A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Summary :
When nineteen-year-old
huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives
to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she
only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an
animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled
their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin
transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through
every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous
world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie
lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his
world—forever.
My review :
OHMYGOD. IAMDEAD. ICANTBREATHE. THANKGODIALREADYBOUGHTHESECONDBOOK.
Let me tell you, this book is very popular among the bookstagram community, very much beloved and now I get why. I just finished it and IT BLEW MY MIND. Now, I'm not going to lie, I sort of spoiled myself before reading it. Not because I really wanted to, but because the book is so popular I couldn't help but get spoiled. Still, I enjoyed it so much it actually surprised me, for I was on a new adult romance bang-wagon before starting it and was scared I'd have difficulty adjusting, and also, 'fantasy/magic' YA is not really my cup of tea. But once I heard the author had (very loosely) based the plot on the originial Beauty and the Beast tale, I was fucking sold.
I ordered it and once it arrived I had to put off starting it because I had too much uni work going on, and that only built up my anticipation. Once I started it I couldn't put it down. I was surprised by how much potential
the story had to turn boring (special before then go Under the
Mountain) but it never freaking was. The book ended in a flash, and
though not much happened plot-wise, the characters and story never stopped. Never, for one second, did I put the book down and went "oh not much is happening, it's getting a little boring, I'm taking a break" NE.VER.
And even though all the characters were fucking amazing, the book's success (for me at least) relies heavily on how great of a character Feyre
is. Now, I still haven't figured out how to properly saw her name, but
that doesn't make my love and respect for her any less stronger. That
girl was a perfect mix of vulnerability and strength, she was a victim
but also knew to stand up for herself and held her own. SHE IS
EVERYTHING. Most importantly, you understand her decisions and her
feelings. Which more often then not does not happen with book heroines.
They do shit, take decisions (often bad) and you don't fucking now why even though you are supposed to be in their heads. But not with Feyre,
she feels things, takes decision that even if you don't agree with it,
you understand it. And I really love that. I also really love how her
love for Tamlin
takes time to grow and how she resists and confronts him until the very
end. And how rational it was from the author not to make Feyre instantly fall for Rhysand and completely forget about Tamlin,
unlike many other heroines that find themselves in a love triangle. I
love that she loves him until the end, no matter what happens, no matter
who comes into her life. SPOILER -
She loves him, and when eventually she doesn't love him anymore, it's not
because a more handsome boy passed by or whatever, but because she doesn't feel
their love is right anymore. - END SPOILER
Now I won't go into too much detail about other characters because if I talk too much about my feeling for Tamlin I'll get too much into spoilers, which I don't want too. Same with Rhysand because I know IF I hadn't already started reading A Court Of Mist and Fury, I'd have very different feeling towards him. So I think I'll focus more on those two on the review of the second book.
But very quickly, I think Tamlin's character was extremely well thought out. He might seem boring at times but quickly catches up with Feyre.
Their dynamic is GREAT. However, I fell like the author let the
reader's interest in him dies a little in towards the end of the book,
specially after Rhysand was introduced and became very present in the story. That of course is inevitable and was needed for the plot line and the second book, blabla ... but it did render Tamlin less interesting, quite passive and boring. Oh well.
The other characters were great. Feyre's
family was extremely well portrayed and explained. And towards the
middle of the book they received their own character development which
kind of makes you change your mind about them, which I liked. Lucien, my
baby, is the light of this book. This guy is great and so humane. AMAZIIIIIING. The best lines, the best attitude, the best EVERYTHING.
I was a little disappointed by Amarantha, which is supposed to be the books (2nd) villain, after Feyre falls for Tamlin and he no longer is one. She was a very well thought out, terrifying villain. But
I feel like we saw too little of her. She was supposed to be the big
mastermind behind all the stuff that happened, but because we were
focused for most of the book on the Feyre/Tamlin plot, that left very little story time for Amarantha to appear. We hear a lot about her, but end up seeing her for just a few pages at the end of the book. I didn't mind it, because I generally prefer when the bad guy is defeated and everyone is happy, but it showed that by trying to focus of having two villains, that left not as much time for the second (Amarantha) one to develop as the first one (Tamlin) did. But she's a fucking bitch psycho so I'm glad we didn't end up with so much of her.
In all, the book was fucking
great (as I said 50 times before) I highly recommend it. I cannot wait
to see where the 2nd book's plot line focuses on and what happens with
the whole Feyre/Tamlin/Rhysand
situation (though I already have the smallest idea ...). I'm so so so
excited, I really wish for this book to get picked up and turned into a
movie or TV show, but I'm also scared they might do that and turn it into shit like they did with Shadowhunters.
I'm giving this book 5/5 stars and if there were more starts to give I would give them. This book is the kind of stuff dreams are made of. This universe is the kind you would pick to live in if someone gave you a chance to live in the universe of your book of choice. Yes Feyre is a badass, yes she is vulnerable in her own way, yes she makes bad decision, and yes she is not perfect. But this book was pretty damn perfect.
My rating : ✦✦✦✦✦
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