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Review

4.5 stars

Wow, what a fantastic start to a series!

That blurb instantly interested me, and I can’t sum it the story any better than this:

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.

From the moment I started this book I was immediately sucked into the world that Sarah J. Maas has created. There is a touch of fantasy about it (more in an eerie, dream-like kind of way as the king has long-ago banished all magic from the world), but the story and the characters are realistic and wonderfully developed, and the story is engaging from start to finish.

Celaena is a wonderfully endearing character. She’s smart, strong and brave, sarcastic yet vulnerable, and I absolutely love her! She also has a touch of excitable teenage girl about her, and I love that she was able to find moments of wonder and fun in her new life. I could understand her thoughts and actions, and eagerly followed her story through the excitement of the competition to navigating court intrigue and politics, uncovering betrayal and fighting for her very life.

And then there is the attention of the two men in her life. Yes, there’s a love triangle brewing! But the focus of the story is not on the romance, so it’s not a massive part of the story, more of an underlying thing that’s building, and it adds a great dynamic to the building relationships. Sweet, funny and effortlessly charming Crown Prince Dorian, and Chaol Westfall, the responsible, serious Captain of the Guard certainly make their presence felt in Celaena’s life, and with chapters written in both of their POVs, we get up close and personal with both of these wonderful characters.

“With each day he felt the barriers melting. He let them melt. Because of her genuine laugh, because he caught her one afternoon sleeping with her face in the middle of a book, because he knew that she would win.”

And despite all that she is dealing with and all that she is up against, Celaena follows her heart and does what she thinks is right, fighting to create a new life for herself, but never losing sight of what is happening in the world around her – the tyranny of the king, his influence over her homeland, and the plight of the innocent that are suffering under his rule. The stage is set for some fantastic story development in future books, and I can’t wait to see where Celaena goes from here!

“No matter what happens,” she said quietly, “I want to thank you.”
Chaol tilted his head to the side. “For what?”
Her eyes stung but she blamed it on the fierce wind and blinked away the dampness. “For making my freedom mean something.”

Exciting, intriguing, suspenseful, fun, dramatic and emotional, this is an all-encompassing, wonderfully written story that I was happy to lose myself in. The book is a wonderful story in itself, but also provides a great introduction to the rest of the series, and I cannot wait to continue on.

4.5 stars.