'A Court of Thorns and Roses' Review

Summary

The story follows a young woman named Feyre Archeron, who is drawn into the magical world of the Fae after killing a wolf in the woods. As punishment, she is taken to the land of the faeries where she must live with Tamlin, a powerful High Fae. As Feyre navigates the complex and dangerous Fae world, she discovers dark secrets, forms unexpected alliances, and ultimately finds herself at the center of a deadly struggle that could affect both the human and faerie realms.

For the last couple of months I’ve seen this book everywhere on social media. And I truly mean everywhere. The insane hype around this series made me a little hesitant to commit, but in the end I was influenced. Unfortunately this first installment didn’t live up to the hype for me. Let me explain.

Plot

The first half of the book is mostly a romantic build up between Feyre and Tamlin and man does it drag on. As far as action goes, not much happens, and the plot doesn’t make much sense for most of the book. Tamlin takes Feyre back to his estate in the spring court as retribution because she KILLED his friend, but is given beautiful clothes, a ladies maid, delicious food, and freedom to do whatever she wants. Uh why? How in the world is that punishment? She doesn’t have to care for her ungrateful family anymore and she no longer lives in poverty. If that’s all it takes, I need someone to find me a wolf! 

In other beauty and the beast type plots we are aware of what the curse is beforehand and so it makes sense why the beast is trying to be charming and get in Belle’s good graces. But for tam tam it’s not so clear. When we finally learn about the curse,  it is literally the most random thing ever. Tamlin must fall in love with a human girl who hates faeries so much that she kills one in cold blood, and he permanently has a mask stuck to his face, and she can’t know about the curse. She of course has to reciprocate his feelings of love. So random and yet so weirdly specific.

Once Feyre goes under the mountain and Rhysand is a bigger part of the story, I was hooked! How can you not like the hot bad boy of the Night Court? He masquerades around as ruthless and evil, but you’re given glimpses into his true character, and yes, just yes.

Final Thoughts

This book is the definition of a slow burn. I appreciated the ending, but I prefer books that don’t require reaching the conclusion for everything to come together. That said, I couldn’t resist diving into the second book (because Rhysand, duh) and to say it had me in a chokehold is putting it mildly. So here is my recommendation: read A Court of Thorns and Roses, but read it fast. Because once you get to A Court of Mist and Fury the real fun begins!