Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass #3

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Publication Date: September 2014

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Bought off Amazon

Summary (from the back of the book): “She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.

Celaena Sardothien 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. To defeat them, Celaena must find the strength not only to fight her inner demons but to battle the evil that is about to be unleashed.

The king’s assassin takes on an even greater destiny and burns brighter than ever before in this follow-up to the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling CROWN OF MIDNIGHT.”

This book follows Celaena to the kingdom of Wendlyn where she was sent by Chaol who wanted to keep her safe from the king after discovering that she is Fae. The king believes that she is there to assassinate the king and prince of Wendlyn, but she has her own agenda. 

After spending weeks doing not much of anything, she is approached by Rowan, a Fae prince sworn to serve the Fae Queen, Maeve. He takes her to meet Maeve who she believes has all the answers she needs to her questions about the Wyrdkeys. But before she can get them, she must master her Fae powers so she can enter Doranelle.

Likes: 

I liked this book a lot. I liked all the new characters that we met (except the witches). I liked the relationship that Rowan and Celaena developed and how he helped her to master her powers even though he was just kind of nasty at first. I liked all the demi-Fae that you meet from Mistward. Because Celaena was basically awful to everyone a lot of the time, but they all were so understanding and forgave her for it. They knew she was struggling. 

I liked the flashbacks that we got, back to when Terrasen fell and you got to see how it all happened and how Celaena ended up where she did. It was tragic, but interesting. And you learn what her inner demons really are and why she can’t bring herself to get past it.

I was really happy when she did finally get past those inner demons and forgave herself for not being able to help those that she loved and felt like she had failed and decided that she was deserving of her title as Queen of Terrasen. The path to that forgiveness was a tough one and the end of it was almost really awful, but she pulled through because she’s tough!!

I was ECSTATIC when she finally got back on the boat to go back to Adarlan because I need her and Chaol to kiss and make up and be cute and in love again. 

Dislikes:

I really dislike when a book has chapters from many different points of view. It wasn’t hard to distinguish between the characters or anything, I just don’t care what so many of the characters are doing. I just wanted to know what was going on with Celaena, Chaol, and a little bit of Dorian!

I didn’t like the Ironteeth witches. I thought they were just kind of icky. And it was really hard for me to imagine them as being beautiful. I did start to kind of like Manon at the end when she kind of started to have a heart, but for the most part, I really didn’t want to read about them and kind of felt like those chapters were unnecessary, but maybe in the next book I’ll see why they were. I was kind of expecting them to be out trying to exact revenge on Celaena for killing Baba Yellowlegs, but nah, they were just playing war games in the sky on their new wyverns (whatever a wyvern is, is it a dragon? I think it’s like a dragon) for the king. I liked the wyverns. I liked how they were training vicious beasts in the mountains that somehow had more of a heart than any of those witches.

Another thing I dislike is when a character has a ton of different names. I don’t know. I just don’t like that.

Overall, I was really happy with the book and am DYING for  QUEEN OF SHADOWS to come out! I already have it pre-ordered and am impatiently waiting for it!!