A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
Nesta Archeron has always been prickly - proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.
The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only things Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and it only burns hotter as they are forced to work closely together.
Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.
Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance - and healing - in each other’s arms.
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This lastest book in Maas’ epic world of Prythian was a doozy. Not only in emotion but in the fact that it was 750 pages. This book follows Nesta, one of Feyre’s (our previous main character in the last three books) sisters. Nesta is the most hated of the three Archeron girls as her words are like acid and her looks can kill. She’s always had a wall around her heart and her emotions, surviving a traumatic war and transformation has not helped Nesta in her ability to connect with others. In fact, it’s made her behaviour much worse. This book follows the story of her recovery and her journey to “self-actualization”. I’m not going to lie, I was not at all excited to read this one. I loathed Nesta almost more than any other character in literature I’ve ever met. Somehow, this book managed to do the impossible and got me to like a character I used to hate. The mental health representation in this book was so well done, Maas explored different traumas and different ways people cope with said trauma. It was nice to see such an in depth look into the struggles people face after traumatic events. Usually in novels we skip over any form of PTSD and pretend our resilient characters aren’t phased by anything. This was a surprisingly enjoyable and relatable read.
This entire book is told between alternating characters points of view which is a major change from the previous books as we read them in a single character narrative. In this one we jump between Cassian and Nesta which I really enjoyed because we got to see how they view one another as opposed to assumptions typically made from only reading one side of the story. We start off with Nesta’s lifestyle going off the rails, Rhys and Feyre cut her off and punish her by sending her to the House of Wind to train with Cassian and work in the library below. I found it strange the parental role they played in this as Nesta is an adult that can make her own decisions. I get it was from a place of wanting to help, and I totally understand cutting her off. But forcing her to move somewhere else seemed a bit much. So it was a strange start to the book.
As interesting as this different take on the series was, I didn’t enjoy reading about other characters from Nesta’s point of view as she hates everyone so these characters that I loved are now seen from a hateful viewpoint and it make it hard to reconcile to who I thought I knew in the last books. It made me resent Nesta even more and this in turn made it take longer for her to win me over. As we continue through the story however, I really admired her for her strength and resilience and loved how the training really brought out a way for her to work out her emotions. My biggest complaints were that this book took a very long time to show a likeable human part of Nesta, because of this I didn’t want to pick up this book each time I put it down so it took longer to read, and the pace was very slow. It was mainly a journey through healing but the action at the end reminded me why I NEED action in SJM books.
There were, however, things that I absolutely loved about this story. Nesta and Cassian’s relationship was so resilient. Even when they were pushing each other away, it was out of love and a need to free each other for “someone better”. I loved how dedicated they were to protecting each other. I also really loved how powerful Nesta is shown to be, and how supportive Cassian is of that fact. He knows for a fact that she can protect herself and not once does he doubt she can get herself out of precarious situations. Even when he wants to swoop in and help her, he respects that she needs to save herself. I also really really loved the growing friendships in this. Gwyn and Emerie were both such interesting characters and having them grow through their own trauma along with Nesta and push each other to reach their full potential really helped cement that friends to family bond which is one of my favourite tropes in novels. I can’t wait to read more about those two characters in further books.
Against my better judgement, I related a lot to Nesta by the end and I can’t believe I used to hate her. Her and Cassian aren’t my favourite couple, I still love Rhys and Feyre, however, their story was beautiful and it needed to be told in order for us to move forward in this series. We needed to learn what drives Nesta and understand the nature of her and Cassian’s relationship or else they would have made zero sense going forward.
All in all, a good read, not my favourite in the series but a great set up for the next few books and some major events coming up. I gave this one 3.5 stars.
p.s. I am expecting a Feysand POV novella of what they went through in this book and I’ll expect nothing less. I’m also SO TORN over what those bonus chapters mean! I was completely for Elain for such a long time but now I’m convinced I’ve been wrong all along….. What are your thoughts??