Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass)

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The prince whose scent was kissed with pine and snow, the scent of that kingdom she had loved with her heart of wildfire. Aelin meets with Arobynn's inner circle of assassins late at night. Arobynn announces that Gregori's mission has failed, resulting in his capture and incarceration in the castle dungeons. Aelin suggests that the assassins poison him before he leaks any information to the authorities, as per protocol, but Sam expresses horror to this proposal. She then inquires about Ben, as she has noticed that he is not present, and Arobynn reveals that Ben was killed during the mission. Outraged, Aelin demands why the others did not retrieve his body. Sam replies that there were too many guards and that the retrieval could potentially lead the guards to the Assassins' Keep. Furious, Aelin stalks out of the room, vowing to recover her friend's body. Trapped and forgotten in an iron box on a sliver of island in the heart of a mist-veiled river, Aelin has been forced to endure months of torture. With her flame smothered Aelin can't defend herself against her captors, Maeve and Cairn. She refuses to reveal any information about Terrasen and the Wyrdkeys.

And in front of the gate, Aelin, Rowan, Fenrys and Lorcan fight Maeve, who tries, one last time, to turn their minds. But Aelin has seen enough of Maeve’s lies, and slips Athril’s ring onto the Valg queen’s finger. It’s not a pretty death. Aelin trained at the Assassins' Keep in Rifthold, and it was there that she spent the majority of her life following the deaths of her parents. However, she was captured after attempting to exact revenge on Ioan Jayne and Rourke Farran for murdering her lover Sam Cortland. As a result, she was sent to the Salt Mines of Endovier—a labor camp—and sentenced as a slave to reside there for the remainder of her life. Dorian realizes that the witch mirror is a memory mirror and that Manon and Aelin must go together to use it. Once inside the witch mirror, Manon and Aelin discover that it holds memories. They learn the truth about what happened last time Erawan came to power and that Aelin will have to sacrifice herself to stop him. Manon offers comfort the only way she knows how by moving close to her in a show of solidarity. In a city near Doranelle, Elide, Gavriel, Rowan and Lorcan find one of Maeve's commanders and Rowan brutally tortures him for information. They continue in this manner, gaining information from several other Fae commanders as well, but they are receiving conflicting reports of Maeve's location, frustrating them.Celaena is a name derived from Celaeno, which means "dark one," and is also a star in the constellation of Taurus and a member of the Pleiades.

The members in my Facebook group rave about the tandem read though. It’s their absolute favorite way to read those books. In an interview prior to the series' debut, Maas discussed the process of creating her protagonist: It’s Dorian I want to follow now that this story is done—Dorian and Manon, who both have kingdoms to rebuild. But more on that later. O Witch Queen, My Witch QueenIn the north, Aedion fights losing battles on two fronts: against Morath’s soldiers, and against his feelings for Lysandra, who he’s still emotionally punishing for having made plans with her queen that he wasn’t in on. Many of our members swear by reading The Assassin’s Blade after Heir of Fire, but before Queen of Shadows. The stated reason is that the conflict in The Assassin’s Blade centers around a relationship between Celaena and Sam, and that relationship means much more to you after you understand more about these characters from the later books. For example, I never was the biggest fan of Aelin. Yes, you read that right, I didn’t love the main character of this series… I found her a bit arrogant and it bothered me so much that she never told her allies about her plans, instead letting them fear all was lost and then revealing some secret plan she had all along. I mean, you can do that once or twice, but it gets old really fast. And I think your allies might start getting angry. I definitely would be. In this book, she didn’t get on my nerves as much. She still had a few surprises for the reader, but at least her allies (or well, Rowan) knew of them. Most of the time… I know, I know: this isn’t the most important thing. But it was fascinating to finish this series and think about the difference between what an author prioritizes in a story and what a reader feels is vital to the tale. There are a lot of unanswered questions here, and I don’t mean that in a please-spell-everything-out-for-me sense, but in a worldbuilding sense. Authors have to make choice about what they focus on, and Maas built such a huge world that it was impossible to flesh out all of it.