Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Published by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 560
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Series: Throne of Glass (#1) | Crown of Midnight (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I have to say that I was slightly disappointed by this book as a whole. 550 pages is probably one of the longest books I read, and I didn’t think that enough actually happened to make this as much of an engaging read as the first two books in the series – which I LOVED, by the way. The writing style was still incredible, and Rowan’s character development was unparalleled. Sarah J. Maas, is an extremely talented writer, but I still didn’t enjoy Heir of Fire all that much and found myself really having to push towards the end. HOWEVER, I think this book has set up Queen of Shadows to be absolutely amazing, I just wish it could have done that with 200 less pages!

So, I’m Team Chaol, right? Well Chaol had one of the smallest roles in this book, I swear. Just when I hoped that my sweet babies would reunite and be all lovey dovey and cute Cel’s basically sent away where this new dude, Rowan, is waiting with open arms! Ugh! Celeana, you already have about a bajillion love interests, can we get through one book without adding another one to the list?

For this reason, I hated Rowan on principle. First off, his name is classic for a faery bad boy. Take Rowan from Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series. So I only needed to know his name, to guess that with this guy around it wasn’t going to be easy sailing for Cel. No way was I going to warm up to him if he was about to steal Cel away from my poor unsuspecting Chaol. I think Maas wanted us to be wary of Rowan for this exact purpose, and boy did it pay off! His character development was so good. I started off hating him, but then as Celeana got to know him – and we got to know him by extension – I began to enjoy the time we spent with him, and in the end he turned out to be an alright guy. Who knew? I’m still suspicious about his motives, but he’ll sure play an interesting role in the next book. I look forward to Chaol’s reaction.

Celeana really evolved through this story, a whole new element was added to her personality, not to mention her already broad range of skills. The big revelation of Celeana’s actually Aelin (even the names are similar, why didn’t I see that coming?) changed her character. Suddenly she had to come to terms with these new powers that she’d previously repressed. Her journey was a long and frustrating one, but eventually she started to make progress. I really loved that we finally got her backstory, because I don’t know how I felt about having to read the short stories just to know what happened in her past life. And DUN DUN DUN, the plot thickens!

Searching for three mystical gemstone-like items is such a classic fantasy trope. I can’t wait to get into the adventurous parts where everyone starts teaming up to fight against the powers that be. Especially Dorian, because *cough* I really didn’t like that guy in the beginning. *cough* Who said that? This time, however, I was so into his chapters, I was like ‘Man! I gotta get me some more of these!’ But they only popped up every hundred pages or so. And he’s only just found Sorscha (lovely name) and their relationship was so cute and then dammit, the ending had to go and jeopardise everything, and now Dorian’s probably going to turn into a vengeful monster.

Interestingly, in Heir of Fire we are introduced to Manon, the witch. She’s got something to do with the witch clans, other than that I had no idea what her relevance was and I skimmed through her chapters. They really cut away from the main plot with Cel. They were certainly different and interesting to read, but they didn’t link into the main story, so they felt sort of redundant. I’m sure their significance will be realised in the next book. I think she may have something to do with the King? I don’t know. I probably could’ve read a whole book about Manon and the Thirteen, but their presence in Heir of Fire was distracting.

Overall, I gave Heir of Fire 3 stars. I mean, there’s no way I could give it less, because I really did enjoy aspects of it. Just, as a whole, I didn’t find it as exciting or as much of a page turner, especially after the whirlwind that was Crown of Midnight. Despite all this, I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book! September seems so far off!