Books are so weirdly personal. Every time I read YA I end up in this cycle of "is the trope acceptable this time" and, like, in this book the answer happens to be yes.
And it is deeply tropetastic, but Forna uses those familiar tropes to have a beautifully angry response to the patriarchy. And, more importantly, she understood that everything had to be justified WITHIN the story and not merely because it's a story. Why is there a ceremony? Why is this one special? Why does this work? Forna has thought through the answers to that carefully and stuck the landing on a chosen one narrative, which usually ends up with me rolling my eyes. So kudos on that.