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

THE ASSASSIN'S BLADE
Series: Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Release Date: March 13th 2014

Book Length: 430 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Source: Physical Copy, Goodreads 

Review: 5/5 *Full Review Below.

Blurb:

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out. 

 

“My name is Celaena Sardothien, and I will not be afraid.”

This was magnificent! I wasn’t expecting much, maybe just a little about Celaena’s background, the person she is, maybe even seeing a lighter side to her personality and of course finding all about Sam Courtland.

As for that ‘lighter side’ of Celaena prediction, don’t waste your time... this woman is ruthless, unstoppable and more badass than ever, I just love her!

The Assassin’s Blade is compromised of five novellas and you should seriously invest in the paperwork version as you’ll get them all together and look at that pretty cover! I wouldn’t say that you need to read this before ToG as Throne of Glass is such a glorious start to the series. The Assassin’s Blade will just help to fill in the odd blanks here and there such as Celanena’s experiences or memories that are mentioned in later books such as The Red Desert and Asterion horses... BUT for those of you who like me, just needed to know who Sam Courtland is then definitely pick this up, before or after Throne of Glass it doesn’t matter just read this.

We are given a more in depth look at Celaena and Arobynn’s relationship, which was exciting because from what we've read about him, I thought he was completely deranged and this only proved my point. From the sneak peek at Queen of Shadows we get a a reunion between these two so it was good to know about their complicated history. Arobynn is The King of the Assassin’s and you truly get to see why in this book, he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

“She was fire, she was darkness, she was dust and blood and shadow.”

So we join Celaena when she’s in The Red Desert with the Mute Master and training with the deadly Silent Assassin’s, freeing slaves from pirates in Skull’s Bay and just to bring this point home again, her relationship with Sam Courtland.

I assumed I would start the book with Celaena and Sam already in a relationship or close to this as they’ve both grew up in the Assassin’s Keep since they were children. Oh no I couldn’t have been more wrong, they are most certainly not together, they can barely stay in the same room together without hurling insults and the occasional weapon. I was thrilled with this because we actually got to see how their relationship came to be and progressed…. Well I think we all know the ending but it wasn’t any less heartbreaking, I was on the verge of tears. These two are perfect for each other in every way, I completely devoured the novellas with Sam and Celaena.

I would highly recommend this book but as I’ve said you don’t have to read it any order. This just enables you to get a glimpse of Celaena being a badass and doing what she does best and allowing you to know to now some secondary characters who we learn more about throughout the series and of course, Sam Courtland.

“She would tuck Sam into her heart, a bright light for her to take out whenever things were darkest.”