** spoiler alert ** 
 OH WOW! THIS SERIES IS SOO GOOD! After reading the final empire and loving it, well I couldn't wait to read the well of ascension. I didn't like it as much as the first book but still LOVED it and found it a very satisfying sequel in the series. 
 The lord ruler is dead, and so is Kelsier. After the crew takes over the final empire you'd think everything would be all nice and dandy. But when the lord ruler is gone, and Kelsier isn't there to take his rule, Elend steps up to take the throne and figures out just how hard it is to be king. Elend's an idealist, full of great ideas but has no clue how to rule Luthadel, now that winter is arriving and Staff's army is besieging the kingdom, Elend has pressure on him like never before and struggles to make his dreams for the new empire a reality. 
 Vin however feels like a weapon, a knife being held to someone's throat being told when to cut, always doing others dirty work. Vin is now the only mistborn and is lonely without Kelsier there anymore, she is trying to cope with her new title the church of the survivor has given to her "lady heir" the heir of the survivor Kelsier. But most of all, she thinks of the lord ruler "You don't understand," he wheezed. "You don't know what I do for mankind. I was your god, even if you couldn't see it. By killing me, you have doomed yourselves...." - were the lord rulers last words. Vin can't help but wonder what is was exactly that the lord ruler did for the final empire and what will happen now that he's gone. 
 One of the things I loved the most with this book was the character development with Elend. Elend has been put into a new role as King and he changes so much throughout this book. To be completely honest I didn't really like Elend much in the final empire but the well of ascension made him such a likable character for me, going from the rebellious son just trying to defy his parents with big dreams to change the final empire to the king of Luthadel. It was such a big leap and improved this character so well. 
 Vin is still trying to figure things out, emotions are jumbled for her and there is a certain someone who's confusing her even more. Zane. I was really excited when being introduced to the new character especially after figuring out he was mistborn. From the start it shows that he is not mentally sane which scared me at first, I was also scared that they were going to throw in a love triangle into the mix with him and Elend but that wasn't the case so I thank Brandon Sanderson for that. I wasn't happy with what happened with Zane's character and was hoping for more with him but he influenced Vin so much and helped more with her development so he was essential to this book for that. 
 Vin in this book has a lot of questions still on the lord ruler that haven't been answered that he only has the answers to. There is a lot of questioning in it. You now know who the lord ruler is... But what happened on that night at the well of ascension, some things don't add up. And what is this so called "deepness"? In this book it created fantastic answers to questions in the first book that haven't been answered for you and also made you come up with even more questions for the next book. 
 This book like the last was also very quick paced I read it pretty quick and it engaged me from the start, though fantasies have a tendency to suck me in and then not let me out till the sun is up again. Overall it was an excellent book that I just had one problem with... Kelsier. Or the lack of Kelsier I should say in the final empire I was devastated when he died although I knew it was necessary and it made the ending so much better. But in the second book I didn't know how I'd feel about that, Kelsier was my favorite character and reading a couple of chapters without him in the final empire is different than not having him in an entire book or the rest of the series for that matter. But I managed, I still want him to come back to life some how, I was sort of expecting him around each corner, every new character could be Kelsier and I kept my hopes up way too high, even now in the third book I keep telling myself damn straight kelsiers going to come back to life doesn't matter how it will happen this is fantasy, right? but I know I seriously need to stop with that and face reality with this book. 
 I would give this book I think... a 4.5 (mainly for the lack of Kelsier) I definitely think you should continue this series it is soooo good one of my favorites, after this series it is on my to-do list to read every single book by Brandon Sanderson because he is just an amazing author his books always have a lot going on with them (which is good because otherwise I tend to get bored during books), his characters, world build, story plot all perfection. I can't wait to finish the next book in this series!