Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Published by Bloomsbury on August 27, 2013
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Retelling

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

The last time we met Celaena Sardothien she was fighting to win a competition that would one day set her free; I am very happy to say Crown of Midnight expanded, in a much needed way, upon Throne of Glass. This was everything I was hoping for its predecessor to be. 

Throne of Glass By Sarah J. Maas

 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Published by Bloomsbury on February 8, 2012
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Retelling
Pages 432

Meet Celaena Sardothien.

Beautiful. Deadly.

Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

"What if Cinderella was not a servant, but an assassin? And what if she didn't attend the ball to meet the prince, but to kill him, instead?"

With that statement alone I was very interested in this series. As a debut novel from a fantasy author it is not bad, in fact I enjoyed it, but it was a step down from her second series A Court of Thorns and Roses (as is expected when an author gets a feel for things and changes personally and in a working mindset).

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Published by Bloomsbury on May 5, 2015

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, New Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Retelling

Pages 432

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin--one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world. 

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin--and his world--forever. 

Let me begin by saying I was introduced to not only this series, but also this author, by a friend. Statements used to describe this book to me utilized phrases such "it's amazing", "pretty fantastic" "he's ferocious but so romantic" and while I enjoyed this book I have to disagree somewhat with those word choices.