Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Mass

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy    

Publishing Info: September 2014 by Bloomsbury

Pages: 562

Star Rating: 4.5/5

Back Cover Summary:

Consumed by guilt and rage, Celaena can’t bring herself to spill blood for the King of Adarlan. She must fight back…

The Immortal Queen will help her destroy the king – for a price. But as Celaena battles with her darkest memories and her heart breaks for a love that could never last, can she fulfil the bargain and head the almighty court of Terrasen? And who will stand with her?

Heir of Fire is the third book in Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series and so far it’s been getting better and better with each book. Sarah J. Maas introduces us to new locations and new characters in Heir of Fire which helped keep the story fresh. While the first two books were focused on Rifthold, Heir of Fire is split between three locations and storylines – Celaena in Wendlyn, Chaol and Dorian in Rifthold, and Manon in the Ferian Gap.

Celaena’s story and character development had me gripped the most. Celaena is broken and grieving after the events of Crown of Midnight and she grows a lot in this book. Celaena learns to use her magic and it is not easy. I appreciated that she didn’t get a grip of her magic instantaneously. It took time for her to learn to control her power. I’m not always keen on training sequences as they can be a bit samey and boring, but I didn’t find that at all in this book. Rowan is an interesting addition to the cast. He and Celaena don’t get on at first but their friendship grows as they realise they have more in common than they thought. I didn’t find the sections with Chaol and Dorian as entertaining. Although these parts were necessary for the plot, in places I just wasn’t that gripped by their storyline. Though I did like the introduction of Aedion Ashryver.

Manon was introduced as a new main character in the third storyline and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed her story. Manon is a witch and gathers in the Ferian Gap along with the rest of the Ironteeth witches. The King of Adarlan has made a deal with them and the Ironteeth witches will fight in battle for him. But first they have to learn to ride their wyvern mounts. I loved seeing a new part of this world that we haven’t seen before. The witches are mentioned in the previous books but in Heir of Fire we actually get to see them and learn about their culture and society. They seem ruthless and heartless and I can see Manon being a morally grey character. Plus, there’s the wyverns. I loved Abraxos and seeing his relationship with Manon grow. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her character in the rest of the series.

There is such a good mix of action and character development in this instalment. Just when I thought it was all over, there were some massive twists right at the end of Heir of Fire that left me reeling! I can’t say more without spoiling it, but wow that ending was good!

Something about Sarah J. Maas’s stories and writing always manage to suck me in. I devoured this book and I’m sure I’ll devour the rest of the series too.