A Court of Thorns and Roses & A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas

Book Review on A Court of Thorns and Roses & A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

An Overly Honest and Unnecessarily Dramatic Book Review by Strawberry

I personally love not “being like other girls” and avoiding currently popular books, but I can admit I fall for it quite frequently. Yes, I fell for The Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy a few years ago, and YES, I gave the first book (and only the first) five stars. SUE ME. But, when everyone in your life tells you how good a specific series is, you can’t help but feel a bit peer pressured to pick it up. Or when your college self has an unhealthy obsession with hockey guys. 

This review is only about the first two installments in the series, as I am currently waiting for the Kindle version of A Court of Wings and Ruin along with 800 other people from the library. I’m going to start with my brief of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the showstopping first book of the series. Now, to preface, I’m not a fantasy reader in the slightest. I love to read fluffy books where two characters usually end up crying together at the end because they love each other so much (honestly, if you don’t look at your partner and cry a bit because of how lucky you feel, you’re doing it wrong.) Point being, I’m an emotional woman. Take that in as you read on.

I feel that I don’t need to go too in depth with the premise of the book, but it’s basically a “helpless” 19 year old girl getting “saved” by a “beast” from poverty and ruin in a dystopian world. This girl then blames herself for thinking she caused the end of the world, and the “beast” does NOTHING to protect her from getting murdered by an evil leader. She then is an absolute BADASS and saves the world, ending a curse, and doing it all by herself. Maybe a little bit of help from a friend who becomes more important in the second installment. At the end of it all, I interpreted this book as the ultimate women empowerment story. 

Tamlin, the “beast” I referred to above, is High Lord of the Spring Court. He seems gentle enough with Feyre (yes, the girl), but it becomes clear who he really is in the last half. Feyre was held captive, and the evil leader (Amarantha) was using Tamlin to torture her. She believed he was under a spell, thinking he had no idea who she was due to it, but she quickly realized he wasn’t. He would simply SIT THERE AND WATCH, with NO emotion on his face, while Amarantha would crack her bones in half. And if you need further evidence that Tamlin is a shitty person, he had a moment alone with her to maybe ask if she was okay, or simply check in on her; and you know what this piece of shit does? Starts taking off her clothes immediately. There were no words exchanged in this interaction. 

Since I didn’t have the second book to provide context with, I wrote these problems off as bad writing. I truly thought I’d have to deal with her loving Tamlin for 600 more pages and I’d just have to deal with it. I kept asking myself, “How could this strong independent woman love this man with what he has given her?!?!” Thank god, that wasn’t the case. I kept looking for that mushy gushy love happening hand in hand with the war stuff, but after finishing the first, I wasn’t completely hooked on the series and convinced on the romance.

I think here is where we can naturally drift to the second installment, A Court of Mist and Fury. First off, significantly better than the first. By a long shot. Not only did we get to meet more fun characters, we got to see Feyre heal in real time. We got to see her fall in love, for real. And we got to know Rhysand, the one she was meant for. If you remember me mentioning Feyre’s “friend” who helped her while she was in captivity, that is the wonderful man known as Rhys, who is High Lord of the Night Court. We get to know him a bit in the first book, but he becomes a main character in the second. We get to see their relationship develop and grow, and near the end we learn they are soulmates. The plot of the book is based around another war happening, and at the end we see that Feyre is going back to the Spring Court to spy on Tamlin and his crew to relay information back to Rhys and the inner circle. It’s pretty exciting stuff. 

As I stated earlier, I wrote the awful romance development off to bad writing. I finished the first book and had no interest in continuing, simply because I thought Tamlin was the end all, and I couldn’t stand him. I gave it a shot anyways as I’ve heard it's the best, and I'm honestly glad I did! Not only did Maas’ writing style improve, I got to see a real romance blossom, a real woman having real feelings, and more of the world this takes place in. The characters were a delight, the chemistry was there, and it was just so entertaining! 

The first book didn’t have much action until a little more than halfway through, and the first half was a snore fest. I admit, I didn’t get why it was so boring to me right after I finished it. I don’t think it helped either that I’m not usually a fantasy reader, so I wasn’t absolutely enamored by it. But now I see that it was meant to build up the books after it, and that was its only purpose. It was purposeful that Feyre didn’t have much character development, and that the romance lacked any type of passionate connection. It makes SENSE why we didn’t see the rest of the world, or meet many characters; because each book will have its moment!

I know I’ve only read two, but the first had its purpose to set up the series, the second to show more of the world and Feyre’s character development, and just basing off premise, the third to explore more of her badass tendencies AND her and Rhys’ relationship. I don’t feel the need to spoil any of the other books yet, so let’s just hope my theory here is right.

Overall, reflecting on it and having time to process what I read, I appreciate these first two books a lot more. They were really fun reads, and comprehensive enough to not just be labeled as smut. Of course there is that aspect too, but in my opinion, it's really not a main focus. So, to conclude, do I really think these deserve all the hype? I’m afraid to say it, but I do. Again, I can’t come to a wholehearted opinion because I haven’t read the whole series, but as for these two, they are winners. If you were thinking about giving in and trying them out, I’d say go for it. 

See you all back here when I write about the next two!

---

Work Cited

Sarah J, Maas. A Court of Thorns and Roses. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. 

Sarah J, Maas. A Court of Mist and Fury. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.