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.
The Review
After finishing Queen of Shadows, I decided to give ACOTAR a try despite my not typically liking fairy tale retellings. It seems that either there's too much or not enough of the original tale and I'm more often than not left with a bad taste in my mouth and an even worse bad headache. A Court of Thorns and Roses took me by surprise.
Feyre is introduced while stalking a deer that would save her family from starving to death. She is a young woman who was given the burden of seeing that her family is taken care of no matter how ungrateful they are. I really didn't like her sisters in the first half of the book. I found myself comparing my own relationship with my sister to that of Feyre's and it squeezed my heart. There is no stronger (or stranger) bond than that of two sisters and I was so sad that Feyre didn't have that. I found myself wishing that she would just flip a table and scream at them for their immaturity and inability to think about anything that didn't concern their own comfort, no matter what that meant for their youngest sister.
I found Feyre to be an intriguing character in her own right. She isn't a very nice person by any means, and she holds prejudice and hatred in her heart. Yet she isn't afraid of facing her insufficiencies. The friendship that blossoms between she and Lucien, a fae noble, instantly captured my full attention. Their cattiness and verbal sparring were some of the best dialogue in the entire book.
The romance in the book is entirely different from that in the Throne of Glass series. There is a distinctly adult theme and I'm not going to lie, it gets pretty hot and heavy. My boyfriend thought I was sick because I was sighing so much. Tamlin is a man who feels the weight of protecting a court of people despite the fact that he is no longer equipped to. He has a great strength of spirit and his sloppy attempts at romancing Feyre were hysterical and totally cringe worthy. The curse was so amazing, clever and unique, it was something that I absolutely did not see coming. Excellent job, Maas.
I didn't start to LOVE this story until the second half. For the most part, in the beginning we are party to many awkward and angsty conversations over amazing meals, talk of painting and planning a great escape that never happens. The last half, however Feyre becomes every bit of a badass as Aelin is. The villain doesn't emerge until then, and there isn't real character evolution, aside from the sisters. Feyre has to play a game of survival and wits that has three psychotic tasks; if she fails, Tamlin and his court will be condemned to be at the whims of an evil, demented and terrifying queen. She also--kind of--befriends a fae lord who was a million times more fascinating than I was prepared to give him credit for.
I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in this series and I'm REALLLLLY hoping for more sex, more drunkenness and more darkness (I'm looking at you, Rhys!).
