From Goodreads:

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 four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. 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.

This is my second read of this. I think I probably read it for the first time about 5 years ago. I remember buying it on a trip because I’d forgotten the book I actually wanted to bring. I remember buying it, and I know I finished it, but I can’t remember much of anything about it, apart from the main character’s name. I figured I’d have to give this a reread before continuing on! Anything with assassins in at the moment seems to be what I’m currently going for, so it seemed like the perfect time for me to dive back in!

The Plot

I feel like this was the weakest part of this. Purely because the big contest seemed to be mostly glossed over in favour of the socialising and dressing-up and reading. I was looking forward to some dramatic fights and trials, but some of them barely got a page to themselves, and the description of what happened was sorely lacking. The socialising aspect was ok, but the love triangle had me rolling my eyes occasionally. I’m one of those that’s had enough of love triangles. Just pick one, love, and move on!

The Characters

The saving grace for this novel is probably the characters for me. I liked most of them. Most being the key word here.

Celaena Sardothien

Does anyone want to tell me how to pronounce that? I just changed her name to Sardothien every time I saw Celaena because I actually knew how to say Sardothien. Having the main character with a name that’s unpronounceable just seems like a bad idea. Beyond that, I actually quite liked her. She was an amazing assassin, apparently (see point above about plot to see why I say apparently), but she was also just an 18/19 year old who definitely still had childish tendencies. I found this to be reasonably realistic. I guess because she’s only a little younger than I am, and I wished I was a badass assassin? Haha! Oh, and no matter how badass you are, you see a puppy, you’re going to hug the puppy. Ok?

Dorian

Dorian, our Crown Prince. He’s a key character that I didn’t completely like. He seems pretty one dimensional and predictable. He loves Celaena, but pretty much only for her looks, and because she’s not like all the other women he’s been around. Mate, you just need to leave that damn court and tell your mother to do one. He had a few redeeming qualities, so I’m hoping he gets better in future books. I’ve heard from people that have read a lot more than I have, that he does get better, so I’m looking forward to it. I really wanted to like him, I just couldn’t bring myself to.

Chaol

I had to ask friends on a Discord server how to pronounce this one too. Honestly, this unpronounceable name trend in fantasy is a little annoying. I went through the whole book calling him “cowl” until I asked. Maybe I should start asking before I start the book! Chaol was slightly better than Dorian, but not by much. He was a little mopey and whiny. For a proud chief guard, I would’ve thought he’d be above that, but I still liked him. Chaol was one part of our love triangle, and the one I preferred Celaena ended up with. There was more of a developed relationship between them rather than just physical attraction. We also learn a little about his backstory and why he ended up where he is, despiting his previous life leading him in a potentially very different direction! I found myself cheering him on by the end.

Nehemia

Loved Nehemia! She was a badass princess that was not taking any of the crap of being in a foreign court. So what if the queen wanted her to go and do this or that. If she didn’t want to do it, then she wasn’t going to do it. She was there for her people and wasn’t willing to sacrifice anything to get what she wanted. Her friendship with Celaena seemed much more organic than any of the other relationships in the book, with ups and downs and the occasional disagreement.

The World

I’m writing this two or three days after finishing it, and honestly, not much about the world sticks in my head. I remember that Wyrdmarks, and the mines that Sardothien came from, but that’s about it. I’m most interested in the Wyrdmarks, what they are, where they came from, and how they’re going to be important in the future because of course, they will be. I just wonder how, and what Celaena is going to have to do with it.

Despite finding the characters a little flat at times, I did enjoy this overall. I’m interested in what’s to come and what the future is for Celaena’s relationships with Chaol and Dorian.

Would I read it again? Not unless I leave it another 5 years before picking up the next one. Knowing me, that is a possibility.

Will I be picking up the next in the series? At some point, yeah. Not immediately, but soon.

Would I recommend it? As long as you don’t mind a love triangle, and a novel that focuses more on socialising and relationships rather than action, then yeah. I was a little disappointed the action sequences were short and seemed to take a back seat.

Is it going on my favourites shelf? No.

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Created Mar 21, 2019 at 1:55pm • Submit your own review...