I'm giving this a 3.5 star review. And I know a lot of people are going to be like "what the heck dude? This is such a good book! Like what?" I know I know! I agree it is a good book. The reason why I am giving it 3.5 stars instead of 4 or even 5 is because to be honest, I found myself dosing off during some bits. At times there was just a lot of information that I didn't think needed to be there. Maybe it's also because I read the prequel of Throne of Glass so I already knew some information going into the book. Saying that, I still really enjoyed the book, and I plan on completing this series. 
 So getting into the story...that I DID ENJOY. It was a very interesting story. The characters are awesome and just the whole thing. (view spoiler)[The story starts off a year-year and a half? I forget exactly how long. Anyway a year or so after the ending of The Assassin's Blade. That book! The ending! 
 And we get introduced to Celeana once again. Except this time she's not an assassin but rather a prisoner in Endovier. Another word for Death Camp. Enter Dorian Havillard and Chaol Westfall, come to take her away from the horrid Endovier. Awesome! Psych. She now has to fight in a competition to become champion of the very king who destroyed her home and essentially put her in Endovier in the first place. So the competition ensues with 23 other murderers, thieves, and shamed solders. Now in order for Celeana (who the majority of the characters in the book know as Lady Lillian) to win her freedom and not go back to Endovier, has to defeat the 23 other competitors AND serve the king for four years following the competition. Then and only then can she be free, truly free. Easy right?! Wrong! You see everything is going dandy until the competitors start to get killed off one by one. And it's gruesome. Blood splattered everywhere, faces ripped off, organs taken out. 
 Celeana makes it her job to find out who's doing this. 
 Throughout the novel Celeana has a wall up. I mean she was in a death camp for a year and some. If I was in her position, I would definitely have a wall up too. However, slowly she starts to let her guard down, especially around Dorian. Slowly the people around her let their guard down as well. She befriends the princess Nehemia (who is said to be working with the rebels of Eyllwe, her home kingdom, to take down the king of Adarlan). Nehemia and Celaena go on walks. On these walks Celaena notices these things known as wyrdmarks. She asks Nehemia about them and Nehemia claims to know nothing. As the novel goes on more and more wyrdmarks appear and with them comes a death of a competitor. So ensues Celaena's search for who is doing this, along the way she suspects Nehemia. We find out that it has not been Nehemia (in fact she's been trying to protect Celaena) but rather Cain, the one competitor Celaena hates more than any other. Cain is using wyrdmarks to bring demons into the world to steal the strength of the other competitors so that he may become the King's Champion. However, this does not work and Celaena comes out victorious. The novel ends with Celaena walking away from the king after just signing her contract of four years of servitude toward him, imagining her freedom! Now let's talk about this romance. I'm still not over Sam!!! But there was some romance in this book, so let's discuss. Dorian and Celaena. The crown prince and the assassin. This is going to end well. Psych! Celaena broke up with him once she realized she was the King's Champion. Of course Dorian is heartbroken because he's in love with her, but guess what, so is Chaol! The way Sarah J Maas wrote this was really cool because we got to see how Dorian and Chaol were feeling without actually being in their heads. Though Celaena likes Dorian, she does not love him (in that way anyway), I mean it's only been about a year since Sam's death. Honestly it seems to me like Dorian was a rebound. Sorry, not sorry. We also saw insight into Chaol and his feelings, and let's say he also has strong feelings for Celaena. 
 Now Celaena and the boys are not the only relationships in this book. Every character (of importance to the story) had a relationship with each other. Sarah J Maas did a great job with that and made me wish I was in the story if only to have the relationships these characters have. (hide spoiler)] 
 I'm honestly not that big of a fan of third person point of view, but Sarah J Maas does a fantastic job with it, and I don't mind so much. All in all, I'm still giving this a 3.5 star rating. As I stated in the beginning of this review, there were parts where I dosed off. Though towards the end there was no dosing. I really did enjoy this book and I definitely, definitely plan on continuing the series! 
 HAPPY READING!!!