A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
I typically don’t read fantasy novels, HP being my one big exception, but a friend convinced me to pick up A Court of Thorns and Roses. ACOTAR is a take on Beauty and the Beast, following the story of a human girl crossing into Fae lands. Fae means fairy, as you’ll quickly learn. Once I got over the whole “these are people-like beings with pointed ears and occasionally turn into animals” thing, I really liked the plot and ended up instantly reading the rest of the series!!
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IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK, STOP READING NOW! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Let’s start off with our main girl, Feyre. Feyre is the HBIC of her family, who I really have no respect for after meeting them. They do nothing for her, and when her life is threatened, they barely blink an eye?? Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but come onnnn. I get that heroes need a tragic backstory in some cases, but in Beauty and the Beast, Belle’s dad treated her well. Why was this necessary? To give Feyre depth?
I’m not going to lie, the whole “Fae” thing took a while for me to get past, especially when the glamours are lifted and Feyre sees the Spring Court in its entirety. I was encouraged to keep reading even if it’s weird, and so I did. I have since given this advice to many other friends who were looking for a good book series, and will give it to you as well. I had one friend who just couldn’t get her head around it and never finished the book, so I get if the fantasy thing just isn’t for you. It’s normally not for me, either! I should probably mention that in addition to Fae, there is *spice* in this, too.
Let’s jump ahead to the whole “Tamlin was taken Under The Mountain because you never said you loved him!!!” bit. I’m aware there needed to be a reason to get Feyre UTM, but could they not have communicated better and avoided this whole thing??? This is the first time Tamlin became semi-problematic in my eyes.
He becomes MORE problematic when he does virtually nothing to help poor little Feyre, and when he gets a moment with her, he tries to jump her??? Not rescue her?? Come on! But he got caught up in the moment, a friend told me. Yeah, no. I don’t like it.
The tasks are pretty intriguing to me. Made me happy to see Lucien helping Feyre out UTM like he did with the Suriel way back at the Spring Court! Also was interesting to see Rhysand (googled and this is a Welsh name pronounced Reese-and, so Rhys is “Reese”) enter into an agreement with Feyre. This pretty much set up the storyline for the second book, and I saw it from that scene with the tattoo appearing on her hand onward, but was convinced during their interaction at the end when Amarantha is dead and they’re standing outside together.
The book ends when everything *should* be going perfectly well – everyone is freed, Red Haired Crazy is dead, Tamlin and Feyre found love, yadah yadah, but we get the sense that it’s *not*. I instantly downloaded the second book on Kindle after finishing because I had to know what came next!!
Roses
- intriguing and unique take on a classic story
- I like Feyre’s character a lot
- suspenseful and kept me up til 3 reading
- ngl it gets kinda hot
Thorns
- the “fae” thing
- some lines during heated moments made me cringe
- Tamlin is a tool (my friend calls him Tampon LOL)
Overall, 4/5 stars for me.
ACOTAR
1: A Court of Thorns and Roses
