3 Stars: Mediocre
Goodreads Summary
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
I feel I should have liked this more than I should... I waited and waited for this book to finally come out. And then I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.
The synopsis makes it sound like a huge mystery. And it might have been, if the author didn't try to put as many clues in there. There was way to much foreshadowing. There was one point in time when Maas gave us a red herring, but I saw through it.
The writing wasn't the best I've read, but it wasn't the worst. There were some weird wordings, but overall, it was pretty good. The narration was alright. The action scenes and dialogue were very well written.
Celaena had some very good comebacks up her sleeves. And they just got better as the book went on. But, she was way to cocky. She was also too good, and I knew she would win at the end.
The love triangle was one of the things that wasn't written well. Neither the prince nor Westfall were very interesting to read about. I like Westfall better than the prince, though
Will I read the next book. Yeah. Definitely.
Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice.
