Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Summary from Goodreads:
Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament - fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

What disappointed me most was the heroine of the book, Celaena. She was the land's most deadly assassin, prisoned in salt mines of the beginning of the book. She was brought under order of the Crown Prince to compete against twenty odd others, to become the King's Champion. I expected a kick-ass heroine who was likeable but that wasn't delivered to me. Celaena was a self-absorbed showoff who annoyed the heck out of me! There were so many times she talked the talk but failed to walk the walk. I would've liked to see her actions define her but instead I was fed lines about her confidence in beating everyone/attracting attention.

Two love interests were provided to her and many other men stared her way, no doubt feeding her arrogance and bloated ego. I still can't see why the men pined after her even after finishing the book... OK, It was unique the way Celaena liked to dress prettily and cared about looking good, but some of the things she did e.g. throwing a fit at not being invited to a feast/ball, shouting at the pool ball for not going in the pocket and smirking when capturing the attention of men with her beautiful looks, eroded her credibility as a deadly assassin especially since we pretty much only had her reputation and behaviour to go on (as not much was revealed about her past assassinations and how she came to be).

The story otherwise was quite good with an unexpected focus on magic. I quite liked the supporting characters but unfortunately Celaena is the lead.