Feyre is a huntress. The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at a steep price, and Feyre has just killed the wrong wolf ...
Follow Feyre's journey into the dangerous, alluring world of the Fae, where she will lose her heart, face her demons and learn what she is truly capable of.
This four-ebook bundle of the #1 New York Times bestselling series by Sarah J. Maas includes A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin and the companion tale A Court of Frost and Starlight.
Review of 'Court of Thorns and Roses / A Court of Mist and Fury / A Court of Wings and Ruin / A Court of Frost and Starlight' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Rereading this book a few years later, aiming for a self-care weekend. What was I thinking, giving this book five stars? It's insipid and while I do remember the story radical changing, I don't see slogging through this first book to get there.
Review of 'Court of Thorns and Roses / A Court of Mist and Fury / A Court of Wings and Ruin / A Court of Frost and Starlight' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Much better than the first book in the series! A friend said I had to read it & I'm glad I did. Still not amazing, the protagonist wrings hands & pukes for about half the book & that's a bit dull, but there's some really fun sexy bits almost at the end which are a good reward for your attention. In the end not-like-other-girls becomes even more of a Fairy-Sue which is a little tedious to be honest. Everyone is beautiful & powerful & so very squeaky clean.
Review of 'Court of Thorns and Roses / A Court of Mist and Fury / A Court of Wings and Ruin / A Court of Frost and Starlight' on 'Goodreads'
No rating
It's fine. Mild. Average. A bit juvenile & slow. I read to the end but don't see myself picking up any more of the series. There's just no commitment - if you're going to write MarySue Does Fairyland, then get amongst it with the porn or romance - but there's about as much heat between the two leads as a solar-powered calculator. You want to do a retelling of Beauty & the Beast, then maybe put a Beast in? Or a Beauty? One of them at very least. Intrigue? Nah. Twisty fairy tale? Also no, there's a bigger twist & more difficult riddle to solve in The Monster at the End of This Book.
Also. The theme? The thorns & the roses? Mentions of thorns: 1. Mentions of roses: 1. It felt quite tacked-on at the last minute. Could have called the book anything else to have made more sense.
Review of 'Court of Thorns and Roses / A Court of Mist and Fury / A Court of Wings and Ruin / A Court of Frost and Starlight' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Tricky, reviewing this book. There were lots of ups and downs for me.
From the first paragraph, I got the impression that this wasn't going to be as good as the first one. It starts out with Feyre vomiting in the toilet. My first thought was, "Oh, they've got indoor plumbing in this world? That's strange."
And indeed it was strange, but I got past it. It's a fantasy world, yes, but that doesn't mean it has to conform to the default medieval style of most fantasy worlds...
At least, I THOUGHT I'd gotten past it... but I still cringed every time somebody opened a tap. To help it feel a bit more fantasy-like, the room these toilets, sinks, and baths are in is called the "bathing room", but I think if it's going to look like a modern bathroom, just call it a bathroom.
Then there's what our heroine …
Tricky, reviewing this book. There were lots of ups and downs for me.
From the first paragraph, I got the impression that this wasn't going to be as good as the first one. It starts out with Feyre vomiting in the toilet. My first thought was, "Oh, they've got indoor plumbing in this world? That's strange."
And indeed it was strange, but I got past it. It's a fantasy world, yes, but that doesn't mean it has to conform to the default medieval style of most fantasy worlds...
At least, I THOUGHT I'd gotten past it... but I still cringed every time somebody opened a tap. To help it feel a bit more fantasy-like, the room these toilets, sinks, and baths are in is called the "bathing room", but I think if it's going to look like a modern bathroom, just call it a bathroom.
Then there's what our heroine was doing in the toilet in that first paragraph: vomiting. Yes, there's lots of vomiting happening in this book, as well as "vomiting my/his/her guts out". It just doesn't seem like a word/phrase that would be used in the time period in which this book appears to be set.
The characters wear sweaters, too. Did they have sweaters back then? Tunics, yes. Woolen overshirts, yes. But sweaters? I think not.
There are other examples, but okay, enough hating on the language. I believe I mentioned that in my review for the last book in the series, too. It's not right, it destroys the verisimilitude, and it rips me out of the world every time I see it. Enough said. Moving on.
There's a lot more introspection in this book than in the first one, and it doesn't really paint a consistent picture of who Feyre is. Sometimes she seems like a spoilt child, other times she comes across as a tough-as-nails warrior, only to be the spoilt child again a scene or two later. There's character growth, but for no apparent reason, there's also regression.
The first book was clearly young-adult. One thing this series has going for it IS the growth and general maturation of the characters from book to book. In the previous installment, Feyre was very much a child. In this one, she's well and truly an adult, and the things she goes through and the decisions she has to make reflect that. Kudos to the author for achieving that.
Having said all of the above, the overall story is still something I enjoyed, as a fantasy fan. Enough to want to pick up the next book in the series. Which I most certainly will be doing.
