Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)

by Sarah J. Maas

This was obviously a book to set up the world and characters that will become more important in the rest of the series. The beginning was very slow. I understand why a lot of people hate this book, and others love it. If you do not care about the characters, this book is not for you. There is not much of story, we just see Celaena training again, and again, like in previous books, and until the end, nothing really happens.

This is the first book in which we have multiple character perspectives that are not just two characters who just talked to each other. A couple of new characters are introduced, which did not really feel that interesting to me yet, but who knows what the next book will bring? I did not have any feelings, positive or negative, towards Manon and Rowan. They were just there, not enough to care for, missing a story arc.
I read a lot of reviews mentioning that Chaol was behaving differently in this book. I did not really feel that way, not that it bothered me at least. I saw Chaol being completely blown away by his beliefs and in doubt. He had no clue what he should do if he did the right thing, and how to do the right thing in the future. It felt real, because even people who seemed so sure about their actions before, will have a point in which they start doubting themselves. It's only natural.
Dorian seemed to change the most in this book, as far as I could tell. He became more confident, less afraid of his magic, and started trusting people faster as he had done when Celaena was in the castle. Talking about Celaena, at the beginning of the book it frustrated me that there was no explanation why she would not change in her Fae form, other than not being able to control it properly. Rowan was trying to train her, and she just kept refusing until I'm sure every single reader was done with her. I would have liked to see that explanation earlier, even if it was just in her thoughts, or anything, such that I would at least understand her. Besides that, the training was very repetitive, but I did enjoy the new world in which she was situated.
I do think that there had to be more repercussions since she did not complete the king's task. Even when the time limit was over, no one really cared about it. The king did not, Calaena did not. Unless I am mistaken and the time limit was not over yet, it felt as if that storyline was just forgotten about?

Don't get me wrong. I did really enjoy this book, however, I did not think it was anything special. Just a set up for future books. It did what it was supposed to do, it made me excited to read the rest of the series. Do I think it's a great novel on its own? No. Do I think it was necessary and done well? Yes.