Well if anyone was wondering why I haven’t done a book post in three months, it’s Sarah J. Maas’ fault. She is all I have been reading this year, and strangely enough, since I finished her two series and started reading another book, it took me a while to settle into a different pace of writing with different characters.
I think anyone who has enjoyed the Hunger Games series, the Divergent series or the Red Queen series would enjoy these books as well. Of course there are disclaimers that some of her books are decently clean regarding scenes and language but other parts are not. I found that it just comes and goes with her, so I just try to throw that out there as well.
I was talking to a friend I used to teach with, because she loves reading and flies through books it seems, and she assured me that I needed to read both of Sarah J. Maas’ series as soon as humanly possible. So because I couldn’t argue with that (hehe), I downloaded the first book onto my Kindle and started reading her first book from the Throne of Glass series over the Christmas break.
So because all of these books have really kind of melded together in my head, I have a hard time differentiating book from book, but I will jot down a few things I remember here where I can. I really should have taken notes for this post as I was reading, but honestly I didn’t want to stop reading long enough to do so! That should tell you something about it haha!
I flew through the first two books of this series, and was so glad I was at my mom’s for the holidays because I defiantly took advantage of my parents watching my kids so I could sneak off and read hahaha… This is a fantasy series, think along the lines of Lord of the Rings kind of epic experiences where magical Fae and human people, witches and creatures, with Kingdoms and realms and history dwell together… One king in particular is striving to take over the other kingdoms, magic has vanished from their world, and one girl, Celeana, has been rescued from a slave labor camp to become the King’s assassin and regain her freedom. There is magic, there is mystery, there is love and friendship, battle, suspense and intrigue… I really enjoyed the first two books.
The third book was Celaena traveling to the other continent on a mission for the king, but also trying to find her way in life and who she really is. I feel like I can’t say a lot without giving parts of the story away, but I did want to note that this book was much more angry and aggressive, and therefore the language was also worse in this book, and if my memory serves me well (which a lot of times it doesn’t these days haha) was the worst of the series as far as language goes. I was glad to get through this one, enjoyed the part of the story it told, but was ready to move on.
The fourth book followed Celeana back to the empire, to fight for her kingdom and confronting the shadows of her past.
War is coming, and in the fifth book Celeana is working on alliances and preparing for the war, trying to find a way to save everyone but also trying to preserve everyone and everything important to her.
The sixth book switches gears and follows Chaol Westfall, who was captain of the guard in Adarlan, and follows him down to the southern continent to find a source of healing for his injuries he sustained during battles in Adarlan. This book was really slow starting, but picked up maybe half way through and by the end of the series I think I appreciated it a lot more than when I was actually in the middle of reading it.
The final book of the series was insane, just SO much going on, so many battles, so many epic visions of power and magic. It was crazy how much I wanted it to end and see how it was finally going to end and then how strange I felt when it was over. How do I move on without Aelin and Rowan??? Overall I just really enjoyed this series and her writing. I have no idea how all of this could come out of someone’s brain, to keep all of the characters and events in place and present this story?!?! Insanity.
So because I was struggling moving on from this series, because really, it was like I didn’t know how to move through my day without reading about Aelin hahaha….I went back and read “The Assassin’s Blade,” which basically is a prequel to the series, and tells the story of Celeana before she was sent to the labor camp. A number of events during the series were referenced, and this book told their story. It was a little rough starting out, because I felt like I was going backwards, but after I got through the first few chapters I enjoyed it.
Sarah J. Maas has another trilogy, her Court series, which I was told was a more “adult” series, and that is true. I enjoyed this story line as well, it is another fantasy, magic realm with Fae people and humans, kingdoms and war, but it is more adult in the sense of language and content. I personally didn’t enjoy this series as much because of that, and don’t recommend this series really because of it, so again just putting that out there for those interested. What is kind of cool about her books though is that she uses old fairy tales to give life to her story, beauty and the beast was one she used for this series!
I finished the tale end of “Frost and Starlight” during the first couple of days of April, but just thought I would put it in here with the rest of the series! Sarah J. Maas has another book out, “Crescent City,” that I have not read yet, so looking forward to checking that one out at some point! I felt like this was a good stopping place for me though with this author haha, three months of reading kind of got me to a point where I was ready for something new haha!
I love keeping track of what I’m reading and have read on the Goodreads app, and you can follow along with me here if you’re interested!
My book reviews from previous years are under my book tab as well in case you are looking for something good to read! Happy reading everyone!
Comment
Comments are closed.