This book was pivitol to the series and I am glad that I read it after 'Throne of Glass', 'Crown of Midnight' and 'Heir of Fire' even though it is the back story and tells the story of the final year she lived and killed as Ardalan's assassin under Arobynn's control, with Sam Cortland at her side, before that fateful wretched day that she was utterly and irrevocably betrayed to be hauled off to the salt mines at the Endovier's labor camp. 
 This piece in the 'Throne of Glass' collection not only pulls at the heart filaments but also opens our eyes to who Celeana was before she was the cold and unsympathetic Kings Champion that brazenly galavanting about the castle with a wicked smirk and stunningly sinister Ashryver eyes. This is made up of five Novella's each one a little more heartbreaking then the next,, it takes you way back, deep within Celeneas world, a world that has lived within all of us, a world where we lived and breathed fiercely. As if nothing was as horrifyingly impermanent as we inevitably found it to be. Beautiful. Another one makes the mark for Sarah J. Maas.