Alright, let's talk about it.

This book was, to me, a cross between The Hunger Games and The Selection set in a pretty typical high fantasy world. The Tournament is a pretty good trope, although I wish that it had been a little more fleshed out in this book.

Spoiler

There was never really any question that Celaena would at least get to the end of it, so I had a hard time feeling particularly invested.

I really like all four of the main characters that this story sets up, and I look forward to following them in the future. Unlike most people, I found Celaena a really fun main character, although the book did espouse her many amazing features and skills to a slightly ridiculous extent.

However, beyond a medium-level interest in the characters and their fates, nothing particularly stood out to me as remarkable about this book. There was nothing in the world-building that I hadn't seen before, and frankly, some of the plot was just lazy.

Spoiler

Having a long-dead ghost queen come in to give Celaena life-saving advice and provide information just felt kind of cheap, tbh.

Also, I'm a big fan of retellings, particularly fairytale retellings. I was told this was a Cinderella retelling, but man, it is NOT. The only remotely Cinderella-y aspect of this story comes in the form of a ball midway through the book, in which our main character dances the night away with the prince. That's...literally it. She and the prince already know one another quite well, so this isn't really unexpected at all. Not that the lack of a Cinderella story made me dislike the book, but my expectations in that arena were not met. Do with that what you will.

Nonetheless, I had a good time with this book, and I fully expect to keep going with the series.