Review: The Assassin and the Healer

The Assassin and the Healer by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having read and enjoyed the first five Throne of Glass books and impatiently awaiting the sixth, I decided it was time to work my way through the five novellas offered up in The Assassin’s Blade. I’d debated reading these stories at an earlier stage, yet I found myself too pulled into the main story to take a detour. I’m there now, though. I’m holding out that these five stories will tide me over until the sixth book is released.

Upon finished The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, I was unsure whether or not the stories would do much. The Assassin and the Pirate Lord was an okay read, but for the most part I really didn’t care. The Assassin and the Healer improved upon the first novella, yet it still wasn’t quite what I had hoped for.

I’ll start by saying this is a round up to four stars. I gave The Assassin and the Pirate Lord a three star rating, and whilst I considered doing the same with The Assassin and the Healer I decided I could not do such a thing. It was so much better than The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, much closer to being a four star rating. Thus, I rounded it up.

As with The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, this one gives us an insight into our main character’s life prior to the events of the main series. It’s an interesting insight, showing her in a different light. This short tale is made up of anger and pity. We see our main character as she is out to cause trouble for the world, to drown out thoughts following the events of the first novella. We see our main character as she takes pity on another, how she steps up to offer aid to another female of the realm. It was interesting to see her in such a way, and yet I feel as though this one didn’t really add much to the overall story. Fun, but not a case of life or death if you fail to read it.

Overall, it was an improvement upon the first novella of the series and yet I’m still of the belief that these stories will add much less than I’d originally believed.

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