Book Review and Discussion: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

I’m not going to put the description in, since it contains spoilers for the first two books!

Rating: 10/10

This series just keeps getting better. I’ll admit, I had a hard time getting into Throne of Glass (book 1, for those of you who don’t know). Crown of Midnight was fantastic, but this one completely blew it out of the water. If this trend continues, this series will definitely take the number one spot on my favorites list. There are so many new characters to meet in this book, and the characters that we already know and love grow and develop so much. That’s one thing I love about this series: In ever book, the characters all change drastically. They’re never the same person they were in the beginning. I can’t say much about the plot without spoiling any of the previous books other than everything was done so well, and it is set up for an amazing fourth book.

If you want to know more about the books, read my reviews of Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. Or better yet, just go buy them. Now. If you like high fantasy, and you’re prepared for at least three more years of commitment (there’s six books, and only three are out! The fourth is scheduled to come out later this year), then go read them now, but if you’re not a high fantasy fan or you’re not prepared for that kind of commitment, then I’d recommend not reading this series.

***Spoilers Below***

Since the book is so conveniently broken into three main plot lines, I’m going to discuss each of them individually. Prepare yourself now for a nice long ramble.

Manon and the witch covens: At first, I wasn’t quite sure why this part of the book was relevant to the story, and to be honest, I’m still not. Obviously, it’s going to come into play in the next books. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been included. I wasn’t a huge fan of Manon at first, or any of the witches for that matter, and, until Abraxos came into play, I really didn’t like her chapters. I didn’t see Abraxos coming. It seemed natural that Manon would end up getting Titus. I really loved Abraxos though, and I love the way he changed Manon. Before him, Manon was heartless. She even said so herself, but with Abraxos, she starts to care and maybe even love him. She goes to such great lengths for him, even though she was still quite cold sometimes. I think the times where her harshness comes out around him (i.e. when she orders him locked up until he makes the crossing) were because she really didn’t understand those caring feelings, and she was probably at least a little worried if not frightened by them. The spiders were creepy as all get out. I feel like that’s going to come back and bite Manon in the butt eventually, kind of like Baba Yellowlegs and Celaena. It seemed like a somewhat insignificant thing in Crown of Midnight, but with all the times Baba Yellowlegs was brought up, it’s obvious Celaena’s going to get into some trouble with the witches (specifically Iskra).

I’m curious to see exactly what the king plans to do with the witches and the wyverns. Since Manon is wing leader, and she’s starting to question the way she was brought up, I think (hope) she’s going to end up allying with Celaena. Regardless of what her interaction with Celaena ends up being, enemy or ally, I can’t way to see it. An alliance between the two of them would be darn near unstoppable. A battle between them would be epic.

Adarlan Plot: I’m going to be honest in saying that this was my least favorite part of the story. I’m not a huge fan of political type things and sitting around and plotting. I feel like a lot of Chaol and Aedion’s interaction was of that sort. I like that there’s a tentative friendship between them though. I’m interested to see it develop.

Naturally, I despised Aedion at first. We’re supposed to. He’s introduced as the douchiest douchbag to ever live. But then we get that chapter after Chaol tells him Aelin is alive and it completely changed my perspective. I actually felt really bad for him, and I learned to love him. He was so loyal to Aelin/Celaena (what do I call her now?). I need them to have a reunion. If it ends up being one of those things where Celaena gets there just in time to see him die… I don’t even want to consider that possibility.

Chaol kind of frustrated me. He was walking the line between loyal and traitor the whole book until the absolute worst second. Why, why could he have not decided what side he stood on before everything went to hell? He was all prepared to sacrifice himself for Dorian, Aedion, Sorcha, and Celaena, but then Aedion did it, gave him the chance to get out, and then he decides where he stands. Why, Chaol? Why?

I was not a fan of the Dorian/Sorcha plot line either. Sorcha was sweet and all. I loved her willingness to help him, and I won’t deny that I like a good Cinderella-esque story, but this seemed rushed and borderline cliche. It didn’t helped that as soon as Sorcha walked onto the page, I knew she was doomed. She just didn’t seem like the type of character to make it for long to me. I do like that she helped Dorian to control his magic though. That was the one upside.

Dorian changed a lot throughout this story, but he, too, picked the wrong moment to find his voice. I’m genuinely terrified for him. He’s basically his father’s slave now, and, if I remember correctly, there’s no clasp on that color. Does that mean that the only way to undo whatever was done to him is to kill him or, God forbid, behead him? I can handle gore and death in books, but beheadings deeply disturb me. Needless to say, Sorcha’s death didn’t sit too well with me. There has to be some other way to fix things, because he cannot die, especially not by beheading. Anything but beheading. My big worry is that the king will sic him on Celaena since he knows that’s what will get to her most emotionally, and he’ll do what the Valg princes did to her, and, even if he does get freed from the king’s control, Celaena will never be able to look at him the same way. Or, even worse, Celaena will have to kill him. Maybe he’ll end up being her mate and she won’t be able to do it. The long and short of it is that this is not going to go well for Dorian. At all.

Celaena: Is it that much of a shock that Celaena’s plot line was my favorite? She changed the most during this book. At the beginning, she was completely lost in self loathing. Her apathy irritated me in the beginning. I just wanted her to put down the teggya and do something. 

Like Aedion, Rowan was kind of presented as a jerk in the beginning. I really didn’t think he had the capacity to feel anything but anger and disgust. I couldn’t stand him.

The way he treated Celaena was awful. I couldn’t tell if he was trying (and failing) to be motivational or if he really meant it. Regardless, it did nothing but tear Celaena down more. She already felt everything he was saying, but it’s one thing to think that way about yourself. Hearing it from someone else makes it worse. The part where she snapped on Emrys and Luca made me so sad, and it made me dislike Rowan even more. I hope Emrys, Luca, and Malachai make a reappearance in future books.

I loved when Rowan took care of Celaena after she got burnt out. It was nice to see his kind side, and I’m glad that he realized what a butt he had been after Celaena told him about being in Endovier. He still had his not so nice moments after that, but he was much better (three cheers for character development!). I like that his relationship with Celaena has thus far stayed platonic. It teetered on the boarder a few times, but the line was never crossed. Close platonic relationships are so rare in books nowadays, because it always ends up being that one character has romantic feelings for the other or one of them dies (*cough*Nehemia*cough).

Dear Sarah J. Maas,

Don’t kill Rowan.

Don’t kill Dorian.

Please.

The fight with the Valg princes was so intense. When I read the “you’re the Valg” line, I literally yelled “holy crap!” I feel like I should’ve seen it coming, but, wow… Talk about a plot twist. And they were creepy as hell, too. The way they killed was awful, especially since they made people relive their worst memories. The only good thing that came out of that was getting the full story of Celaena’s parent’s death. I came dangerously close to tears then. That was one of the most heart wrenching things I’ve ever read. Lady Marion’s sacrifice made Celaena’s entire story so much sadder. I can’t imagine carrying around that much guilt. No wonder she tried so hard to repress those memories. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she saw everyone she loved, including her eight year old self, chanting “get up, get up, get up.” That would be the precise moment that I wished I could’ve burst into tears because my eyes were actually hurting.

I feel like I shouldn’t have been so surprised that Celaena and Rowan are carranam (forgive my spelling). If it wasn’t going to come up, it wouldn’t have been mentioned in the first place. I wonder what that’s going to mean for them in the next books? Also, the blood oath. Is it a symbolic thing? Or is it an actual magical binding thing? I’m not surprised that Rowan took the oath to her (although the fact that Maeve broke his oath to her was surprising). I hope it doesn’t change their relationship too much. The little bit at the end made it seem like it didn’t change much. Maybe it’ll stay that way.

Speaking of Maeve, she was an absolute witch with a capital B. I kind of expected some kindly old sage of a woman, not an evil, manipulative, warrior Queen. I’m not sure why I expected the former. That would’ve been way too easy. I’m curious to see what the significance of that ring is, because I don’t think she’d have broken a blood oath for nostalgia. I hope Celaena comes back and kicks her royal behind.

Other than Celaena’s backstory, the worst part of this book was the slaughtering of all the slaves in Callacula and Endovier. I honestly felt sick reading that. Celaena’s goal ever since getting out of Endovier was to free all of those people, and they were just slaughtered… It was gut wrenching. And then Aedion having to thank the king for doing it. It was terrible. There are no other words for it.

I love that Celaena embraced her true identity. That was such a crucial thing for her to do. She grew and changed so much in this book. She gets exponentially more awesome with each book!

Another thing I both love and hate about this series are the endings. I hate them because they’re always cliffhangery, but I like that the epic final battle happens, you think it’s all just resolution from there, but no. That’s when the earth shattering plot twists happen. The moments that make you have to close the book and take a few deep breaths before you can go on. I love it. I wish I could do that with my own books!

Revisiting my Crown of Midnight review my predictions were: 1: One of the wyrdkeys will be in Wendlyn, or at least someone who knows where to find it will be, 2: We will encounter Arobynn Hamel in person at some point, 3: Stuff (or another 4 letter word) is going to go down between the King and Dorian over his magic, and 4: Chaol and/or Dorian will go to find Celaena in Wendyln. Maybe not in Heir of Fire, but at some point, I think we’ll encounter that Lysandra lady that Celaena has such a problem with. I also think Fleetfoot will die at some point.

So, I was a little off. We did find out where one of the wyrdkeys was (in the amulet of orynth, was it called? I can’t remember, but holy plot twist!). No Arobynn encounter, but that’s definitely happening in book four. Prediction three did happen. No prediction four, and I’m kind of glad of it. And we still have Fleetfoot. For now… 

My predictions for book four: 1: Manon and Celaena will end up allying. 2: Whatever the king plans to do with the witches is going to seriously backfire. 3: Aedion will get out. Some way, some how. 4: Aedion will reunite with Aelin, but I don’t think it will be a happy reunion. 5: Stuff will go down between Iskra and Celaena over Baba Yellowlegs’ death. 6: We will encounter Arobynn. It has got to happen, especially since he’s got the wyrdkey. 7: One of those towers is going down (I’m yelling timberrrrr). And I also think Fleetfoot is going to die. Not necessarily in the next book, but at some point…

And now we wait. The worst part is, no one I know has heard of this series, let alone read it. I guess it’s just me and my feelings now.

P.S. I found another song that reminds me of this book. I can’t pinpoint one specific character or scene, because it could apply to so many of them. It’s King by Lauren Aquilina. You should give it a listen!

P.P.S.: None of the gifs or pictures are my own. Links are in the order they appear in the post.

https://i0.wp.com/goo.gl/G9ZbLP

Book Review and Discussion: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Summary (from Amazon):

She is the greatest assassin her world has ever known.
But where will her conscience, and her heart, lead her?

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king’s contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes. Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king’s bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she’s given a task that could jeopardize everything she’s come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon — forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice. Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she willing to fight for?

Rating: 9/10

This book blew me away. The first one was a bit tough to get through since a lot of it was focused on world building, but now that I had a better idea of how things work in this world, it was a much easier read. That’s not to say it was an easy read by any means. The whole time, I felt like I was cringing with fear and anticipation. Once I really got going with this book, I could not put it down. I actually read all but about 50 pages in seven hours straight.

There’s not a lot more I can say that’s non-spoilery other than I loved this book, minus the part where I wanted to curl up under a blanket with a pack of tissues after finishing. I’ve got to quit getting so emotional over books. Even if you weren’t a huge fan of Throne of Glass, I strongly recommend reading this book!

***Spoilers Below!***

I really didn’t expect Nehemia’s death. She seemed like such an integral part of the story that I thought she’d be safe for at least one more book, although I did have this feeling she wouldn’t make it through the whole series. She was by far my favorite character, and I loved her friendship with Celaena. The thing that made it even worse was when I realized (after finishing the book, because I’m slow) what the scene where Nehemia and Elena were talking meant. In my shock, I didn’t even register that Nehemia had prepared herself to become a martyr for the rebellion and to give Celaena the push she needed to be fully on her side.

The books so far have shown so much of Celaena’s soft side that it’s easy to forget just how terrifying she can be. The scene where Chaol was kidnapped and Celaena snapped was terrifying, even worse was what happened after. The part where she murdered Grave was equal parts scary and awesome. To quote Cell Block Tango: “He had it coming. He had it coming. He only had himself to blame…” I’m worried though that there may come a point where she snaps and doesn’t come back. Like Nehemia said, it’s hard to pull her back once she goes over the edge.

Since I’m a complete sucker for romance, I have to discuss in length the love story/stories. I loved Celaena’s relationship with Chaol. From book one, I’ve been hoping they’d end up as a couple. It felt like the book was just stringing us along. Every time I thought something was about to happen between them, nothing would. I loved the part where Celaena planned a dinner for him, and of course everything that happened after.

And then of course Chaol had to remind us of the number one thing young adult books teach us about relationships: Do. Not. Keep. Secrets. I couldn’t make myself be upset with Chaol for very long, because I love him too much to blame him, but I understand Celaena’s anger towards him. If I had been in her place, I’m not sure I’d be able to trust Chaol again either, even after finding out it wasn’t truly his fault.

I didn’t expect it to be Archer that hired Grave. He seemed a little slick to me, but I didn’t dislike him. I’m almost a little disappointed. He reminded me a lot of Finnick Odair, in attitude and unwilling profession. In that sense, I felt bad for him.

I’m interested to see what’s going to happen with Dorian’s magic. That is something I certainly didn’t see coming. If/when his father finds out, he’s going to be furious. I’m more than a little worried for Dorian now.

The biggest twist of the whole book, in my opinion, was Celaena being the supposedly dead Princess Aelin (forgive me if my spelling is off). She was discussed a lot throughout the book, even by Celaena herself, so I definitely thought she’d be alive. I didn’t think that she would be Celaena. I hope Celaena takes back the throne of Terrasen and gets rid of the King. That’s probably what I’m most excited about in the coming books.

On a side note, I was listening to the song No Light, No Light by Florence and the Machine, and it fits this book perfectly. I dare you to give it a listen and tell me it doesn’t remind you of this book even a little bit. Part of the chorus is “No light, no light in your bright blue eyes. I never knew daylight could be so violent.” Does that not fit the scene where Celaena snapped perfectly?

My predictions for Heir of Fire are 1: One of the wyrdkeys will be in Wendlyn, or at least someone who knows where to find it will be, 2: We will encounter Arobynn Hamel in person at some point, 3: Stuff (or another 4 letter word) is going to go down between the King and Dorian over his magic, and 4: Chaol and/or Dorian will go to find Celaena in Wendyln. Maybe not in Heir of Fire, but at some point, I think we’ll encounter that Lysandra lady that Celaena has such a problem with. I also think Fleetfoot will die at some point. What happens to all dogs in every book? They die. I don’t think Fleetfoot will be the exception. No one dare spoil it for me!

Book Review and Discussion: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Summary:

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

Rating: 8/10

This books was one of those books that I had never heard of until one day it seemed to explode on the fandom circuit. After hearing rave reviews, I had high expectations for this book. I’m not saying this was a bad book by any means, I did enjoy it quite a bit, it just wasn’t quite what I expected.

Unfortunately for this book, I read it at a bad time. I’m still in mourning over one series and I reread another book, which just refreshed the mourning for that series. Because of this, I had a hard time caring about the characters. At times, I felt that the characters were obviously written to go against cliches, which caused them to become cliche. I did learn to love them characters by the end, though, and I feel like I would have loved them sooner if it hadn’t been for my severe case of book mourning.

The plot was highly intriguing, although predictable at times. It was the only thing that kept me reading through the beginning. The writing wasn’t my favorite, but because of the plot, I was able to overlook it.

There were a lot of new terms and to learn in this book, and they aren’t easy ones (I never quite caught what Samhuinn was). I like to be able to pronounce all the words I’m reading, but I don’t let that stop me from reading a book. If you’re going to read this book, be prepared for commitment. It’s going to be a six book series!

***Spoilers Below***

Celaena was the character I had the hardest time warming up to. Yes, she was awesome, badass, sassy, and generally everything I love in a character, but I had a hard time liking her. I guess I expected her to do a complete personality 180. She’s a trained assassin. I have a hard time trusting her. For all we know, she’s been acting the whole time. How do we know if her true colors have been revealed yet? Despite all that, I had a hard time not feeling bad for her as her backstory was revealed. How awful it must’ve been to wake up between your parents’ dead bodies. No wonder she has trust issues. And Arobynn Hamel is a pretty awful guy to have as a father figure. Celaena seemed to go back and forth between admiration and fear of him, which i guess is the case in most father-child relationships. What he did to her as far as making her repay him for everything was pretty underhanded, though. I probably would’ve hated him for that.

I’m interested in learning more about Sam. I feel like he’s not going to be dead. Based on the mild amount of predictability of the plot so far, I could very much see him not being dead. Either he’ll be alive or the one who got Celaena caught. My bet is on both, and that he’s probably Arobynn Hamel’s right-hand-man now or something.

My favorite parts in this book were the training and test scenes. That’s when I feel like Celaena’s true colors come out, or the closest thing to them. If that’s the case, then she probably is worthy of at least a little trust. She did save Nox after all. It was interesting to me to see how she thinks in intense situations. My favorite part by far was when she fought Verin. After what he said to her, he deserved what he got.

Nehemia was the one character I instantly fell in love with. I loved her relationship with Celaena, and I certainly hope neither of them is playing some underhanded tricks, because I don’t want their friendship to fall apart. Plus, if it weren’t for Nehemia, Celaena would never have lived, let alone won the contest. I’m excited to learn more about her.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about Dorian yet. I think he’s a good person, even though he’s depicted as a bit of a lady’s man, but I just really want to see him stand up to his father. Once he finds his voice, he’ll be a good leader.

Since I can’t discuss this book without discussing the love triangle, I have to say I prefer Chaol. I’m not sure why, since we don’t get to see much of his personality beneath his harshness. It’s so obvious that he cares about Celaena, and I really want to see more of his softer side. Hopefully that will happen in the next few books, and hopefully Sam doesn’t come back to mess things up.

The final fight scene was one of the most intense things I’ve ever read. I was literally biting my lip the whole time. I knew Celaena wasn’t going to die (I mean, the whole series is about her, after all), but I didn’t think she would win. I was kind of banking on her not winning against Cain to begin with, even before Kaltain poisoned her. I thought she would expose Cain’s use of magic, get him disqualified, and end up winning that way. It’s a good thing Nehemia was there to save her butt.

The end was a little confusing. Obviously the King is toying with magic, and it can’t be for good reasons. The question is, what is he going to do with it? And Celaena has to be related to Elena in some way, and that probably ties in to the mark on her forehead. If she’s related to Elena though, wouldn’t that make her a distant relative of Dorian’s? I’ve got to be missing something somewhere. Also, what in the world is Samhuinn?

I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series. Hopefully, since a lot of the world building has been established, things will smooth out as far as confusion.