Review: Throne of Glass

Title: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass ~ Book 1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publication Date: August 7 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 1599906953
Length: 416 Pages
Link to Synopsis: Goodreads
Source: Direct from Publisher via NetGalley
Buy It: Amazon US / Amazon UK

My Rating: 5 Stars

This is going to be a very difficult review to write.  I am going to do my best not to come across as some kind of crazed, obsessed fangirl.  However, this can not be promised and please use this as a warning.  If you do not like to read reviews that gush about greatness and use words such as amazing, awesome, fantastic, spellbinding, glorious... then please turn away now.  If you are all about the rush of the terrific emotions that come from reading greatness then please continue onward.

I had been eyeing this book on Goodreads for sometime before it was released. Then when it was released I was in the middle of another series so decided to wait to purchase it.  Last week I was so close to buying it but decided to try my luck on a Review Copy from the publisher via NetGalley.  My book review blog is so new I wasn't sure if I would be approved.  You have no idea how excited I was when I got the eMail that I was approved and that my copy was ready to be sent to my Kindle, Christmas had indeed come early.  This was my first approved review copy as an official book blogger and it could not have been a better first choice for me to request.

Throne of Glass honestly has it all. Action, adventure, intrigue, fighting, friendship, betrayal, love... the list can go on and on.  From start to finish if I ever needed to put the book down I was dying to get back to it.

Sarah J Maas does such a great job describing the world her characters are living in.  Celaena is an assassin (this should actually say kick ass assassin) and you would think this would make her hard, worn and untouchable.  But there are so many moments when we see her just being a girl.  Wanting to do normal things such as going to a feast or to a ball.  Of course as an assassin she had been to many because of her 'hit' or 'mark' being there.  But when she puts on the fine clothes it's rather like a little girl dressing up and believing she can be more than what she was raised to be. It was very touching to see this side of her.  Of course we also see her kick ass side which is something to behold.  She is simply unstoppable, the best of the best and there is no denying that.

The side characters were also wonderful.  The Princess Nahemia being one of my favorite. It was great to have Maas introduce a beautiful character and not have the main character immediately jealous or feel inferior to the new person.  They instantly became friends and it was a breath of fresh air.  Too many times authors feel the need to have every female in a novel pitted against each other in some kind of jealous rage. 

Then of course there is the love triangle.  Yes, of course there is a love triangle.  The key players in this are Celaena, Prince Dorian and Chaol who is the Captain of the King's Guard.  So of course by the end you will be required to 'Pick a Team'.  This is mandatory with all love triangles as it will spark controversy with you and your fellow book lovers as you will be able to argue for hours over why one man is better than the other.  I will warn you though, I do think you will find it very difficult to pick a team in this instance.  So I am sure you are all dying to know which team I am on... so without further ado.
(insert drum roll)

Yes you heard it here first. I adore Chaol.  Don't get me wrong, I do also love Prince Dorian and I can see great things in the future for his character. But Chaol won me over very early on.  I simply love him.

Now that I have got you all excited about reading Throne of Glass and I am sure you will all be rushing out to start it right away, you may want to know there will be other books. Can we all have a collective round of applause please?  Oh, when is the next book you ask?  Well, Goodreads says not until 2013 (no month stated as of yet).  But alas, not all is lost.  If you did not already know there are four novellas that Maas has published that are prequels to Throne of Glass.


Now of course the wise thing to do would be to spread these novellas out.  Maybe read one every 10 books or so in order to keep the story alive while we wait for the 2013 publication of the next full novel.

Is that what I will be doing?  Of course not.  I had every intention of starting a completely different book after Throne of Glass but I am not ready to move on quite yet.  I will be reading these right away.  They are not very long and do not see it taking me more than a day or two but I need more Celaena now.

In closing, if you haven't already realized, I loved this book and would recommend it wholeheartedly.  I did want to leave you with a Pronunciation Guide that I found useful.  This is taken directly from the author's website.  I love unique names and I really feel they can lend a hand in creating the new world that is being described.  But I also hate nothing more than going through an entire book only to realize that I have been pronouncing the names and places all wrong.  So please use this has a helping guide as you read.  I mean honestly, when I first started I had no idea Chaol was pronounced 'Kay-all'.  I was saying 'Coal', then 'Charl'.  Then I found this little guide to help me.

Throne of Glass Pronunciation Guide

People:
Celaena Sardothien: Sell-lay-nah Sar-doth (like ‘cloth’)-ee-en
Chaol Westfall: Kay-all (like “chaos”) West-fall
Dorian Havilliard: Door-ee-en Have-ill-yard
Nehemia Ytger: Neh-heem-ee-ah Yet-gerre (like “garrison”)
Kaltain Rompier: Cal (like “calcium”)-tane (like “cane”) Rom-pee-ay
Arobynn Hamel: Arrow-behn Heh-mel
Elentiya: Elle-len-tee-yah

Places:
Eyllwe: Eel-way
Erilea: Err-rel-yah
Terrasen: Terra-sen (like “sent”)
Adarlan: Ah-dar-len
Endovier: En (like the letter N) –dō (like “dough”)-vee-er
Orynth: Or-inth
Anielle: Annie-elle
Melisande: Mell-iss-sand
Wendlyn: Wend-lin

Other:
Wyrd: Word
Wyrdmarks: Word-marks

QUOTES FROM THRONE OF GLASS