The Assassin's Blade

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Pages: 448
Overall: 3.5/5
Setting: 5/5
Characters: 3.4/5
Plot and Themes: 3.5/5
Cheers Factor: 3.5/5
Pairing: Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie
My roommates and I are currently on a slight health kick so that means no alcohol and I have been good about it. We are holding out until around Christmas because two of us are going to be by the beach soon. This smoothie is one I used to make back when I was on a huge health kick. I make no claims that it’s crazy healthy, but I enjoyed it and used to drink it in the mornings. Plus this seems like something Celaena would drink because she loves food and sugar and all the decadence that is life.

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Ingredients
1 ½ cup milk (I use coconut so it’s not actually dairy)
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 banana
1 cup of ice
Instructions
Step 1: Measure out ingredients and combine in a blender
Step 2: Blend until combined
Step 3: Enjoy
This reminds me more of making flavored milk, but I really like drinking it and you get a serving of fruit and some protein from the peanut butter. Again, I’m making no claims that this is super good for you. There is a lot of sugar in it from the banana and the peanut butter, but it is a nice substitute for things like soda or juice which I drink lots of.

Take A Shot: The Assassin’s Blade is a set of novellas that take place before the first book in the Throne of Glass series. There is popular debate about when it should be read and whether reading it entirely before the series is more appropriate or in publishing order. If you read it in publishing order then it comes after book 2, Crown of Midnight. However, the individual novellas were actually written around the same time book 1 was published so to each their own. I read TAB long after I had finished the entire series because I was impatient and wanted to know what happened and I didn’t want to go back in time. However, upon reading it I see how it could be important to read before Empire of Storms in that lots of characters are delved into in TAB that come back in EoS. That being said this series follows Celaena Sardothien who is Adarlan’s greatest assassin trained to be the heir to the Assassin’s Guild of Adarlan. She’s a ruthless character with a penchant for exquisite dresses and jewelry. However, there is so much more to her story than meets the eye and I’m not just talking about the men that fall in love with her. That’s about all I can give without spoiling anything, but just read her books, they are magnificent. I love this entire series.

    I put off reading this book for so long because I knew what happened in one of the novellas. Now the reason you know is because if you read even Throne of Glass first you know about Sam Cortland who tragically died before the start of the first novel. This is not a spoiler in that he is literally dead from the beginning. However, in this book we get to see him alive with Celaena and we also get to see the events unfold that led to his eventual death. The reason I tried desperately not to read this book is because I didn’t want to be sad and Maas has a way of making you love characters so deeply you feel that they are your first born child. 
    I did like getting to see the interactions between Rolfe, Yrene and the Silent Assassins though because they do play a role later on and reference events happen in TAB. You also get to see more of Celaena’s moral compass which is very helpful in building her character for the story as it progresses. However, my issue is that I don’t entirely love Celaena as a character especially in the beginning. I would definitely say that this is my least favorite book in the series just for the fact that it’s so much about Celaena and less even about the characters she interacts with than Throne of Glass. Additionally the plots felt slow at times and I wasn’t able to get through this one as quickly as I was with the rest of the series. The setting though is always exquisite and I love the world that Maas created and it’s beautifully done. 
    Overall, the content of the book is great for contextualization of the story and understanding events in Throne of Glass. I enjoyed the small moments of the character interactions that are important moving forward and I really did love watching Sam be so openly in love with Celaena and her hesitation with her feelings because it made it all feel so real.  

“To being the most fearsome and imposing girls the world has ever seen.”