This entire book had me hooked. I read assassins blade first and so far I’m happy I did, I understand all the little pieces of lore Celaena mentions and it makes her story that much richer, her hatred of the king, what she’s overcome, how low she was brought in Endovier… I can’t help but root for her. Now the whole Dorian/Chaol love triangle honestly took a backseat in my head to the whole competition and just Celaena getting her sense of self back, but it was very entertaining at times. The kings POV at the end makes me really intrigued. How is he so calm and blasé after what happened? The black rings? Wyrdmark? I was planning to read a cozy book between this and crown of midnight to break things up, but that’s not happening now. Absolutely 5/5, you can tell the author was younger when she wrote this, especially coming off of assassins blade, but it didn’t bother me once the plot started going.