Throne of Glass (review)

3/5 stars

I don't know if I have ever been so underwhelmed with a book that had so much promise.  Throne of Glass sounds like a book I'd love. Young female assassin pulled out of prison and given the chance to compete for her freedom.  It has promises of a strong heroine and lots of fighting! What's not to like?

Unfortunately the book seems to lose that focus.  As soon as the "Dear Reader" section (hey editors maybe you shouldn't spoil your own book) mentioned a love triangle I knew I was in trouble.

The first half of this book was quite enjoyable, almost enough to make me forget about the looming love triangle of doom.  There were training montages, fighting with other criminals and lots of weapons.  The heroine was tough, jaded and snarky, some of my favorite qualities in a main character.

But the second half got mired and lost in the love triangle.  It went from moving along at a fast-paced, to crawling at a snails pace.  More time was spend developing the love triangle than advancing the plot.

There were also several logic fails that would've made Celaena a dead-assassin.  The book said she fixed the door so that it would make loud noises whenever it was opened.  Then the two love interests kept sneaking in her room without her waking.  For an assassin, this deep level of sleeping doesn't seem like a safe quality. Never mind that they also snuck up on her when she was awake.

The book was also ridiculously repetitive in details.  At the 99% mark in my ebook, it continued to repeat the the prince's eye color was sapphire.  There comes a point in the novel where you stop using identifiers like "his sapphire eyes" because the reader already knows and doesn't need the reminder.

It saddens me how even a strong heroine, which Celaena is no doubt, can be ruined by a love triangle and all the illogical details thrown in to advance the romance.  When I think about this book my feelings are very "meh" but maybe the Twilight-crowd will like it.  As far as heroines and healthy male/female relationships, this book is much better than a lot of popular YA.  Part of me hopes the Twilight-lovers will gravitate towards it because Cealena is much preferable to Bella. I'm not sure that's much consolation, it's like the loser's bracket of a tournament.   Either way it's not a compeition I really want to read.