Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas is the first book in the series with the same name.  It is a young adult, action/adventure, fantasy novel.  It follows a young woman Celaena Sardothien who has the reputation of being the countries most notorious assassin.  She has spent a year in salt mines as punishment for her crimes when the Crown Prince arrives and offers her the chance at her freedom.  All she needs to do is compete against 23 other "champions" to become the King's Champion and serve as his assassin for 4 years. 

For Celaena this is not a challenge, but when champions begin to die by a mysterious creature unknown to this world, Celaena begins to wonder if there is something more sinister happening.  While she trains for her Tests, she tries to figure out who or what is killing off the champions, all the while showing those around her that there is more to this girl than a ruthless assassin.

I admit I was not 100% sure about this novel when I picked it up.  The cover was something that really drew me into the book, and I will be honest: I bought it because of the cover.  I am not one for stories on assassins, I find they tend to focus a lot on politics, but Throne of Glass did not focus so much on the politics, but on Celaena's competition, interpersonal relationships, and her evolvement.  There were moments that allowed to magic,  magically symbols, and artifacts, and even a hidden truth to Celaena's background that she might not even know about.  I found the story to be enthralling and found myself staying up into the wee hours trying to finish it because I couldn't get enough.

Maas does a wonderful job at bringing the world around Celaena to life with her descriptions, dialogue and character interaction.  Just when you think you have everything figured out Maas throws a twist into the story that throws all reader theories out the window.  She creates characters that are so easy to love and antagonists who are so easy to hate.  The characters  all evolve and develop into something more complex as the story progress, and the interesting thing is that they develop and evolve together.

This book would appeal to readers of all ages and those who love fantasy and assassin novels.  I am very happy the cover art drew me into and I took a step outside my comfort zone.  I found a series I will most likely love, you might too.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.