3.5 
 These five novellas are the first that I have read of this series, and I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would, which is why I round up with my rating (as I am a bitch and would perhaps normally round down...) 
 Saying that, there is one major issue that I have with this (these?) that being... exquisite. I'll get this, and then move on to the positives. The word exquisite. It was used far too much. I was going to count the amount of times that it had been used, but I ended up losing count, but I would say about 10 times ... almost definitely more. Nearer to the end, whenever I saw that damned word I was gritting my teeth, to be honest. It may seem inane, but was just so annoying to read that same word over and over again and I just felt that Maas needed to find a different word. Looking it up on google: synonyms: beautiful, lovely, elegant, graceful; magnificent, superb, superlative, excellent, wonderful, well-crafted, well-made, well-executed, perfect; delicate, fragile, dainty, subtle; intricate, tasteful, fine... I am sure that with even more research you can find better... 
 Celaena was the second that annoyed me; her arrogance was staggering. It did strike me that this may be deliberate making her this arrogant - that she thought she was invincible but in the end realises she is not - but I have not read the actual first book in the series yet so I cannot say. If it is accidental and she was meant to be likeable, then I do take issue with this because I do not think that she was likeable - I could actually go as far to say that I disliked her. In the first novella, Rolfe calls Celaena arrogant and in the third, Ansel calls her spoilt and selfish, and I totally agree with both of them. I also think that she is childish, egotistical and naive a fair lot of the time. If it was deliberate, making her this irritating to read about, then I can only congratulate Maas; I personally like books with unlikeable characters, as long as it is intentional - or at least seems intentional - for you to dislike them. In this, it is unclear, but I feel that it is intentional and feel (and hope) that her character (and change in her character) in this book is some major character development for her in the first book of the series. 
 Although most of the time she was annoying, I also did like certain aspects of Celaena. Namely her sense of right and wrong, and her action in enforcing her sense of right and wrong. Freeing the slaves was what started everything in motion for the stories, but on her way to the end she did several other things that were good(view spoiler)[; giving the money to the healer-barmaid so she could get away, going back and saving the Master and not killing Ansel. The fact that she had to be deceived to kill the man who was freeing the slaves - but who she thought was enforcing slavery, also shows her sense of right and wrong (hide spoiler)]. 
 I also enjoyed a fair few of the other characters, who were interesting and - if not completely well rounded - at least showed even a slight hint of contradiction or unsureness in their actions ... Rolfe the Pirate Lord and his slight faltering(view spoiler)[: "Rolfe's eyes darkened a bit at that, glimmering with enough guilt that Celaena wondered if the slave trade had been a last resort for him." (hide spoiler)] Oh, in no way is this enough, but it is still nice to see a character who is not 100% black or white in their motivations. Another character with these motivations is Ansel (view spoiler)[who kills those who trust and loved her, but thought it was for the right cause (hide spoiler)], and another is Doneval (view spoiler)[ who though was trying to free the slaves, still treated people badly and looked at younger women - girls - in a way that they should not be looked at (and probably also slept with them) (hide spoiler)]. 
 Two more characters - Sam and Arobynn - who I felt completely different about; I liked Sam, and hated Arobynn. I didn't love Sam; I feel like he was perhaps not as developed as a character as he could have been, and the fact that he growled whenever he kissed Celaena frankly wigged me out a bit. His complete love for Celaena - even though she was a complete and utter bitch to him for so long - also made him seem just ... kinda sad. (view spoiler)[I was still mad, and upset, when he died though. (hide spoiler)] 
 I just hated Arobynn a lot. What a complete dick. He's one of the bad characters that doesn't have any redeeming glimpses into him at all and I just really hope that Celaena comes back and fucking murders him. 
 I thought that the stories themselves were good. They were short, and I think they needed to be for what they are. I am glad that Maas saw this, and did not attempt to make any full size novels of this story, like I can imagine some authors would, stories bloated by prose and description... oh, I may be thinking of The Night Circus... but I digress. They got right into the action, right to the point, and I loved this. It will perhaps encourage me to read more short stories, which I admit I have previously kept away from. 
 Lauren remarked to me that she thought that these books were long, and I think that is because they are! They look like the normal size for a YA novel, but the writing is so much smaller! Good trick, Maas. 
 In general, a nice (view spoiler)[but sad - Sam dies! in the worst way possible! - (hide spoiler)] read. I am surprised to find that I am looking forward to reading the first book in the series.