Review: Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's
Publication Date: August 7th 2012
Pages: 416
Source: Library
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

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 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 three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. 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.

 

This book was kind of on the line for me. There were several things that really bugged me, yet the plot and the main character some how made the story very addicting so I'm having difficulty taking a side here!

There are really two big things that made this book really good. First, the plot and just the general feel of the book was amazing. Once I got into the story I knew that I would at the very least like the story because it had this awesome feeling and it really sucked me in. Secondly, the main character, Celaena, was major kick-butt awesome. Celaena was raised an assassin which plays a huge part in the story as she takes on about two dozen men in several challenges. She also made the story much more addicting. 

When I first started this book I had no idea weather or not I was going to finish it. I really didn't like how the beginning was written, the way things were described and thought out really turned me away from the story and was almost annoying for a little bit before I got used to the style. The story is told in 3rd person and switches perspectives occasionally. In this story it seemed really unnecessary and I really wish that Maas hadn't done that. 

Throne of Glass had a lot of very strange character names that I have no idea how to pronounce. For many of the names I either guessed or I substituted for another close name (That's a weird thing I do sometimes because it works.) Some of the names I had trouble with included, The main character, Celaena, Choal, and a few other minor characters in the story. 

In the story there was a very confusing, weird, annoying, love weirdness thing going on. There are two guys in the story, one of the them obviously likes Celaena, and another kind of-sort of-might like her... and I really would have preferred for both to be obvious, or for there to be only one guy. 

This book is one of my rare 3 1/2 star books because I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. There were so many things that either made this book good or bad that I'm on the fence.