A review by outsidestar
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

YES. Finally. I don’t even know how to write this review.

This book took me by surprise and just completely blew me away. I can’t even begin to describe what this did to me. I’m a mess. A sobbing mess. My eyes hurt from crying.

I was hugely disappointed with Throne of Glass, then found that Crown of Midnight bored me to death for the first half until the great stuff happened. And the same goes for the novellas. I just kept seeing this pattern of dragging and dragging until the “shocking thing” happened and hell broke loose.

Then I read the reviews for this and kept seeing things like “this is a filler book” or “the pace is much slower” and so on. I actually took a one-week break and read something else before picking this up and bracing myself to be bored to death for the first 200 pages.

But I wasn’t. This book took the story we had and turned it into the epic story I had been hoping for when I first picked up Throne of Glass. I gave that first book 2.5 stars, but this one… this one has become one of my all-time favorite books.

In the first 2 installments we had different POVs all telling the same story, but here we have different POVs telling different stories:
  • There’s Celaena who’s made it to Wendlyn where she meets Rowan, a Fae warrior who is to train her until she masters her magic, as well as a bunch of demi-Fae and her aunt Maeve. We also, in some way, meet young Aelin through Celaena’s memories and my heart beats for that little girl who reaches out her hand.

  • Back in Rifthold we still have Dorian and Chaol’s story, which I honestly didn’t really care for, but Aedion Ashyver also shows up. I loved getting to know him, the real him you can only grasp in what’s left unsaid, the one that’s still a fiercely loyal little boy acting all rude and grown up, but whose only wish is to see his cousin again and protect her from everything that’s wrong in the world. I live for that little boy.

  • Finally, we have Manon Blackbeak and the Ironteeth witches, who have been chosen by the king to ride his wyverns. I’ve always had a soft spot for dragons and this comes close enough, I loved seeing the relationship between Manon and Abraxos grow. Not to mention how Manon’s character develops throughout the story. I just hope the Thirteen end up fighting alongside Aelin somehow.

At the beginning I was much more invested in Celaena’s story than the other 2, but that was just for the very beginning until Aedion, Manon and Abraxos started growing on me.

And the romance in this book. This is the kind of beautiful slow burn romance I wanted, where they don’t even know it’s love yet but it’s crystal clear to the rest of us, which just further proves my point that the ridiculous love triangle with Dorian and Chaol was completely unnecessary. Rowan is the perfect love interest for Celaena, they’re probably mates – if that’s possible, given that Rowan already had a mate. I’m not sure how that works. I just wish there hadn’t been a different guy thrown at Celaena in every book (novellas included).

It’s true this isn’t a super fast-paced, hell breaks loose kind of book. But it isn’t slow either, and there is something going on all the time, it’s by no means boring or a filler book. We’re introduced to new characters, who I liked better than Dorian and Chaol. And, if you’re one of those people that see plot twists coming from miles away like me, there are crumbs left here and there for you to start piecing together. There’s just this overall feeling of an epic story unfolding. I'm still crying writing this review and I can't wait to dive into Queen of Shadows.