Slower than the other tog books but definitely a necessary book. I read it as #3 in the series so I already knew the fmc. But this gave me some background and insight. 

The fact that the FMC is so young pulled me away a bit...I might be picky with my female leads but I just don't like reading about a teenager who is the best of the very best - at assasinating too?! Don't think so...Why could't she be in her early 20s at least? That would have been more believable compared to being 17 years old...Nonetheless, the pacing and the collection of stories are entertaining and kept me coming back to find out how it'll be all tied together in the end. 

You know I started this book series years and years ago when I was a kid and never finished (probably read like the first four). This was wayyyyy before there was a booktok and that the rudimentary stage of booktube. So, I honestly didn't know this was such a hyped and beloved series until about a year and a half ago. Now when a series is as hyped as this one, especially this author, I'm always skeptical so I never touched but my favorite YouTubers love this series so I finally decided to finally give it a shot.

Now I obviously started with this one because that's how I remember starting it when I was a child. Had no idea there was such confusion on the reading order (more on that later). Honestly if this was the actual first book in the series I would've stopped here and wouldn't have picked this next book up. I wasn't really vibing with Sarah J. Maas's writing here. I've just read better (but I hear she wrote this when she was 16 so I hope the writing improves as the series goes along).

I think it was nostalgia from when I read this book when I was a child, but I remember it being much better than it was. I read all the novella straight across in two days. I wasn't really vibing with the first one. I thought it was a little boring. The second one was slightly better. It was not until the 3rd one that I felt like I was really getting into the story. I'm assuming the people introduced in these novellas will be important for later books. Now one of my main grievances with this book is the lack of world building, but considering this isn't the intended first book, I'm gonna let that go, however, I really hope there is more adequate world-building in "Throne of Glass" because there were so many places and names and things being thrown around I was struggling to figure out what time period they were and where are the places were as well as what the politics and the conflict meant.

Also, as a child, I remember sobbing to this book when

Sam died. I was devasted. I visually remember 11-year-old me sobbing her eyes out when he died. And for some reason I remember him dying on page not off page how it is in the book.

In addition to that, I felt like her "relationship" with Sam was so lackluster. He's only in this book about 55%-ish of the time and half of the time it's literally spent with them arguing and Celaena contemplating if she even has feelings for him or not. I definitely think their "romance" happened extremely quickly and there was honestly no merit as to why they were together. Even as I was reading the book, I was wondering why Sam even liked her to begin with considering she's been nothing but rude to him up until recently. I also think this book is a product of its time because the whole "I've loved you the entire time" trope was most definitely overused, overdone, and in my opinion a sign of lazy writing. If you have to ascribe to this trope to make your love story convincing then that's a problem.

Now I know it seems like I'm harping on this book, but I honestly didn't hate it. I even teared up a bit and a certain part and enjoyed my time reading the last three novellas. Overall, this book was fine, however, because this book series is so hyped I was expecting much more considering how much people praise Sarah J. Maas for how much of a "mastermind" she is. I'm hoping for better for the future books. As for the reading order, although I just restarted this series after almost a decade, I'd say the reading order is put at the reader's discretion. If you want to read it in the chronological order of events then I say read this first as it gives insight as to why  Celaena is the way that she is in "Throne of Glass". And if you don't want to be taken out of the story you suggest reading this first, but overall it depends on you.

The third and fourth novellas were my favorites

I really wish I read this one first. Based on other reviews, I thought it'd be a slog but it wasn't that way at all for me. It's definitely the darkest SJM book out of the ten I've read so far based on the themes it addresses.

It gives such an important background to what Celeana has been through, some things in the first Throne of Glass books make more sense, and going back to the main series was jarring to say the least (I read "Heir of Fire" after). It has a different tone than the others, so I'd recommend reading it first or fourth, not third like all the suggestions I've seen (which is what I did). If you read it fourth then at least the events of "Assassin's Blade" are tied to "Queen of Shadows."