Rating- 5 stars
Synopsis-
Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, she's sworn to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer for hire, Sam.
In these action-packed prequel novellas to Throne of Glass, Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and avenge tyranny. But by acting on her own terms, will Celaena truly free herself from her master, or will she suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery?
This book was awesome. I was enthralled with Celaena from the first page. She's witty, smart, lethal, and knows it. But she knows it in a way that doesn't bother me, and instead makes me admire her. She knows what she wants and she goes and gets it, no matter what, or who, is standing in her way. I definitely recommend reading these novellas because it really gives you a deeper understanding on Celaena and what she went through, in her every day life, to the unfortunate events that led to her sentencing to Endovier.
People have asked if they should read this before starting Throne of Glass, and I recommend that you do. You don't need to, but why not? You get the full story. I always like starting from the beginning, so I got this before I even ordered Throne of Glass.
Ta ta non-spoilery people!
It was weird going this far back in Celaenas life and reading from her 16 year old sassy self again. I'm so used to the hard, scarred Celaena that it was almost... unsettling. Her naivety was cute, but also really sad cause you can't help but think how changed she is from all that happened.
Sam.. oh god, he broke my heart. He was so sweet and patient, and the fact that he thought he would take his love for Celaena to the grave made me want to cry. She was nothing but awful to him, yet he loved her through it all.Their relationship was priceless in the beginning because it reminded me of two siblings. They constantly bickered and made snide remarks to each other, no matter the situation they were in.
I liked all of the side characters in each of the stories, besides Farran (even though I think him and Celaena would have been friends under WAY different circumstances). If I had to put them in order from best to worst, it would go
The Assassin and the Underworld
The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
The Assassin and the Healer
The Assassin and the Desert
The Assassin and the Empire.
I liked the Assassin and the Underworld for multiple reasons. The first being that I'm 98% sure Dorian and Chaol were in it. It was in chapter five when they were at the Harvest Moon party, and Celaena and Sam were dancing when she spotted the four masked strangers at the top of the stairs. They all had on clothes that marked them as nobility, and the ringleader had dark hair and sapphire eyes. One of the other guys kept close to him, and had a sword. He's described to have bronze eyes.
HMM, I WONDER WHO THOSE COULD BE. IT'S NOT LIKE WE KNOW TWO GUYS THAT FIT THOSE DESCRIPTIONS PERFECTLY.
I just loved the entire Harvest Moon party scene. From Celaena using her charm to extract information from Doneval, to the dancing scene, to her and Sam getting into a jealous fight over Dorian (I don't care what anyways says, IT'S HIM). Celanea gets insanely jealous over Sam because he spends so much time with Lysandra, and the only reason why I liked her (thought she really bothered me while rereading it) was because she always pissed Celaena off, and I was just WAITING for her to knock Lysandra out. She doesn't, but she chucks a knife at her, which was almost as good. The heist they had to pull off was crazy cool too.
Another great thing about this book was how most of the characters we meet in here, like Rolfe, Yrene, and Ansel, are all coming back into the story. I've heard in Queen of Shadows, which is going to be EPIC. So it was a nice refresher since the first time I read those names, I completely forgot who they were. I made sure to write down in my notes exactly who they were so I have easy access to the information.
One small thing that confused me though was on page 416 in the last story, when Celaena had barged in Farran's room and had realized it was a trap. Farran was walking away from her and motioned to these three guys.
"You would have been delightful to break," he told her, and strode from the room, motioning to three tall, well-dressed men as he passed. Not petty guards. She'd seen those three men before. Somewhere- at some point that she couldn't quite recall..."
I wracked my brain for at least an hour after that, pouring through the book, but I couldn't figure out where they were form! If anyone one knows please help a sista out and comment on this cause it's going to bother me.
Quotes
"Sam opened his mouth, and she waited for the retort, but it never came. He bowed deeply.
"As you wish," he said.
They swapped particularly vulgar gestures before she stalked down the hallway." (pg. 28)
"Celaena had a sudden moment of clarity then, as her hair ripped from her braid and the wind tore through her clothes. Of all the girls in all the world, here she was on a spit of beach in the Red Desert, astride an Asterion horse, racing faster than the wind. Most would never experience this- she would never experience anything like this again. And for that one heartbeat, when there was nothing more to it then that, she tasted bliss so complete she tipped her head back to the sky and laughed." (pg. 175)
"If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it- to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger. But Ansel let her pain become hate, and let it consume her until she became something else entirely- a person I don't think she ever wished to be." (pg. 223)
"Ordinarily, Celaena would have bitten the girls head off for the insult. Lysandra was still grasping Sam's hands.
As if he sensed it, Sam wriggled his fingers away. "I-" he started.
"You should go," Celaena said. Lysandra looked between them. "I have work to do, anyway. I don't get to be the best simply by lying on my back all day." A cheap shot, but Lysandra's eyes flashed. Celaena gave her a razor-sharp smile." (pg. 290)
This is just a thought, but what if those three men that Farran motioned to as he walked away is three assassins from Arobynn's innermost circle? Arobynn's assassins dress nice and because of the drugs she couldn't remember who they were, only that she recognized them. This might be a little spoiler so SPOILER ALERT you know if you have read all the books that Arobynn had something to do with the set up, so some other assassin of his could also have helped Arobynn.
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