Synopsis:
The main premise of the story is that there’s this 18 year old female assassin named Calaena. Celaena is more than just your regular assassin though – she is the most notorious assassin in all of Adarlan, a reputation gaining her the prestigious title of Adarlan’s Assassin. In the beginning, she is brought out of prison and brought to the Crown Prince of Adarlan, Dorian Havilliard, and she doesn’t know why. She just assumes that they’ve finally decided to kill her. Of course, they don’t kill her; instead, the prince asks for her to be his representative for this competition that his father, King of Adarlan, is holding. It is a competition wherein several of the best thieves, assassins, military men, etc. against each other in a series of tasks, until there is only one left standing. The remaining competitor will become the king’s champion - basically his personal assassin. Calaena agrees to represent the prince because 1) if she stays in prison, she’ll die eventually anyway and 2) she’s promised that, if she does win this competition, she will be granted her freedom. The story continuous on from there, but with more than just the competition. A love triangle forms. Gruesome deaths begin occurring, and nobody knows why. A mysterious evil lurks in the castle. Magical secrets are unveiled and hidden. And Celaena finds herself in the middle of all of this.

Genre:
I think this book touches on a lot of genres: there are a lot of dystopian elements in it, as well as a lot of fantasy and magic, some mystery, a lot of action, and a good amount of romance. It was definitely a high fantasy novel, yet it was still relatable to real world, through its concepts of kings, empires, rebellions and the like, which I think made it easier to take in all the fantastical elements of this book. It’s a good mix of genres, so I feel like it has something for almost everyone.

Plot:
I didn’t actually realize this was a high fantasy novel at the very beginning, because all the magical and fantastical elements kind of creeped into the story. I really appreciate that, as a reader, you aren’t just thrown into this whole other magical world; instead, you were slowly introduced to it. I really liked that aspect of the book, because it made it easier to take in the world and understand the different magical elements of it.
The entire story was told in the third person point of view, though it alternated perspectives between characters. It’s confusing sometimes when books do that, because, sometimes, I feel like it’s just done simply for the novelty of it, but, here, I think it was done well and appropriately, always able to add something to the development of the story.
There was a lot more romance in this book than I thought there would be, and maybe just a little bit more than I would’ve liked. I feel like sometimes the romance was a bit out of place in the book, and slightly cliché. As a whole, I’m not a big fan of love triangles, and this one was kind of similar to those annoying ones in the sense that all of the people in the love triangle just happen to be extremely attractive (do all main characters need to be attractive?), but, as a whole, I think this love triangle was done well enough. Maybe there was some insta-attraction, but there was no insta-love, and I appreciate how Celaena’s relationships with each of the men in her lives developed at a good pace. While I did have my gripes with this romance, as a whole, I don’t think the way it was executed was too “in your face”; it just added a nice lightness to the whole story. I actually found myself significantly enjoying some of the sweeter moments in this book.
Also, if you’re a guy planning to read this book, I just feel that I must warn you that the author goes really into detail when it comes with the dresses and clothing (but mostly the dresses). I found it okay, and found that it made it easier to imagine the characters, but you might not like it. It’s not a massive deal though.
There’s a lot more to the story than just romance and dresses though, don’t get me wrong. That’s just a small part of the entire plot. Throughout the book there’s a lot of mystery, and threats of evil lurking about. There was also a good amount of action, as you can expect from a book about an assassin. There were parts wherein she was just so awesome and kickass that in my head, I was just screaming, “Yes! Celaena, you’re awesome!” There were also a few parts that were so intense that it pained me to much to read further, and yet I couldn’t stop myself from just reading and reading! There were definitely scenes in this book that got my heart racing.

Characters:
I won't go through each character individually, but in general, there were a lot of characters I absolutely loved, as well as a few I absolutely hated, who are the villains of the story anyway. The characters here were just really easy to love or hate.

Conclusion:
All in all, this was an awesome book, with an interesting plot, and amazing characters that I have very strong feelings about. While there were parts in the execution of the romance that I wasn’t 100% happy with, I honestly couldn’t put my Kindle down while reading this even when I tried. It was one of those books that really sucked me into the world, and one of those books wherein I got really attached to the characters. I can’t wait to read the next book, which, I hear, is even better than the first; I probably will, as soon as I catch up on some schoolwork.