Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Release Date: 2015-2018
by, Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever. {Goodreads}
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever. {Goodreads}
Man, oh man. I fell for this series hard.
Ever since Julie Kagawa's Iron Fae Series, I have had a certain soft spot for fae oriented books. They're just magical! Especially when done right. I will admit, it is also because of Kagawa's series that I'm kind of picky when it comes to fae books. Those that tell the tale of small beautiful little pixies that are light and fluffy and just cute as a button...I can't do. Now, those that tell the tale a little closer to Shakespear's A Midnight Summer's Night Dream, where the fae are not so nice but mighty, powerful creatures who are to be feared and will take your first born child...that's more my cup of tea.
Now, there are some things that Maas strays away from like: faeries can lie, iron does not effect them, and there are lot more courts. Like, a LOT more. Normally its Unseelie and Seelie courts (winter and summer with the occasional spring and autumn courts too). In this world there are also what Maas calls Solar Courts (day, night, and dawn) which really I had no problem with it was just, new. I loved it! Sometimes fae books can be too repetitive and changing it up, getting a little creative with it, that never ever hurts. Honestly, this book is really what threw me back into a series of reading none stop and even kind of encouraged me to start up blogging and writing again!
I had started to read Maas' Assassins series when they came out and I'm pretty sure I own all of them I just stopped around book 2. I can't necessarily say it was because they bored me I think it was just around the time where everything became too much for me. That being sad, Maas created a series in which I NEVER wanted to put them down. I devoured these books. Her characters are superb....well, some of them. Her ability to tell a tale about an old world and create it anew was remarkable! Her attention to detail without going on in a way that leaves us all snoozing was appreciated and well acknowledged by me. Annnnnd....
She gave me another boy to constantly swoon over. Well, she kind of gave me three.
I know there was some controversy over these books in the fact of the second book.
Stop now. There are spoilers ahead.
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Tamlin. The change of character from him was kind of whiplash. I liked him I admit but I never loved him. Rhys on the other hand I can say intrigued me from Feyre and his briefest of meetings in the first book. Back to Tamlin, he turns possessive and essentially abusive. Again, I didn't love him but seeing it turn that way so fast was shocking. I kind of felt bad as I knew he had just really loved her but it does address that line between love and obsession and that love should never be an obsession. I just really didn't see it coming.
Lucien. Lucien really hurt me. Like, yeah he wasn't the greatest but he also was fae. Coe on people, they aren't the sweet and innocent fairies we all have been trained to think about and I think thats really what you have to keep in the back of your mind throughout this series. Fae are conniving creatures. They are not innocent. They are ruthless and they are powerful. They are a different race so they're way of feeling love and expressing it isn't going to be the way we think of naturally. Anyways, back to Lucien. Yeah, he wasn't the best but I feel like he trully was a friend of Feyre's and when he essentially turned evil or well made out to be worse, I was hurt. I liked him and hated that he was ever pictured differently.
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RESUME!
It's kind of hard to write a review over a series but I read way to fast through these to individually review them.
In summary:
Book 1: Read it. It is a little slow and harder at points to get through but about 3/4 of the way in and you won't be wanting to put it down. Everything that's been building up comes together and its fantastic. Its terrible in the best of ways and you will want the second one at your bed side so you can immediately keep going.
Book 2: Oh. My. Gosh. I died. This book...it killed me. Every time I had to put it down because I had to go to work or had some adulting responsibility I cried a bit in side. It had me wanting to read at all the red lights (don't read and drive kids) I didn't! But I wanted to because every second away killed me. This book is forever one of my favorite books. I will carry it with me through old age. There were times I had to re-read pages, lines, paragraphs over and over because they just filled me with so much emotion. After finishing it I went back and re-read those all over again. You need this. You need this bad.
The character development in it was probably my favorite thing here. Mor, Cassian, Azriel, Amren, even Feyre. I loved Feyre but in the beginning I sort of hated her. She gave off way too much of a Bella Swan vibe that I was definitely not digging. I kept wanting to slap her and pick her up and tell her she could do this. And then she snapped and I was loving her all over again. She's kick ass, independent and everything you want in a heroine. She goes on a journey you can affiliate with (maybe not directly for all but in some aspects) and respect.
Book 3: My god. My...god. Ah, it has been a long while since I've read something so wonderful. Maas is a wonderful story teller. Her character development is astounding. With creating an entirely new world, or in this case putting a spin on an old world tale (the fae) comes a lot of characters. It is not one like contemporary novels where you can get away with a main character, a love interest, some family and some friends. To make a world believable, one needs many characters that thicken the plot and draw you in deeper. That being said, some books like this end up either 1. creating too many characters or 2. creating many characters that bleed into each other, unidentifiable and have you stopping, asking yourself "who is this again" and having to backtrack to clear things up. This is not a problem for Maas. She is exceptional in this art. Every character is unique and they aren't 2 dimensional. She creates realistic characters. As realistic as you can get for being fae...you're never going to get human characters if they are ethereal beings.
This one was so long. But highly worth it. Sometimes you get a long "final book" and it has just dragged on or you get a long final book and it could have been two books. This I feel was perfect. Two books had been leading up to the end and it wasn't rushed, or prolonged. It was fantastically seen through.
I could go on forever about this series. I loved it. It is now sitting on my most coveted book shelf--my "need in order to breath" book shelves. The characters I think are really what had me in love so much with this series. I think I hated every single character at some point in time and then found love for every single one as well. She had me all over the place but in the best way possible. In short, its an excellent series. I want it for the rest of my life.
I have only one negative/warning if you want to read this series. It's not for kids. Honestly I'm not sure I would recommend it for anyone younger than 18. At points I felt I was reading erotica. It was sexy and exciting but it could be a bit much for younger peeps.
That is all I have to say about it in a "negative" tone. Other than that. Go. Go run to the store right now and get this series if you haven't quite yet.
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