  She has heard of strange, huge wolves and other creatures in the forest lately, and knows they could be faeries.  While she is good with a bow and arrow, a faerie is not easy to kill.  It would take a special kind of arrow, made of ashwood, in order to kill one.  There was a time that faeries enslaved and tortured the humans, but a long time before Feyre was born, a treaty was reached, and for the most part they stay in their own lands.  Anyway as she is out hunting she finds a deer finally.  But she's not the only one.  A giant wolf is also sizing up the deer.  She must decide what to do.  But she also wonders if the wolf could be a faerie.  But she decides that her family needs the deer, and the wolf isn't a faerie, and so she shoots the wolf, and then the deer. 

She brings home the wolf and deer after she's skinned and taken what she needs.  The next day she takes what she can sell to the market in town where she meets a faerie hunter, and learns that there have been reports of even worse things out there.  When she gets home, there is a sudden tearing off of the door and a monstrous creature, who is also a fae has arrived to take revenge for the wolf she killed, that was a friend/emissary of his.  He says that the treaty states a life for a life.  He offers her either a quick death here, or she can come and live the rest of her life with him in the faerie land, Prythian.  Tamlin is the fae who takes her back to live on his estate.  He doesn't make her do anything.  No chores, no slavery, no nothing.  Just feeds her and has her live there.  When she mentions that she can't stay forever, she must figure a way to get back, he tells her not to worry, her family is being taken care of. 

For the most part he is a gentleman, never really cruel in any way.  She grows to like him, and have feelings for him.  She learns of a blight in their land, one that she tries to find a way to help with, as well as wondering if she'll have to worry about her family dealing with it.  Turns out in the end that the blight isn't quite what it seems or what she's been told.  Not to mention that many things humans believe of faeries is not the truth.  In the end when faced with being able to just go back and live with her family, she will wonder if Tamlin still needs her, and she must decide whether to go back to help him, and what she would be willing to risk her life for or how to do that in order to save him.

I loved the story.  Tamlin was great.  I don't feel like it was insta-love.  I feel like the romance developed pretty well, especially for the type of situation it was.  Although with what Feyre finds out about the blight, I'm surprised she didn't wonder more about Tamlin's feelings for her at the end.  I like that she does leave in order to try to save him, but when she comes back to try to rescue him, she doesn't do anything that could make it harder for him when she is there.  I liked Lucien, and even Rhysander was a good character from the end.  The villain was perfect, and the trials also perfect.  As I said, a great story, and I can't wait to read the next book and find out what will happen with the "deal with the devil" that Feyre made towards the end of this one in order to save her own life so that she could finish the trials to save Tamlin.