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.
The Review:
Wow. wha wha wha wow!!
I loved this book. As said when I purchased this book I am not a person who is big on historical fantasy, but this was so good!
So according to the author her inspiration was a twisted take on Cinderella. Now I'm not sure I got that or not, but I did not care.
As far as I am concerned Celaena Sardothien is one of my very favorite YA heroines ( YES I dare to say favorite). When we first meet her she has been imprisoned in these mines, but she does not let that dampen her spirit not one bit. She is quite the lippy little thing which provides a great amount of humor to the story.
It is here after being escorted by the Captain of the Royal Guard Chaol Westfall, that she meets prince Dorian, who wants her to be his Champion in, what proves to be a deadly, competition to become his fathers, the king, royal assassin. If she wins it means freedom, after 4 years of services that is, but losing means being sent back to the mines. So what does she do, why she accepts the offer of course. Little does she know that darkness surrounds these competitions and something very deadly lurks the halls of the glass castle killing off the competitors one by one.
Oh, this was such a good story. It never strayed anywhere where I did not want to follow, never one second was I bored wishing myself ahead of the story, there was always something intriguing going on!
Celaena was such a lovable character, despite her profession. She was just really at the end of the day a girl. A girl who loves parties and dresses, maybe even a little romance as well, but can also fashion a knife with soap and sewing needles. Who is scared of letting people in but does it anyway and above all values her freedom. By the end of the book there is still so much to discover about her and much of the other characters that I cannot wait for book two.
This book also provides a slew of interesting characters: A brooding captain of the guard, a charming prince, a princess from another kingdom, a very suspicious duke, a conniving courtier, and a very dangerous king are just among a very select few.
I should probably mention something about the romance in this book because it does very much so contain it, I have some very strong opinions about it actually, but it's not what kept the pages turning for me (okay that's a little lie it did keep the pages turning sometimes), I loved the idea of this competition, the tests and trials and how it molded and changed all the characters (some changed for the better, some for the very worse) and some of their views on what it means to be a honorable person.
I cannot wait for book numbro 2!! I am so happy to give this book a rating....................
My Rating:
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