Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas

Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #3
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens
Publication Date: September 11th 2014
Source: Netgalley [Publisher] & Bought

Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy.

While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love?

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS

It's taken me forever to actually be able to write a review for Heir of Fire because I've been processing everything that happened during the book and I've been constantly re-reading parts of it as well.

Heir of Fire is on a completely different level from the first two books in the series. Everything about it just felt different. There was a lot more focus on Celaena's background and her past, and more about her magic. There's also a lot more focus on Dorian and Chaol's bond (which was missing from Crown of Midnight) and quite a few interesting new characters.

I've loved Celaena Sardothien since book 1, but my god did she go through some serious character development in Heir of Fire. Because we were focusing on Celaena as an individual without any romantic distractions (even though I missed Celaena & Chaol), we got to see her grow as a person. Learning about Celaena's past and finally getting to hear her back story was fascinating, but also heart-breaking. I found myself in tears more than once hearing about her life growing up with Arobynn Hamel. Celaena has such a tough childhood, but in Heir of Fire she starts to embrace her past instead of building a wall to keep it out. She grew into such an admirable, strong, powerful character and she's my all time favourite female character ever.

Chaol and Dorian's bond was another major part of Heir of Fire that I missed in Crown of Midnight because they were busy being jealous of each other. But in Heir of Fire, Dorian and Chaol begin to rely on each other again. Their friendship is one of my favourite parts of this series. No matter what comes between them, they will always look out for each other and have each other's backs. I really liked the we were given the chance to see Chaol on his own (no matter how much it broke me) because it allowed me to learn more about his character. Chaol is a fiercely loyal friend and we get to see a lot more of that in this book. Dorian had the biggest character development out of the two of them. Dorian has always been too terrified of his father to do anything, but he starts to grow a back bone in Heir of Fire and is even more determined to find a way to fight his father.

Rowan, Manon & Aedion are the three new main characters that were introduced in Heir of Fire. Aedion is the cousin of Aelin Galathynius - the long lost queen of Terrasen. Aedion has come over to Adarlan to do the King's bidding, but everything isn't as it seems with Aedion. He's mysterious, keeping a lot of secrets and a very interesting character that I loved learning about. Manon is a Blackbeak Witch and she's the leader of The Thirteen. Manon is an extremely deadly and terrifying character. Even though her storyline didn't really fit with the book, it's no doubt going to be extremely relevant in the next book. I loved Manon and her relationship with Abraxos (because it was awesome!) and she was just such a bad ass character. I can't wait to see where Manon, her Thirteen and the other witches fit into the story. Rowan was by far my favourite of the new characters. Rowan is a fae and Maeve has tasked him to train Celaena and help her embrace her fae side. Rowan is ruthless, snarky and a complete ass, but he and Celaena had a bond. A deep, fantastic bond that was the best part of the whole book. Rowan is Celaena's other half, there's no doubt about it. He compliments her so well and they're basically two sides of the same coin. I can't imagine one without the other now.

The ending of Heir of Fire broke me. It left me a sobbing mess and I was still in tears about an hour after finishing it. It was such a cruel, heart-breaking, powerful, emotional ending and I'm honestly tearing up again thinking about it. I don't know how I'm going to last a full year waiting for book 4. I'll just have to re-read the first three over and over again until book 4 is released. 

Overall, Heir of Fire is the best book of the series so far and I think it's going to be pretty hard to top, but I'm sure Sarah J Maas will manage it. Heir of Fire is hands down the best book I've read this year, and nothing will be able to top it. The wait for book 4 is going to kill me.