HEIR OF FIRE (THRONE OF GLASS #3) – SARAH J. MAAS

Consumed by guilt and rage, Celaena can't bring herself to spill blood for the King of Adarlan. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn, the home of her darkest demons. Will she find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her people against those she has grown to love?
This third novel is packed with drama and action, swoonsome romance, and introduces fierce new heroines to love and hate.

Spoiler Warning! This review may contain spoilers relating to earlier books in the series. Read at your own risk but feel free to point out anything too telling!

Unbelievably raw and impassioned, Heir of Fire took me on a rollercoaster that I could not get off. I was absorbed from the first sentence and every word after just kept me hanging on.

She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.

I said in my earlier review that there is pretty much nothing that this series doesn’t have; it’s got romance, adventure, action, fantasy, comedy and even politics. Well, now it has dragons (or close enough to). DRAGONS! You know, the ones that fly... It is official; the Throne of Glass series has just become the most amazing book series around!

Sent from Rifthold to Wendlyn by Chaol, Celaena dreams of avenging the vicious death of her dearest friend and liberating the world from the control of the tyrant that sits on a throne that does not belong to him. This leads Celaena to Rowan, a mysterious and harsh Fae prince working under the command of Maeve, the Fae Queen of Wendlyn. Celaena agrees to work tirelessly, training to earn the information which could mean the future of their world and the survival of her people.  So begins Celaena's training with Rowan, who pushes her to her limits and helps her discover the true extent of her strength, a strength she'd been suppressing for far too long.
Back in Rifthold, Dorian and Chaol know little of the friendship they used to have. Chaol struggles to decide where his loyalties lie and Dorian struggles to suppress his magic. But they both know something is building, something dangerous.
In the dark, haunting land of the Ferian Gap, the witches have been called by the King to serve him in exchange for their lands. Manon, an Iron witch and heir to the Blackbeak Clan, lived her life believing witches to be heartless, without mercy, without feeling. And she became the strongest witch of them all. But what if she was wrong, what if she wasn't born but made to be cold-hearted?

The plot of this book was absolutely fantastic and, while I have heard some complaints about Manon’s chapters being slow, I loved every part of this novel. I was pushed and pulled in every direction, struggling to figure out the difference between right and wrong.

So, in this third instalment we witness the return of a number of previous favourites who we get to see grow as characters. The first and most obvious would be Celaena. She gets pushed to her limits in this book as she works to figure out who she is and where she really belongs. We get to watch her grow in confidence again as she becomes comfortable with who she. We also finally get to learn about her past, which was really exciting, but heartbreaking at the same time.

I must say that I adore Dorian. He is such a sweet guy, he sees that he and Celaena won’t work out and he lets her go, doesn’t hold it against her but instead becomes an amazing friend. Now, he struggles to keep his magic under wraps, concealing it from his father. He really became the man and king he was destined to be and that just made my heart soar.

As for Chaol, I think he is a little bit of an ass-hat and now I can finally talk about it! What bothered me most about Chaol’s reaction to Celaena being Fae was, the moment he saw that she was a potential threat, he hated her. He didn’t accept her when she was broken from the death of her dearest friend, when she went hunting for the killer, and he definitely didn’t accept her magic. In my mind, he holds on to these prejudices that came from people he knows to be backwards and elitist. It is like Dorian says, Chaol chose to love Celaena the King’s assassin and courtier but, when he found out there was more to her, she was no longer the woman he’d loved.

You cannot pick and choose what parts of her to love.

But, alongside the favourites from the earlier books, Heir of Fire also introduces a heap of new characters, the most important being Rowan Whitethorn, a mysterious Fae prince with a long history. Broody and passive Rowan slowly crept into my heart and now I really want to know more about him. I don’t think I’ve loved a character more than I love Rowan right now.

I claim you, Rowan Whitethorn. I don't care what you say and how much you protest. I claim you as my friend.


And I can’t go any further without mentioning Manon. A witch trained from birth to kill and heir to the most powerful clan, Manon can be as cold-hearted as she is skilled. But how heartless is she really. Her portrayal is so layered that you can see her internal conflict as though it is mapped out, the conflict between the thoughts she was raised to think and the emotions she is forbidden to feel.

This book also sees the introduction of Aedion, the successful commander of the Bane and obedient servant to the King. Ardalan’s Whore and traitor to his people, Aedion is hiding a precious secret, one that would mean his life. Every day he fights for his Queen, his cousin, who was taken from her throne before she ever got the chance to rule from it. He fights for the possibility of a future for them, refusing to back down or allow himself to be dissuaded despite what people think of him. He would do anything to get his people back to their rightful place and one can't help but love him for that.

He did not mind dying.Though he still wished he’d gotten a chance to see her—just once.

This is an unbelievable series that I would recommend to absolutely anyone! I tore through this series and hated when I had to put it down. Celaena Sardothien is a genuine, strong and respected heroine, one that everyone should look up to and admire.

Complex and gritty, this book is the ideal novel for those in search of empowerment, strength and dragons.

Rating: 5/5


To get your hands on this book you can head to Amazon or Book Depository.


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