“My name is Celaena Sardothien. But it makes no difference if my name's Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I'd still beat you, no matter what you call me.”

3.75 ⭐️

Going into this, I didn’t set my expectations too high, as I heard that the first book isn’t that good compared to the rest of the series. That said, I feel that this book has met my expectations.

Surprisingly, I was intrigued right from the first few chapters by the mention of a competition—I love a good deadly trials book. On that note, I was bit disappointed with the whole competition aspect, as I feel like they weren’t high-stakes enough, and we also didn’t really delve too much into it. I was looking forward to seeing what the most notorious assassin, Celaena, could do. We got to see glimpses of her power, such as the 1v1 with Verin—which I enjoyed—but I would have liked to see more of the tests.

It was interesting to see the contrast in Celaena’s character. She’s introduced as this almighty, badass assassin, but for a majority of the book, she’s seemingly a bit of a “girly girl” who loves dresses and wants to attend balls. Not to mention the irony of her wanting to be a healer. It makes me more curious about her background before she became an assassin, especially about who her parents are. I have a feeling that she comes from a noble family.

As for the relationships in the story so far, none really stand out to me. I think the strongest is the friendship between Nehemia and Celaena, though I am a bit suspicious of Nehemia still. I liked Celaena’s friendship with Nox. I was kind of surprised he actually took her advice and left the competition. I wonder if we’ll ever see him again.

Now for the whole Dorian x Celaena x Chaol love triangle situation, honestly, I’m not really feeling either of the pairings. At the start, I was rooting for Chaol. I was getting enemies-to-lovers vibes. I wasn’t even sure if Dorian and Celaena would be a thing since they barely had any interactions at the beginning—it was mostly her and Chaol. However, as the book progressed, I began to take a dislike to Chaol. Perhaps it’s because from his POV, he seemed to always revert to thinking negatively about her and ultimately seeing her as just an assassin. I don’t hate him, but I’m not particularly fond of him. In a way, he kind of gives me Lucien vibes.

With Dorian, I didn’t find their relationship particularly compelling. I feel like there wasn’t a lot of substance beyond physical attraction. He fell in love with her, but I don’t see her feelings for him being as deep—especially considering that she seemed to have no problem ending their relationship. We also saw hints of her being attracted to Chaol, so I expect that they’ll have a romantic relationship. However, as of now, I don’t see either of these men being a good love interest for her.

The writing style seemed a bit juvenile, especially with the excessive use of exclamation points. However, I won’t hold it against SJM since I heard she was young when she wrote this book.

Overall, pretty good book and I’m excited to continue the series. It’s definitely left me curious, with lots of questions such as what Calaena’s backstory is, does she have magic, and what’s the deal with the Wyrdmarks? Also, I feel like Calaena’s had a couple internal revelations, or was that just me missing something?