Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Publication Date: August 7, 2012

Synopsis:
Celaena Sardothien has been summoned to the king's castle. Not to kill him, but to participate in an event to become his personal assassin. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and soldiers in a competition, she will not only become the king's assassin, but also win her freedom.

The Crown Prince provokes her and the Captain of the Guard protects her, all while something evil lurks in the castle, waiting to kill.

Thoughts:
Guys! Are any of you at all proud of my for jumping on this bandwagon? No? I think I see one person in the far back who is slightly proud of me. Okay, that'll do, I guess.

Jokes aside, I did finally jump on the bandwagon during #BookTubeAThon and I fell in love with the book immediately. The night I picked it up, I read a little over half of it before struggling to put it down. I would have stayed up reading, but I had a full day of working with people the next day and I really didn't want to be exhausted for that. Thinking back on it now, it was the right decision to put the book down, cause even though I didn't pick it back up the next day, when I did finally sit down to read it, I finished the whole book.

I loved the book, from beginning to end. There was so much that I didn't know because I once again refused to read the synopsis, so a lot of things were completely new to me and took me by surprise as they happened. I won't say what exactly, but these plot twists really had me thinking about the book all the time and I already raved about it in a super excited fangirling manner before I even finished the book. I have two friends in mind whom I'm basically going to hand the book to and tell them to read it, because they can't afford to be without the awesomeness that is this book.

I've heard a lot of people say that they had to push through this book and read Crown of Midnight before the story really hooked them, but I didn't think this was dull at all. I was excited and interested all throughout reading this and when I remembered what other people had said about this, I thought, "If I already loved this book, doesn't that mean the series is only going to get immensely better? How is that even possible? It's already so awesome right now!" I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily an easy reader to please, as some of you have seen through several of my previous reviews, but I think that when it comes to fantasy, because I haven't read much of it, this is a genre that really impresses me whenever I sit down to read it.

There are so many things in the book that I can rave about, but I think it was the action and mystery that stood out to me the most. There was so much going on all the time, but it didn't feel overwhelming at all. I felt like every little piece played a part in the greater story, even if I didn't see it just yet. All the action kept me wanting to find out what would happen next and the mystery had me coming up with all kinds of my own theories. I ended up being partially right for one of my theories, and being completely wrong about the rest of them. But hey, it's been awhile since I've read a book that has made me theorize like this and kept me this engaged from the very beginning. In fact, it's been ages since I've recommended a book while being in the middle of reading it, which just goes to show how much I loved this.

I can see what people mean when they talk about this love triangle, because I'm currently at the point where I know which guy I like better, but not which guy I prefer Celaena with. I know which guy I'd rather have for myself, but I can't say that I know which one I'd want for Celaena. I have a vague idea of who I'm leaning towards, but considering this is a six book series, I'm not sure if that's going to be true as I get further along the series. I mean, usually I'm really good about knowing who I want a character to be with in a love triangle, and then never straying from that, but I feel like this is such a big series that I could easily be swayed from one side to another at any given point. I've heard that a lot of people are Team Dorian, but I've also heard of a lot of people on Team Chaol, though that seems to come up less. I don't want to say which team I'm on at the moment because I feel like that could change later in the series. Ugh, and I hate not being sure of which guy I want the girl to be with. This is like The Vampire Diaries all over again.

The ending surprised me quite a bit. I had a vague idea of how one of the storylines would turn out, but I had no idea the magnitude of it until I got to the end of the book. The way things were set up for the next book made me want to pick up Crown of Midnight immediately and ditch my #BookTubeAThon TBR completely. I restrained myself though. However, I know that this is another series that I'll be continuing once I'm done with all the other books I need to read. And I'm pretty sure that by the time I get around to continuing the series, Queen of Shadows is going to be out.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that this is my favorite book that I read during #BookTubeAThon? Yeah, this is my favorite.

Character(s):
I LOVE Celaena. She's so sassy and sarcastic all the time, which means I want to be exactly like her. Also, she really does kick massive butt. She's so skilled at everything and yet she has this immense grace with everything she does. If she wasn't an assassin, I think she'd probably make one of the best dancers in the world. I love how strong and determined she is, and I think that she's going to be one of the characters that really inspires me to be stronger and to strive for what I want. The way she inspires me, and plenty of other people out there, I just can't put into words.

Can I just say that I think Dorian is hilarious? It's like he's incapable of acting normal around women and then he gets reprimanded by Celaena later. I think he's really funny, but also such a big flirt. Like, borderline between good flirt and bad flirt. Which is interesting, because I don't think I've ever heard any one else mention that about him before. Do I like him? Yes, I quite like him as a character. I also really like how entertaining he and Celaena are when they get together.

Chaol is...I really like Chaol. I don't even know why. He's so serious and brooding all the time, but I really like him. OH MY GOSH HOLD ON FOR A MOMENT I JUST REALIZED WHY I LIKE CHAOL SO MUCH! HE REMINDS ME OF FOUR FROM DIVERGENT! You might not agree, but the serious, brooding, protective, never smiles, trustworthy, reliable, mature guy who pushes Celaena to train harder and do better! And since Four is my favorite book boyfriend of all time, that fact that Chaol reminds me of him just makes him all the more lovable as a character.

Overall:
5 stars and so highly recommended. If you haven't read this yet, you need to pick it up now because you're missing out on a lot of epicness! This has made it onto my list of favorite series and it's only going to become more and more loved by me.