Eighteen-year-old Celaena Sardothien was once the most deadly assassin in the world--until she was caught and sentenced to work in the salt mines of Endovier, where no one lasts more than a month. A year later, though, Celaena is still alive, and surprised to receive an offer from the crown prince: fight as his champion in a series of games for the nobility, and she could win her freedom (after serving four years as the king's personal assassin). But if she loses, she'll be sent back to the mines, this time for good. Once she arrives at the castle, however, Celaena faces another problem: something is killing the champions in gruesome, brutal ways. Celaena has to recover her strength, figure out who's behind the killings, and who she can trust. She also has to wrestle with her own conscience: can she really serve the same king she fought against for so long?
I had a lot of fun with this book. I liked Celaena as a character, and while there was a (yawn) love triangle, it didn't dominate the story as they sometimes can. Celaena was far more interested in winning her freedom and solving the many mysteries of the palace than she was in either of the men in her life (though there were enough swoony moments that I don't think this book will disappoint romance fans). The action scenes and elimination process was vaguely reminiscent of The Hunger Games, while the evil king felt like something off the pages of Graceling. For overall tone and feel, though, I would have to pair this with Grave Mercy as a good readalike (full disclosure: lots of other people have already made that comparison, including Kirkus, so I might be letting that color my judgement). While the writing is a little rough at the beginning of the book, stick with it: it's a fun read. I'm looking forward to really seeing Celaena's skills in future books and the four prequel novellas (she didn't get much of a chance to show off here, as she was posing as someone-not-herself to keep from giving the game away).
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