Review: ‘Heir of Glass’ by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena has survived deadly contests and shattering heartbreak―but at an unspeakable cost. Now, she must travel to a new land to confront her darkest truth . . . a truth about her heritage that could change her life―and her future―forever. Meanwhile, brutal and monstrous forces are gathering on the horizon, intent on enslaving her world. Will Celaena find the strength to not only fight her inner demons, but to take on the evil that is about to be unleashed?

The bestselling series that has captured readers all over the world reaches new heights in this sequel to the New York Times best-selling Crown of Midnight. Packed with heart-pounding action, fierce new characters, and swoon-worthy romance, this third book will enthrall readers from start to finish.

There comes a point in a series — especially a popular series like this one — where I start to wonder whether writing reviews is actually worth it. Either you’ve read the books already, or you’re interested and don’t want to see the spoilers that can creep in with reviews of later books in the series. (I’ll try to keep it spoiler-light, but sorry in advance!)

For those that aren’t regular readers of my blog, I read the first book, Throne of Glass, here, and the second, Crown of Midnight, here. As you’ll see by my rating, this series keeps getting better. I hope that trend doesn’t keep going too much further, because I’m gonna run out of additional stars to add!

I love Celaena more in this book than in the previous two. Her bad-ass truly starts to show, and her instruction at the hands of hot elf prince Rowan leads to some interesting developments in that regard.

On the romance front, I confess I’m growing increasingly disenchanted with Chaol, the love interest from the previous book, and I have developed rather the soft spot for Dorian, who was the love interest from book one. I also wouldn’t object to Celaena and Rowan, although — like the other two fellows — he is a bit too jealous and overprotective for my tastes. I guess I’m ship-agnostic on this one. (I wonder if Celaena will have a different partner, or person she’s attracted to, in each book? How very Rachel Morgan of her!)

Story-wise, we get to see more of the evil king’s plans, which is great … and also broke my heart a little at one point (sob), even as I had to admire what a cold-hearted monster he is. There are a few new points of view as well. I was largely indifferent to Aedion, liked Sorsha, and loved Manon. Yes, her story is largely unconnected to the rest of the plot, but she’s training herself a flying mount. I am so there for that.

The only thing that stops me giving this book the full five-star treatment is that I got a little bit tired of Celaena’s, well, self-loathing (what the blurb refers to as her “inner demons”). On the one hand, I can totally see where she was coming from. But the introspection and moping did slow the pace down a little at times, especially in the early portion of the book. (I suspect that makes me a bad person in the same way that loving her chopping people up in Crown of Midnight does.) Happily, once she gripped it up, things got much, much more interesting.

Anyway, I’ll just be over here, waiting for my next Audible credit.