Throne of Glass, by Sarah J Maas

Celaena Sardothian has been an assassin since her tweens, trained to be the deadliest killer in Ardalan. Betrayal sent her to salt mines as a slave, but a year later the Crown Prince pulls her out by to be his champion in a competition to win her freedom. This is yet another fantasy novel that seems to have all the ingredients for success but is let down by mediocre writing. Eyes are obsidian, sapphire, bronze or turquoise. Crowns rest atop or upon heads. Spines regularly straighten in response to danger or fear. The assassin with a heart of ice and a will of steel spends most of her time either furiously angry or mooning after the young men in her orbit, so more like the brattiest adolescent in Ardalan. The trials of the champions are interesting, but the topic is all but abandoned half way through in favour of a bizarre murder mystery, involving supernatural elements and a torn-between-two-lovers scenario. It‘s like a lame romance novel poorly disguised as an action/fantasy tale. There are just too many adjectives in a ludicrous plot with no character development and motivations that change between paragraphs, let alone chapters. There are apparently two sequels and a prequel. Don’t look for reviews of them here.