Early Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #3)

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3)
Sarah J. Maas
Published: Sept. 2, 2014 (Bloomsbury)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Krista

Rating (out of 5): 5 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it does reference events from previous books on the series. If you haven’t started yet check out VBC’s reviews of books 1 & 2, Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight.

If you have read my prior reviews it’s kind of obvious how much I am in love with Celaena Sardothien and the Throne of Glass series. So I approach each subsequent book with excitement and trepidation. Too many times in the past have I been burned by books that I had high hopes for. Fortunately for my emotional book sanity, Sarah J. Maas not only lives up to expectations, she somehow exceeds anything I could have imagined.

At the end of Crown of Midnight, we left off with Celaena on a ship off to Wendlyn, and Chaol discovering Celaena’s most dangerous secret. Now we knew that she was traveling to her mother’s native country and the domain of her so-many-greats Aunt Maeve, the immortal sidhe Queen. So it could have been a safe assumption that Celaena would have been in a better situation than the one she left in Ardalan but then we would be wrong. This is one of the many strengths of Maas’ writing; she never gives the reader the expected or the safe. Instead she puts the reader in more and more surprising, uncomfortable and finally satisfying situations.

As much I love the tension and turmoil between Celaena, Chaol, and Dorian, they spend the entirety of the book separated. That doesn’t mean that every decision they made wasn’t somehow influenced by the others, even without the characters being in the same room or even country. Celaena and Chaol are never far from the other’s mind, although they both regret what they did or didn’t say. The growth these characters travel throughout this novel is epic. Even Dorian, the lonely Prince, has awakened to the truth of his father’s reign and I can’t wait to see where Maas will take him.

One of my pet peeves in genre fiction right now is multiple point of views. If it isn’t done right, it can be downright tedious and weigh down the momentum of the book. And with Heir of Fire, Maas adds at least four new POV. Normally this would be ludicrous to change up the format during the third book but shockingly, it works. Manon, an iron teeth witch who I didn’t particularly like upon introduction, is by the end of the book one of my favorites. No matter which character POV I was currently reading I never felt the need to rush to next, instead it always left me wanting more.

One of the aspects that I truly love is that Maas is maturing as an author and with each subsequent release the books just get better. This isn’t to take anything away from the prior, as both were among my favorite books of the year. But with each book Maas fleshes out her world more, her characters become denser, and the story more elegant.

Heir of Fire was an excellent addition to the fantasy genre and just makes me more of a fan girl. That being said, this is not a series to read out of order. If you haven’t read Throne of Glass yet, do yourself a favor and run to your local bookstore now.

Sexual content: Kissing