As I said in my post last week, I will be running a Throne of Glass readalong until 18th January. In case you missed them, you can find Part One here and Part Two here. I plan on re-reading the first three books in the series before finally reading the fourth and most recent addition, so I thought I’d turn it into a bit of a blog event and encourage my readers to join in! Whether you’ve read the book before or are reading for the first time, feel free to leave your thoughts! And of course, as this is a readalong discussion post, there will be spoilers for Throne of Glass ahead.
Today I’ll be discussing the third part of the book – chapters 28 to 39.
The third part of the book sees yet another brutal murder of one of the Champions by an unknown force, and Celaena coming up with a plan to infiltrate the Yulemas masked ball.
- This is quite possibly one of my absolute favourite quotes from this part of the book. It describes Celaena playing billiards.
- Celaena’s friendship with Nehemia grows. I love this friendship. There is a tendency in Young Adult fiction to use the female best friend as exposition – the main character can discuss boys and romance with them, therefore sharing this information with the reader too. And I say boys and romance specifically because they seem to be, about 80% of the time, all that these friends talk about. Celaena and Nehemia, on the other hand, discuss politics, languages, and they learn from each other. It’s a genuine friendship based on curiosity and mutual interest and I just want to cheer them on, maybe make them little friendship bracelets…
- Chaol getting embarrassed over the mention of periods. Boys will be boys… even in a fantasy world. It’s all okay contemplating the fact that Chaol may have to kill someone in the future due to his position, or that he will most likely see (or has already seen) a lot of death, but periods? No way! Can’t deal with those nasty feminine issues! Menstruation reduces the toughest of men to screaming babies, apparently.
- We’re told that Dorian is a womaniser, but somehow I can’t imagine it. I could see him as a big flirt – but actually sleeping around? He seems to have this innocent quality to him that makes me think he’s not done anything but sweet talk a little too much. Unless that is how he is actually meant to be and I’m just misreading it (or reading it correctly in that case…). What do you think?
- Celaena’s reaction to sweets. Like a little child, so adorable. Or… like Andy Dwyer from Parks & Recreation. 😉
- Dorian and Celaena finally kiss, after lots of lusting and wistful gazes. This is going to be a foolish move, and you know it. The Crown Prince and an assassin? Uh oh…
Celaena jabbed the cue, and hit the ball with such force that it zoomed toward the back wall of the table, knocking three coloured balls out of its way before it collided with the number three ball, sending it shooting straight for a hole.
It stopped rolling at the edge of the pocket.
A shriek of rage ripped from her throat, and Celaena ran over to the pocket. She first screamed at the ball, then took the cue in her hands and bit down upon the shaft, still screaming through her clamped teeth. Finally the assassin stopped and slapped the three ball into the pocket.
And I absolutely pictured Celaena having a screaming match a la Regina George…
No? Just me? Okay then…
Rinn Reads 
I love the sweet and humorous moment in this section but I’m slightly worried we’re losing something of the cold assassin in Celaena. Hopefully it will balance out in the rest of the story!
And I definitely read Celaena’s reaction when playing billiards to be something like Regina George – brilliant!
Yeah, I can completely understand that. She does feel like quite a different person from the very beginning.
Glad it wasn’t just me. 😉
I’m still loving this book. But I feel that this part of the book is completely different from before. And I can’t decide if it is a good difference or a bad difference.
I too loved Celaena’s friendship with Nehemia, it’s a friendship that I really want to grow and take over, its really quite the perfect friendship. And I agree with your point about Dorian, I see him as a shameless flirt but womaniser is perhaps pushing it (but that was the impression I was getting!). Maybe we are thinking correctly and just reading it wrong.
Yes, it was so refreshing! They actually discussed things OTHER than boys, my gosh!