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Katie’s Guest Post: Throne of Glass Series Review (Books 1-4)

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Today my good blogger friend Katie, wrote us a little book review. I wish I would have had enough time to at least try and find one of the books before heading off on my adventure. If you don’t follow her already, make sure you check out her blog! She is the menstrual cup guru (at least out of the bloggers I follow) but in addition to that she also writes book reviews, which I love. 

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Right before classes started, I began reading this YA fantasy series I discovered on tumblr: Throne of Glass. Boy, oh boy. Here’s the Goodreads description for the first novel:

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16034235-throne-of-glass)

Celeana is amazing. I love me a strong, fierce, and complex female character. Her back story and character development throughout the series (as published so far) is so enjoyable to read, though at times it can be hard, especially when a character is gravely injured.

This series also has a fair amount of intrigue and mystery. Why is the magic gone? How did the king get so powerful? How did Celeana become such a skilled assassin at such a young age? How did she get caught? Unfolding these plot points and many more that I can’t share without giving spoilers keeps me turning the pages faster than I could get the books. (I had to wait weeks before I could get my hands on the fourth book thanks to a library wait list that I eventually decided to bypass by buying the book.)

I also really appreciate the female friendships in this series. Often female-female friendships are ignored in the media, but there are several same gendered relationships. And guess what? They don’t revolve around a man!

Another aspect of the books that some people may not enjoy but is honestly a big factor for me when I read YA books is ships. Never in my reading history have I switched ships so many times in a series (though I think the one I ended with is a keeper). I went from Dorian to Chaol to no one to Rowan. Ahh Rowan. (You don’t meet him until the third book.)

Anyways, I feel that this series has a lot to offer and to a wide range of readers as well. There’s definitely action (I mean, how can you have a series about an assassin without action?), fantasy, character development, and romance (though don’t worry, I wouldn’t say these are primarily romance novels). It was a nice break from my school books and critical essays.

 

Prompted- Thank you WordPress

MaryLeave a comment

What was the one experience that completely changed your life? What happened? How did it change your life?

This evening I was unsure what to write about, so I hit the “inspire me” button and I’m like well it should at least get the ball rolling, and then this prompt came up and I was just like YES!  This is actually something I’ve been wanting to share and I have touched on in several of my posts, but I guess it’s time to go in depth on this.
During one of the last weeks of the summer before eleventh grade I received a rather official looking envelope in the mail.  I opened it to see that it was an invitation to go on a People to People trip to Europe, and upon seeing the countries that the trip would visit I became desperate to go, and I was determined to do whatever it took to go on this trip.  I forced my parents to go to the information meeting and even though it was more expensive than what they had budgeted they decided that it was an opportunity that I would never be able to get somewhere else so as long as could put up a little less than half the money I would be allowed to go.  After ten months of meetings, on June 24, 2012 my life changed for the better.

I said goodbye to my family, and got on a bus not knowing a soul.  I sat down and a girl sat down with me, we would talk but not become good friends.  We arrived at the Philadelphia airport went through all of the checking and security (boring stuff) and arrived at the gate. As we boarded the plane I sat down with two girls (who also aren’t important) and I slept for a little bit and we arrived in the London-Heathrow airport.  This is where my life began to change. We got on a plane to go to Shannon, Ireland, and I sat down next to this girl.  Now if you guys read my best friend tag, you will know that this is LINDSAY!!! We were introduced by her having cheese all over her headphones.  She is now one of my best friends. We landed in Shannon and Lindsay and I wouldn’t talk for a couple of days until we were in the same jaunty car and we wouldn’t become friends until we randomly decided to be in the same group at Warwick Castle in England.  Going back in time a little bit to the ferry ride from Ireland to Wales, I met my friend Katie.  Our friendship blossomed that evening when we were in her dorm reading talking about a story that an unnamed weird kid from my school had written.  I explained to her that he is super creepy and has a foot fetish. We began to hang out and slowly Lindsay’s path converged with Katie’s and we became inseparable.  To be honest this trip changed my life and it probably would be completely different without them.  I highly advise anyone to take this opportunity if they are ever given the chance because it is literally the greatest thing I have ever done.

If I hadn’t done this I would’ve never met the greatest friends in the world.  They are the best things to ever happen to me and meeting them was the greatest thing ever.  Like I don’t know what I would do without them. I really don’t know what else to say about them because they will forever be in my heart, even though we’re all in different states right now.  Like I would do anything for them, they are the most important people in my life in addition to my family.  So thank you WordPress for giving me the inspiration to finally write this little detail of my life.  They mean so much to me and without that experience my life would be totally different.

So here’s a good post (finally).  Thanks for reading!

XOXO

Mary