I have to admit, I was a little late to the Sarah J. Maas party. Late last year, I was a part of an online book club and one of the books was THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Maas. I read through the five books that are out relatively quickly. Maas writes high fantasy Young Adult and Adult novels. Both series she has written are about Fae, a race of magical warriors in fictional lands.
As a result of reading that series, and seeing all of the raves about A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES (released in 2015, henceforth called ACOTAR), I decided to buy that one for my 2017 “To Be Read” shelf. It sat on my shelf for weeks before I finally picked it up. ACOTAR is the first of three books: A COURT OF MIST AND FURY (released 2016, ACOMAF) and A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN (released 2017, ACOWAR). Now that I have thoroughly confused you, let me continue. 😀
Because I jumped on the ACOTAR bandwagon late, I was able to read books one and two pretty much back to back. ACOTAR was amazing from the very beginning. The description is below:
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 over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin–and his world–forever.
Given that I already read THRONE OF GLASS (TOG), I worried that I wouldn’t like ACOTAR. I had a hard time relating to the main character in that series. She was a lot of things that I’m not. From the moment I started reading ACOTAR, I related to Feyre. One, because she’s the youngest of three children and, two, because she’s the self-sacrificing type. Feyre is a mortal woman, trying to find food for her family because her father lost their fortune. She has all of the odds stacked against her, but she’d rather be the one out there hunting, trying to find food, than letting her family starve.
So, Feyre is hunting in the woods. It’s snowing. She spots a deer. But she isn’t the only one that spots it. There’s a huge wolf nearby. For a moment, she contemplates if it’s just a wolf, or if it’s a Fae in a wolf’s disguise. This is the first introduction we have to the tension between Fae and mortals. Mortals fear the Fae. Fae have long been rumored to be these ruthless brutes.
Thinking of her family, she kills the deer. The wolf turns and looks at her. Just looks at her. Doesn’t flee or attack. She shoots him through the eye with an ash arrow (ash is hazardous to Fae; she uses it just in case). Then, she skins the wolf, takes the deer, and moves on with her life. She has a family to feed.
From there, we learn about her family dynamic. She has two sisters: Nesta (cold, selfish, not quite grateful) and Elain (warm, funny and loves to grow things). Then her father, who used to be rich, but lost his fortune, was injured, and now is unable to work. That’s why Feyre has to provide for the family. Not long after, she takes the pelt of the deer and the wolf to the market to see what kind of money she might be able to get for them. She meets an assassin there, who warns her that the pelt may not have just been an ordinary wolf.
Enter: Tamlin.
A giant wolf busts down the door to Feyre’s home, demanding to know who killed the wolf. He spouts something about the treaty between men and Fae and says a life for a life. Feyre is taken from her home and goes beyond the wall separating the world between Fae and mortal.
Sound familiar?
ACOTAR is a retelling of Beauty & the Beast (BATB). I LOVED it. I won’t give away any major plot points, because I really would like for you to read the book for yourself. Just like BATB, there is a curse that has to be broken by a girl falling in love with a beast. It goes a little beyond the normal BATB storyline, which I really liked. Overall, ACOTAR was one of the best new books I’ve read recently. Given that I was so worried about the main character not being relatable like the main character in TOG, I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I loved Feyre.
I have a couple of friends who are big fans of Sarah J. Maas. I was chatting with one of them when I finished ACOTAR. At that point, I was getting close to vacation, so I told her I would wait until my cruise to read it. I remember her asking me why the hell I wanted to wait so long. I just kept wondering what the big deal about ACOMAF was for her to be that excited for me to read it.
I read it while I was on my cruise and Oh. My. God.
In ACOTAR, a character is introduced. Rhysand. He’s dark and mysterious and cruel. He’s the High Lord of the Night Court (where Tamlin is the High Lord of the Spring Court). The way he was portrayed in ACOTAR, I figured there were some shades of gray to him. I love those types of characters. The ones that you have to dig deeper to find out the truth about. And there are lots of things you don’t know about Rhysand.
In ACOMAF, you see Feyre change. You see her go from this girl who is scared to a woman who is strong. A lot of that has to do with the two male love interests in the story. I don’t want to give anything away, so it’s really hard to write this…because I’d love to gush about the storyline, about the backstory, about the characters, about the ending. But I can’t. That wouldn’t be fair. Just know that ACOMAF is where this world is completely blown apart, and it is not what you would expect by reading ACOTAR.
I finished ACOMAF about five weeks before the third (and final, in this series) was to release on May 2, 2017. (Side note: there will be six books in this world. The first three were this particular plot arc; the next three start in 2018) My excitement for ACOWAR began to jump the closer the release date got. The more I talked about the books with my friends, I joined some fan groups, I was just really excited to see what would happen, because the ending of ACOMAF was left on a cliff hanger.
A post shared by Abbie Lynn Smith (@abbiewritesx) on May 2, 2017 at 2:32pm PDT
The book delivered to my house while I was at work on the day it came out (Thank you, Amazon Prime!). It’s been a long time since I’ve had books that I’m genuinely excited about on release day. Before this year, the last time was in 2007 when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. This year, I’ve had multiple (KING’S CAGE by Victoria Aveyard, ACOWAR, & Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare), which is exciting. I’m the type of person that I can’t just savor a new book. I read HP & DH in 8 hours on release day in 2007. Back then, I didn’t have a day job. I could spend all day reading if I wanted to.
That being said, I started reading ACOWAR around 5:30 PM on release day, and I finished it the following day at 10:00 PM. That is how good the story was.
There were things I felt it lacked, but they were very small. I wanted to see some things drawn out a little more. I love a good romance, and I felt like the romance had been set in ACOMAF. This is really Sarah J. Maas’s style of writing, so I wasn’t too mad about it. ACOWAR had everything: tantalizing romance scenes, development of characters (many were introduced before, but this book managed to explore them and the people around them) to where I felt more invested in them and their success, and high octane action sequences. I reached a point toward the end of the book where I couldn’t put it down because the action was going, going, going.
The ending was satisfying, and did not leave anything unanswered. Well. The big stuff. There were some supporting characters that didn’t have their happy ending like I wanted, but I feel like that is because they will be a part of the second trilogy. Or at least I hope so.
I don’t want to give any spoilers but there is one character that I feel was cheated. Sure, he made some bad choices, but his ending was just so…not…settled. I would have preferred this character die and sacrifice himself than to end up as he did. I loved the constant battle I felt in regard to this character. There are times when you’re like, Yes, yes! Do that. And then (I literally sent this to one of my friends) “UGHHHH F*CK….(character name)”. The ups and downs you go through are just heart wrenching. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be a part of the next trilogy and get more. I just wanted more for him.
All in all, I give this series a 5/5, and would heartily recommend anyone to read it. I’ve never been a huge Fantasy reader, but these were worth every second I spent on them, every tear I shed, and every flicker of emotion it made me feel. Maas is such a great author. She’s talented in ways that most authors are not. She knows how to draw an audience in. She knows how to keep just enough from the reader to keep them invested until the very last moment.
I loved this series! If you’re wanting to discuss more in depth (especially the second and third books), I will gladly talk with you! I just feel this story is too good to spoil for anyone who hasn’t read it.
Thanks, Abbie