What You Need to Know About the Throne of Glass Series Before You Read Queen of Shadows

It’s been a long year of internet-stalking Sarah J. Maas and analyzing every single word she writes (including her AMA on Tumblr) for Throne of Glass spoilers, but our patience has been rewarded because Queen of Shadows will be on the shelves September 1! Just in case you haven’t been reading and rereading the first three Throne of Glass books (plus the prequel novellas) and could us a refresher—or you feel like picking up in the middle of the series because you’re just that hardcore—here’s everything you need to know about the wonderful(ly deadly) world of Celaena Sardothien before you pick up book number four. (WARNING: spoilers ahead)

Celaena is one of the deadliest individuals in her world, trained as an assassin since she was eight years old. In Throne of Glass, she’s released from prison to take part in a competition to become the champion of the King of Adarlan. Once she wins, she earns her freedom—after four long years of service to a king she hates. Along the way, she learns to trust Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard; flirts with Dorian, the King’s infuriating son; and befriends Nehemia, a foreign princess who’s helping lead a rebellion against Adarlan.

But with her victory comes more secrets and higher stakes. Over the course of Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire, Celaena learns more about the dark sources of the king’s power, including his banishment of magic and his intentions to build a powerful army by harnessing magic-users with evil demons that take control of their bodies. And when the betrayal of one close friend leads to the death of another, Celaena has no choice but to decide exactly where her loyalties lie—unsurprisingly, not with the evil king. In the process of defending herself and her friends from the monsters the king has invited into the palace, Celaena reveals an even bigger secret about herself: she’s part Fae, capable of powerful magic, the exact thing the king hates.
There’s an even bigger reason for the king to hate her, though: Celaena is actually Aelin Galathynius, rightful Queen of Terrasen, whose family was murdered ten years ago. Her mere existence makes her the mortal enemy of anyone loyal to the Adarlan empire.

Leaving behind Chaol and Dorian and her complicated romantic entanglements with both, Celaena boards a ship bound for the foreign kingdom of Wendlyn on an assassination mission for the Adarlan king. But she can’t seem to bring herself to kill Wendlyn’s royal family, and finds herself headed for the one part of the world where magic still lives. There, she trains with the grumpy, centuries-old Rowan to harness her magic and explore her past, intent on meeting Maeve, the Queen of the Fae, so she can learn how to stop the king from enslaving the world.
Now, having embraced her true identity and freed herself from her fear of the past, Celaena/Aelin is returning to Rifthold, home of the Assassin’s Guild, to confront her former mentor and get what she needs to stop more demons from entering the human world. The only problem? Every living person she’s ever loved seems to be in danger—Chaol, Dorian, and especially her cousin Aedion—and everything seems like a trap. Which it probably is. Can she trust her old mentor to help her out? (Answer: probably not.) But you’ll have to read Queen of Shadows to find out.