This cast of characters was amazing and Maas completely blew me away with how well she developed each one of them! She built a lovable (and sometimes not so lovable) and unforgettable cast of characters! Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas is a complex and engrossing fantasy epic that ultimately triumphs, despite its slow start, earning a laudable 4.5-star rating. Caelena Sardothien is an assassin, or at least she was until she was captured and forced into captivity and slavery. When the Crown Prince finds her and offers her one shot a freedom, she has no choice but to accept his offer. She is to be placed into a competition (with all men) as Prince Dorian's champion and fight to become a royal assassin. will live in the castle and be trained by the Captain of the Guard Chaol Westfall. When one of the other competitors turns up dead, Caelena discovers there is a lot more going on in the castle than she expected. Celaena is as much an epic hero as Frodo or Jon Snow!”—Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author on HEIR OF FIRE Even the villains were perfect! Kane, Princess Kaltain and The King were so unlikable and despicable and I loved to hate them!

Yes. I'll just put it out there... this is a love triangle. But the way it's developed, it's believable, and never feels overly melodramatic. Two best friends; two guys who are both very similar in values, and yet very different in personality; two guys, flawed but wonderful; two guys who both compliment Celaena well, but in different ways; Two guys like this falling for the same young woman for different reasons? I can totally see that happening. I loved the gradual change as both of them began to see Celaena as more than just a convicted criminal and as an actual person with a heart and a soul... and eventually, perhaps, as a friend. Knowing the state in which the novellas left her heart, I was a tad hesitant about the romance aspect of this book (Sam...), but it works and it's done really well... to the point where it's tearing me up a little because both guys are just so...sigh-inducingly wonderful.Celaena, with her formidable skills and biting wit, is a riveting protagonist. The depth of her character unfolds gradually, revealing a mix of vulnerability and tenacity that is both relatable and admirable. Her journey from enslaved assassin to a formidable player in the game of thrones is compelling and filled with unexpected twists.

Philippa: I really have nothing much more to say about Philippa. I guess at least she has bulk 'contained by her cobalt and peach dress' whatever that means.For Prince Dorian, selecting Celaena Sardothien as his Champion in the competition was a way to thumb his nose at his father's authority while still adhering to his father's wishes. His relationship with Celaena was never supposed to get personal, but her wit, passion and snark, so different from that of the simpering court ladies, intrigues him in ways he never expected. A point of contention could be the initial pace of the story. It requires some patience, but those who persevere will be rewarded with a narrative that is as thrilling as it is intricate. The development of secondary characters and the threads of romance woven into the story add an extra layer of depth, making the wait worthwhile. In a land without magic, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is summoned to the castle. If she defeats twenty-three hardened warriors in a competition, she will be released from prison to serve as the King's Champion.

Celaena is likable, mostly. More so than the average lead. If a little wishy-washy both on her choice of romantic partner and just her general day-to-day attitude. Leads like this have a tendency to not really be multi-dimensional, so much as script flipping. One moment they're brash and mouthy and the next they're blushing like a delicate belle. That's just something I've come to expect though, whenever an author is attempting to craft what they see as a 'strong female' character. Obviously, being a debut novel, the character and story development are as filled out as her newer titles, but it's not like it felt like I was missing anything either. With all the guy "team" talk I've seen, I had no idea which way I would go with this one... but I'm totally Team Choal. There's just something about him I really enjoyed. Maybe his total unwillingness to accept his feelings for Calaena, or maybe how protective and strong her came off. Either way, he was totally *SWOON* in my opinion!Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan's Assassin - feared, fierce, lethal. Everyone in Erilea knows her name, a name synonymous with death. But then betrayed, caught, tried, convicted, Celaena is sentenced to a lifetime in the unforgiving salt mines of Endovier as punishment for her many crimes. In an ironic twist of fate, she's offered the chance to compete to become the Champion of the very king who condemned her; in doing so, earning her freedom... and possibly becoming Erilea's best hope against the dark forces that would seek to destroy it. The Crown Prince will befriend her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass-and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world. No summary of the plot that I could write would accurately show just how awesome this story is. There is action and mystery and the supernatural. There is a love story ... sort of. It's pretty subtle at this point in the story. This is a story of survival as well as a story of a society which is potentially at the dawn of a new age. This is the story of a girl who has gotten by in this life by taking care of herself and herself alone for the most part, but who finds herself letting her guard down enough to find friendship and companionship. There are so many things to like about this story. I think I'll boil all of it down to these things: My problem is not (entirely) that she is a terrible fighter and an even worse assassin, though I do find it problematic that our main character is a woman and supposedly badass while continuously being shown to be bad at her job or rescued by one of the love interests. My problem with Throne of Glass and many YA novels lately is the raging epidemic of Special Woman Syndrome (shortened drastically from what I called it in my review of Defiance). Only the main woman is important. Other women can't do what she does. Much like Celaena, who says on the one hand that she hates women like Kaltain while being exactly what she accuses women like Kaltain of being while the book tells us she isn't, YA novels have a bad habit of saying "you can be special. Only you, though, because only you are like the heroine, not those other girls, who have sex and hate women. You can't trust those girls, they aren't like you. No other girls are like you. Those other girls get raped and murdered. But you're strong. You're special. You are not like other girls." So why does Throne of Glass fill me with such unreasoning dislike? Is it because I had to admit to being wrong about something, which I absolutely hate doing? Is it because so little research went into this that at one point Celaena (our Cinderella) asserts that if she cut off a horse's bridle the saddle would fall off? Is it because Celaena is, hands down, the single most irritating character I have ever read about? Maybe it's because the love interests are practically interchangeable during the first book. It could be blatant tokenism in the form of Nehemia, who deserved so much better. Possibly the sloppy worldbuilding? The never-ending stream of assurances that the emperor/king was Evil and Never to Be Crossed Lest Dire Consequences Ensue despite almost every character in the book crossing him with no consequences? THE BLATANT RACISM, PERHAPS?

The biggest problem with this book is the dual plot: the competition and the murders, which are interconnected, they don't really seem that way, which is a problem. The thing is, the book becomes somewhat convoluted with both the competition and the murders. I think the competition would have provided enough conflict. I also kind of find it strange that these soldiers, thieves and assassins wouldn't try to sabotage and kill each other off (themselves, without a prowling monster) when they each fight for their freedom. Calaena doesn't seem like the character who'd just be content with reading and training all the time, when freedom means so much to her... and that's exactly what she was doing. I really feel that Maas should have focused more on the competition, having more fights and stand-offs between the competitors rather than putting on so much focus on the grisly murders and developing the love triangle between Celaena and two romantic interests. The second problem I have with the plot is the fact that Celaena was the only female competitor. I refuse to believe that aside from her, Ansel and Nehemia, that there are no other baddass women around. In fact, it seems that aside from Nehemia and Kaltain, and a couple of other supporting females, most of the cast of characters are male. I demand more female characters! World. It's obvious to me that the continent of Erilea has been something Sarah J. Maas has been developing for a very long time. From climates, to languages, to landmarks, to legends and local lore, it's a very polished, beautiful and complete world that Celaena Sardothien resides in. Plus, this book got a few automatic points in its favor because it includes a gorgeously drawn and detailed map, which I put to very good use while reading. The whole premise of Throne of Glass is: Imagine a serial killer who's been stalking the streets and she's so well known that people shudder at the sound of her name. The serial killer is caught after a betrayal by her cronies and sent to suffer to prison camps for her crimes. Hallelujah!? Celaena, of course, is our main character. Nehemia is her token woc bff. Kaltain is the stereotypical mean girl. Queen Georgina likes to do nothing but watch people dance and tell her son he should get married. Philippa is Celaena's maid, who tells her she's beautiful despite laboring in a salt mine for a year. And Queen Elena is a ghost who cheerleads Celaena and gives her cryptic advice.I agree completely with Lisa that Nehemia was just as amazing! Nehemia provided Caelena with a friend and confidant and I loved their friendship. Once they learned to trust each other, they were unstoppable! Then you read Throne of Glass and it's surprising anyone puts up Celaena at all, not to mention how both the Crown Prince and Captain of the Royal Guard somehow both fall in love with her because while she may be a murder, she has a heart of gold. Oh, and she reads. Discover Sarah J. Maas's #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series-now available for a limited time in a brand-new miniature format!