Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas Steph's Rating: 5 stars Overall Rating: 5 stars Steph's Review: *the review itself is for the most part non-spoiler, but the area for my predictions is packed with spoilers for Heir of Fire* What better way to get back into blogging than with a book that also ended with a bang? I think I've read Heir of Fire three or four times over the one month period that it's been out--in other words, I've just been reading some sort of page from this pretty much every day. Still not over it either. The pretty hardcover is still sitting on my nightstand even though I've got other selections I'm reading. The books in this series release pretty far apart from each other so this obsession is really not good seeing as I've got at least another eleven months to go before book four rolls around. Celaena has been cast away from Adarlan for her own safety by none other than Chaol Westfall. She's ignoring her duty to the King while she's slumming it in the streets of Wendlyn. She is approached by a menacing Fae warrior, who leads her on orders to the her aunt, and Fae Queen, Maeve. Celaena knows Maeve knows the information that she dearly needs to accomplish solving the mystery of Adarlan's seemingly overnight triumph, but Maeve is withholding that knowledge with a series of conditions. She is sent back to the peaceful demi-Fae town of Mystward, to master her heritage and the magic that has quietly dwelled within her for over ten years. If she proves successful and rediscovers her conscience, she may become the biggest living threat that Adarlan has ever seen. If she fails...everything is over for Terrasen. Now, I've read tons of reviews for this one. Many people give it five start but then go onto say that it wasn't their favorite book in the series since Crown of Midnight is still their absolute fave. I too, and giving it those five big, obnoxious stars but Heir of Fire is my favorite book within this series so far. I love Crown of Midnight, I do, but I still felt like Crown of Midnight is a "thriller" book of sorts. It's a roller coaster that is exciting and something you'll always remember (at least for me), but once it's over, it's over. Heir of Fire is a much deeper book because of its fantastic character development. In fact, I think this entire book is pretty much dedicated into recreating Celaena's character that will define her for the rest of the series. Heir of Fire is an intermission of sorts, but at the same time also the bridge that is going to connect two vastly differing parts of this series--and I love the new Celaena. HoF also is just a big staging book; its triple POV/triple setting sets up lots of great subplots that will definitely become major contributions to the rest of the story. There's a lot of mystery shrouding the whole series, but I'd like to think some of that is made known to us with this novel. Along with Celaena's character development, Maas gives us a lot of flashbacks to Celaena's childhood that tell us why Celaena is how she is. The background is a heartbreaking tale and I have to take back every bad thing I said about Celaena--her arrogance, brattiness, and selfishness--that I said about her when I wrote my first thoughts on Throne of Glass. Troubling times are ahead for her, but as long as she stays on the course that she's paved anew, she is going to reach the goal she seeks. While there is a large focus on Celaena herself, Maas also starts brewing trouble in places Celaena is not even in. Chaol begins to question everything he's ever been trained to know about Adarlan--and also wonders if he's going to follow through with the deal he made with his father to return to his homeland and become the Lord of Anielle whilst giving up his honorable position as Captain of the Guard. Dorian is wondering how much more of his father's dictatorship and oppression he can take, especially when he has two secrets that are imperative to keep hidden from him. Either one of them could ruin him and earn him exile at the least-- and at worst, he'll be digging his own grave if either one is found out. I feel like with every book, Sarah J Maas improves her writing to be ever more meticulous than the preceding installment. Her craft is expanding, and I love absolutely everything about it. Can't wait for the next book and also, her new series, A Court of Thorns and Roses! From Here on Out, There WILL be spoilers for Heir of Fire. These are my predictions for the book 4 that I wrote a while back after my first round of reading. Read at your own risk! ****************** My thoughts and predictions based on what happened in Heir of Fire: If somehow you didn't get the message earlier, there will be some spoilers from here on out for HoF!!! 1. Manon Blackbeak. I enjoyed reading her POV. This girl is a badass, and she needs to show all the other witchies who's boss. She was such an underdog at the start of the book I feel like (because she chose the "injured" wyvern), but in the end she showed them she was better than everyone else. So my prediction for her: I think she will clash with Celaena at first, (somehow I feel like it might actually be in book 5, I'll get to the why for that later) but begin to understand that the King is just using them, and who knows, might not actually keep his end of the bargain. If Celaena continues to represent the freedom she is so far, I think Manon and her crew will eventually side with her for the big showdown. 2. Chaol: I'm sorry, I am no longer on board the ship Chaolaena (rd to #4 as to why :D). I think after Chaol's errr falling out with the King, he will find Celaena and reconcile what happened between them in CoM. I also think Chaol isn't going to be as supportive of the growing Terrasen uprising as we want him to be, since he is still from Adarlan, but in the very least he isn't going to be fighting for the king. As said in the book, he'll fight for Dorian (who I hope will eventually side with Celaena) 3. Dorian. No. NO NO NO NO NO NO. I'm terrified that Dorian might end up dead, now that he's got that stinking collar around his neck. Since Celaena had to kill the Valg princes (and those collars STILL weren't broken even then)…I just have a bad feeling. But IF everything goes well and Celaena and Chaol can save Dorian from his father's clutches, I know Dorian will be on Celaena's side. 4. Rowan Whitethorn My fave new character. I really wish he and Celaena didn't separate at the end of HoF, after all Rowan said that Mala thinks they make a good pair. I totally ship Rowan + Celaena now….but I also feel like this isn't ever going to happen. Maas made it clear several times in the book that Celaena / Rowan only felt platonic love for each other and only have the urge to protect each other because they have the carranam bond. Plus, Rowan's already lost his mate and it's also been said that mating bonds go beyond death. A girl can still hope though ;) As long as this book has MORE ROWAN, I'm satisfied. I wonder if we are still going to have a little bit of his POV, seeing as the duo is separated now. Now for less explanation predictions: 5. I think Celaena is going to return to Rifthold to find Arobynn at the Assassin's Keep and demand for the Amulet of Orynth, which he probably refuses to give her. He probably won't be surprised that she shows up, and probably already knows her heritage at that. I doubt that he knows about the Wyrdkeys though. I hope she kills him, and doesn't fall for any of his sweet talk. --This is the 'why' for Manon's prediction. If more of the book is going to focus on Celaena's return to Rifthold, I can't see Manon and crew attacking her yet. Maybe at the end of the book, or in book 5? 6. Maeve is going to come back to haunt Celaena. Maybe not in the next book, but when the "revolution" gets bigger, I feel like Celaena is going to be on the verge of victory to have her plans foiled by that Fae Queen. 7. Do I smell and Celaena/Ansel alliance coming? --On that note in general, maybe the Silent Assassins from the prequels? 8. Please let them save Aedion (or have Aedion break himself out). I feel like if Aedion dies, all of the character development in HoF might crash into bits and pieces. I need to see a reunion between these two. 9. I think the King might find out about Celaena/Aelin in the next book, but as much as I want to see him dead, I don't think he will be AT LEAST until the end of book 5 at the soonest. I'll update with more predictions as I think of them, and I also feel like these are my predictions for the overall rest of the series instead of solely book 4 :) --Steph @ A Walk on Words

You know those books where after you're done reading, you just need to take a few moments, or days to process what happened because the book is just so amazing that you can't fathom that it's over? Well, Heir of Fire is that book. The story picks up several weeks after Celaena left Adarlan. Ms. Maas's writing flows effortlessly, and you will never want to stop reading. The pacing is fantastic, and there is never a dull moment. This novel is one non-stop thrill ride that will instantly sweep the reader off his/her feet, and they will never want to stop the ride. This story is much different than the previous two novels in this series. This tells the story of a broken girl, who while strong on the outside, is utterly broken apart on the inside. This novel tells the story of a girl who is braving through her life, but has absolutely no direction of where she wants to go, what she wants to do, or who she can trust. Living with the biggest secret that she has been pushing down for 10 years is no easy feat, and that secret is finally rearing its ugly head. There are consequences to every action, and Celaena must deal with her actions. One of my favorite parts of this entire book was watching the development of Celaena's character over the course of the book. She begins the story as a broken person, someone who isn't the brave, tough assassin we have come to know in the previous books. Don't worry, she is still that way around others, but her internal thoughts are anything but. She is living with the guilt of actions, but also carrying with her the death of several relationships, those of her best friend and lover. Celaena is forced to confront her powers and hone them if she wants any answers, and for her this is one of the most difficult challenges she has ever faced. After all, how do you give into powers that you are afraid of? As we watch Celaena develop and come into her powers, the results are that of awe and wonder. She truly comes into her own, and it all ends in a fiery conclusion that leaves a new Celaena standing tall and proud. However, she also learns to let others in, and perhaps this is the most important lesson she learns in the entire book. This is only the beginning for her character, and I suspect she will be even stronger, braver, and more badass in the next book. Because Caelena is away from Adarlan for the entire book, we see the story from Dorian, Chaol, and several other new characters' POV. While balancing so many perspectives might overwhelm many authors, Ms. Maas handles it with such a grace and excellence, it truly shows her extreme talent as an author. Chaol has separated himself from Dorian, and he too undergoes a great growth during the story. I loved seeing his side of things, and how he handled everything that was thrown at him. He truly becomes a different person by the end of the story, and I am still rooting that he and Caeleana will come out alright in the end. Dorian finds love in an unexpected place, and I loved watching the romance bloom. It was so sweet and gave a nice light feeling to those scenes in the midst of the heavier nature of the book. It was also nice to see him "moving on" from Caelena. Dorian finds someone he can trust in Chaol's absence, and Dorian changes immensely as well because of this. He truly shows signs of a king in this novel. As I said, there are several new characters in this story, one being Rowan. And I absolutely ADORE his character. I loved every single sarcastic, brooding moment, and boy do I want more of him. In the beginning, he is infuriatingly stubborn and relentless with Caelena, but there's a point where he opens up, and dear Lord, it made me love him even more. He is such a badass character, and the perfect fit for Caelena. While at first I thought he was a potential love interest, I will spoil this for you and tell you flat out that there is nothing but strong friendship between the two. Personally, I thought everything about their relationship was handled perfectly, and Ms. Maas wrote about true friendship; one where the two people would do anything for each other, and see each other through till the very end. Even though this book is written in third person, you honestly can't tell. A lot of times, people say that in third person, you aren't able to connect to the characters as easily as a first person novel would read. However, this is not the case in anyway here. You feel every single emotion, every single heartbreak, and every single struggle these characters are going through, and all you want to do is take all the characters and place them in a nice situation so that they would be away from all of the tragedy that they are facing. You want to make everything better for them, even though you know it's impossible. Nevertheless, by the end of this book, you will feel so much more connected to the story and the characters that you will want to see them through to the end (not like you didn't want to before though). Now let's talk about this ending. The ending is so explosive, so full of twists, and so utterly devastating that your mouth will be left hanging open and you will have tears in your eyes. Every single character has their own separate ending in a way, and it proves that Ms. Maas is just getting started with torturing us and the characters. Trust me, you will NEED and WANT the next book right away after you finish this story, because even though this novel is a whopping 565 pages, it's not enough. It will never be enough. I highly recommend this book to all fans of the Throne of Glass series. This is yet another exciting installment, and is not to be missed. You will be taken on a ride full of twists and turns; one filled with suspense, intrigue, action, adventure, and love. You will be left with a longing for the fourth book, and will want to go back and reread this book as soon as you're finished. And you'll want to after the huge cliffhanger that ends this book. This is fantasy at its finest, and doesn't disappoint! Happy reading :) 10+++++ stars