A watered down version of Melina Marchetta's Lumatere Chronicles (view spoiler)[with a defeated kingdom, dark magic, slave camps and a secret heir-girl who can save them all (hide spoiler)] 
 Even putting those differences aside, the MC was self absorbed, which she mentions SEVERAL times and easily distracted. Everything happened all too easily for her (view spoiler)[obtaining the half of the magical pendant with nothing more than a bruise while the other, more experienced "soldiers" have tried and failed for 16 years (hide spoiler)] and most of the book happens slowly, the plot itself scraped together in between self deprecations and past memories, and, somehow, an orphaned soldier girl who manages to escape EVERY threat to her life and/or body. 
 But alas, I will be picking up the next book because I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, OKAY?! 
 Maybe if I hadn't read Finnikin of the Rock first, or wasn't obsessed with Fin and Isaboe and Lumatere and all that beautiful magic, then maybe Snow Like Ashes would have seemed better.