A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
When nineteen-year-old Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it or doom Tamlin - and his world - forever.
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The book I’ve avoided since it first came out, especially since it’s been everywhere on Instagram and TikTok, has finally pulled me in. I felt so left out from not reading this book because it felt like the entire world was reading it and so, even though in high school I swore to never read a faerie themed book again (some of the ones I’d read in the past were the worst writing/plots I’d ever experienced which turned me off the genre for good), here I am once again powering my way through a faerie world. But this time I’m actually enjoying it. Believe me, no one is more shocked than I am at this discovery. I think the thing that won everyone over with these books is that the plot is so good. It does give off a YA novel feel and the prose isn’t marvellous but I was hooked the entire time, even during the slower pace at the beginning I was curious to see where this was going and I really enjoyed it. What I never realized before was that this was a twist on Beauty and the Beast…. now reading the synopsis, I don’t know how I didn’t notice that before! I really enjoyed this story and I can’t wait to get into the rest of the series!
We start off with Feyre, her family is destitute and they survive on her efforts alone, her father is crippled, her sisters are useless, and she became the sole caretaker of her family. Through her we learn of their world, how the faeries used to rule over humans and after a war their realms were separated by a wall, unfortunately for most humans, their side of the wall is poor while the High Fae live in luxury on the other side. Feyre kills a wolf too close to the wall and there, our troubles begin. We discover this whole new world of Prythian with Feyre and see the fae in a new light, not just from the rumours and botched histories passed down through the centuries.
I really liked the main character, I think that was a key tool in winning me over. Lots of times the main character in these books is some miraculous chosen one prophesied or fated to come save the world or it’s a whiny Mary-Jane type character but Feyre had her own personality, she was strong when needed and fragile when her world falls apart. I felt her reactions to things were very realistic for someone who had lived her kind of life. My only complaint with her is that she fell in love too fast. Or at least it felt that way. The book moves over the span of months but it felt like only a few days before she was showing an interest in Tamlin. That whole dynamic just felt a bit off.
I really liked the world building, we were introduced slowly, piece by piece instead of all at once. Sometimes in fantasy novels it’s really overwhelming when you’re bombarded with names and places and creatures and histories you’ve never heard before so I liked that we discovered things about this world as the plot developed. I also really like how the fae realm was divided into seasons and daylight because faeries are very connected to nature in most mythology so I liked linking them to nature and the seasons that way. I just don’t like how massive the faerie world seems in comparison to the human world. You can’t tell me there’s that few humans in this world of Prythian. I wish we got to dig into that human realm a little further before getting whisked away in the story. The plot moved along nicely, I absolutely loved the last half of the book. There’s challenges/trials and I was worried that it would seem very unrealistic for this human girl to be able to get through them but they felt very realistically doable if you had the motivation to get through them. I was definitely on the edge of my seat in parts. And the introduction of Rhysand and his part in the chapters under the mountain were very good, I’m excited to read more about his character and the Night Court in the next book.
All in all, it was a great story. The plot is super intriguing, enough to get me excited about reading 4 more books in this series IMMEDIATELY. There are a few minor things I’d improve but I gave it 4 stars because it was pretty enjoyable all around.