Book we're here to talk about: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas 
 First cover of book: 
 Second cover of book: 
 Second is cover is much cooler, yeah? Yeah. Unfortunately it lies. 
 Calaena does not have a heart of ice. She has a mushy, warm, lovey dovey, dreamy heart that likes princes. 
 Yes, you heard me. The assassin is a romantic. Assassins shouldn't be romantics! 
 More on that later though. 
 To begin with, I should make something clear. I'm a bit of a girly mess right now. This is rare, and I'm not sure how to deal with it. You see, I'm experiencing what I believe is known as "the feels." "The feels" are something that come over you when you read or watch something that leaves you with tingly (or sad) feelings afterwards. 
 This book is one of those books that I know logically had a lot of issues. It's the stereotypical book that in general, I would strongly dislike. It has practically everything I don't like in a book, for goodness sakes! Yet oddly enough, I don't hate it. In fact, I enjoyed bits of it and look back on it with a mixture of fond and ever so slightly disgusted feelings. 
 Let me describe it for you: This is a stereotypical YA fantasy with a strong female heroine whose an assassin (woah, I've never seen that before ) in a fantasy world that's being ruled by a tyrannical king who bans the use of magic. Enter the king's son and the guard who will watch this assassin during a competition to become the king's champion. Cue the love triangle. Add to all of this a messy writing style where smiles are horribly overused (really, I think every page the characters were smiling. They had wicked smiles, charming smiles, mischievous smiles, cruel smiles, happy smiles, and grim smiles.) A handful of the scenes were confusingly written with characters saying things that didn't really make sense. 
 Almost any trope you can think of was used in this book. Obviously I should have hated it. 
 But... I didn't. In fact, I kind of adored parts of it. 
 Calaena is just. so. adorable. 
 I know that assassins aren't supposed to be adorable! I know that! But she was, she was. But she also had the potential to be an insanely amazing assassin who killed, schemed, and rose to the top. She was a survivor, even if she didn't seem like it. (Honestly, I'm hoping that was mostly a front that she used and that her true strengths will shine through in the next book. Pretty please?) 
 Also, Chaol. He was brilliantly sarcastic. As a character, I really liked him. Also, I think I may have just joined a 'team' for the first time in my life. You may gasp and have heart attacks if you like. I'll wait. 
 But the best character by far was Nehemiah, and no, I don't mean the Old Testament prophet, I mean the Princess of Ellywe. Yeah, a girl. An awesome girl who's strong and determined. She was the real reason I kept reading. 
 The other unfair thing is that I have a bit of a soft spot for competitions, duels, fights to the death (and pain) in general. So... despite all the awful things in this book, I still liked it. Which means three stars. 
 And now I want to read the second book.