The Assassin's Blade - Sarah J. Maas

Began reading: 16.9.2015
Completed reading: 22.9.2015
Overall rating: 4.1 stars

Celaena Sardothien was brought up in Rifthold, and trained to become Adarlan’s Assassin. Celaena is duty-bound to Arobynn Hamel, who provided her with a home at the Assassin’s Guild and taught her the deadly skills she needed to survive, and I required to carry out tasks from pirate-infested island to lonely deserts. The Assassin’s Blade is a collection of novellas, served as prequels to the Throne of Glass series. (Note: To skip the summaries, scroll until you see the three asterisks).

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord is the first novella. Celaena and her rival, Sam Cortland, are sent on a mission to seal a deal in the slave trade with the pirate lord, Captain Rolfe, Lord of the Pirates. Refusing to seal the deal, Celaena and Sam must find a way to free the two hundred slaves without attracting attention from Rolfe or have word reach Arobynn.

The Assassin and the Healer follows on from The Assassin and the Pirate Lord. After being beaten by Arobynn for disobedience, Celaena is sent to the Deserted Land to train with the Mute Master and his Silent Assassins for a month. While waiting for the ship to take her to the Deserted Land, Celaena meets Yrene Towers — a healer, working as a barmaid, and wishing to seek further education for her abilities. After an attempted attack, Celaena teaches Yrene how to defend herself for when she decides to leave for a better life.

The Assassin and the Desert follows on from The Assassin and the Healer. Being sent to the Deserted Land to train with the Mute Master and the Silent Assassins, Celaena must learn to impress the master if she’s to receive his letter of approval. During her training, Celaena makes friendships with Ansel of Briarcliff, Mikhail and the master’s son, Ilias. Following a betrayal by one of her new friends, Celaena must decide how she will deal with the disappointment while staying true to herself in order to obtain the letter of approval.

The Assassin and the Underworld continues on from The Assassin and the Desert. Returning to Rifthold and her life at the Assassin’s Keep, Celaena finally runs into Sam, only to find that he’s been spending time with Lysandra, a courtesan whom Celaena has despised since she was ten. Celaena and Sam are sent to assassinate Doneval and his business partner for attempting to arrange a way to improve the slave trade. Following a staggering deception from one she trusts the most, Celaena must gather courage to fulfil her wish to move out of the Guild and begin again.

The Assassin and the Empire follows from The Assassin and the Underworld. After paying off her debt to Arobynn, Celaena moves out and brings Sam with her. In order to escape the hold that Arobynn has on her, Celaena must complete one more mission: to assassinate Ioan Jayne and his sadistic guard, Rourke Farran. Aware of the disturbing and deadly consequences of being caught, Celaena and Sam decide to work together to accomplish the mission. Celaena will receive the ultimate betrayal and lose what she holds most dear.

***

The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas is a young adult novel with a combination of fantasy, romance and adventure. I wasn’t going to purchase this book, because I didn’t think I would find it in stores, and because I usually learn what is important from the books. BUT I LOVED THIS COLLECTION OF NOVELLAS!

The book was well-written with a heap of great quotes, including:

‘…Life isn’t easy, no matter where you are. You’ll make choices you think are right, and then suffer for them’ (p. 103).

*WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER* Even if she didn’t put the sword through Ansel’s neck, she’d still lose her. She’d already lost her.

But maybe the world had already lost Ansel long before today (p. 217).

‘If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it — to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger…’ (p. 222).

The game had been played, and she had lost (p. 422).

                             

The characters and storylines were JUST. SO. GOOD! I loved how we were taken on the missions with Celaena, and saw how she developed relationships with other characters. We were also shown Celaena’s flaws, which I loved. There was enough information about each of the characters that people have made insightful wiki pages on them.

                      

There was just SO MUCH EMOTION. In The Assassin and the Empire, Celaena lost what she held dear, and it just broke my heart. I’m pretty sure I cried a river! Maas, WHY?! It was so sad, but I loved how it made me realise how attached I had become to the characters.

                      

My favourite character was Celaena Sardothien. She is such a badass, yet she can be so compassionate. Some examples:

*Celaena, discussing the slaves* ‘We kill corrupt officials and adulterous spouses; we make it quick and clean. These are entire families being ripped apart. Every one of these people used to be somebody’ (p. 41).

Rolfe: ‘Why go to so much trouble for slaves?’

Celaena: ‘Because if we don’t fight for them, who will?’ (p. 74).

I also loved her rivalry with Lysandra because I felt Celaena knew that she was better than her. I especially loved Celaena’s final interaction, which can be found on page 328.

Sam was my second favourite character, and I found his background story interesting: his mother was a famous courtesan. She was murdered by a jealous client, and left Sam orphaned. Because she was Arobynn’s favourite courtesan, he decided to take Sam in and train him as an assassin.

My favourite parts of the novellas were when Celaena spent a month with the Silent Assassins, when she approached Doneval at a party, and whenever she interacted with Sam.

Recommendation time! If you like “Countdown” by Michelle Rowan, or “Carnival of Souls” by Melissa Marr”, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2.

I will also be reviewing the rest of the Throne of Glass series: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows. Keep an eye out for those!

Happy reading!

Buy the book: http://www.bookdepository.com/Assassins-Blade-Sarah-J-Maas/9781408851982

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Carnival of Souls - Melissa Marr

Began reading: 8.9.2015
Completed reading: 13.9.2015
Overall rating: 3.8 stars

The City is a place where daimons adhere to social hierarchies, yet in the Carnival of Souls at the heart of The City, ruling caste mixes with those of lower caste to earn a chance to join the privileged. Kaleb is of the lowest caste, while Aya is in the ruling caste but faces discrimination, as she is female. For both of them, fighting in the Carnival provides freedom and the power to change The City. In the human world, Mallory is unaware of The City, but understands that witches exist and daimons are dangerous — that is, until she meets Kaleb. In order to protect her family, Mallory will have to overlook her scepticism of Kaleb and let herself be swayed to enter The City.

Carnival of Souls, also known as Untamed City, by Melissa Marr is a young adult fiction novel that encompasses themes including the paranormal, fantasy and a hint of romance. As with Michelle Rowen’s Countdown, I got it for $1 and thought it would be a book that could keep me entertained while I completed assignments. Overall, I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed with the novel, but there were flaws that I will explore in this review.

On the positive side, the novel had potential with an interesting plot. The concept of death and pleasure vendors mixing, and being determined by the colour of the mask was really interesting. I enjoyed the fact that the story was told with three points of view, as opposed to one or two. I also liked the thought of a ruling caste female character fighting for her beliefs. The only downside to this is that Marr incorporated the points of view of some of the minor characters, which made the story a bit confusing.

There were also some really good quotes that I had to make note of. These included:

Good daughters didn’t question. They obey (p. 13).

…the unheard-of act of an upper-caste woman entering [the fighting competition] was more shocking than the violence of the matches themselves (p. 24).

Being pushed to the wall made a person do things that they’d not have believed themselves capable of… (p. 25).

Rumours were useful tools in establishing a reputation (p. 96).

In The City, guns were forbidden. Death was to be an act of closeness. That was the law: ‘If you cannot touch the person you are ending, you can’t kill them.’ Guns made death impersonal (pp. 100-101).

The City was rife with corruption, but it had order that the Untamed Lands lacked (p. 210).

Kaleb wished he could take a few moments to see what she read, what she listened to, what secrets were revealed by what she chose. Hers was a life completely different from his, and he wanted to understand her (p. 216).

There were also some great plot twists that kept me interested. *WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER* For example, a particular character’s parents were unexpected and characters I thought were dead really weren’t.

Personally, I thought that Mallory’s point of view was a bit boring and anti-climactic. In the beginning of the novel, Mallory was described as a tough girl, who was taught to defend herself when she was threatened. Despite her lessons with weapons, she turned out to be useless, as she didn’t bother to defend herself when she came across danger. I don’t really know why, but I thought that Aya’s story was far more interesting than Mallory’s.

                      

Speaking of disappointments, the ending was quite a letdown. Everything started happening towards the end, and then it abruptly ended. I mean, what was happening in the last twenty or so pages of the novel should’ve happened in the middle of the book. I’ll definitely have to read the sequel when it’s released, but seriously…

                   

My favourite character was Aya, as she can be ruthless, determined, judicious and compassionate. My second favourite characters were Zevi and Belias. As you would’ve guessed by now, I didn’t like Mallory’s character. She was childish, frustrating and submissive.

My favourite parts of the novel were whenever Aya and Belias were interacting with each other. I got a bit emotional when their fight ended, but I loved it. I also really loved their back story. THEY WERE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER!

                  

Recommendation time! If you like Countdown by Michelle Rowen or The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Elysium or Drogo and Daenery’s story in Game of Thrones.

I suggest reading Marr’s Carnival of Lies, which is a novella that explains how it all began. Note: Untamed City is a combination of both Carnival of Lies and Carnival of Souls.

Happy reading!

Buy the book: http://www.bookdepository.com/Untamed-City-Melissa-Marr/9780062354945

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Countdown - Michelle Rowen

Began reading: 3.9.2015
Completed reading: 7.9.2015
Overall rating: 4 stars

Kira Jordan was just a common street thief, dreaming of a better life in the Colony — a place of safety and opportunities. That is until she was abducted and forced to compete in Countdown with the dangerous Rogan Ellis. With the promise of access to the Colony, Kira and Rogan must successfully complete six levels of Countdown, each more challenging than the last. Kira must learn to trust Rogan in order to survive the game, while searching for an escape. Kira’s reliance on her instincts and Psi abilities will determine whether she can survive the dangerous competition that is Countdown.

Countdown by Michelle Rowen is a young adult novel that combines science fiction, dystopia, romance, fantasy and thriller to create an adventure-packed story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I didn’t have very high expectations for this book. I got it for $3 and thought it would be a book that could keep me entertained while I completed assignments. BOY WAS I WRONG!

                                                       

The book was a fun, action-packed, quick read. It was full of adventure and plot twists that kept me turning the page. I never wanted to put it down!

                       

The plot was really interesting, as I haven’t read The Hunger Games series. I have read that there are many books that are similar to this one, but I haven’t come across any. Still, I found it very intriguing. The novel was well-written, and had only a couple of grammatical errors. Here are some of my favourite quotes:

Some secrets can kill faster than any level in this game (p. 156).

You don’t simply get used to what you fear. It gets worse and worse and harder to deal with every single time. Even if you tell yourself it’s irrational to be afraid (p. 159).

Words failed me. How could you thank someone who’d forever changed your life for the better? (p. 227).

…the moment we reached our destination I might never see him again.

This was the way it was supposed to be.

Even though I knew that, it still hurt like hell (p. 230).

‘Being human means that you have to feel pain and doubt and fear and grief. But that doesn’t always make it a bad thing’ (p. 309).

The characters and their environments were described in detail, which made it easier to imagine. I didn’t like how almost every male character in the novel was perverted and sexual in nature. It made it a bit seedy, which grossed me out.

                       

I really wished that there was a sequel to Countdown. *WARNING: SPOILER* I would have loved to know how Kira went with her education at the Iris Institution, and what Rogan decided to study at university. I have questions like: what happened to the Subscribers? Were Rogan and his father successful with rebuilding their medical research empire? Did Rogan and Kira develop a relationship? A sequel would answer so many of my questions!

My favourite character was Kira Jordan. I really sympathised for her story about her family and the reason behind her fear of the dark. I wished there was more about them. Kira was such a badass, but she could be a bit childish at times. I was left confused after her confrontation with Oliver in the mall. Anyway, she was loyal and feisty, which I loved. An example:

I did like the idea of finding whoever was in charge […] and giving their groin a nice, sharp introduction to my knee (p. 57).

I also really liked Rogan because he was loyal, compassionate and cheeky. For example:

Kira: ‘Screw you.’

Rogan: He shrugged and then grimaced as if the wound on his shoulder caused him massive pain. ‘We could do that, too, if you like, but I’ll need to be unchained first. Then again, we can bring the chains with us if you’re into that sort of thing’ (p. 20).

My favourite parts of the novel included anything to do with the game. It was filled with action and tension, which I enjoyed. *WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER* I especially liked the tension that came from level 6 of the game. Being forced to kill each other just created so much apprehension, which kept me turning the page.

I also loved when Kira and Rogan flirted.

Rogan: ‘When they [implants] were in our heads, we couldn’t go more than ninety feet apart or we’d die.’

Kira: ‘That’s right.’

Rogan: ‘Well, now that they’re out, I still feel like I shouldn’t be more than ninety feet away from you or I might die. Isn’t that strange?’ (pp. 323-324).

                      

Recommendation time! If you like The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, Naughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, and Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Elysium.  

Happy reading!

Buy the book: http://www.bookdepository.com/Countdown-Michelle-Rowen/9781743562864

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