Well, this was a huge disappointment. I don't even know where to start, I just kept rolling my eyes half the time. It wasn't bad, maybe it's more of a me problem, but I was expecting so much more than what I got.

Eighteen year-old Celaena (which is just a weird way of spelling Selena) is pretty much the greatest assassin ever. However, for the past year she's been kept prisoner in the death camp of Endovier, as nothing more than a slave working the salt mines. Until one day the Crown Prince (Dorian) and his Captain of the Guard (Chaol - don't even get me started on how this is pronounced because it sounds too much like kale) show up and offer her a chance at freedom. To earn that freedom, she must win a tournament to become the King's Champion and serve him for 4 years. And then there's also some dark evil looming around for her to deal with.

So we've got this badass assassin and a tournament that looks a lot like The Huger Games. Did the book focus on that? Not really. Yes, we did see her training and competing in some of the stupid tests but from the moment Celaena steps into the palace she's more worried about dresses, being invited to balls, doing nothing but reading and pondering whether or not Dorian and Chaol find her attractive. I like the idea that a badass assassin can still have a girly side to her, but where did all the badassery go? She's the greatest assassin ever, has spent a year in a death camp and still will not jolt awake the second someone steps into her room or won't give a second thought to eating a whole bag of candy someone left in her room when Champions are dropping dead everywhere.

The love triangle was ridiculous. I hate love triangles to begin with, but this one felt like it was there not because the story needed it, or in any way benefited from it, but just to check a box of things that need to be included in a book. I mean, the two guys just keep showing up at her door like she's just a court lady and not an assassin that could kill them in little more than two moves. Ugh I can't come up with the words to express how I feel about this stupid love triangle and why it was completely unnecessary. This book needed to focus on the tournament and everything around it and forget about court and kissing. This series needed a slow burn romance. With Chaol.

 

And when she ends things with Dorian because it wouldn't be appropriate now that she's the King's Champion? Excuse me, wasn't that the plan from the beginning? But of course now she can go kiss Chaol in the next book without worring about the prince. Her relationship with Dorian makes no sense and pisses me off. They should've become friends. That's it.

I just think Dorian is... a fool? he kind of reminds me of Tamlin from A Court of Thorns and Roses sometimes.

That brings me to my next point. I recently read the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy also by Sarah J Maas and, though I know Throne of Glass came first, there were details that reminded me of it all the time. Some were little, others not so much. Parts of this just felt like a bad first version of A Court of Thorns and Roses.

And the characters. I couldn't care less. I didn't really connect with any of them. Chaol was the best of them all. But the rest... just meh. And was Kaltain really necessary? I mean I kind of get it with the Duke's plot line but ugh. It could have been done so much better.

That's my main issue with the whole book though, it reads like there are some great ideas in the works but it could have been improved so much. I get that a lot of it is build up for the following books (or at least I'm assuming so) and I've heard Crown of Midnight is much better, so we'll see what happens.