A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

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.

In the aftermath of a Fae vs Human deathmatch war, the world has gotten heavily into segregation. With Fae on their side of the wall and humans on theirs, co-existing together is never going to happen. Living in this world is human Feyre (Fay-ruh) a young woman who hunts in order to provide for her impoverish family. After finding a doe, Feyre sees a wolf after her catch  and quickly takes its life in order to claim the doe for herself. Afterwards a beast shows up and demands retribution, a life for a life and without spoiling anything good for you, what follows is an enthralling love story based on Beauty and The Beast.

Feyre is our typical Sarah J. Maas heroine, which is a compliment I promise. Selflessness and strength paired with human imperfections but a desire to do whats right, yet with many entertaining opportunities to do wrong. Much Like Celaena (Like Selena but with an A) from Throne of Glass, Feyre is a badass, although doesn't seem like it at first. For the introductory half of the book, most is world and relationship building. The audience does get a sense that their is something being unsaid - or that just doesn't add up logically, which is down to the fantastic writing skill of Maas. She is ace as preemptive writing, she can suggest something and you won't even realise it until its to late, but back to Feyre. Feyre is a delight to read, she comes into herself and stands with such courage at the end of the novel that it is hard not to love her. Much like her TOG counterpart she also has to endure the terrible and inflict the terrible upon others and not only does she do it with dignity, she does it with remorse and a heaviness that I can imagine will run throughout the trilogy. 

This book was far more romance based than I originally expected. The second half was primarily what I thought the entire book would be like but then it worked. ACOTAR doesn't follow typical fantasy techniques as it takes out INSTA-LOVE which permeates through YA literature these days. The reason the first half is slower and less action packed is because it is about the journey of falling in love, we know they will and it will be crucial to the story but pulling it out slowly and gently to a natural fall is such a beautiful and realistic way to write. 

Not to mention Maas' romantic Acknowledgement to her husband:

As a girl also in love with a Josh, this is giving me all sorts of swoony.

In conclusion I didn't enjoy this as much as TOG, but I didn't expect to. I mean I connected with TOG so incredibly I tattooed words on my body. But this book is good in it's own right. Even if TOG never existed, this would still be a great book and worthy of a 4.5 star recommendation.


Happy Reading