Genre: YA Fantasy Rating: 4.5 stars
Synopsis: "After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin."
Let me first start by saying that yes, I am the last person on the planet to read this book. I read ALL of the young adult books when I was in middle and high school but let's be honest, it's been a minute since then. I've been challenging myself
to become more well-versed in the current YA scene and potentially find some books that my students might enjoy along the way. Spoiler alert: I'm putting a hold on Crown of Midnight at the library ASAP.
Throne of Glass starts with an interesting premise, but on the slow side. It took me almost a week to read the first 100 pages. I was into it, but I wasn't into it. But then one exciting moment happened (yay, spoiler-free) and I couldn't put it down. I read the last 300 pages in one sitting - immediately before the discussion I was hosting on the book (sorry, buddy read group!) It took a minute for the fantasy aspects to come through and this isn't necessarily a work of fiction, but wow, was I hooked? I think a competition always makes for a fun story.
I've seen numerous critiques of this book for the main character essentially being "perfect" - good at everything, pretty, desirable - and that it was like every other book they've read. I will say my limitations in the YA genre may highlight that I haven't necessarily read many main characters like this. I've become accustomed to reading books with female main characters who are deemed unstable or reduced to a love interest. Calaena is morally gray (obviously) but not an unreliable character (I'm looking at you, domestic thrillers!). The story also includes a significant female friendship, which we all know is hard to come by in fiction these days.
I was suggested this book as an introduction to YA fantasy with romance from many people as romance normally makes me cringe. To my surprise, this one worked pretty well for me. The romance was relatively closed-door compared to a lot of what is floating around in the YA space. It was part of the story, but not the whole story.
I look forward to picking up Crown of Midnight from the library and hopefully breezing through the rest of the series!