We follow Vin, our main character, who starts off working for a thieving band secretly using her ability to manipulate other people's emotions in order to survive. She gets noticed by Kell and his friends, who decide to save her from the inquisitors (who want to kill people with such powers, unless they're high born), and train her instead. Along the way they form their own crew and make plans to end the Lord Ruler's reign once and for all.

Before I launch into this review I should acknowledge that this was a buddy read, hence the month it took to complete. In a way I love this book more so for having the reading of it spread out because I could NOT stop thinking about it. First of all, Vin is such a cool character. She has flaws, she has balls, she goes through growth, possibly one of my favourite characters to ever be in a book; definitely up there anyway. Also, bonus points that her love interest is an important character but that their romance (which admittedly is little to begin with) doesn't take up a lot of page time. Then there's the other array of characters who for up Kelsier's band. Each unique with character depth that had me fully invested in each of their paths.

Sometimes bigger books like this can be slow but I think Sanderson did a really good job of having multiple climaxes throughout the main story arc to keep the reader hooked. The politics and 'magic' (although they are more like hereditary powers) are well explained and once you get your head wrapped around it all (about 50 pages) it makes for some really intense fight scenes and plotting.

I'm really excited to keep reading these books and as soon as I NZ goes to Level 3 - I'll be hopping online to find me book 2! (Book depo is too slow haha)