Not, bad, not bad, not excellent either. Couldn't quite put a finger on it, but something felt odd in this book sometimes. Actually if I see it in pieces it was very good. The characters were interesting, Celaena was strong both in mind and body, yet she was girlish sometimes, so she was absolutely lovable. Dorian, the prince, was an entertaining fellow, but with thoughts; and Chaol, the strong and grumpy Captain found his way into my heart also. The storyline was a bit odd, because sometimes we were stuck in a day for many pages then suddenly leapt two or three weeks, but that wasn't so confusing. What was missing? Kinda like i thought sometimes this book was all talk no action. They feared Celaena, trembled when they said her name but actually nothing happened in the book that really showed her strenght and talent. She was more girlish than assasin-like. Also the tests, that were supposedly determine the future of the assasin were just mentioned sometimes. I would have like to see more action, more demonstration of Celaenas talent, than maybe I could have loved it. This way I just liked it.