Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Hey guys,
I know I'm always late to the hype but I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of this book. I had it on my to-read shelf on Goodreads even before it was published, and  totally forgot about it. I came across the book absolutely randomly and remembered wanting to read it when I updated my status.

Summary:
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

My opinion:

I had one question throughout this book - how the heck is her name pronounced? Looking up on Maas's site didn't really help me with the confusion, so I'm pretty sure I've been reading it wrong.
I had high hopes for this book and the series respectively. I've always loved a plot regarding assassins and packed with action scenes. 

Which makes my disappointment for the first third of the book understandable. It started quite slow for me. Celaena was bragging left and right about her strength and how good she was, but I didn't really see it. She was supposed to be weakened by the one year in the mines, where almost everyone dies in a matter of months, but I'm not talking about her physical strength. She was too much of a spoiled brat for me. She was sleeping in, people were always sneeking up on her. And the matter with the age of the main characters - it was too ridiculous that a 16 year old girl would be the greatest assassin in all of Adarlan (at 16 she got her fame but in the book she's actually 18). And that a 20 year old would be the captain of the guard. The only one who I could understand being 19 was the prince since he is a prince not on his own merit but through birht. I don't know maybe I'm getting old and if I had read the book when I was 16 this wouldn't bother me so much. 
I got really interested in the books with the first test of the Champion's trials. I would have liked some of the tests to have been described in more detail. If I'm not wrong ,I think, we fully see 4 in total. The intrigue about who was killing the contestants was also executed a bit poorly in my opinion - it seemed people weren't that bothered by it. I am so used to books nowadays to have a twist and the villain to turn out to be the least suspected person, that I actually got surprised that it was the obvious guy, which was a plus for me.
I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of the love triangles in general, but again, in this book I don't see it as a flaw. This part was actually described very well, and I still have no idea who is Sardhotien leaning towars. Usually, what gets me mad about love tirangles is that it's absolutely clear who the girl is in love with and I can't stand reading a forced story. I usually have a strong opinion about who she should end up with -I like both Dorian and Chaol, although I'm leaning more towards Dorian. But here I've got no idea. Well, I do have my suspicions. Compatibility wise I think she is more suited with Chaol, but this is just a speculation as we don't really see much of his character.
I also liked that even though Celaena spend a whole year in a living hell Maas didn't exploit this and didn't make her a damaged damsel. I don't know about you but I think there are too many books dealing with the main characters deep and traumatic experience, and sometimes it's just too much. 
Overall, despite the rocky start I grew to like this book and I'm exited to read the next ones, and see how the characters would develop as of right now I've got a feeling that there isn't a distinct difference between Dorian and Chaol.
P.S. I found the pics on Google, so I don't know who drew them.