I decided to start with Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas that is a fictional young adult book that is part of the series with the same name. The first of the eight books in the octology as well as the first book I've read that is written by her.
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ﾟ。𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝘼𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙
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I have to say, I like the way that the book starts off immediately with something going on, the characters are introduced in a scene that is relevant to the plot unlike in other books where most of the time there's this short chapter that explains the background of the characters and what they're going through and I appreciate that, it's been a while since I've read books that start off that way. It goes as Celeana Sardothien, the main character, is presented to the king of the kingdom of Adarlan in chains, where she simultaneously meets and develops a crush on Prince Dorian Havilliard. There's also this stoic, no nonsense Captain of the Guard and childhood friend of Dorian, named Chaol Westfall that often banters with Celeana. The main character is a well known assassin that was thrown into a salt mine as a slave and was given a chance of freedom if she would become the King's Champion.
After that quick start, the story started slowing down. The pace of the progression is not continuous, at least for me. The champion is chosen through a competition with different stages of elimination (killing will result to disqualification), but it doesn't start until 30% into the story. It took its time to write Celeana's passion for reading and training sessions that are basically random warm ups and common sparring, nothing new or magical or shows the progress of each warrior's fighting style, but it does give way to Celeana's internalized monologue that is mostly about her trying to solve the sudden mysterious deaths of the competitors during the entire competition. The other characters of the book don't seem to care as much as her about the deaths of those people which is just odd.
She also took on a different identity as Lilian Gordiana, a jewel thief from another city, to avoid unnecessary attention (a tactic used by Dorian while Celeana disliked it). In her time training and reading, she meets Princess Nehemia Ygter and they become close friends. The friendship between them is so adorable, they always have each other's backs, and they both care so much about their friendship. I love how the book kept them that way instead of going down the path where one betrays the other because heaven knows we need more female friendships and women solidarity in books.
The characterization meanwhile was a bit flimsy, Celeana is written as this badass warrior assassin when she's canonically 18 years old and is even commented by one of the characters to have undisciplined form of fighting. Dorian and Chaol are written as obvious love interests and potential love triangle when in every turn, Dorian has no chemistry with Celeana with their sparks of interest are only ever physical while Chaol is made as her evident real love; their banter are fun, goofy and their serious conversations have layers, they aren't confined to just “I care for you just because.” I also do not understand why and how Celeana became interested in reading, I understand the idea of “not everything is as it seem” but a character that was thrown into slavery to the mines since they were 8 years old having this intense fondness of reading is just weird, how did she manage to hold such likings when assuming that she had never had the opportunity to hold books as much as she held a knife or a pickaxe. And no, it isn't because she was deprived of education and she wishes to obtain more knowledge through reading, which is a far better explanation than nothing at all, she's literate but inconsistent.
The author also seems to like including balls and parties into her work because this book had one that is lowkey reminiscent of Disney's Cinderella, I assume that it was intentional considering that A Court of Thorns and Roses is based around a retelling of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
All in all, it's everything that the young adult genre is known for, light fantasy with a badass female main character that gets in a love triangle and all that shazz. Not that hooked with it, but thankful that it made me go back to reading. (It was a request from a friend)
I am not sure when I will pick up the next book of the series or if I would read a different book afterwards though.