Throne of Glass #1 By Sarah J. Maas | Book REVIEW

3.5/5 stars

Synopsis:
Sarah J. Maas’ debut into 2012 YA high fantasy stars a young female Assassin out for revenge.

Celeana Sardothien is offered a chance of freedom from the salt mines of where she is held till the Crown Prince and his best friend, Captain of the Guard propose a deal. Fight to become the Kings’ Champion. 24 Contestants. Deadly battles. One champion.
Though during her stay in the castle, a paranormal being terrorizes the contestants. Is she next?

The first installment to the ‘Throne of Glass’ series, shows a test of friendship, loyalty, and faith.

Preceded by (optional): The Assassin’s Blade
Followed by: Crown of Midnight (#2 Throne of Glass series) Check out our review on it – click here.

Main Characters:

• Celeana Sardothien/Lillian Gordiana, former assassin, and contestant to become Kings’ Champion
• Dorian Havilliard, Crown Prince of Adarlan (in Erilea)
• King of Adarlan (AKA bad guy and father of Dorian)
• Chaol Westfall, Captain of the Guard (AKA Dorian’s BFF)
• Nehemia Ytger, Princess of Eyllwe (in Erilea) (AKA Celeana’s future BFF)

Side Characters:

• Kaltain Rompier, Lady of Adarlan
• Nox Owen, Master Thief of Perranth of Terrasen (in Erilea)
• Archer Finn, Male courtesan, and Celeana’s Crush
• Fleetfoot (AKA dog), Dorian’s (AWESOME) gift to Celeana
• MORT, the magical ‘secret’ door knob

Our Review:

This international phenomenon is a ‘wyrdgate’ (aka portal) to a whole new, exciting universe you did not expect. Maas being one of our favourite authors shows only a fraction (like a really tiny fraction) of her superb writing skills which ‘shows’ rather than ‘tell’.
Welcome to Erilea (how on earth do you pronounce that!?!), where you meet Adarlan’s Assassin – Celeana Sardothien. She is the sassiest character you will ever meet (besides Percy Jackson of course 😉 ).
A prisoner of the Salt Mines, Celeana, caught the attention of the charming, blue-eyed Prince Dorian of Adarlan (AKA cinnamon roll ❤ ) and handsome, stone-cold Captain of the Guard, Chaol (hint: pronounced as the green veg ‘Kale’). She then undergoes the alias Lillian Gordiana, to hide her identity upon accepting the deal to become Prince Dorians’ representative to be the Kings’ Champion. Along with the rest of the contestants, many challenges are put in place to become the Kings’ Champion.

Is being the Kings’ Champion worth 4 years of her life in exchange for the freedom that she yearns for?

She makes unexpected bonds with a princess, a thief, and a dog. That’s right a DOG. Called (ADORABLE & LITTLE) Fleetfoot. She also meets people, she would rather she didn’t meet, Kaltain Rompier and Duke Perrington (and let us not forget the King of Adarlan – who shall not be named). Besides all the drama, Celeana trains to sharpen up her skills with the unwilling Captain of the Guard, Chaol. She also goes to a ball (which she is NOT invited to) and expresses her passion for fashion. There she gets to dance with the ever so dashing Crown Prince Dorian with the Captain of the Guard seething with jealousy on the sidelines (in our opinions anyways).

This seems like one of those cliché love triangles – right? WRONG!…..spoilers…hehehe (want to know more read it or pester us down in the comments 😉 )

Overall this book is the first book of a series to actually keep us hooked and we loved it. We would read this again and again and still find new things to hype about. And if like us you read the other books followed by this, you would see the little hints and foreshadowing for the events to come.

When we first read this it was some time ago (3 to 4 years give or take), we were very different people back then (not much, just difference in reading style etc) and we can say to this day, this book (and series ) changed our life (it was one of our reason to start this blog in the first place).
Of course, there were flaws (at times Celeana seemed a bit…snobbish…SORRY!), but for a debut it was great. As a series it is BRILLIANT!! (and we get some character development….and death).

Ciao from The Twins 😉