Epic Reading Challenge: January

Written by Grace H.

This year, the TBG will be participating in the Epic Reads Challenge 2024, where each month presents a different prompt to inspire our reading choices! We encourage the community to join in this challenge with us and participate in the prompt each month!

For January, the prompt was… the first book in a series

As one of my 2024 reading goals, I had aspired to read the entire Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas, and I’m thrilled to say that I completed that goal this month. 

So, to respond to the prompt for this month, I will be writing about the first book in the series, which is named the same as the series: Throne of Glass.

This high fantasy YA novel is centered around Celaena Sardothien, known as the most skilled assassin in all of Adarlan. For the past year, Celaena has been kept captive at a slave labor camp on the outskirts of the kingdom. The story follows her as she is removed from the camp to compete as the king’s assassin in a competition, where winning will guarantee her freedom. 

This story is fast-paced and high-stakes, which makes it a quick and entertaining read. While the plot may seem shallow and cliche at a first glance, reading the rest of the series reveals that the first novel in the series was a stepping stone that would set up complex plot points for the remaining seven books in the series. I found the story to be exciting and the characters to be well-written, even from this first installment. 

Reading an eight-book series (that totals around 5,000 pages) can certainly seem like a daunting task, but it is well worth it in the end, and this starting novel lays the perfect foundation for the rest of the series. 

What first book in a series did you choose to read in January? Let us know down below and join in the fun!