Book Review: Broken Throne (Book #4.5 in the Red Queen series) by Victoria Aveyard (Spoilers)

Right off the bat, I have to say that I definitely went into reading with Broken Throne with a great deal of excitement and anticipation, and I’m thrilled to say that I absolutely loved this book for the most part. Since Broken Throne is a collection of novellas and various other content, I decided to approach reviewing this book by commenting on each novella and section, give each section their own individual score, and my overall score for Broken Throne will be the average of my scores for each individual section of the book; similar to how I approached reviewing Sarah J. Maas’ book of Throne of Glass novellas, The Assassin’s Blade. That being said, here are my thoughts on Broken Throne.

Julian’s Notes

I thought that this section was a very interesting and great way to start Broken Throne, because I felt like Julian’s notes to Cal about the timeline of Norta’s history once again really added to the world building aspect of the Red Queen series; which is something that I’ve always thought that Victoria Aveyard did a great job of executing throughout the course of the series. That being said, I did think that Aveyard’s writing for this particular section of the book was a little dry, and I also felt like she kind of broke the “show, don’t tell” rule of writing with her writing for this part of the book. That being said, I do think that the slightly dry tone of Aveyard’s writing for Julian’s notes to Cal did a pretty good job of adding a sense of authenticity to the idea that this section of the book is supposed to be focused on Julian telling Cal details about the history of Norta, though. Honestly, I wish that this section of Broken Throne had been a little longer, because I really enjoyed it; and it once again added to the aspects of the Red Queen series that played a big part in what made me fall in love with the series, and become low-key obsessed with the series in the first place when I read the book, Red Queen, for the very first time back in November/December of 2018.

My Score: 9 out of 10.

Monarchs of House Calore

I absolutely loved this section of Broken Throne for the most part. I thought that this section of the book definitely added a lot to the history and worldbuilding aspect of the Red Queen series, which is something that I think Aveyard has always done a great job of executing throughout the course of the series. This section of the book and the way it’s executed also reminded me a lot of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book, Fire & Blood; which was all about the history of the Targaryen family, and it was a book that I also really enjoyed. It felt very fitting to me that Aveyard essentially wrote this section as if it was a brief record of the Calore family that was written by Julian Jacos for Cal to have, especially given Julian’s love of books. I was also rather amused by the note that Julian had written to Cal at the beginning of this section. That being said, I definitely think that this section of the book left a lot of room to be expanded upon, because the life of each person in the Calore family was pretty much summed up in just one long paragraph; and in the case of several of the people that were mentioned in this section, only a few sentences.

Book Review: The Assassin’s Blade (Books #0.1-0.5 in the Throne of Glass series) by Sarah J. Maas (Spoilers)

Right off the bat, I have to say that I absolutely loved The Assassin’s Blade as a whole for the most part. I found all five of the novellas that are featured in this book very enjoyable to a certain extent. Reading The Assassin’s Blade was also definitely a very interesting experience for me, since I originally read Throne of Glass for the first time back in 2017; not realizing that most fans of the Throne of Glass series actually recommend reading this book before reading the book Throne of Glass since the five novellas that are featured in this book essentially serve as a prequel to the series. Reading The Assassin’s Blade after having already read Throne of Glass ultimately caused me to more or less see a few things that happened in the five novellas featured in this book coming from the get-go. However, I thought it was also kind of fun to read this book after reading Throne of Glass, because it gave me the chance to learn the origins behind a few aspects of the series that I was already aware of.

Since The Assassin’s Blade is a book of five novellas, I decided that the way I would approach reviewing the book by briefly reviewing each novella in the book individually, give each novella their own individual score, and my final overall score for the book is the average of the five individual scores. That being said, here are my thoughts on all five novellas that are featured in The Assassin’s Blade.

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

I thought that The Assassin and the Pirate Lord was a great novella to open the book with, and I loved it for many reasons. For starters, Maas definitely did a great job of introducing Celaena as the protagonist of the Throne of Glass series in this novella, and giving people a feel for what she’s like as a character. Plus, the overall plot of The Assassin and the Pirate Lord worked very well for a novella in the sense that it focused on Celaena completing a single mission that her master, Arobynn, sent her on with Sam; which proved to be a very interesting and well developed concept for a story within the novella’s relatively short length. (This novella is 75 pages long in the hardback edition of The Assassin's Blade.)

As far as I’m concerned, The Assassin and the Pirate Lord’s three greatest strengths are Maas’ writing for Celaena as the protagonist of the series, her writing for Sam, and her writing for Celaena and Sam’s friendship. I absolutely loved the somewhat playful and the platonically affectionate dynamic of their friendship, because it really made the interactions between them throughout the novella very entertaining. That being said, the only genuine complaint that I have about The Assassin and the Pirate Lord is the fact that I found the first chapter somewhat chaotic due to quite a few characters being featured in the chapter that weren’t present or a part of the novella’s plot after that chapter. I really think the first chapter could have benefitted from Maas not featuring as many characters in the first chapter as she did.

Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses (Book #1 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses Saga) by Sarah J. Maas

Right off the bat, I’d like to start off this review by mentioning that A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book by Sarah J. Maas that I’ve ever read, and Maas definitely made a phenomenal first impression with this book. It has been a goal of mine to read at least one of Sarah J. Maas’ books for about a year now, since I’ve heard a lot of great things about her books from people on BookTube. The reason I chose to start with A Court of Thorns and Roses, instead of her book, Throne of Glass, is due the fact that A Court of Thorns and Roses is very loosely based on the story of Beauty and the Beast, and I’m a HUGE fan of fairytale retellings. Once Upon a Time and Grimm are two of my favorite TV shows, I love the movie Into the Woods, and I’m also a huge fan of Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series. As for A Court of Thorns and Roses being somewhat of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I thought that this book was a very clever take on the story.

The overall pacing of the plot of the book was definitely handled very well, in my opinion. The book starts on a very interesting note, and I thought that Maas did a great job of not taking forever for the plot of the book to really get moving after Feyre kills what she thought was a wolf, but was actually a faerie in disguise, and unwittingly breaking the treaty that exists between the humans and the faeries by doing so. When a wolf faerie shows up at her family’s home, demanding retribution for Feyre killing the wolf faerie, she chooses to willingly go live with Tamlin, who’s the High Lord of the Spring Court, at his manor for the rest of her life, as payment for breaking the treaty.

Now that I’m an adult, when it comes to the story of Beauty and the Beast, there’s always been a part of me that has felt compelled to make jokes about the relationship between Belle and the Beast, and her falling in love with him being a case of Stockholm syndrome. That being said, I honestly can’t say the same thing about Maas’ writing for the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin. There’s definitely quite a bit of tension between the two of them when Feyre first comes to live with Tamlin, but I still feel like he acted fairly civil and accommodating towards her. I really like the fact that at the beginning of the book, when Feyre is first getting to know Tamlin, it’s clear that she has come to believe a lot of lies and misconceptions about faeries that she was probably raised to believe. I found that initial tension between the two of them rather interesting, and I felt like Maas handled the progression and evolution of their relationship throughout the book very well. Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship definitely isn’t a case of insta-love. Personally, I think that’s great to see, because a lot of YA and New Adult books seem to be plagued with cases of insta-love, which is pretty much always beyond frustrating. In my opinion, the relationship between Bella and Edward from the Twilight series is one of the worst cases of insta-love that I’ve ever encountered, but I digress.

Empire of Storms: Sarah J. Maas book signing Q & A @ Fenton, MO Barnes & Noble

Here's a Q & A panel that Sarah J. Maas did at an Empire of Storms book signing at a Barnes & Noble in Fenton, Missouri. The panel was moderated by YouTube personality, Jesse the Reader. I actually haven't read any of Maas' books yet, but I'm hoping to read the first two books in her A Court of Thorns and Roses series fairly soon. I'm also planning to check out her Throne of Glass series at some point as well. This video is the first time I've ever watched Sarah J. Maas do an interview, and I have to say that she sounds like a really fun and interesting person. Watching this Q & A definitely got me even more excited to read Maas' books than I already was. :)