Release Date: March 4th, 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury's children
Format of Novel: Hardcover
Summary (From Goodreads.com): Contains all five novellas.
Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.
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I will like to make notice that the novellas are also sold as separate e-books for nooks/kindles for anyone that is on the look out for these stories. (Now on to the review).
I'm sure many people from the fiction press community have heard of Sarah J Maas and her epic tale of Celaena Sardothein right? Well, to be frank I never read the first ever draft of that story till her book came out right before my birthday, so reading Throne of Glass was a huge turn around for me back in 2012, and I will review that book tomorrow evening. Sarah J. Maas does not disappoint. For these particulars novellas, they were based on Celanea's time before the first book of the series takes place. From what I can tell with Celanea, she is a fresh character Young adult fiction needed to get back into the spin of literature. She is witty, girly, and a major bad ass to boot. Now I'm not going to spoil anything that is related to the story itself and Throne of Glass, so as a result to this review-- I will be focusing on the plot, pace, characters, and overall thought of the five novellas.
The pace of the story felt like it was dragging in a couple of areas within the novellas, but I can forgive the author for building up the tension to the right moments. I liked how she developed the plots, Sarah J Maas brought out different issues to get Celaena to act more human in a way instead of the cold-hearted assassin that she was trained to be. They tied to the titles of the novellas and she was able to deliver the emotional outcome right into a reader's heart.
As for the characters, while I do like Celaena, my two favorite characters that continually popped out within the stories were Sam Courtland and Arobynn Hamel. The two men were very foiled with each other in terms of personality and sense of morale. I loved Sam because he brought out the softer and caring side of Celaena (even though she was a smart-ass at times) that made her wonder about having a life outside of the assassin guild. On the other hand, I loved Arobynn mainly because he brought out the fear into the story, and in a weird way-- I sorta noticed that he may of developed feelings for Celaena, but that could be me thinking of it. Either way, he was necessary for the five stories since he is the leader of the guild and he has raised Celaena for a while now.
Plot wise, all five stories were a excellent read. I enjoyed all of them, but my favorite one at the moment would have to be The Assassin and the Desert. This one in particular became my favorite since this is where I mostly saw Celaena grow as a character and we get to see pirates. Who the hell doesn't love some pirates and the silent assassins?! Any who, compare to the other stories, this one was a shiner for me. All in all, Sarah J. Maas is a fantastic writer, and if you guys want to read some prequels before the main series, pick up this book or get the books separate in e-book formats. :)
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