my bookish wonderland

The Assassin's Blade
author: Sarah J. Maas
published: March 4th 2014 by Bloomsbury Childrens
pages: 448
my rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.


This book is a collection of five novellas about Calaena Sardothien's life before Throne of Glass. I personally read it after reading Queen of Shadows and kind of regret not reading it sooner. Sarah J Mass said you can even read it before Throne of Glass but really you can't ruin the reading experience either way.The stories all explain a lot about her character and how she ended up being the way she was in Throne of Glass.

Since Calaena goes through so much character development in the Throne of Glass series, reading this book kind of threw me back to the beginning and I know have the urge to reread the entire series from start to finish (I'll probably read Empire of Storms first though).
I really love how badass and powerful she is, she's basically the definition of a strong female character.

Her relationship with Sam truly broke my heart. She obviously loves Sam and he loves her. Reading it after Queen of Shadows made it so much harder to read *cough*. Especially the last story – The Assassin and the Empire – crushed me.

“My name is Celaena Sardothien," she whispered, "and I will not be afraid.”
That quote became so much more meaningful after reading these novellas.

The other stories were great as well and I really hope some of the people she meets come up in Empire of Storms or later books again. I also have the feeling that some people or situations were already mentioned in the earlier books which is why I wish I'd read this book sooner.

If you like Throne of Glass I highly recommend you read this. They might only be novellas but they can make you excactly as emotional as any other Sarah J Mass book can.