A Quick Review of A Court of Thornes and Roses by Sarah J Mass

I didn’t hate it, so there’s that. (ー_ー;)

But for real, this book wasn’t bad. It just failed to live up to the hype, so let’s get into that.

(Sorry in advance for any spelling errors for character/place names. I listened to this as an audiobook, with how a lot of the fantasy names were spelt.)

A Court of Thornes and Roses (ACOTAR) is a fantasy series that follows our main character, Feyre, a young woman who hunts with a bow and arrows to provide for her impoverished family. (Where did I hear that before (￢_￢)?) One day, she accidentally breaches a generations-long treaty between the humans and the fae by killing fae disguised as a wolf. As a result she must leave with Tamlin to live in Prythian, the fae realm.

Tamlin takes her to his castle where he allows her to live. It turns out he is a cursed lord, but he and everyone in his castle are pretty tightlipped about the details of the curse. They are also generally untrusting of Feyre on account of her killing their friend. Feyre is also untrusting of them because humans were historically enslaved by the fae.

While I didn’t fall in love with the book the same way that all the people on booktok or bookstagram have, I did really enjoy ACOTAR for what it was. Maybe this is because I typically read contemporary romance novels, but a lot of the the leads tend to be a little too genre savey for my taste. Stories where the lead is a romance novel fan who fails to recognize what trope they’re experiencing defeats the purpose of having such an knowledgeable lead if you aske me. It was refreshing to follow Feyre, an illiterate hunter, who despite being a sexual being, isn’t desperate for love.

As for why the book wasn’t one of my favorites, I blames the main romance between Feyre and Tamlin. I felt like it was pretty lacking considering how desperately Feyre is trying to save him in the final arc. After seeing every interaction between them, it seems more like they are in lust with each other more than they are in love. (Though from what I’ve heard about later books, that might have been intentional.) Generally Feyre’s relationships with other characters feel 10x more deep and genuine.

I probably would have enjoyed the book more if Lucien were the main love interest. The amount of time they spend together as well as their own arc of learning to trust and respect each other was far more endearing to me compared to Feyre’s similar arcs with Tamlin.

After reading this book, I wasn’t all the excited about jump into the sequel (especially since the finale features a trope that I don’t really care for). While I understood the appeal these books, on account of it being this era’s Twilight, it failed to capture me. Right around the time I was finishing this book, I heard other readers mentioning that book two is where things get good, so I am tentatively give A Court of Mist and Fury a try. (Though I suspect the series might just not be for me.)

For all these reasons, I’m gonna rate A Court of Thornes and Roses 3 Fae Lords out of 5. It wasn’t my worst read, but definitely wasn’t my favorite either.