Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Hoorah for another story featuring an assassin! I think it's a very interesting topic with a lot of psychological depth to it. Anyways, this book features Celaena Sardothien,  a famous assassin who was captured and left to rot in the horrible soul-crushing-people-killing labor prison of Endovier. She gets dragged out by the Prince who offers her a once in a lifetime chance: become the King's Champion, serve for four year, and gain her freedom. All she has to do is is defeat the rest of the competitors through various tests of skill. But hey, she's the all-time famous assassin! It'll be easy, right?

Well, we all know the answer to that question. Onto the review!

Throne of Glass is very well written, interesting, and engaging. However, I still found it a bit lacking in some areas. For one thing, her character is a little confusing and flawed. She's played up as this extremely arrogant assassin who takes pride in her abilities and has a fondness for clothing. Then she turns out to be this soft-hearted soul who protests death and suffering and who certainly does not want to be an assassin. I suppose she could have changed while in prison, seeing the suffering that goes on there, but it's still just a little bit too contradictory for it to make sense. If she's changed into this angelic person she should at least feel a little guilty about her greediness and, as an assassin, she is much too squeamish about some of the death that happen. Yes, some of them are fairly gruesome, but she's an assassin for goodness's sakes! The romance bit also left much to be desired. It just seems so shallow and plain lame in so many aspects! I won't specifically say how it's flawed because I'd spoil it that way, but if you read it you should be able to see what I mean. Perhaps I'm just too used to those looming difficulties and trials of destiny occurring later on in book series, but I feel like Celaena's particular challenge came much too early and was a bit anti-climactic. I mean, it's hyped up to seem like it's going to be this supremely difficult and dangerous event, but it went by much to quickly. I was left thinking, "Wait. That's it?" I was very dissatisfied. But, despite all of the things I found lacking, Throne of Glass still turned out to be an enjoyable read and an impressive debut novel.