Rating: ★★★★☆
Recommended: Yes, with restrictions
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult
Add it to your TBR: Goodreads, Skoob
I have decided to review the three books in one post instead of each one separately, but you can avoid any spoilers by skipping the paragraphs of books you haven’t read yet and go directly to the spoiler-free Verdict!
A Court of Thorns and Roses is a series that tells the story of Feyre, a huntress. One day she kills a wolf to bring home its prey, and it changes her life forever. The life of the magical creature she killed must be payed with her own – and she is imprisoned for life in the land of fairies, which she loathes and fears. But they aren’t as she imagined them to be, and little by little she discovers there are many lies and only a little truth to the tales she heard since she was a child…
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Book #1 A Court of Thorns and Roses: A Court of Thorns and Roses was a deliciously addictive read! I absolutely loved the world crafting and the writing was magical and lush, but not excessively so. I thought this was a young adult novel, but I was wrong – it’s definitely New Adult! Most of the book is dedicated to the slow-burn romance with lots of tension that I actually enjoyed a lot, but I do wish it’d been kept shorter, as the last 50-70 pages are really damn good and a solid 5 stars from me. I loved the dark, twisted tale and I hope the next books will have more adventure, action, magic and trickery! I loved the characters and the fairy-tale feeling of it, this dark fantasy story became very quickly a favorite for me.
That being said, I don’t think this book is for everyone, as the male love interest is very domineering and the romance can be easily seen as a Stockholm syndrome situation (much like The Beauty and The Beast, which inspires this book). For me it read like a guilty-pleasure book, but I would refrain from recommending it to younger people!
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Book #2 A Court of Mist and Fury: GODDAMN. I am hooked. This book felt longer than it needed to be, there was lots of exploring the background stories of characters, which felt at times too long and info-dumpy, specially because at the time I didn’t particularly care for those characters so much. But oh my god, this book is so addictive I read it until 4am and had to refrain myself from finishing it by 6am. The last 100 pages completely blew my mind and I am completely in love. Much like the first, this second book continues its dark tone, and the romance is so good I completely forgive the things that upset me on the first book. I also loved that it showed Feyre’s depression and PTSD in such a realistic way.
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Book #3 A Court of Wings and Ruin: Funnily enough, I loved the beginning of the book more than the rest of it! ACOMAF leaves us with Feyre going with Tamlin back to the Spring Court, and I could just not wait to see what revenge she would come up with. I love the development of Feyre’s powers, her role as High Lady and her relationship with Rhys. The political intrigue throughout was very fascinating to read, but it felt at times that the book got lots going on and didn’t develop on each topic enough. I still loved it so much and it was very entertaining a read.
Verdict: I’m in love with this dark fantasy series. It’s heavy on the romance side, and I loved it. The world building is so lush and gorgeous, the characters are complex, strong and powerful. It was incredibly easy to immerse right into the world. I simply had to binge-read this series. I recommend it if you don’t mind goriness and darker themes in general (check the trigger warnings below). Otherwise, this series will grab your heart with its long, twisted fingers and not let go.
Trigger warnings: sexual assault, sexual themes, goriness, murder, torture, depression, abusive relationships.
Nice reviews Naty! I liked the 2nd book the best out of the three but the first one is a close second. The last book was good for me I just had a problem with all the buildup to the war and the actual war only being about 50 pages or so. It felt so underwhelming for me. I also went into it thinking it was the last book in the trilogy cause that’s what Mass originally stated but now it’s being continued for at least another 3 books I believe. We’ll see what happens in the future eh?!
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Yes, exactly!! I’m wondering about this new 3 books… will it be with Feyre, Rhys etc or another set of characters but in the same universe?
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I would absolutely love a Nesta and Cassian story! It also wouldn’t hurt if she went further in detail about that father/son reveal at the end there.
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Yes!! So many things. I want to see how the Lucien/Elain situation will go, and I would have loved to see more of Luciaen’s adventure… and so much more!! The Nesta/Cassian story would be so good to read!
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Great post! Naty! And I loooove this style💖📚✨yoour reviews are concise. And to the point and its emotional! Wth beautiful photos… Great read!!
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Thank you so much, Noriko!! ❤ ❤
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thanks for the spoiler warnings. i had to skip the whole post 😀 😀 😀
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Oops hahaha
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haha no worries, i will come back once i have read them 🤗
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I hope you like it so we can swoon together!! 😀
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i’m definitely excited 😂
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ACOMAF is totally my favorite of the three books. After that gloriousness, I actually felt like ACOWAR was a tiny bit disappointing.
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Yes, ACOMAF is definitely the best of the three! ❤
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I didn’t enjoy the first book as much as I’d like tbh, but I’ll give ACOMAF a chance since everyone says is so much better! 😃
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It is! But it depends I suppose on why you didn’t like the first book… but ACOMAF surely is much better.
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I hated the romance/sex scenes xD
And I didn’t really connect with any of the characters.
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Then I’m really not sure that ACOMAF is for you… the romance in it is different and I liked it SO MUCH more (far less problematic), but if you generally don’t like sex scenes or romance, then maybe not…
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I’m okay with romance and sex scenes generally, just not the ones in ACOTAR 😂 I found them really cringy and like the author was trying to make them super sexy but they just sounded silly to me.
I’ll give it a try someday and if I feel the same way, I’ll give up on this series 😅
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That’s quite fair! No point in reading something you’re not interested in!
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Really glad you enjoyed this series- it is really addictive!! And I had to stay up late to finish ACOMAF too! Great reviews!
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LOVE this series as well! I totally agree with you on book 1, book 2 is my favorite of the series I think it’s the best written. It totally made me forgive Rhys’ sketchy behavior in book 1 (but I still think she could have done a better job of explaining his actions cause the drugging is still an issue with me). But I’m so glad you liked it! You’re totally right I wouldn’t recommend it for younger audiences either.
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I think the drugging thing is because he wanted her to play a part that she wouldn’t like to play and also she would’ve witnessed terrible things… so he thought it a mercy, but yeah, I thought it was pretty creepy too! Book 2 is totally the best!!
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yea i get WHY he did it but he still stole her agency & it was super creepy regardless of intent…so i’ll forever be salty lol! that being said Feysand is still my OTP & Rhys is my fave 😂😂
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Ahhhh Feysand is so great!! I hope in the future books we get to see also some more of Cassian/Nesta!
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me too! i’m so curious about the new trilogy!
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