This series is one of the biggest things in YA/fantasy right now. Sarah J. Maas is beloved in the book community, and this is the one that started it all!
“"Nothing is a coincidence. Everything has a purpose. You were meant to come to this castle, just as you were meant to be an assassin." When magic has gone from the world, and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She does not come to kill, but to win her freedom. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the King's Champion and be released from prison. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. And a princess from a foreign land will become the one thing Celaena never thought she'd have again: a friend. But something evil dwells in the castle—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival—and a desperate quest to root out the source of the evil before it destroys her world.”
It sounds exciting doesn’t it! Daring! A little bit like a Hunger Games rip-off but that’s okay!
The series is EVERYWHERE on bookstagram. I was considering buying it because I wanted to see if it warranted the hype. Then I remembered that my partner had semi-recently walked into a Chapters and had a book sold to him that looked eerily like this one…
He found it for me and relinquished it accordingly. That was $20 I would’ve regretted spending.
I love a sassy main character, but Celaena was mostly irritating with her “I’m a cutesy but deadly assassin” routine. For such a threatening person, she seems to leave herself unprotected a lot. There is also a moment where a rival assassin pulls a knife out of their sock - and she is agog, because she couldn’t possibly have gotten a knife anywhere? But she’s Adarlan’s greatest assassin? Obviously not, if the other assassin got one and she didn’t. Maybe she has a crazy ego, but it is repeated by other characters too. Overall, I’m not sold on her skill or her reputation.
Further, her “love interests” are as plain as blank paper. One is the Crown Prince who is too “different” (read: too smart and sensitive) for the court and the other is Captain of the Guard who also seems not to be very good at his job. That one seems to glower and grunt a lot. I don’t remember his personality. Because he didn’t have one.
The princess from the foreign land was a cool character. She was dynamic, and I wanted to know more about her. I wish the book had been written about her instead.
I’ve been told by a few people now that the series gets better at book 3 or 4. What??? Who has time to read 2-3 books in a series that are not good??? There are so many other, better books to be reading.
The author’s second series begins with the book ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’, which has also received rave reviews. I’ve heard it is better written, and I hope to read it in the future - this one hasn’t totally put me off the author.
2.5 stars. I like meeting a cast of characters and a new world, but next time, I’ll do it with tempered expectations.
Happy reading,
Holly
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