Review: The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: March 4, 2014

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Purchase

Summary (from the back of the book): “Discover where Celaena Sardothien’s thrilling saga began. 

Celaena Sardothien is her kingdom’s most feared assassin. Though she works for the powerful Assassin’s Guild, she yields to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. When Celaena’s scheming master, Arobynn Hamel, dispatches her on missions that take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, she finds herself acting independently of his wishes and questioning her own allegiance. She will have to risk it all if she hopes to escape Arobynn’s clutches — and if she fails, she’ll lose not just a chance at freedom but her life.

A prequel to THRONE OF GLASS, this collection of five novellas offers readers a deeper look into the history of this cunning assassin and her enthralling — and deadly — world."

First of all, I think that this was my favorite book of the series to read so far. It doesn't read like a bunch of novellas to me. It felt like a real book. Everything was in order of how it happened and everything. I found it to be really interesting to read the full stories behind Celaena's adventures that get briefly mentioned in the rest of the series. I loved reading this book!

Buuuuut I also hated it because I knew the tragedies that befall my new and old favorite characters. And I didn't want to read it! I think I like Celaena even more than I did before. I loved seeing her being shaped into the character that we read about in the rest of the series. And ahhhh, I loved Sam for the brief moment that we got to hear his story! :( I really hope that Celaena gives Arobynn what's coming to him... Sloooooowly. I also hope that we get to see more of a lot of these characters in the rest of the books!

In the first story, Celaena finds herself amongst the pirates with Sam to collect a debt owed by them for the deaths of several assassins. But that was a lie from Arobynn and the real reason they are there doesn’t sit well with Celaena or Sam and they disobey their orders and end up making an enemy of the pirate lord, Rolfe. This story basically sets everything in motion for what happens in the rest of them.

In the second one, on her way to the Red Desert to train with the Silent Assassin’s as her punishment, Celaena meets a young healer in a dump of a town while waiting for a ship. She ends up saving her from something awful and helping her to get back on her journey to learn from the best healers. This was probably the slowest and most boring of the five novellas, but it was still good. 

When she arrives at the Red Desert, she has to prove herself worthy of being trained by the master of the Silent Assassins and earn a letter of approval from him to bring back to Arobynn. She makes friends there and finds that she doesn’t really want to leave. But there is betrayal and she saves the day earns the master’s approval and she is on her way back to Rifthold with her head held high.

Back in Rifthold, Arobynn is apologizing profusely for his punishments for her disobedience. He gives her a mission which will pay VERY well and she gets help from Sam to complete it. The mission ends up being the opposite of what she was expecting and she pays off hers and Sam’s debt to Arobynn so they can leave because they’ve had enough of his crap. Sam and Celaena move into her apartment and are finally together and of course it can’t just end there, with them being happy. Nooooooo.

In the final, and most heartbreaking, story, Sam and Celaena have plans to leave Rifthold forever to be completely free of Arobynn. They have to pay him and ungodly amount of money to be free of the Guild and leave and so Sam finds them one last job to do so they have enough money to go. And it ends poorly and they are completely betrayed and that’s how Celaena ended up in Endovier with her heart completely shattered.. And that’s when I cried forever. And ever. And ever. Ugh. I didn’t think that I’d think Chaol wasn’t the best for her, but maaaaan, Sam was the one!

I just kind of want to hug Celaena forever.