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

Title: The Assassin's Blade

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genres: YA, fantasy, romance

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens

Publication Date: March 4, 2014

Format: Hardcover

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?

Rating: 5 stars

***WARNING: MAY BE MILD SPOILERS BELOW FOR ANYONE WHO HAS NOT READ THRONE OF GLASS***

Let's start with the characters, beginning with the awesome,

Celaena Sardothien: This book deals with Celaena's dark past in the Assassin's Guild. She is feared, notorious, beautifully flawed (note: arrogance), and totally a bad***. You really get a lot more insight into her character as she is seen in the rest of the series, and it really shows you just how far her character has changed, especially due to influence from,

Sam Cortland: My boyfriend. Just kidding, but I totally wish he was! *heart eyes*

Seriously though, I was easily able to just fall in love with this character. I loved his and Celaena's heated banter at the beginning, progressing into a grudging partnership, to an easy friendship, to... something more. (Seriously, I ship them so hard.) He was a wonderfully developed character, just a totally swoon-worthy guy. And let me tell you, that ending... Like, I knew it was coming because of Throne of Glass, but, I guess, denial? I don't know. But I do know that I was laying in bed at midnight sobbing my eyes out. End of story. Next up, the epitome of all things evil,

Arobynn Hamel: I hate this dude with the burning passion of a thousand fiery Suns. That is all.

Ugh, fine, if you absolutely insist. I'll talk about Arobynn.

Okay, so I actually had kind of mixed feelings about this dude. Like he was such a complex character and made me feel such an array of different emotions that from a writing standpoint, he is the epitome of greatness. But, from a reader's (and human being's) standpoint, I seriously hated this guy. He had freaky mood swings and personality disorders which really creeped me out to no end. I am actually convinced that he was a sociopathic megalomaniac. At times I thought, 'aw, hey he actually has feelings!' Other times it was more like, 'I hate this dude more than I hate geometry homework'. So his character really had me torn, because he would do horrific things (like beat Celaena) and say terrible things (yeah, not gonna even repeat those things), then turn around and be apologetic. Like what even was wrong with this dude??

Quick novella wrap-up:

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: This was great. It showed the first two stages of Celaena and Sam's relationship, and already had a ton of character development!

The Assassin and the Healer: Despite how short this one was, I really enjoyed it. It, again, really shows Celaena and how her character is being shaped by all her trials. (Namely, gaining compassion. Or something close to it.)

The Assassin and the Desert: Man, that plot twist though.

The Assassin and the Underworld: More like The Assassin and the King of the Underworld. *cough* Arobynn *cough*

The Assassin and the Empire: By far my favorite novella in here. It was so beautiful, getting to see the evolution of Sam and Celaena, both as characters and their relationship. Beautiful, stomach-dropping, heart-wrenching story. This is the one that had me up at midnight sobbing.

Well, now we have the long wait for the next installment in the Throne of Glass series. Buckle up kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.