Read at the request of the many teenage girls I work with. A well paced, if slightly clumsily written YA fantasy. I thought the idea itself was a bit different from other things I've read, though I couldn't exactly call it original. I share the frustration other people have with the fact we never get to see Celaena's assassin skills in use and just have to trust that she is deadly. Not sure how far I'm likely to get with the sequels but this did enough to convince me I should pick up the second.