A Court of Thorns and Roses series | Review

Do not think that I wouldn't become a monster to keep them protected. 

SYNOPSIS: 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 jeweled 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.

This fantastic, enthralling book series by Sarah J Mass has so many incredible action scenes and such a well-written romance. The book is filled with so many emotions and such good characters and how much pain they felt. It has so many gut-wrenching and jaw-dropping moments along with the sweetest and most romantic of scenes. I felt such strong emotions while reading this book. I am going to make this review as spoiler-free as possible.

I know at this time I am supposed to do A Court of Silver Flames review, and I have read that book, but I have to get my feelings about this series off before I get into A Court of Silver Flames. I will be doing an ACOSF review too soon! 

The whole book series is in the first-person perspective from Feyre's POV. The first book is kind of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, whereas the second book was loosely a retelling of Hades and Peroshphene's love story. The series has the whole "Enemies to Lovers," "Mate-bond thing," and "There is only one-bed" tropes. This book also has the typical SJM "personality reversal of the characters" thing too. 

 Feyre's a mortal girl who lives in an impoverished household, and she had to hunt in the forest near her village for her family to survive. But she kills a fey wolf and is dragged into the world of faeries and high-lords who rule their courts behind the Wall that separates the mortal realm and Faerie realm. To save the guy she loves, she has to go through a series of trials to break the curse on all of the high-lords, and in-process goes through many changes both physically and mentally. 

In the second book,  Feyre is going through a lot of emotional trauma after the first book's events. She's in a horrible place and gets to the point where she breaks. Rhys saves her, but then there's this Hybern people who are causing real trouble, and well Feyre and Rhysand, along with Rhy's inner circle, try to stop him, but SJM pulled the "love one character in the first book but hate them in the second" at the end, and everything goes wrong. The third book is basically collecting information and gathering Allies, and going to war. 

Although the book was lacking character diversity, this book series has so many plot twists and a few moments in this book felt like someone took my heart out of my chest and punched it rapidly, and then ran a car over it. It's a gruesome analogy, I know, but that's how I felt reading some scenes. This entire series had so much Hype on Bookstagram, and I had to read, and I can gladly say this series stood up to its hype. The series consist of 3 books, A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, and A Court of Wings and Ruin. My favorite book in the entire series was definitely A Court of Mist and Fury, and I feel like most of the people who have read this book would definitely agree with A Court of Mist and Fury being the best. 

Prythian was described so beautifully, and as much as I want to visit the Summer court or the Dawn court, they aren't my favorite. For the first time when I read about the City of Starlight, Velaris, my heart belonged to that place. Sarah J Mass did an awe-inspiring job writing and detailing Velaris and developing the personality and backstory of each character individually.

 The entire Inner circle's playful banter and talks filled me with so much happiness while reading A Court of Mist and Fury. Each character's personality and the backstory are just as bad and just as hard as every character. I loved getting to know about the whole inner circle, and I loved the Inner Circle so much. It was so wholesome to watch The Inner Circle having dinner together and just laughing together after all the crap they went through. 

If we take each character individually, I think Mor is a bit toxic. I mean, I love her friendship with Feyre and the rest of the Inner-Circle, and what she's been through is tough, but she did some other things, which are absolute crap. She strung Azriel along for more than 4 centuries just because she was too afraid to tell him, and she also didn't give us the complete truth of what happened with Eris, and hence I feel like I cannot entirely blame him. 

Amren is a 5000-year-old Bloodhound and is someone I absolutely and worship entirely. She is such a strong character, and the fact that even the scariest Highlord's best threat was to lock the person with Amren in a room. I love strong female leads, and even though Amren wasn't a lead, I absolutely adore that little fireball. 

Cassian and Azriel are such good people even though they are supposed to be scary Illaryian-Warriors. Both of them went through such horrible pasts and still managed to remain sane and good at the same time while being goofy and fun. Azriel is the Shadowsinger and the spymaster, while Cassian is the General of the Illaryian Army. Both of them had such horrifying backstory, and I was kind of crying when Azriel's story was told. I also don't wanna spoil much, but how Azriel, Cassian, and Rhys hated each other the first time they all met and then became inseparable because someone stopped from hanging out together because they were dangerous. A Court of Silver Flames is about Cassian and Nesta, and I hope the next book we get will be about Azriel because the guy deserves his happy ending. 

Let's talk about Rhysand, my favorite character. I've reached a whole new level of standard in men that I know I would not find because of this faerie male. He is so perfect yet imperfect. He might come across as a jerk in the first book, but in ACOMAF, we see the real Rhys, and I adore it. He still has his smugness, but we start to see his real actions. 

The respect he gives Feyre and the entire Inner Circle and even the rest of High-Lords, even after being the most potent High-Lord, is just praise-worthy. I have never, in real life or in books, seen a guy who offers this much respect to his partner. Even though Rhys wanted to rip Tamlin apart piece by piece during Feyre and Tamlin's wedding, he had enough respect for Feyre to not interrupt, and he would have let her be happy with someone else if it meant that she would be happy. He always let Feyre decide, and he never over-ruled her decision. He also has some kind of self-sacrificing thing going on that I absolutely hate and love at the same time. 

Feyre was a strong female lead, and I adored her for that. She was so strong when she went Under The Mountain for Tamlin, and I loved her when she went through the "I am the most important phase," but SJM also showed in the book that all strong females cannot always be strong and when she broke was one of the hardest scenes for me to read through. The book was written from first person Feyre's point of view, so reading through the part of what she went through and the way she broke was so heart aching. When I heard about ACOSF, I thought SJM would finally give Feysand a calm ending, but no, when am I ever granted a wish in a book. 

The people that haven't read the A Court of Thorns and Roses series are seriously missing out. I fell in love with this series at the end of the first book, and after completing the series and reading A Court of Silver Flames, I am going to be an SJM fan for a long time. I still have to read the Throne of Glass series, but I will get to them definitely soon.