Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Release date: September 11, 2014
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 1408839121
Pages: 562
Goodreads || Book Depository

Heir of Fire is the third instalment in the Throne of Glass series. If you haven’t read the first two books, here are my reviews for Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. The rest of this review will probably contain spoilers for the preceding books.

Consumed by guilt and rage, Celaena can’t bring herself to spill blood for the King of Adarlan. She must fight back…

The Immortal Queen will help her destroy the king – for a price. But as Celaena battles with her darkest memories and her heart breaks for a love that could never last, can she fulfil the bargain and head the almighty court of Terrasen? And who will stand with her?

MY THOUGHTS

Heir of Fire was my favourite of the three books by far. If you’ve had doubts about the series after reading Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight, this third book will change your mind! While I did like the first two books, I didn’t see what all the hype was about… but Heir of Fire just blew my mind. There is so much world building and character development in this book. I really need the fourth book now.

This book contains three story arcs. In the first, we stay in Rifthold with Chaol and Dorian, but we also meet some new characters who play huge roles their development. In a different arc, we follow Celaena to Wendlyn where she meets the Fae. This was my favourite of the three narratives. We get to see Fae powers and how they manifest but we also get to learn about the demi-Fae who live with and support Celaena. A new character, Rowan, is introduced and he helps Celaena learn about and control her magic. I absolutely loved Rowan and Celaena together. They don’t take each other’s crap but their friendship is…just beautiful. The third story arc follows another new character, a witch called Manon. Through her story we learn more about the witch covens/clans and basically the whole witch system in the world. We’re also given a glimpse into the King’s plans for evil and world domination.

I fell in love with almost all of the new characters that were introduced. I still have reservations about certain characters but I think Sarah J. Maas gave us a really good idea of who these characters are and their motives. What stood out to me the most in Heir of Fire was the character development, particularly Celaena’s. We really get to see her start embracing her role as the Queen of Terrasen and fighting for what’s right instead of running away or giving up. It was also very interesting to see her training with Rowan to understand and control her magic. We also get to see more of Celaena’s life as princess before her kingdom fell apart, which I loved. Back in Rifthold, we also see some development in Chaol and Dorian, but for me, it was definitely Celaena’s character development that affected me the most.

This book got me really excited for the rest of the series. The ending was just intense and epic and terrifying… I can kind of see the direction that the next few books are going to take but I’m just excited to see how all of the story arcs converge.

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