Julsbookdiaries

Heir of Fire was my vacation read this past week! This is the fourth book in Sarah J. Maas’ “Throne of Glass” series, and it’s safe to say I’m hooked.

This book was a little longer than the others, so it took a good amount of downtime. Luckily, I had a lot of that at the beach!

There are a LOT of new characters we meet in this book. It’s separated into three different stories. One that focuses on Celeana’s journey, one that follows Chaol and Dorian, and another that introduces us to the interwoven world of the witches. 

Celeana:

Celeana is sent to Wendlyn at the end of Crown of Midnight, Maas’ second book in the series. Celeana’s journey starts there, as she embarks on yet another assassin-fueled mission. But, knowing Celeana, this obviously doesn’t go according to the King’s plan. Celeana is set on finding the source of the King’s evil magic that lurks in Adarlan, so she goes to visit her aunt. There, she meets a prince, Rowan, who is bonded by blood to her aunt. Rowan is a faerie and becomes Celeana’s watchdog in Wendlyn. While their relationship starts off pretty rocky, it’s safe to say they grew pretty close after being faced with different mental and physical obstacles. With the help of Rowan, Celeana is able to reveal more about her true family lineage and discover more about what it’s like to experience a world in which magic exists and is uplifted. 

Chaol and Dorian:

This POV is back at the castle in Adarlan, with Chaol and Dorian. We also meet a new character, Aedion, who is the King’s military general. He is a sarcastic brute, who is disliked by many, but mainly Chaol and Dorian. However, he grows to play an important role in mending the friendship between Chaol and Dorian, and discovering more about Celeana’s backstory, before she became an assassin. There is also a budding romance between Dorian and someone new, which was fun to read about. Chaol still thinks about Celeana, but he wrestles with which side to choose, Celeana’s or Adarlan’s, as he is the acting Captain of the Royal Guard, serving under the king. 

The Witches:

This POV was from that of Manon, the heir to the Blackbeak throne. Manon is an Irontooth witch. And yes, these witches do have sharp, iron teeth. The Ironteeth witches are separated into three clans: Blackbeaks, Bluebloods, and Yellowlegs. The witches were asked by the King of Adarlan to join his forces in fighting the inevitable war he plans on inciting. Before this, the witches must compete in the Witch Games, in which one young witch will be crowned “Wing Leader”, and lead all of the other Ironteeth witches into battle. Obviously, Manon wants that title. Readers follow along the journey of the training before and fighting during the Games, and we also meet a lot of new side characters and witness the high and violent tension between the clans. And of course, there are also wyverns (dragon-like creatures) that join the witches in the Games! 

At the beginning of the book, I wasn’t a huge fan of the witch POV because they were all new characters to me, and it didn’t seem like much was developing. However, once the witches started training for the Games, the story piqued my interest. My least favorite POV was that of Chaol and Dorian, because there wasn’t too much action happening there, until the very end. My FAVORITE was the story that followed Celeana. It was fun to watch her relationship with Rowan grow, and it was equally if not more rewarding to watch Celeana become more confident in herself and her story throughout the book. 

Heir of Fire is the book a lot of people say really hooks them into the series, and I would have to agree. To savor these last four upcoming books, I plan on taking a small break to dive into some shorter books, but I cannot wait to get back to this realm with the next book in the series, Queen of Shadows. 

That’s all for now!

Talk soon,

Julianne ❤