HOLY DANG. WOW. YES. 
 She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one. 
 Heir of Fire is a lengthy, well written, sophisticated novel, that entwines multiple POV's to create a well rounded addition to Celaena's story. However, with that being said, my only real issue that I had with this book was due to the pacing of the story. The first thing I will say about Heir of Fire is that, for the first part of the book, it was a little slow. It took me almost two weeks to finally finish this book, and I typically devour books. What I have come to appreciate most about Maas's writing is that she writes these elaborate, elegant, and utterly enticing action sequences. The combination of drawn out slow moments and skimpy action packed sequences is what kept me from finishing the book quickly. There were definitely moments where I had to put the book down because I wasn't paying attention to the words on the page, and other moments where I was so enthralled that I genuinely could not put it down. 
 The character building was absolutely PHENOMENAL, and stuck with me the most. Maas introduced a slew of new characters that I am both eager and excited to see how they develop, and I initially was nervous when these new characters kept popping up. I was afraid that little attention would be paid to them, and they would be relatively shallow and meaningless characters - was I wrong. 
 If I have to pick two characters I'm obsessed with (besides Celaena, obviously), it would be Manon and Rowan. I am so excited to see Manon develop further in Queen of Shadows . I see an enormous amount of potential and development for her character. As for Rowan...I have a weakness for the male warrior type characters, and I really enjoyed how Mass didn't focus on a romantic relationship between Celaena and Rowan, but rather a mutual friendship that isn't immediately and solely based off of some type of romantic interest. 
 I won't go too in depth with Celaena, but wow - just wow. Seeing her struggle to accept her true identity has been a journey, and while I don't believe she's fully accepted herself as Aelin, the changes that we finally get to see in her is essentially what I've been waiting for for the last two novels. We've seen her rage, her uncertainty, her determination, her revenge...but here we see the overwhelming impact left on her by Nehemia, her parents, and other important individuals in her life and how it is shaping her into the leader she was meant to be. 
 As for Chaol and Dorian's story line - I found myself skimming the chapters on more than a few occasions. Dorian's storyline began to feel rather repetitive, and Chaol's seemed to be taking an excruciatingly lengthy time to move forward. It wasn't until the last third of the book that I started to actually dedicate some real attention to their chapters. My main interest was in what was happening with Rowan and Calaena, and Manon, so I am slightly at fault for being impatient and wanting to find out more about those specific characters. I tend to skim when I am more interested in other characters. 
 My actual rating for Heir of Fire would be a 3.5, but since I can't do that, I'll round up. While it took me longer to get through the book due to the pacing, I still found the contents to be compelling and interesting. I am definitely looking forward to finally reading Queen of Shadows .