The Assassin's Blade

4.5 stars

I bought the box set of this entire series like 3ish years ago now and it has sat on my bookshelf the whole time unread. At the end of 2022 I decided I was going to be making it a goal to read this entire series in 2023. Not too long after I made that decision Destiny announced wanting to finally read the final book in the series or possibly rereading the whole series. I commented saying I would totally be up for a buddy read of the entire series and here we are. Her partner has even joined us in this buddy read.

Destiny has read all but the last book in this series and she recommended we start with The Assassin's Blade which is a collection of 5 novellas. I know some people have commented saying I probably shouldn't have started with this book but I think it worked perfectly fine reading it this way. I admit it took me a little bit to get fully hooked. The 3rd story is the one that finally pulled me in. The first 2 were the shortest stories of the 5 and I just wasn't connecting with the characters at all. I was liking it but I wasn't obsessed.  

The 3rd story is where things really picked up for me and where I started getting attached to certain characters. I think Celaena is a flawed character but she is 3 dimensional and while I think she is a very conceited character she grew on me. Sam Cortland had me from the very first story. I can't really say much because of spoilers but let's just say by the time I finished the last story Maas had ripped my heart out and stomped on it. 

I'm very eager to continue on with the rest of the series but also afraid because if these stories hurt I'm afraid to find out what else she is going to put us through.