A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s actions and learn what she can about the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit. One slip could bring doom not only for Feyre, but for everything - and everyone - she holds dear. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre endeavours to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land, balancing her struggle to master her powers - both magical and political - and her love for her court and family. Amidst these struggles, Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords, and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

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The third book in the ACOTAR series was amaaaaaazing. I always get worried when we finally get to the book in the series that has all the action and angst the other books have slowly been building up to. There’s just so much pressure for it to be good and so many ways it can disappoint you. I was very surprised and pleased with how this one turned out. We got action packed plot without losing character development, the action scenes were very detailed and thrilling (I absolutely LOVE when you can be so immersed in the action that it’s almost more vivid than seeing it on screen), and the angst and twists just kept on coming. I had a really fun time reading this book, shed a few tears (that ENDING though….), and, against my better judgement, am now very excited to read Nesta’s story (even though I still kind of hate her, she has my respect now).

We start with Feyre at the Spring Court slowly finding little ways to undermine Tamlin and destroy his courts trust in him for revenge on what was done to her family in the last book. It was a slow start but eventually picked up pace and throughout the next 600 pages we got to visit almost all the courts, participate in a few political alliances, fight in three battles, and try and save Prythian with Feyre and her group of friends. We transition from a revenge story into one of love and trust and healing as Feyre tries to mend things that have happened with her family and as we slowly get comfortable back in the Night Court, the attacks start happening and we’re plunged into action for the remainder of the book. I loved the introduction of the “old” powers that existed in Prythian before the time of the High Fae, I think this will become much more of a focus in further books. The depth to which we dug more into the history of this magical world and how things came to be so strained between the courts and the human realm was really interesting to see and built up this world so intricately that I have no doubt Maas can write about 20 more books and not run out of material here.

There was a lot to unpack in this one but I loved most of it. My favourite thing in this entire book was the pacing, it was just so on point, we had slow moments for growth and development so it wasn’t just action action action but it was also a fast (believable) pace. I couldn’t put it down because something amazing was happening in every chapter and within the timeline of the book itself the pace at which the conflict progressed was perfect. I loved the early conflicts with Hybern, I’m glad it wasn’t just right at the end that we got clashes, having small battles and losses throughout really made it more realistic. My absolute favourite part was the battle at the Summer Court.

I also really loved the fluctuating relationships in this. Feyre and Rhysand, of course, remain a united front but it was nice to see that even their perfect “Inner Circle” could have their trust issues. Having that internal conflict was great. Mor’s mistrust and harmful actions were so confusing in past books but seeing the dynamic between the whole group when they’re fighting helped explain a lot behind why she reacts the way she does. I loved delving more into Amren’s character as well and her role in keeping the group together. I also really liked seeing more of the dynamic between Feyre and her sisters. Nesta is so hot and cold, she seems to not care for Feyre at all yet is overprotective of Elain but in small moments she shows that crack in the ice wall with her concern for her other sister which is nice to see. I think it gave us a lot of insight into what a complex character Nesta is. I still loathe how she treats her sister (I couldn’t imagine my own older sister treating me that way) but I’m a little more willing now to give her a chance at redemption. I loved Elain as well, I don’t understand the hate for her. She’s not an “obstacle” or “in the way” in my opinion. She’s complicated as well. I feel like she’s always been happy a bubbly and supportive as a defence mechanism against the travesty that has been her life and when she was finally going to get the happy ending she always dreamed of it’s been ripped from her. She grieves in her own way, I don’t think her not being vengeful makes her an awful character. Sometimes people keep their true selves/reactions/emotions more hidden. I’m excited to see more into what makes her character tick.

The only thing I wasn’t a huge fan of in this book was the lack of conflict with the human realm. I lot of the worries and obstacles in this war is directly related to the poor relationship between humans and the High Fae. We even get some insight into how/why the Wall was created and what it was truly meant for and that it was not just a divider of worlds. Yet we barely dig into that. We don’t know what’s happening with the human queens across the sea, we don’t know what the response is from a majority of the human realm of Prythian and we barely get appearances from the human army either or what convinced them to join this war and defend their people. I know this was probably left somewhat open-ended for future books but in this being “the big one” it felt like we could have used more explanation into how we got where we did in those final chapters.

All in all, it was a great read, I still like ACOMAF the best but this one came in a close second. I laughed, I cried, the descriptions were so visual that the whole experience was magic. I rated this 5 stars because I found it highly enjoyable.