Great prequel and start to the series, though I knew something terribl  was going to happen. I could just feel it coming and dread.

I read the prequel third, and honestly I think it would’ve had more emotional impact if I had read it first. I probably would’ve rated it higher, but I knew what was coming. I assumed people said to read it 3rd because it gave away the surprise ending to book 2, but it absolutely does not at all.

Reading it 3rd also just breaks up all the momentum that was built with the characters in 1 and 2.

It hurt. Reading this third was definitely a painful move. I liked the breakdown of the different novellas. Even though they were all still technically one story it still felt like I was reading a couple of different books. But uh yeah it’s sad, very sad, my eyes burn. Absolutely loved the ending, loved how you can see how Celeana changes and overcomes.

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.

I read this first before starting Throne of Glass. I’m already glad I did because I’m so invested in Celaena and her story. It was definitely because I’m already committed to continuing the series that I pushed through the beginning. Though I did enjoy that it’s short stories of Celaena’s adventures.

I absolutely knew Sam would never last but it still broke me so much. I’m hopeful that he’ll be a fond memory and a part of the next books.

Sarah is so great at gripping us right at the very end full of action and developing the plot to make us dive straight into the next book. Can’t wait for this heart wrenching adventure 😀