I am so torn. At first when I started reading this I was like "YEAH!" Badass assassin chick? Yes! Promise of assassin type things and fighting? Gimme, gimme! Potentially interesting side characters? Cha-ching! 
 Aaaaaaaand then we got to Rifthold and my interest waned with every page. The world that Throne of Glass takes place in is excellent and well thought out. The characters and Celaena's predicament are so poorly constructed it makes my brain hurt. 
 Celaena is supposed to be the best assassin in Adarlan, but no matter how many times the book tells me this, I never see it, therefore I don't believe it. What I do see is a girl who seems to behave however the narrative calls for. I wanted an assassin who could hide her emotions, keep her feelings in check, and be practical and logical, but Celaena acts like one of the "courtly ladies" that she seems to hate so much. She squeals over pretty dresses, constantly admires herself in the mirror, hates on all other women except Nehemia, whom she follows around instead of, y'know, training for the competition, the list goes on. Celaena does train, sometimes, and she does complain that she doesn't get to train enough, but other than the odd scene here and there, most of the time she's reading, or prettying herself up, or flirting with Chaol/Dorian, or girlying around with Nehemia. There is a competition that will win you your freedom going on. What the fuck are you doing? She is also prone to throwing hissy fits like a child (over not being good at billiards the minute she picks up a cue stick), and being over-the-top sarcastic to everyone. Yet everyone loves her, and if they don't love her, it's because they're the bad guys (the king, Duke Perrington, Kaltain, Cain, etc). 
 Chaol, Dorian, and Kaltain get their own POVs as well, but it is wasted paper/ink. Kaltain in particular, because her only thoughts are: how much she wants Dorian, how much she hates Celaena, and how much opium she needs to smoke. It serves no purpose to the story. As for Chaol and Dorian, well... there is something called the Bechdel Test, which asks if two women in any type of fiction speak to each other about something other than a man. Throne of Glass seems to fail a reverse Bechdel Test, because almost all the men in this book talk to each other about Celaena ALL. THE. TIME. During Chaol or Dorian's POVS, if they're not talking to Celaena, they're thinking about how wonderful she is or talking to each other about her. It's maddening. It's unnecessary. I almost wish this series had been written in first person (even though people nowadays like to rag on first person POV novels, especially when the narrator is female), because Dorian/Chaol/Kaltain's POV scenes seemed like pointless book padding. All the characters who aren't Celaena Sardothien are so two dimensional that it hurts my soul. 
 The villain, the outcome of the competition, all of the actual plot related things are so obvious that I actually started thinking Nehemia was the villain because it wouldn't be expected, but alas, I held my expectations too high. The Wyrdmarks, the ghosts, magic, all that stuff was great, as it fit in with the world building, but the rest was bunk. I did cringe at all the holidays, because they were Earth's holidays (Christmas, Halloween) with different names. *twirls finger* Huzzah. There is also an ungodly amount of vomiting that Celaena does. I didn't mind one time when it happened (when she went running after eating breakfast, who does that?), but the rest of the time it was just gross and uncalled for. Apparently the most unsexy thing Celaena could do in front of Chaol was vomit, so she did. A lot. 
 Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan's Greatest Assassin? *snorts* Not from where I'm standing.