Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week they provide a topic and you are free to use that topic and/or variations of that topic to make your top ten list. You don’t have to do all ten. Instead you can do three, five, fifteen, whatever you want. A full list of the weekly themes can be found here.
This week’s theme is Bookish Worlds I’d Want to/Never Want to Live In. Continue reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words and was formerly hosted by A Daily Rhythm. It is open for anyone to participate, even without a blog you can comment on Sam’s post with your own answers. It is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog. Continue reading
Title: Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5) by Sarah J. Maas
Published: September 6th, 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Average Goodreads rating: 4.58
My rating: 3.5
The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don’t. Continue reading
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week they provide a topic and you are free to use that topic and/or variations of that topic to make your top ten list. You don’t have to do all ten. Instead you can do three, five, fifteen, whatever you want. A full list of the weekly themes can be found here. Continue reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words and was formerly hosted by A Daily Rhythm. It is open for anyone to participate, even without a blog you can comment on Sam’s post with your own answers. It is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog. Continue reading
Hello Spring! I cannot explain how happy I was when the last of the snow finally melted and I could pull my flip flops out from the back of the closet. That reminds me that I need to paint my toes a properly springy color. I have a neon green that would be just the thing.
I didn’t do a March wrap up because at the beginning of April I went on a multiple week hiatus so I’m going to combine both March and April for this wrap up. I expect it may get a little long… Continue reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words and was formerly hosted by A Daily Rhythm. It is open for anyone to participate, even without a blog you can comment on Sam’s post with your own answers. It is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog. Continue reading
Title: Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: September 2, 2014
Average Goodreads rating: 4.52
My rating: 3
Format read: Audio
Celaena has survived deadly contests and shattering heartbreak―but at an unspeakable cost. Now, she must travel to a new land to confront her darkest truth . . . a truth about her heritage that could change her life―and her future―forever. Meanwhile, brutal and monstrous forces are gathering on the horizon, intent on enslaving her world. Will Celaena find the strength to not only fight her inner demons, but to take on the evil that is about to be unleashed? Continue reading
Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) by Sarah J. Maas
“Then Celaena and the King of Adarlan smiled at each other, and it was the most terrifying thing Dorian had ever seen.”
Ah, here we are again, back with Sarah J Maas. This is the fifth book of hers that I have read this year. I’ll admit, their success for me has been hit or miss. We’ve all heard the complaints about her writing. Namely, her lack of diverse characters. Since we all know that one I’m not going to go on about it for this book. Except right here. Moving on…
Crown of Midnight is the second book in Maas’s Throne of Glass series. I reviewed the first book in the series here. If you don’t want to read that one I’ll summarize it here: I was not impressed. Love triangle, assassin who does nothing assassiny, and a girl who is supposed to be a complete bad ass getting sassy over some frilly dresses. I can’t count how many times I rolled my eyes reading that thing. However, at the coaxing of Swetlana @ Reading Through the Nights, I gave the second book a chance. I am so glad that I did. It’s like Maas actually took note of everything wrong with the first book and attempted to correct it in this one. Well, almost everything.
First things first, let me just throw this out there…I really, really don’t like Chaol. Why in the name of Maas is he the captain of the guard? Push over pussy. He can’t even make logical decisions. Waste. Of. Space. Why in the world would the champion assassin choose him?! Weakness does not make an attractive character. Why would someone who is supposed to be so strong pick someone so mentally weak? No thank you.
We return to Celaena as the king’s champion and she is being given his dirty work. As an assassin, that means being sent to kill people the king sees as a threat. However, we quickly find out that she isn’t actually killing them and instead giving her targets the option to flee and never return. Not being imbeciles, they take her offer and she returns to the king claiming to have carried out the deed.
To keep myself from rambling, I think I’m going to resort to the good old pro/con list.
Look at that, my con list is shorter than my pro list! That hasn’t happened in a while. In a nutshell, this is a pretty good book. I’m genuinely looking forward to reading the next one. The way Maas ended the book left a lot of room for the story to progress and I certainly can appreciate that. She also corrected a lot of the issues I had with the first in the series which was a very pleasant surprise. All in all, a good read.
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“You could rattle the stars,” she whispered. “You could do anything, if only you dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.”
Throne of Glass is the fourth Maas book that I’ve read, the first three being her A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy. Those three books had a varying amount of success in entertaining me. The best, at least in my opinion, was the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury. While the conclusion, A Court of Wings and Ruin, fell well short of my expectations I still decided to give her Throne of Glass series a chance. I had high hopes that this book would contain the same spark that I had found with Mist and Fury or at least something close to it.
Throne of Glass begins in a labor camp with the prisoner Celaena. Celaena, we quickly come to find out, is a very successful assassin that was sentenced to the prison camp for her deeds. This is something I like about Maas. She isn’t afraid to make her main characters powerful females. It is certainly something that has been happening more and more across the genre but credit where credit is due.
Our assassin is recruited from the camp by the crown prince to participate in a series of tests set forth by the king. The winner of these tests will be given a contract under the king as a killer/spy/whatever need be for his kingdom. After the contract is fulfilled, this champion will be granted their freedom.
“Second place is a nice title for the first loser.”
Now, this premise certainly sounds wonderful. I expected all of the different champions to brutally demonstrate the attributes that got them selected to participate in these tests. With every turn of the page I anticipated a blood bath with swords and fists. Despite all of these trained killers all being in the same place, everything was really pretty tame. What violence there was is mostly given to us second hand. There are slightly vague and watery descriptions of gore and mutilated remains but no first hand accounts of fights to the death. No heroic swordplay or quietly slit throats. Just, “Oh, look at that blood in that hallway over there. How interesting.” Not exactly interesting, no.
What did this book focus on instead of bawdy dialogue and clashing blades? A love triangle.
There is no way for me to make this sound interesting so I’ll just throw it to you as it is. Celaena, our would be daring assassin, may be able to kill people but she is frightfully boring. She likes puppies and frilly dresses and pouts like a petulant child. For some reason the prince is enamored with her and so is her guard. The prince is a womanizer and the guard is a pansy. I do, however, like the prince more than the guard. He at least doesn’t try to hide the fact that he enjoys the company of females enthusiastically. While I appreciate his unapologetic attitude, it doesn’t make him any less boring.
Other stuff happens. Magic is involved. And a badass lady with a staff. And a ghost. You’d think those things would make the story great but all it did was salvage an otherwise dying plot.
While I did find this book predictable and average, Swetlana @ Reading Through The Nights has convinced me to give the next book in the series a shot. I’m told the second one is much better. I could feel the makings of a good story in this book it just never quite got there. Hopefully Crown of Midnight has that spark I was hoping for in this series.
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