A Court Of Thorns and Roses Review

 

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas

Bloomsbury Children's 

May 2015

"Pity those who don't feel anything at all." 

"Don't feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy." 

"We need hope, or else we cannot endure." 

“I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world.” 

Goodreads description: 

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

Confession: I feel like I'm one of the few people who has never read a Sarah J. Maas novel until I finally got around to picking up this one. I will start by saying that she definitely lived up to the hype. Her writing is absolutely gorgeous and I found myself enchanted by her fabulous storytelling. I said this in my review of Red Queen and I'll say it again: there can never be too many strong heroines in YA/NA books. Bottom line is that I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to read a magical story that has complicated and fascinating characters. Give this one a try, I'm sure you'll love it. 

Feyre is a fierce protagonist to say the very least. Like Katniss, she provides for her family that lives in poverty by hunting. The main reason why I loved her so much was because she possessed all of the qualities that I believe a female protagonist should have. Those qualities include: selfishness, bravery, cleverness, loving, feisty, and resourceful. Tamlin was a complicated but still a mostly likable love interest. Since this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Tamlin is obviously the Beast of the story. He certainly shows some of those Beast qualities at points in the story, but he gradually becomes more vulnerable and caring around our girl Feyre. I also found myself really liking Tamlin's friend Lucien, who didn't like Feyre at first but slowly warmed to her and formed a friendship with her. I didn't like Rhysand. Sorry to all those who do like him, but I'm just not a fan of the bad boy. 

As you'll see in pretty much any review of the book that you read, the romance in this book is extremely steamy. I think that the pace of the building relationship between the two went at a realistic speed that I truly enjoyed. However, I think it still was a little bit unrealistic how quickly the relationship turned into love. Lust I could see, but it being love in such a short amount of time seemed a bit far fetched to me. Regardless, I still found it to be completely swoon worthy. It's actually rather graphic at times, which is why I consider it to be more New Adult than Young Adult. 

If I liked this book so much than why am I rating it a four instead of a five? I'm so glad that you asked! I'm rating it this because I found the character of Rhysand to be off-putting. In the majority of scenes that he's in, he just acts so repulsively and I especially didn't like how he treated Feyre like a slave. She makes a deal with him that she'll go with him for a whole week every month for the rest of her life. After making that deal, he feels as if he has huge control of her and he drags her around to parties as if she was a play thing. Worst of all was when he would make her drink the wine at the parties, which made her unaware of what was happening around her for the rest of the evening. Basically it's the equivalent to giving her date rape drugs. He justifies this by telling her that he could have easily raped her, but didn't. And she's supposed to be grateful for that? Maybe you just shouldn't have done it in the first place, Rhys. Anyway, a lot of people are anticipating this becoming a real love triangle in the second book with Rhys being the other love interest obviously. Already, people are talking about how they are Team Rhysand, which I absolutely can't understand. While I respect everyone is entitled to an opinion, it's just mind blowing that people would let his behavior go like that.

Fantasy has never been my type of genre. I naturally gravitate more towards contemporary, especially in the YA/NA category. I was definitely surprised that I enjoyed this story so much since it was heavy with fantasy and fairy themes. I think it's a true testament to Sarah J. Maas's writing. She created such gorgeous and vivid imagery that made me feel like I was standing right there in the middle of this world. It was never a slow paced book in the slightest, twist after twist kept going down that certainly kept your interest. While Rhysand does rub me the wrong way, he doesn't completely discourage me from really really liking this novel. I wanted to give it five stars, but I felt like my pretty negative feelings about that character made it more of a four star read. You should get a copy of this ASAP and form your own opinion about it then talk to me about what you think!