CBR15 Book 53: "The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels" by India Holton

Page count: 336 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Official book description, because I finished this book two months ago, and the plot is rather convoluted:

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.

This book will certainly not be for everyone. I can see how some people might find it too annoying, quirky, or simply rather uninteresting because they're not looking for something quite this whimsical. Do you like Gail Carriger? Then you might also like this. It's set in an alternate history, where magic exists. It's mainly used to make houses fly, and the secret spell that allows one to pilot the houses is mostly in the hands of women. Thievery and piracy also seem to be perfectly above board, as long as certain rules are followed. Our heroine, Cecilia Bassingtwaite, is a junior member of the female crime organisation, the Wisteria Society, and despairs that the older members refuse to see her as a worthy of promotion to the big table, a full member at last. So when she opens the door to find a rather flustered assassin on her doorstep, this is very promising, because ladies whom someone wants to murder are obviously more scoundrelous, and therefore more worthy of promotion. 

Of course, our hero, Ned Lightbourne, who goes by MANY different names and identities over the course of the story, has no intention of actually murdering Miss Bassingtwaite. He's not really an assassin at all. Nor is he a loyal henchman to her insane father, who has tasked Ned to abduct Cecilia from her aunt's house. Ned wants to do no such thing. Cecilia finds him both intriguing and exasperating, he finds her delightful and is instantly smitten. They keep meeting and bantering, usually while also fighting each other with sharp weapons, and obviously fall in love in the process. 

To begin with, I was honestly not entirely sure what was going on with the plot, or the rather flowery language, but it was amusing me and I just let the story sort of flow over me. The many references to the Brontës, and especially the utterly useless Bramwell, were fun. I'm not entirely sure how this society actually works, but piracy and thievery seem to be the done thing in the upper classes. It also seems to be a very matriarchal society, where the husbands are left to take care of the household, although they're clearly also allowed to run around wielding swords and firearms occasionally, as Ned is doing. Possibly they only need to become homebodies after they marry?

I'm probably overthinking it. This was fun, it made me laugh, and since I've waited several years, the entire trilogy set in this strange alternate Victorian world is already completed. The next one involves witches (and a male pirate), so it also promises to be entertaining.

Judging a book by its cover: This is really cute. I love the flowing vines of wisteria flowers, complete with other elements from the story twisted in. The teacup, the flying house, the sword and pistol, and obviously our adventurous little couple at the bottom, each sporting their own gun. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR11 Book 69: "Sapphire Flames" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

This is the first book in a new trilogy, so it will work fine to anyone new to the authors or this fantasy world, but readers may want to have read at least Diamond Fire, a novella which introduces the heroine and bridges the completed trilogy and this new one.

In a world where magical abilities bring wealth, power and possibly even fame, Catalina Baylor has reluctantly become the head of House Baylor and the main investigator of her family's detective agency, after her sister stepped down, because she's married to the Prime of another powerful House. While Catalina's sister Nevada has the very rare ability not just to tell when someone is lying, and can also able to coerce the truth out of someone (convenient if you're trying to solve cases), Catalina's powers are almost unheard of and have been kept under wraps by everyone around her for a good reason. .

If she doesn't shield herself, she has the ability to make people love her unquestioningly, an emotion which quickly turns to obsession and madness. A nurse tried to steal her from the hospital when she was a baby. She was home schooled after her little class mates tried to steal parts of her clothing or even tear bits of her hair out. Catalina has spent most of her life tamping down her powers, and only after her family declared themselves a house, with all of the three Baylor daughters as Primes, has Catalina needed to learn how to properly use her abilities. It also means that while she has a supportive and affectionate family, she doesn't really have any close friends and she's even considered any romantic possibilities (because how can she trust that they're not just ensnared by her?)

A few years ago, Catalina worked closely with another Prime, Runa Etterson, in investigating who was trying to sabotage Nevada's upcoming wedding. At the start of this book, Catalina is asked to help when Runa's younger brother is threatening to jump off a building, mad with grief because their mother and sister just died in a fire. Catalina uses her powers to persuade the boy not to jump, and even though she's warned that taking the case of investigating the deaths is a terrible idea, which will probably endanger the Baylors, she can't turn away someone who could actually become a friend in their time of grief and desperation.

It quickly becomes clear that it was no accidental fire that killed half of House Etterson, and the reason is probably connected to the mysterious ways in which Runa's mother had been earning money for the past decade. Catalina is also shocked to discover that Alessandro Sagredo, handsome Italian nobleman and playboy (and her erstwhile teenage crush) is somehow connected to the case. He's one of the many who tells her to keep safe and stay away from the case, but with every new warning, Catalina just becomes more determined to uncover the truth. She just wishes she could keep a clear head around the handsome Alessandro.

The first Hidden Legacy trilogy introduced the readers to the Baylor family and focused on eldest sister Nevada and her developing relationship with super-Prime Connor Rogan. In Catalina's first book, the authors have wisely decided to keep Nevada and Connor off page, in Europe, allowing the readers to properly get to know Catalina and her point of view. It helps that while this book introduces a few new characters, the majority of the supporting cast are the same. While Catalina is the new head of the family, her mother, grandmother, younger sister and cousins all help out with the agency. I am always impressed with how well Ilona Andrews manages to write well-rounded, supportive and loving families. It's one of my favourite things about their books.

The most important new character introduced is obviously Catalina's love interest, Alessandro Sagredo, Italian count and international playboy. He and Catalina met briefly during the Baylor sisters' trial to prove that they had Prime status. Alessandro's Prime power is that he can nullify the magic of others, but even he was briefly overwhelmed by Catalina's Siren lure. If his social media accounts are to be believed, Alessandro's life involves racing fast cars, dating beautiful women and posing handsomely in any number of glamorous international locations. Catalina comes to realise that this is a carefully calculated smoke screen, and that Count Sagredo is in fact very dangerous, utterly lethal, and despite them barely having spoken, strangely protective of her. It took the writers about a book and a half to make me really like Rogan, I think they won me over with Alessandro by the second scene he showed up. I can't wait to see what secrets he's hiding, and how he and Catalina will eventually find their HEA over the course of the series.

Sadly, the next book is unlikely to be out until August next year, at the earliest. I suppose I'll have to content myself with re-reading this one and the earlier Hidden Legacy books while I wait.

Judging a book by its cover: Do I like the pose of the cover model Avon's design department has chosen to portray Catalina? Not really. She looks super awkward, yet also as if she's thrusting her chest out in an exaggerated manner. It brings to mind bad comic book art. Do I like her dress, and that it looks about the way a dress Catalina actually wears at an important scene in the book? Yes, I do. The cover model who's supposed to be Alessandro looks like a budget secret agent. The blue glowing stuff and the runes swirling all around the couple. Kinda cheesy. But in the grand scheme of Ilona Andrews covers, which are far too often just really bad, this is fine. This does the job.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 41: "Crown of Midnight" by Sarah J. Maas

Page count: 432 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

I put off reading this for the longest time, mainly because I figured I'd have to go back and read the first one, Throne of Glass, again to remember what happened, what with having read that way back in early 2013. But then the lovely Narfna tipped me off about this website, which allowed me to quickly recap all the stuff I only vaguely remembered, and I no longer had an excuse not to read it and it fit into my Monthly Keyword Challenge for April.

Oh yeah, this is book 2 in a series. It doesn't really work unless you've started at the beginning. There may also be vague plot spoilers in this review, so maybe skip it if you like going into books entirely cold.

Legendary teenage assassin Celaena Sardothien won the evil king's contest and has become King's Champion. It pretty much means she's supposed to kill whomever he points her towards, and now she shows up in the throne room throwing down severed, partially decomposed heads and severed body parts every so often as proof of her due diligence. Both of her love interests are worried and perturbed both by her seeming ruthlessness and efficiency. Yes, there are two love interests, although the love triangle isn't all that intense, as Prince Dorian, son and heir of evil king (I could look up his name, but I really can't be bothered) has pretty much decided that it's obvious his best friend, the stalwart and honourable Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall (while listening to parts of this in audio, I discovered is name is pronounced more like Cowl - which is not how I was mentally pronouncing it all through the first book, seriously, books like these should have a phonetic guide to all the different names) loves her more, but is unlikely to act on his feelings, because you know, it could get in the way of his duty. Yawn! And Celaena can't act on her obvious feelings for Chaol because the king is already threatening to kill him if she steps out of line, she doesn't want to give him more leverage against her.

 Except - SPOILER! Celaena hasn't been killing anyone at all, but making all of the people she was sent to kill fake their own deaths and flee far far away, leaving her with significant pieces of identifying jewelry she can put on on severed limbs she takes from random corpses and shows off as trophies for the king. Seriously, for a famed assassin, she spends a lot of time NOT killing people, at least for the first half of the book.

The king now wants her to murder a famous male courtesan, claiming that he's part of a conspiracy against the throne. Because Archer whatshisname is a former friend of Celaena's, she negotiates so she has a month before she needs to present proof of his death, and she goes about trying to find out both what she can about the possible conspiracy (an enemy of the king is a possible friend of hers) and so she can warn Archer to get out of dodge. About a third of the way through the book, she confesses the truth to her friend, Princess Nehemia, because she can't keep up the pretence of being a cold-hearted b*tch to everyone. Nehemia offers to help tutor her in the ancient language of Wyrd magic (because the ghost of an ancient queen occasionally appears to Celaeana and tries to emotionally blackmail her into doing dangerous things to figure out the evil king's ultimate end game, and since he came to power ten years ago, all use of magic has been forbidden - she needs the Wyrd magic to investigate in secret).

Chaol keeps fighting his attraction to Calaena and tries to stay loyal to the evil king, even though it's obvious that evil king is super horrible and really doesn't deserve any kind of loyalty. His pining for the King's Champion makes things tense in his friendship with Dorian, because the prince doesn't really tell his friend that he's realised that Celeana doesn't like him like THAT, because she only has sad emo eyes for Chaol. Dorian is making troubling discoveries about strange new abilities he appears to be developing and tries to enlist Nehemia to help him.

The first half of the book really is rather slow and I was having trouble caring much about any of it, and then things suddenly took a TURN and I became a lot more interested. For one thing, Celeana went all vengeful and super bad-ass assassin, going on a rampage of vengeance. After some probably understandable (she IS still just a teenager) moping and self recrimination, she becomes a hell of a lot more proactive and fun to read about. That her relationship with both Chaol and Dorian becomes more interesting and complex, with a lot more nuance than "I like you, do you like me - oh, it's impossible for us to be together!" was an additional bonus.

I keep seeing very enthusiastic reviews for these books, and I really want to like them. The first book was merely ok, and while the first part of this book was rather slow and had far too much YA melodrama and not enough cool action, the second part was really a very different book entirely, and I applaud Sarah J. Maas for surprising me with the aforementioned TURN in the plot. Some of the revelations about our intrepid teenage assassin later in the book were really not very unexpected, however, as there have been plenty of anvillicious hints in both of the books about the lovely Celaena's background and true identity. Frankly, I would have though Chaol would have put the pieces together sooner, but he has the misfortune of being part of the plot, not reading it from the outside. Also, as I often need to ask myself when reading these at the age of 37 - would I have figured all of these things out when I was the target audience for these books, or is it my many years of added reading experience that makes most of the plot twists so obvious?

Having been a bit lukewarm about this series after reading the first one, I am now rather excited to see where the series goes from here. I still think Maas' other fantasy series is better, based on the first book, A Court of Thorns and Roses (I will be reading the next books in that series later this month), but I can now see why a lot of internet peeps whose reviews I follow like these books so much.

Judging a book by its cover: Not only do they have what I'm assuming is supposed to be Celaena as some sort of albino-looking wraith girl on the cover (it looks like the drawing of her is mostly in black and white, with a splash of colour added for the cloak), but her hair is flowing freely, as if wind-blown (interestingly, her cloak is swirling the OTHER way - there are very strange wind currents at play here), when it's specifically mentioned in one scene in the book that Celeana always keeps her hair tightly braided when she's fighting (because she's a trained assassin, natch, but also because she's not an IDIOT). I kind of like the background in orange with red swirls. The alternate cover for this is just a stark white, with the sword wielding lady surrounded by swirls of red smoke. While the super pale, white-haired girl is still an odd choice by the cover designers to portray the protagonist, this cover at least has SOME colour.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 78: "Spider's Bite" by Jennifer Estep

Page count: 432 pages
Rating: 2 stars

Gin Blanco is an assassin. She goes under the name The Spider. Her weapon of choice is knives and she's very good at her job, something she will rarely shut up about, even in times when people are trying to kill her. Gin lives in a world where there are a number of elementals, controlling fire, ice, earth, air, water, stone, even electricity and the like. Gin is a stone elemental and can also control ice. If you forget, she'll remind you every third chapter or so.

Gin is hired to take out a business man at the opera, but is double-crossed. Someone tries to kill her, and they succeed in killing her handler, Fletcher Lane, who raised her and trained her to be an assassin after her family was killed. She manages to rescue his son, Finn, before they manage to torture him to death too. Together with Donovan Caine, the only honest cop in the city, Gin and Finn (see, it rhymes) try to get to the bottom of who hired Gin and killed Fletcher.

I'd heard a lot of good things about the Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep. Most of the books have a higher than 4.0 rating on Goodreads. I like paranormal fantasy, I like assassins, I like unusual female protagonists. This book started out intriguingly, with Gin having had herself committed to an asylum to take out a dodgy psychiatrist, but went downhill so fast. When the book is narrated in first person, and you find said narrator hella annoying, it's going to be difficult to get into the book.

There's some promising world building, but because I was so annoyed with the "tell, don't show" narration, and the frequent repetition (really, most pertinent points are mentioned again and again - Gin's tragic backstory, her choice of weapons, her "no kids or pets" policy, her attraction to Donovan Caine and all the smexy things she'd like to do to him if she got the chance, but oh, he hates her because she murdered his corrupt partner). None of the characters appeared to have much depth or were all that interesting to me, again probably because Estep keeps telling me about them instead of showing through their actions why I should care about them.

I bought this on sale a while back, and am glad I didn't pay full price. Unless people can convince me that the other books get a LOT better (I know a lot of paranormal fantasy series have rough starts, and take a while to get going), this is not going to be a series I continue with.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 75: "Grave Mercy" by Robin LaFevers

Page count: 549 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Ismae's mother went to a herb witch to expel her from the womb, but Ismae survived. The poison marked her with red all the way down her side, and proved to the community that she is one of Death's daughters. When her abusive father marries her to the local pig farmer, she is convinced he's going to beat her to death once he discovers her dark secret. But the itinerant priest who performed the service spirits her away with the help of the local herb witch and she ends up at the convent of St. Mortain, who used to be worshipped as the God of Death himself. At the convent, she learns that she has a number of gifts, including a complete immunity to poison and an advanced healing ability. She's offered sanctuary at the convent, if she agrees to be a handmaiden of Death - an assassin working for the old gods of Brittany.

Ismae, who has never known a kind word or touch from anyone in her life, doesn't take long to agree. She is trained in all manner of deadly arts, and by the time she is seventeen, she is ready to complete her training. She isn't too happy with her graduating assignment, though, having to pose as the mistress of Gavriel Duval, half-brother to the Duchess of Brittany and her most trusted advisor. The Abbess of St. Mortain and the Duchess' Grand Chancellor know that there is at least one traitor at court, trying to deliver Brittany and its young Duchess to the French, and they'd like nothing more than for Ismae to prove that Duval is said traitor.

To begin with, Duval and Ismae can barely stand each other. He feels that she trusts too blindly in the orders she receives, she thinks that he is arrogant and conceited and has no wish to be dependent on any man, even as a ruse. Of course the two grow closer, and it becomes readily apparent that Ismae is going to have to learn to trust her instincts and intuition, not just the orders her convent sends her.

A young adult book set in Medieval Brittany, about assassin nuns, with romantic elements, seemed to be right up my alley. I do, after all, have a degree in European Medieaval history, and I love all things YA and romantic. And who doesn't like a good assassin story? There's a lot of potential in this book, but it's too long, and far too much time is spent on things that weren't all that interesting. The story could absolutely have been tighter and more action-packed.

Pretty much all of the training Ismae goes through at the convent is conveniently skipped, and then far too many chapters are spent on her getting settled at court. I have to agree with Duval that she is far too innocent and trusting in her superiors, but that's not really surprising in a farm girl elevated to assassin nun. I doubt any convent is big on training their acolytes in independent thought, critical thinking and questioning their elders. Young women who are sent out to assassinate on behalf of the old gods are not the sort of people you want branching out on their own and going independent. Certainly not if they're immune to poison, like Ismae is. Still, she was a bit dense at times, and it got on my nerves.

The romance springs a bit out of nowhere. Ismae is falling in love with Duval before she's really even spent all that much time with him. As it turns out, he's a pretty great guy, loyal to his young sister and willing to risk his life to make sure she finds happiness in a good marriage and doesn't have her duchy invaded by the French. But Ismae is already madly in love with him by the time we find out all these things.

It was pretty obvious to me who the traitor was long before it was revealed, and the deus ex ending that means Ismae might be looking at her HEA was a bit too convenient for my tastes. Too much of this book was boring day to day court life, and too little of it was assassination, romance and intrigue. Still, I have heard that the sequel is better, so I will probably keep going. After all, medieaval assassin nuns, right?

#CBR5 Book 110. "Assassins in Love" by Kris DeLake

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

In an exciting sci-fi future, on an interstellar cruise ship, rogue assassin Rikki (I seriously can't remember her surname, it's not important) is trying to dump a body. While assassination is legal if you have a license and a contract, Rikki's not a member of the Assassin's Guild, and generally feels that she doesn't need anyone controlling her or regulating how she does things. A very attractive man helps her get rid of the body, and then escape the security guards on the ship. One thing leads to another, and the next morning, Rikki discovers that the hot guy, Misha, is the one who actually hired her to perform the hit - trying to observe her technique. He's the licensed assassin who's recently been blamed for most of her hits in the region, and he wants her to either join the Assassin's Guild and start observing the set guidelines, or he's planning to stop her.

This is just the first section of the book. Rikki uses underhanded methods to discover Misha's real identity, and flashes back to her childhood, when his mother, also a licensed assassin, killed Rikki's father. She becomes convinced that he's trying to kill her, as well, and drugs him so she can escape the cruise ship. He chases after her, still determined to make her join the Guild or stop being an assassin, and there's a plot to kill the head of the Assassin's Guild and various back and forth of now they trust each other, now they don't.

August 2013's theme for Vaginal Fantasy Hangout (the online book club run by Felicia Day and three of her friends) was space assassins. Having nearly burned myself out reading in July, I figured light-hearted romance was just the thing the doctor ordered. So despite my misgivings, having considered both the spectacularly awful cover (even in a genre which features a lot of bad cover art) and the dumb title, picked, I'm assuming from some sort of generic name generator. Kris DeLake is a pseudonym for Kristine Kathryn Rausch, who writes a lot of fantasy and sci fi. Goodreads also tells me that she writes straight romance under another pseudonym.

The book is not bad, but certainly not great either. Rikki and Misha spend a LOT of time in bed with each other for people who don't trust each other. There's also extremely little assassining (this is a totally valid verb that I just made up) being done, and quite a lot more exploring joint (if repressed, in Rikki's case) back story. Like the ladies on Vaginal Fantasy Hangout, I liked Misha as a character a lot more than Rikki, who just never really grew on me. He's probably the reason the book gets 3.5 stars rather than just 3. This is by no means the worst book I've read as a result of the book club, but certainly not the best either, and I don't think I'll be bothered with any more in the series.

#CBR5 Books 15-16. "The Assassin prequels" and "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Total page count: 773
Ratings:

Prequel novella 1: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord - 3 stars
Prequel novella 2: The Assassin and the Desert - 4 stars
Prequel novella 3: The Assassin and the Underworld - 3.5 stars
Prequel novella 4: The Assassin and the Empire - 3.5 stars
The actual novel: Throne of Glass - 3.5 stars

WARNING! It's actually impossible to review the book without some of the stuff in the prequel novellas being spoiled - hence if you want to go in completely blank as to what's going to happen in these stories, you may want to read the review after you've read the various stories.

Celeana Sardothien is the world's most notorious assassin at the tender age of 18. She's also been a slave in the salt mines of Endovier for a year, after being captured by the ruthless king of Adarlan. The prequel novellas give the back story of how Celeana was found orphaned at the age of 8 and trained as the heir to the King of the Assassins in Rifthold, how she realised that her best interests were no longer in being a member of his guild and went on to buy her freedom and that of her fellow assassin Sam, and how she was set up and betrayed, losing her freedom, while Sam lost his life.

After a year of grueling work in the mines, Celeana is given an offer she cannot refuse. The King is holding a competition to find a new Champion, and Crown Prince Dorian, in an attempt to piss off his dear old dad, picks the most famous assassin in the country. If Celeana beats the other 21 candidates and wins, she will receive a full pardon, serve as King's Champion for four years, and then be completely free, to do as she wishes. Chaol Westfall, the Captain of the Guards, and Dorian's best friend, thinks it's all a terrible idea, but has no choice but to go along with it. It's also his job to oversee her training.

So Celeana, even though she hates and fears the King greatly, agrees - as the option is being whipped and starved and slowly wasting away while slaving in the salt mines. If she fails to win, she'll be sent back to the mines. As the contest progresses, she starts making real friends for the first time in her life. Now she just needs to survive long enough to win the competition.

The ridiculous tagline on the cover of the book claims that Celeana has a heart of ice - she totally doesn't. Having seen her homeland conquered by the same King who sentenced her to seven lifetimes of slavery in the mines, and having her parents brutally murdered (I have theories as to who said parents were, although I suspect the author is saving that for later in the trilogy), then being raised by a merciless assassin to kill for money isn't exactly something that creates a trusting, hopeful and affectionate individual. The one person she learned to trust in the Assassin's Guild was killed before her arrest, and other attempts at forming friendships while training as a hired killer did not end well.

In the prequel novellas, Celeana starts out as quite dislikable, she's arrogant, prickly, condescending and vain. In the year that passes in the prequels, she develops and changes quite a lot, in part due to the training she receives in the desert, but mostly due to the influence of Sam Corland, her fellow assassin. She learns about friendship and trust and becomes more selfless and caring. Of course, not everyone is fond of her new-found sense of independence and benevolence, which is exactly what leads to her being betrayed, arrested and ending up in the salt mines. The Celeana of the book has had a long year to learn that she's not invincible and that it doesn't matter how skilled an assassin you are when chained and starved and enslaved. She knows how precious freedom is, which makes her all the more determined never to return to the mines.

The book features somewhat of a love triangle, with Dorian, the charming Crown Prince and Chaol Westfell, his best friend being the rivals for her affections. Maas does a good job establishing the female characters in the book, there's both a noblewoman who hates Celeana and wants to snare the Prince, and a foreign Princess at the court on a sort of diplomatic mission, who becomes Celeana's friend. Even the female attendant who takes care of Celeana is pretty well depicted. I wish the personalities of the two men were as clearly established.

Dorian comes across as rather spoiled and indolent, actually, drawn to Celeana mostly because she's new to him and different, and not one of the many noblewomen he's probably already flirted with and/or seduced. Because his father's plans for conquering and enslaving most of the established world are so cruel, it's no surprise that he seems reasonable because he's not really supportive of this, and ineffectually tries to stand up to the King occasionally. He's young, and talks to his mother about wanting to marry for love. There's quite a bit of talk about how horrible his younger brother is, but I still wish Maas had given us more concrete proof as to why we should root for him. The fact that he early on keeps teasing Chaol about his attachment to Celeana, but then swoops in and makes a move himself, also makes him come across as rather douchy.

The Captain of the Guards, Chaol, fares a bit better, but mostly because he gets more page time, so to speak. He's the one who trains her every day, and is slowly convinced that while she's trained in pretty much every deadly art, she's not actually a crazed killer out to assassinate the King, the Prince or other members of the court. Clearly a lot more reserved than his friend, he keeps being embarrassed when people question his growing feelings for the assassin, and once his friend the Prince makes a move, he loyally retreats. I get the impression that Maas is intending for him to be the winner of the two suitors, but this is the first book, and if the tropes of YA have taught me anything, nothing will be properly settled until the third and final volume.

I liked the prequels, and the book quite a lot. There's some very cool world building, and the author writes good, strong and diverse female characters. The main thing that annoyed me with the book is that there was an underlying mystery running parallel to the competition plot, where various contestants are brutally murdered and eviscerated, with their organs being eaten. I thought this was completely unnecessary, and would have liked the story better without it. Still, the next book is out on my birthday, and I'm interested in seeing what happens next.