Nocturnal Book Reviews

Peeps, I suggest you pre-order or pester the hell out of your local library to pre-order this book ASAP, because Ms Maas managed to write something which undoubtedly will end up one of the reading highlights of 2012.

This book is EPIC.

Celaena is one of those kick-ass ladies who manage a tricky combination of cocky, charming, kind, lonely, jaded and in a lot of ways wise beyond her years.

You do need to read 4 novellas before reading Throne of Glass (TOG) because the transformation of a young brilliant showoff after a year of hard labour in the mines into someone who is quietly determined to survive and be free again, someone who appreciates the small pleasures in life, is staggering.

I liked Celaena before the mines, but Celaena after , - I loved. She is humanised, reachable, she is someone we can all relate to.

There are no moments of TSTL in this book. There is insane bravery, tentative friendships and flirtations. Despite her hardships, Celaena is very young and she allows herself to have fun, to be frivolous and impulsive. However, she doesn't commit to some sort of love until death to Dorian whom she really sees for who he is or to his captain, Chaol, who sees her for who she is.

"You do know that you are now a slave, don't you? Has your sentence taught you nothing?"

"I don't see how working in a mine can teach anything beyond how to use a pickax."

"And you never tried to escape?"

A slow, wicked smile spread across her lips. "Once."

The prince's brows rose, and he turned to Captain Westfall. "I wasn't told that."

....

"What happened?" Dorian asked.

Her eyes turned cold and hard. "I snapped."

"That's all you have to offer as an explanation for what you did?" Captain Westfall demanded. "She killed her overseer and twenty-three sentries before they caught her. She was a finger's tip from the wall before the guards knocked her unconscious."

You never get bored with TOG, there is just so much going on. The competition is only a part of the story. There is training with Chaol, friendship with Eyllwe princess Nehemia, flirtation with Dorian, gruesome magical murders connected to the wyrdmarks and portals all over the palace. Celaena somehow becomes entangled in the magical battle for her country and becomes The Chosen one. *grin*

She is asked by higher powers to win the competition and keep an eye on strange happenings in the palace. Even by the end of the book I'm not exactly clear on what is going in. There is this hidden game, evil lurking in the palace... which we'll find out more about in the next book.

The whole experience of TOG is absolutely fantastic, and I have to say UK cover s far more suitable for the plot than US one. Celaena just got out of the mines, she is ghostly pale and emaciated, she is like a wrath, not a well-fed, healthy looking girl with glossy hair. No, just no.