A Court of Wings and Ruin

I’m still reading this series to give it a fair shot and try to understand the hype. After the first two books I could see why people liked it even though it wasn’t doing anything for me, but after this one I don’t understand the appeal.
Things I liked: -Fayre possibly not being the most powerful and most special person to ever exist thanks to her sisters’ transformation. It was an interesting concept that I wanted to see explored more. -The brief story Azriel tells about Nephelle. I’d rather have read a whole book about that, to be honest. -That’s...pretty much it.
Things I didn’t like: -The Everyone Must Be Paired nonsense going on with the side characters. No one can be happy unless they have one or two love interests, apparently. What happened to mating bonds being rare?  -Everyone is jerking chins, making vulgar gestures, looping arms, linking elbows, sketching bows, and saying “mate” so much that I don’t want to read those phrases ever again. -The sex scenes are still awkward, and the magically disappearing clothes made me laugh out loud every time. -Characters secretly being Good All Along or Horrible All Along without regard for how their past actions impacted others for better or worse. This has been a problem since the last book, but this is also a writing pet peeve of mine. 
If you have to make a character absolutely despicable in order to make another character look good, then it’s bad character writing. Similarly, if you write a character as a horrible person but then have them do one good thing to absolve them of everything else they’ve done, it’s also bad character writing. Distilling character interactions down to a black or white mentality in this way takes away from any tension the plot could’ve had, since characters are randomly revealed to be secretly on the main characters’ side all along. 
If this book had a writing and editing style that embraced these contradictions, it could’ve turned them into compelling character studies that examine these characters’ motivations, their desire for forgiveness or power, and their need to feel loved and accepted even at a terrible cost. But instead, this book feels like the author is writing fanfic about their own series. Everything is resolved easily and quickly in the characters’ favor, removing any tension the last third of the book could’ve had.
Two stars because there were glimmers of things on the periphery that I did like, but the bulk of this book was not an enjoyable read for me. I’ll try out the next part of the series because I’m interested in seeing a perspective other than Fayre’s, but the bar is on the floor now.

Maas tends to end her books on a cliffhanger. The first three books should be read as one, almost. Although the second and third are quite long.

The books do get better as you go along. This book feels like the end of a trilogy - a planned trilogy. It wraps up nicely and has a good denouement. I was a little surprised that there is another book. Because of the nice wrap-up, and my pile of books to read already, I don't feel the need to read the fourth book right away.

For the first time, I do not feel like this story is the re-telling of another story. There are still the hints of other authors stories. Scenes and characters and arcs hit me with Laurell K. Hamilton vibes and J.R.R. Tolkien vibes and Jacquelyn Carey vibes. Perhaps most authors in a genre will have echoes of other authors, but the ones in Maas still make her work feel not-quite original even when it isn't the re-telling of a fable or myth.

I'm still unsure about recommending these books. It should not take three books to hit your stride in a series, though I've read other series that was true for as well. I'm just not sure about telling people that they need to read hundreds of pages before it gets better. I guess in general, if you like YA fantasy that moves out of YA with stories of fae and maybe don't mind re-tellings and heavy borrowing and read without critique, then these would be good.