I really wanted to love this book but it ended up just being okay for me. I liked the concept, a young trained assassin being tapped to enter a "champion" contest. At first, I liked Celaena. She was hard on the surface and interesting. I also liked Dorian and Chaol. By the end of the novel, I ONLY liked Chaol. Celaena felt so young to me. She was naive and had some comments that I felt were more align with a young teenage, like 15/16, then an 18 year old who had been through hell. Dorian also, who was supposed to be pretty world, came across as younger than 19. The end result with the romance between the characters was resolved very oddly. I wanted more....something. Aside from the characters, the plot dragged on a little too much. Murders and tests were just thrown in there without any explanation. Some went into detail but others did not. I did hear that the subsequent books in the series so I have hope to see some more development on the characters.