Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Book: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's
Pages: 416
Source: ALA copy
Links: Goodreads | Amazon

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.  

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Yes, folks, it's not just another pretty cover. Throne of Glass actually has some substance beneath this glossy exterior and does surprisingly well in not disappointing me. Personally, I thought I wasn't going to like this book because the universe tends to have me dislike books that everyone seems to just ADORE.

Armed with beautiful prose as well as fantastic, in-depth world building, Throne of Glass and its future installments have the potential to be one of the best young adult fantasy novels. We have a strong yet realistically vulnerable heroine, as well as emotionally evoking scenes and heart racing action packed scenes. There's really a TON of good things going on in this book.

While there is potential and awesome stuff galore, there are two things that fell for me: the pacing and the romance. GAH, the romance.

WHAT THRONE OF GLASS FAILS ON FOR ME

• The pacing -- absolutely slow at times, like "WHY ISN'T MY COMPUTER LOADING I'M GOING TO SMASH THIS TO PIECES" slow. You know, when you get infuriated when your computer just doesn't want to be fast for you? Yeah, that's what I felt for Throne of Glass.
• Well, it's not slow the whole time. For me, it felt like it had more of an irregular pace. It would be interesting and fast paced, then dull and slow paced in the next chapter.

• The romance -- in which certain characters can't seem to make up their minds and the love just feels WRONG.
• The romance can have a huge impact on me when I'm reading a novel -- sizzling, well done chemistry with a suck butt heroine is much more appealing to me as opposed to rather dry and dead with a kick butt heroine.
• Throne of Glass wasn't necessarily dead -- like I said in my title, it just didn't feel right. The main love interest and Celaena just didn't roll with me. The other left out guy of the love triangle was a MUCH better fit with Celaena.
• Perhaps it's just me and it's more of preference why I didn't enjoy the romance in Throne of Glass. Several other readers simply ate up the romance with more enthusiasm than I did!

Throne of Glass and its series makes a perfect potential candidate to become something really GREAT in the future, especially for me. If it works out its small flaws, I think I'll enjoy the next book much more than I did with this one.