Throne of Glass

———4th reread———

This is the fourth time I read Throne of Glass and well after reading all the series till Tower of Dawn it’s obvious that Maas writing style has changed.. for the better of course!! I think ToG is more childish in comparison to the other books in the series but it’s still a great beginning. Rereading it again I spotted more info and a lot of hints for what’s gonna happen in the following books that I totally skipped the first, second and third time. But it’s evident that Sarah knew since the beginning what she wanted from this series. Now I need to reread all the other books and FINALLY start Kingdom of Ash

The book was good in the beginning, but towards the middle, it got boring and I was skimming through the pages.

Overrated

2.5 ⭐️

This books biggest crime was being dreadfully boring 70% of the time. I love contests in books; how did Maas make it boring and uneventful. I was never even a little bit concerned for Celaena’s safety.

I think the romance was just kind of weird. I obviously see what she was going for with the whole forbidden love thing but it wasn’t executed well. The chemistry felt really stilted and forced until over halfway through the book. It doesn’t help that all YA books feel the need to put in a shitty love triangle so that the FMC can pick “wrong” guy first before finally setting down with her soulmate. Why? You have like 12 books to go, just keep the tension and banter so that when they get together it is satisfying instead of Celaena bouncing around between love interests.

Of course it is a YA with a “strong” female lead meaning she is the best to ever do it, at literally everything. I think Maas went a little to far with this trope here. I get that she’s an assassin and can sneak and use daggers better than everyone, fine. But she is also the greatest with throwing daggers, bows, poisons, climbing, sword fighting, hand to hand, etc. This is insane.

The twist was super predictable and foreshadowed like an amateur (but I think this is a debut so I will forgive that).

I wish I had more fun reading this book. That is what saves a lot of YA and romantasy (and romance too lets be honest) books for me, even if they aren’t the best written. This definitely wasn’t the greatest written (although not offensive) but it also wasn’t that fun to read. I’ll stick with the series and see how it gets better. I believe Maas was younger than I am now when she wrote this so I can forgive a lot of the rough edges. The story at its core was interesting and I liked the characters well enough. Give Celaena even one flaw and I will love her 1000x more (and not putting others before herself, that’s not a flaw). By the end of the book I was invested in the romance with the Prince so honestly I’d keep reading just for that.

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Fast paced assassin goodness and some typical things thrown in but all round good start to a new series.

smoother writing

It's a bit trashy but very entertaining, looking forward for what will happen next.

I like a kick butt heroine as much as the next person. Celaena (for the love of Pete - could just one YA main character be named Jane or Bob or something simple?) is a trained assassin and competing with other trained fighters to be the king's Champion.

I think I liked Celaena -- she was smart and strong and optimistic.

I hated the love triangle. Honestly, if I were in a situation where I could potentially lose my life, I would be focused on training instead of batting eyes at some boys. It felt forced and out of place.

There were sections where I just cringed at the amateurishness of the writing. Here's an example: "Oh how she loved candy!" I think my eyes rolled clear back into my head when I read that line.

Still, I'm curious enough to read book 2. Although, I'm very rarely NOT curious enough to read book 2.

Writing style, the female lead was so annoying, I hate having witty and weak females

Great read! Kept my interest, which is saying a lot, esp for a YA. In the beginning, her character annoyed me quite a bit - she just seemed to be a little “much”. But thankfully, that lessened as the plot went on. Great fantasy elements, although I was disappointed that the “map” really didn’t give me all the places that were named. Looking forward to the next book!