If you’re a big reader, especially of fantasy, you’ve probably heard of the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas or ACOTAR. And if you’ve somehow avoided hearing of them, I’m impressed (tell me your secret). I’ve had the first book in both series sitting on my shelf for probably close to a year now, and both were half read for majority of that time. Finally, I’ve gotten around to picking up Throne of Glass and reading it from the beginning.

When I first picked up the book, I was questioning if it’d be worth all of the hype I’d heard over and over again. And was it? I’ll answer that question later.

The main plot:

Celaena Sardothien is an infamous assassin living her days out in ——. Her empty life after capture is turned upside down when The Crown Prince of Adarlan picks her to be his Champion for the Kings competition. The competition is filled with thieves, assassins, and men of odd/illegal jobs fighting to win and become champion. The kicker, Celaena is the most infamous assassin but her name is unknown. She is given a new name for the purpose of surprise, and, much to no one’s surprise, she is the only female competing. Things become complicated as Captain Westfall and The Crown Prince develop crushes on their champion, who mind you, has killed many people. With blurred lines and other champions mysteriously dying, there are many fantastical elements in Maas’s book.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book was the character development. There’s nothing worse than a book where none of the characters grow and they’re all unlikeable. Yes, there are a few characters I didn’t like (Perrington, Kaltain, the King), but they aren’t supposed to be likeable. One character I absolutely love, and I’m hoping is in the next book (or more) is Nehemia. There’s simply nothing I don’t like about her. She’s witty, sarcastic, and pretty much hates all the people of the court.

The first chunk of the book is slow. There’s so much world building which is done pretty well, but there’s not a lot going on. Don’t get me wrong, world building is hard and it takes talent to create what Maas has created. It just takes a good bit to get to the action or interesting stuff. Once you make it there, the book reads pretty quickly!

I liked how things ended, and think it leads into the second book pretty well. I haven’t begun to read next book in the series, Crown of Midnight, just yet, but rest assured it’s high up on my TBR.

Back to the original question, is it worth the hype? My real answer, I’m not sure. I enjoyed reading this book and did have a hard time putting it down at times, BUT a lot of the hype surrounds the entire series and not a one-off book. I want to say yes, but really I can’t give a definitive answer… yet. The world building done in this book alone makes me excited to read the rest of the series and learn about all the different lands and people. Basically, you can expect more of this series appearing here, on Getting Groovy, this year.

And with that, happy reading!

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