[Book Review] Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena has survived deadly contests and shattering heartbreak―but at an unspeakable cost. Now, she must travel to a new land to confront her darkest truth . . . a truth about her heritage that could change her life―and her future―forever. Meanwhile, brutal and monstrous forces are gathering on the horizon, intent on enslaving her world. Will Celaena find the strength to not only fight her inner demons, but to take on the evil that is about to be unleashed?

The bestselling series that has captured readers all over the world reaches new heights in this sequel to the New York Times best-selling Crown of Midnight. Packed with heart-pounding action, fierce new characters, and swoon-worthy romance, this third book will enthrall readers from start to finish.

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With everyone talking about the new release of Kingdom of Ash I was itching to continue my re-read of the Throne of Glass series. I have previously read them all other than Tower of Dawn, but remembered little from Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, and Empire of Storms. So a re-read was the best plan for me before I jumped into the ginormous final installment of this series. Heir of Fire is definitely not my favorite but I think I enjoyed it more this time than I had the first time I read it. 

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

Throne of Glass fans are pretty vocal and enthusiastic about this young adult fantasy series but the readers who dislike both the series and often the author are almost as loud. And although I recognize the problems with the series as a whole, the most important and biggest ones being not only the lack of diversity but also the way the few diverse characters are treated, I do enjoy some aspects of this series. The second biggest aspect I like are the characters. Some I absolutely love, and others I am lukewarm or meh about, but overall I enjoy reading about most of them in some way. 

Celaena is a character I really enjoy sometimes, and other times (mostly later on in this books, so we will get to that later) I dislike. In Heir of Fire I really enjoyed reading her perspective. I was empathetic for most of her emotional moments and inner turmoil. Even later on in the series when she drives me a little crazy I find Celaena to be an interesting character, and although I don't believe I ever hate her, even when I am kind of disliking her and her actions I am always intrigued by her story. It is no secret if you've heard me talk about Throne of Glass before that Chaol is my favorite guy  (maybe my character, period) character Maas has ever written. His loyalty to Dorian is something I absolutely love and I think his struggle to figure out what is right and wrong is understandable considering he was trained at such a young age to be a solider and protector of Dorian. I honestly cannot wait to get to Tower of Dawn. Dorian is a character I am meh about, I find him predictable and boring. I don't really have any good or bad feelings about him overall. I find his friendship with Chaol sweet even if they've been having rough moments. Rowan is a character I like a lot in this story but because I know the future of who he becomes to Celaena in the later books, I can't help but be annoyed. I think it's because I like him and her as friends so much. I found their friendship in Heir of Fire to be heartwarming and later when it turns into romance they both are just frustratingly dull together. Aedion is a character, at least in this book, I don't have too much to say about just yet. I loved his loyalty to Celaena, but other than that I don't feel like I've fully gotten to know him enough to have an opinion. And to be honest I cannot remember much about him in the later books to gauge an idea of how  I'll feel later.  

"There were few sounds she enjoyed more than the groans of dying men, but the wind was one of them."

When I read Heir of Fire originally, I basically wanted to skip all of Manon's chapters. I remember thinking "Who the heck is this chick? Let's move onto the other chapters" and now I think Manon is my favorite part of this story. Her and Abraxos made me so happy and I loved watching their relationship and bond strengthen. I typically drift towards the animal characters in books as being favorites and Abraxos is definitely a favorite of mine. His personality is a perfect mixture of sweet and deadly. The whole plot kind of gave me How to Train Your Dragon vibes, but bloodier.

For the more side characters, I really love Emery, Luca, and Malachi. Emery being my favorite of the three. I often wanted to hug him and I loved his softness towards Celaena despite everything she throws at them. I doubt we see them again but I really hope we do because I liked Rowan and Celaena's moments with them. The scene where Emery was basically scolding them had me grinning like a fool. They were like just starting to become a weird family and I was really loving it. 

The plot of this book is definitely slower than the others previously, or at least for me it feels slower. And although I never felt bored while reading it definitely slowed down how fast  I read it. I liked reading from the different perspectives and I thought the story came together really nicely at the end. The ending is incredibly intense and action packed, which I personally believe makes up for the slower bits in the middle chunk of the story. Every time a big moment would happen at the end I'd assume we were close to the end until I saw how many pages were left. So it was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions. 

"It would not take a monster to destroy a monster - but light, light to drive out darkness."

I know this is an unpopular opinion but  I love Sarah J. Maas's writing style. I find it poetic, theatrical, and epic. I think it brings out a lot of emotion in the story and I think the style is gorgeous. There's a moment in particular in the end where Celaena is fighting the big baddies of the story and it brought tears to my eyes because of the way it was written. I feel like it's written to be read out loud, which is why I am really happy I own the first four (plus the short stories) on audiobook. I know her writing is criticized often, and I know it's not for everyone but her writing is by far my favorite aspect of all of her books. I think she's a fantastic storyteller. 

Overall, I recommend reading this series and seeing for yourself if they're for you. I feel like it's important to point out that the story definitely adapts and changes a lot in tone as the books go on. It starts off as one thing and slowly switches into another story which  I am not sure if it's a good or a bad thing. I definitely find these entertaining and I am hoping to just binge read the rest of them before I am spoiled on the final installment, Kingdom of Ash. Although Heir of Fire isn't my favorite of the Throne of Glass book so far (that goes to either Assassin's Blade or Crown of Midnight depending what mood I'm in) I am excited to be closer to reading Tower of Dawn, the sixth book in the series. 

Thanks for reading!