Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass ⭐⭐

Celaena Sardothien. She is the greatest assassin in the world. She is also the most beautiful girl in the world. She's really really really pretty. She's also the greatest assassin in the world (make sure to keep all of this in mind)

This is what we're told.

She's about the lamest assassin in any world. When I hear greatest assassin in the world I expect to see great action, cautious movements, and maybe some actual reason behind her being the greatest assassin in the world. Maybe we even get to see actual assassinating. But no. INSTEAD I get about three quarters of the book about Celaena sitting on her bed reading. I CAN DO THAT TOO YOU KNOW. In the story, there are people inside the castle that are being murdered so why does she keep leaving her own door unlocked at night? People constantly walk in and out of her room while she's asleep which means I COULD MURDER HER IN HER SLEEP. 

The whole plot of this book is about Celaena going up against 23 other people in dangerous trials (sometimes life and death) to compete to become the King's Champion. But the trials aren't even shown. After a few days, Celaena just off-handedly mentions that there were trials and vaguely mentions, in about two sentences, what they did. EXCUSE ME BUT I WAS HERE TO READ ABOUT AWESOME ACTION PACKED TRIALS NOT LISTEN TO THE MAIN CHARACTER TALK ABOUT IT WHILE SITTING IN BED. That's like if in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, instead of us watching Harry do the dragon task, or the lake, or the maze, Harry gets to the starting line, the chapter ends. Next we see of him is him reading on his bed telling you about the awesome time he had with the dragon. (imagine that scene in Kung Fu Panda. this book: "You haven't seen anything yet!" me: "I know!!")

The two boys, Dorian and Chaol (the prince and the prince's guard) could have easily been replaced each with a plank of wood and the story would have been exactly the same. Even the back of the book synopsis is talking about "a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys the world." World destruction?! Where was that book?! 

Crown of Midnight ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wow. Wow wow wow. Did NOT expect that. You see, this book is actually pretty good. There was a plot that existed, I liked the characters a lot more, and there were actually emotional moments that I enjoyed. Dare I say it, I liked a Sarah J. Maas book :O. 

Dorian and Chaol were actually their own characters and... I liked them. There's magic that comes into play with one of the characters that was showcased really well. There's faerie lore that I liked a LOT better than A Court of Thorns and Roses. At least these faeries seemed to know what they were doing. And of course, there's Celaena doing some INTERESTING STUFF. She's got off her butt and she ready to go to work.

The big problem that dropped this book a whole star was the representation factor. Yeah. This is kinda a spoiler but the only person of color dies. Now here's the big issue: at the end, Chaol runs INTO A SCARY PORTAL to save... wait for it... the DOG. BUTTTTTT the one person of color gets her neck sliced and no one could save her. I don't like those priorities very much.

Heir of Fire ⭐⭐⭐

I actually really liked this one. However, I felt like there was just too much going on that didn't really connect. 

There were three different storylines happening simultaneously, and while they were all semi-interesting (some more than others) in their own way, it really made the book feel very long. Chaol and Dorian are in the same place, and while their storylines aren't boring, they're kind of slow and uneventful. Dorian gets a new lady friend and she's... really super boring.

There's a new character, named Manon, who has her own point of view. Her story doesn't connect with the others at all. She's doing her own thing, specifically training her wyvern (it's basically a dragon) and it's always a really jarring change when it goes from action, fighting, rebellion, scheming, to How to Train Your Dragon. I assume that her story will connect to the others the next book, but currently, it just felt like another book was combined with this book. Celaena (with Rowan) had the most interesting storyline and that was the one I was invested in. While none of the other storylines made me bored exactly, I was just so much less interested in them compared to Celaena's.

Yes, I am still intrigued in the series and I will continue because I still believe that this is the superior series compared to ACOTAR. The characters are better, the emotional moments actually hit home for me, the plot is A LOT better, I can feel the stakes of the story, and the action is super entertaining and crazy at times.

Queen of Shadows ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I really enjoyed this one. The characters are more or less in the same place in this book so the plot feels more linear. In the previous book, it felt as if there were three different books smashed into one, so I'm glad that this one put most of them in the same place.

I will say that while I know Rowan is a fan favorite, I liked him a lot better in the previous book. In this one, he's probably the least interesting out of all the characters. He's actually quite boring in this one. There wasn't really much going on with him. He was just kind of hanging out around the gang, getting all nervous whenever Celaena did literally anything. He's on the road to becoming a Rhysand and I DON'T LIKE IT.

Manon, however, is becoming a real favorite of mine. I thought that her storyline was by far the least interesting of them all in the third book, but in this one, she actually has more of her own character arc and when she meets the gang... let's just say that that was one of my favorite scenes.

As always, Sarah J. Maas has great action in her books and those ending fights were just so good. 

Assassin's Blade ⭐⭐

So here's the thing. There are three types of stories I don't like. I don't like prequels. I don't like novellas. and I don't like short stories. This was a prequel novella full of short stories.

I was SO BORED. There were TWO out of the five short stories that I actually cared about. The rest just dragged on and on and I was just waiting for Celaena to get a move on. There were no characters that were particularly likeable and Celaena was a real jerk most of the book, so I found no reason to root for her. Did not appreciate this one and would like to get those six hours of my life back.

Empire of Storms ⭐⭐

6 DOWN 2 TO GO. My god I'm kind of ready to be done with this series. I thought about giving up but I'VE MADE IT SO FAR. It's too late to turn back now.

Yeah so I didn't enjoy about 80% of this book. Aelin (that's Celaena. she has a new name) is such a jerk. Now I excused this behavior from the prequel novella since it was a PREQUEL novella. This is a sequel so she has no excuse. HELLO I'M SUPPOSED TO WANT TO ROOT FOR YOU. It's quite unfortunate since I came into this series with Aelin being my favorite character. Now she's fallen so far down the list of characters it's not even funny.

There were actually only three characters in this entire cast of like 10 of them that I actually liked: Manon, Elide, and Dorian (and Chaol but he got written out of the book so whatever). Manon has had THE BEST character growth throughout the entire series. She also gets probably the most fun action out of all of them. Elide is sweet but she's also super smart, which I appreciate. There's really no reason for me to like Dorian, but there's no reason NOT to so whateves. These three really saved this book from my wrath when it came to the characters and how they were presented.

Now FAN FAVORITE ROWAN however is a different story. I kind of hate his guts. He's so uninteresting I just don't get why he's so beloved by all. Also, the age gaps that Sarah J. Maas has managed to put between her characters are just BEYOND incredible. I'm talking 500+ years old apart for couples. Why can't the dude just be 20 and call it a day? Why he gotta be 546? 

Well... I guess I better finish the series. I wish Chaol hadn't been written out of this book because now I have to read a 600+ page book on just him. But, like I said earlier, I made it SO FAR. Can't give up now.

Update from Elaina about a year and a half later: 

I have decided that this series is not worth my energy. For some reason, I was under the impression that I had to finish all of the popular young adult fantasy books. I don't and I won't because here's the thing, there are so many better books out there that I could spend my time on. Why would I want to put myself through unnecessary pain just for the sake of completing the series? I don't like Sarah J. Maas's books. It's plain and simple. Okay I'm done now. GOODBYE THRONE OF GLASS SERIES!