This is better than the first book. I still love the world. I thought the romance was better handled and there's more than just the Vin/El. Kelsior is gone and logbook entries are better integrated into the story. Sazed is firmly my favorite character. I hope we get to visit his home. The new characters are great too. Dogs are always a plus. 

There are a few twists I figured out but was still were satisfying and others that completely surprised me.

The brother twist and Zane betraying everyone I figured out. I like the triangle romance but wish it was bigger. I like the idea of Mistborn trying to fit in but falling. I wish El learned about Zane and his other half-siblings before they all died. Because El barely reacted to their existence.
 

This book still suffers from being too PG there are no kisses or even fade to black.

Image if Zane tried to kiss Vin! Or Vin/El's wedding night.

El is pretty boring. He does grow and it's better than the first book but he's still lacking depth.
I'm a little concerned with the direction of the government. The message comes off as democracy will fail. I hope they try to set up another democracy instead of staying as an empire.

Loved this book. Perfect amount of slower and faster chapters. I cannot wait to start the last book in this trilogy to find out what happens next.

I Really Liked It 😊
-★★★★✮- (4.50/5.00)
My Grading Letter Score = 90% (A)

When I finished The Well of Ascension, the first words that came out of my mouth were "simply incredible." But at first the pacing of this book at the start, I completely understand why some people would consider this weaker than The Final Empire if we are discussing overall pacing because The Well of Ascension was constantly going from slow to fast to slower to faster. For me, I'm not really someone who heavily focuses on pacing if what is being provided to me is engaging and if it's building up to something that is paid off when it's due, which this book mostly everyone agrees it does just that. So, regarding pacing consistency, sure, you can go ahead and give The Final Empire the upper hand when it comes to that. But honestly, outside of that, I most definitely feel like The Well of Ascension is tied with The Final Empire in almost every other criteria, and/or The Well of Ascension did it better.

The two categories I feel The Well of Ascension did better were characterization and character development. Every single character that was focused on in The Well of Ascension, for the most part, felt like they were given the time they needed to be fleshed out enough to be commended at least above what the characterization execution was provided to us in The Final Empire and goes for the development they went through in this book. World-building, Lore, Action, and Prose are all categories that can be debated which one did it better. I don't really care since I enjoyed all of these things in both of these books. 


Verdict
At first, I was Team Final Empire, until around Chapter 47 when my favorite fight scene in the series so far occurred did I start to lean over to Team Well of Ascension, after that the pacing slowed back down and then I started to lean back over to The Final Empire and then the last fifty pages of this book leveled me out. It brought me to the conclusion of thinking that I like both of these books equally critically, to be honest. If I was held at gunpoint and forced to choose one over the other, I might say The Well of Ascension, since the hype of just finishing it is still on me and I love great characterization which this book gave me a whole lot of. But I love both of these books equally and I'm glad I did not come out of it thinking less of it in comparison to its predecessor, a successor should be as good or better than what came before it and I feel The Well of Ascension accomplished just that. So regardless of what the majority of people state or what the rating score in comparison says about this book. 

I Really Liked It.

I am unsure if I have ever experienced a book like this one, where with every new chapter a new information is dropped that almost always completely twists one of the many exciting narratives. From the first page on, I was surprised and as it kept going I could not fathom all the plottwists coming. And none of them seemed over the top nor misplaced, as the world, its history and its characters, whom I am attached to deeply now, are so well construed that it read so fluently.
Not to mention, the amazing and captivating writing style!
Due to the ending, I am both extremely curious and mortified to find out what is waiting in Book Three.