The Assassin and the Healer by Sarah J Maas

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The second assigned book for the 2nd April portion of the SJM Readalong was The Assassin and the Healer. This is book 0.2 in the Thone of Glass series by Sarah J Maas. Jenn (The Book Refuge) organized the readalong and will be joined by different hosts for each section. The plan is to read all of SJM's backlist in publication order. I was also able to use this for the Taylor Swift Quarterly Challenge for the prompt No Body, No Crime (cover without a person).

After the events of The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, Celaena is being sent to the Red Desert by her master to train as part of her punishment. While waiting for her ship, she stays a few days at a tavern in Antica. There she meets a barmaid named Yrene that picked up the job when trying to travel to the school for healers, Torre Cesme. She has since felt trapped in this tavern and become stagnant. When Celaena saves Yrene from some mercenaries looking for a fun time, it changes the course of Yrene's life.

This was such a great novella and I loved that it continued shortly after Celaena freeing the slaves. Hopefully the novellas will all link into each other like this so not only are they just fun shorts, but also telling an overarching story between them. I really enjoyed seeing Celaena and Yrene interact and how different, but yet similar they are. We got to see more of Celaena being kickass and I loved it! This is my favorite of the two novellas so far. I just loved the different vibe. Also, I really hope that we get to see Yrene in the future. That would be so awesome! I honestly just wished it was a little longer, but that's a common issue most people have with novellas.

I can't wait to continue the readalong with everyone and am intrigued to see where we go next. I'm actually reading the novellas as part of the anthology/bind up called The Assassin's Blade. I'm having a lot of fun so far and it's really cool to see the past missions and adventures that Celaena experienced and mentions in the main books. I can't wait to see what the next one brings!

Have you read The Assassin and the Healer?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Assassin and the Healer, Sarah J Maas, 4.5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 40 pages, published in 2013, traditionally published