Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) – Sarah J. Maas

Title: Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas
Publishing Info: September 2, 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing
Source: Amazon
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: September 3, 2014
Related Posts: The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass #0.1 - 0.5), Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1), Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2), A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1), Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4), A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2), Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5), A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3)

    Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy.
    While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love?

** This is a spoiler-free review for HEIR OF FIRE but please note that there ARE spoilers for the first two books, THRONE OF GLASS and CROWN OF MIDNIGHT, if you have not already read them. **

HEIR OF FIRE in one word? Brilliance. I’ve binge read the series up to this point and I think that makes it even more obvious to me how much Sarah J. Maas has already grown as a writer throughout this series as it stands. With each book in the series, my love for it only grew and by the time I finished HEIR OF FIRE, I was pretty much in total awe of what Sarah’s done with this series so far.

HEIR OF FIRE is by far the longest book yet at over 500 pages, but it’s one of those books that never felt long. The book follows the story lines of characters we’ve grown to love in previous books (Celaena, Dorian, Chaol) but we also get a new major plot and character with Manon Blackbeak, a fiercely awesome witch with a badass attitude. At first I was afraid with the introduction of a new character receiving their own story line (though I know it will eventually tie into the main-Celaena story line) because I recently had a more negative experience with this concept and it kind of ruined part of the book for me. BUT I know I shouldn’t have doubted because Sarah J. Maas is a master-plotter and even though Manon didn’t end up connecting with Celaena and the gang in HEIR OF FIRE, there’s no doubt that she’s going to play an important role in this series and I never once felt like her story was irrelevant. It added a hefty amount to read, but I loved every minute I spent with Manon and I can’t wait to see more of her in future books.

My absolute favorite thing about HEIR OF FIRE was the fact that now that we’re three books in, readers are able to see larger pieces of the puzzle. Since this series is longer than the current trilogy fad, there’s so much more time to be able to detail not only the characters but the plot as well. Longer arcs don’t have to be rushed and there’s so much more time to let ideas and mysteries simmer. In HEIR OF FIRE, we see certain items and events and places from THRONE OF GLASS and CROWN OF MIDNIGHT and how they all tie together. There were several instances in which I had totally forgotten about something because it had already been used as a major plot point in previous books BUT its role in the series isn’t done and that just totally blew my mind. I feel like I’ve read so many series lately that use certain elements and then they get discarded, specifically put in the story for that one event. Not that I have an issue with that — more so that I was just so impressed to see how carefully Sarah J. Maas has crafted this overall series arc and how well all of the books flow from one to the next.

The character growth has also seriously impressed me. If you’ve read the novellas, you’ve pretty much seen Celaena’s entire history (aside from the more mysterious aspect of her childhood but no worries because *flails* you get more info in HEIR OF FIRE!!) and know exactly how she acted when we first met her — confident, cocky, brash, and invincible. After her time in Endovier, she became much more closed off, but still had an air of arrogance about her. Even after everything she’s been through, Celaena still somewhat has a sense of entitlement, but new character Rowan is NOT having it — and I was SO thankful for his presence in this book! I like Celaena. I really do… but she needed someone like Rowan to come in and really change her perspective a bit. Celaena IS so good at what she does and she does have that confidence in what she can do that it’s hard for someone else to really challenge her. Rowan is the perfect person to really push Celaena to become a better person in many different aspects of her life and I loved how much he enhanced this book and helped Celaena keep moving forward. I think she really needed someone like him to do that.

I feel like I could talk about this book forever but I’ll wrap it up with the reiteration of how much this book amazed me. At only a quarter of the way in, things were already escalating to the point where I was floored by what was going on and there were still so many adventures left to have in the book. By the time I reached the end, I was nearing the point of being speechless. HEIR OF FIRE was simply magical to read and I absolutely cannot wait for the rest of the series. It’s clear that Sarah J. Maas just keeps improving her writing with each book and I look forward to seeing where she takes us for the rest of this journey.

“The View from Goodreads” is a new featured section in my reviews that I decided to incorporate! I tend to update my Goodreads status a LOT when I read — reactions, feelings, notes — so I thought it would be fun to share the sort of “reading process”! All status updates are spoiler-free (no specific plot points will be revealed) but will contain reactions to certain pages and/or characters!

THIS BOOK THOUGH. I don’t usually swear in my reviews/updates/on Twitter but “holy shit” were the only words I could use to describe that last part of the book. 

Celaena // Character Obsessions: Magic, training, protection.
I think Celaena really grew up in this book… quite a bit. That was a really great thing for me personally because sometimes I got a taaaad bit annoyed with her attitude and cockiness but I think she really just needed someone to help her realize that she may think she’s acting like an adult and yes, she may really have the skills she feels confident of but there’s still so much more to learn. Celaena needed to learn how to conquer some things she was hiding from and also how to let the right people in.
Rowan // Character Obsessions: Training Celaena, duty, responsibility, loyalty.
Rowan is my new favorite character. I absolutely loved his role in this book and there couldn’t have been a better time for someone like him to appear here. His character really just blew me away and I LOVED the relationship that he and Celaena developed. They really grew to respect one another and I couldn’t have asked for more.
Manon // Character Obsessions: Honor, winning, leadership, wyverns.
Manon was also awesome and I did not think I would feel that way about her. Her story was amazing to witness and it was great to see how much my feelings changed for her the more I read about her. I can’t wait to see how she fits in to the overall plot when her storyline does connect!

Kept Me Hooked On: Big books. I’m so thankful for how long this book was. I NEVER say that. Usually I’m afraid of the bigger books because they just take so long to read and even though this did take me a while to finish, I enjoyed every word and didn’t want it to end. Don’t let the size intimidate you because every word was enjoyable and absolutely necessary!
Left Me Wanting More: … Of the series? I binge read the series up until this point…. MAYBE not the best idea since I had instant gratification with being able to read the next book and now I have to wait a loooong time for the next. Whoops?

Addiction Rating
BUY IT

I already loved the series, but whoooooo boy, HEIR OF FIRE totally floored me. I’m so impressed with how much the series has grown so far and I can’t wait to read more of it! If you’re hesitant, take it from me — IT’S ALL WORTH IT.

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(Click the cover to see my review!)