Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Assassin's Blade

The Assassin and The Pirate King - 4.5 🌟
The Assassin and the Healer - 5 🌟
The Assassin and the Desert - 4.5 🌟
The Assassin and the Underworld - 3.5 🌟
The Assassin and the Empire - 3 🌟

Tbh the first few novellas featured in this book are pretty fun and show a lot of growth for our FL, Celaena, but of course it was more difficult to get through the last two books.
The main reason is for the silly decisions of Celaena and her blindness to obvious clues.
At the end of The Assassin and the Desert, you think you've reached a point of realisation and clarity of path for Celaena, but the next novella almost casts us back to the very beginning in terms of Celaena's personal growth, though thanks to our boi, Sam, she doesn't go back completely.
Now Celaena does have some redeeming reasons behind these blind moments, she's young, traumatized and she's obviously been groomed into the life she lives, but ultimately some of her slips of wisdom and blind trust/obedience could have been avoided if she was actually trained to be as cautious as she claims, and took a second to think through what's happening around her and pick up on patterns set by her enemies...
There's a lot of dark topics and scummy topics covered in this book (we are dealing with criminals, assassins and the underworld so it shouldn't be too surprising but still be forewarned).

Also, took a whole star off the overall rating because of an event in the last novella,

i.e. main lad, best lad, Sam deserved better. Should have fled away together with the clothes on their back. A little stealing would have been easy enough to achieve along the way and hardly a big no-no compared to all they'd done so far.

and while perhaps petty, since its my review I'm allowed to and will.

Content Warnings

tabea1409's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Content Warnings

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

THE ASSASSIN AND THE EMPIRE:

ouch…. I knew exactly what was gonna happen but it STILL. HURT. ME!

I loooooooove that “My name is Celaena Sardothien and I will not be afraid” is from the one person she had left in her life that truly loved and cared for her. I gasped when he said it the first time and needed a moment to cope! Rip Sam, you were one sweet pea.

Arobynn, I hope you get brutally murdered in later books, I said what I said, and what I said is that you’re a stupid skank.

AS FOR THE BOOK AS A WHOLE!

I really enjoyed reading this prequel! It made me understand Celaena a lot more and appreciate her as a character and where she comes from. Dorian and Chaol better step up their game cause Team Sam alllllll the way, baby!

One small thing I did notice though was that, for the world’s greatest assassin, Celaena sure does get betrayed and captured a lot in these novellas. But it made for a fun time!

ONTO THE NEXT!

Content Warnings

allydoessomereading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A great series of adventurous short stories to add some depth and backstory to the characters of celaena sardothien and arobynn Hamel. The first few stories feel more like separate adventures, lower stakes. Then the last two chapters/short stories are much higher stakes, impacting the wider story. A lot of fun to read.

Content Warnings

shlymiller's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

quietlex's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I didn’t love or hate it. It seemed pretty lackluster and predictable at times. I didn’t believe the romance between Celena and Sam, it felt forced and uninspired. I think this book was more focused on the different missions and progressing the plot rather than developing interesting and complex main characters. I’m hopeful that the rest of the series will build on who Celena is and why she thinks and acts the way she does. Quite disappointed with the lack of spice as well. Not the best start to the series, in my opinion.

Content Warnings