A review by ladypalutena
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Celaena is, once again, working against herself by just opening her mouth in every single story in this book.

By the end of the final short story, the one that
tells how Sam died (which we learned from Throne of Glass) and how Celaena was shipped off to the salt mines
, I found myself feeling slightly sorry for her, but also wondering how she managed to make it to the age of seventeen before being run through by one of the other assassins in her guild.

She's thorny, she's arrogant, and she thinks that just because she's Adarlan's Assassin, that should be enough to either keep people away or keep them scared enough that she's able to finish her mission. She's also really bad at being an assassin - twice in these stories, she lets someone go that is ABSOLUTELY going to show up again in the rest of the series. And if they don't, well, I'll eat my boots. 

The one thing I'm uncertain about is in the fourth story, The Assassin and the Underworld,  Arobynn
tells Celaena of his entire plan to start up his own slave trade? Why, after knowing what she did to the Pirate King in the first book, would he let her in on his own secret? He's kept so many other secrets all this time, and you cannot tell me that he just took this opportunity to gloat just to see her face.


Yes, Celaena has had a hard life. She's made it harder on herself, though. 
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