Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

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?

First published: 2014

Spoiler alert: contains spoilers for the first two books!

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Heir of Fire is the third book in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, and I absolutely loved the first two books, so I was incredibly excited for this one! That said, though, I was also a tiny bit apprehensive, since some people seemed to be a bit disappointed with the direction Heir of Fire takes Celaena’s story in. I’m glad to say I was as in love with this book as I was with the first two, though! This review will include spoilers for the first two books because it’s a little difficult to talk about the story otherwise.

The minute I started reading I just fell right back into the story. Celaena is one of my all time favourite characters, and she became even cooler and more badass in Heir of Fire. We found out about her true identity at the end of Crown of Midnight, and while it didn’t come as a complete shock I was really curious to see how Celaena would change now that her secret is out. Luckily, she was still Celaena. I’m glad she didn’t suddenly become all noble and determined to take up her rightful place and all that. She was still the badass assassin with a ton of problems and she’s a complete mess when the story starts; on top of everything else, she’s also developed a drinking problem.

Enter Rowan. He might just be my new favourite character, and the relationship between him and Celaena is by far my favourite thing in this novel. I’m still one hundred percent for Chaolena, don’t get me wrong – it’s just that Rowan is exactly the kind of friend Celaena needs at this stage, in my opinion. Plus, he’s cool and badass and awesome. Oh, and just as messed up as Celaena. I’m really excited to see how his character and their friendship develops in Queen of Shadows. I do really hope it doesn’t become anything more than that, though.

While Celaena’s storyline was my favourite, I also really enjoyed reading about the goings on in Erilea. I felt so bad for Dorian throughout the entire book (especially at the end, though) – he really did get the short end of the stick, didn’t he? His friendship with Chaol was one of the things I loved about Throne of Glass, and it was sad to see how so much has been ruined between them. And his father… Wow. He seems to be the villain to end all villains. I’m excited about Aedion, though. He’s a really interesting character, and I’m looking forward to learning more about him.

Something that had me quite a lot less interested was the storyline of Manon, who is a new character introduced in this novel. It looks like she’s going to be important in the future books, but I just wasn’t invested in her storyline yet. I wanted to read more about Celaena, and Chaol and the others because those are the characters I know and love. Introducing a new (not very loveable) character and giving her such a large place in the story straight away (without her interacting with any of the other characters) might not have been the best idea. I think it would’ve been better to ease us in. In short, I could’ve done with a bit less of Manon.

The ending absolutely killed me, and I really wanted to read Queen of Shadows. I’m pretty sure I’m not getting around to that any time soon, though, which is a pity because this is definitely one of my all time favourite series.