Book: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens

Format: Paperback

Pages: 416

Rating: 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5 on Goodreads).

*Warning: mature content. Parents please be advised.*

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Feyre is a huntress.

She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers mercilessly beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a high price…

Imprisoned in an enchanted court in her enemy’s kingdom, Feyre is free to roam but forbidden to escape. Her captor’s body bears the scars of fighting, and his face is always masked – but his piercing stare draws her ever closer. As Feyre’s feeling for Tamlin begin to burn through every warning she’s been told about his kind, an ancient, wicked shadow grows.

Feyre must find a way to break a spell, or lose her heart forever.

Review:

This was such an interesting read. There has been so much hype surrounding this book that I knew I had to read it. And I was not disappointed. There was so much happening in this book, and the author created a realm that was both interesting and imaginative.

After reading the Lunar Chronicles, I thought it would be difficult to take a fairy tale and recreate the world as well as Marissa Meyer’s did. However, Maas took the basic elements of a fairy tale and truly made it her own. Based off of Beauty and the Beast, Feyre is similar to Belle in that she goes with the Beast to save her family. But she is different than Belle in that she is illiterate, where Belle is fascinated by books. Instead, Feyre is fascinated by art and painting. So I thought that was a good twist in the story. As for Beast, he appears to Feyre as a hideous monster, but when they reach the fairy realm, Prythian, she realizes that he is a High Lord (like the Prince in Beauty and the Beast, expect a fairy here), and she learns how he is not a monster after all. The aspects that were original was the land of Prythian, and the different courts of the realm. We are told that there are seven courts, but we really only get to see one; the Spring Court.

There are some who argue that there is a bit too much insta-love in the book, but I would argue that since this is based off of a fairy-tale, where instant love happens all the time, it makes sense that it would appear in this tale as well. And remember, there is a time limit, so naturally the characters would fall in love a bit quicker than we would expect. I thought this love story was a classic story, not meant to be a real life love story, which is something important to remember for all the young readers.

The reason I did not give this story 5 stars was because I thought the beginning was a bit slow. Maas did a good job of setting up the story and establishing the main character as the center of the story, but I did not think the story picked up until she reached the Spring Court. Then things became really interesting, with Feyre roaming the fairy lands, and encountering different creatures and other fairies, some good and some evil. I also think that once the main character got to the Spring Court, the conflict of the story was well developed, and it made me want to know what was going to happen and who was going to prevail.

The ending was well written, except for one thing that happened to the main character that did not make a lot of sense to me, and could have been explained a bit better. All in all, the book could have been left as a standalone novel if not for one tiny aspect, which I am presuming Maas will use to develop the next book. I am not going to say what that is in case of spoiling the book for those who have not read it. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series, as everyone I have talked to says it is waaaayyy better than the first book. I would definitely recommend this book for fantasy/fairy-tale lovers, but I would recommend this book for older young adult readers as there is some mature content.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on the book or my review! Feel free to comment or send me an email. Happy reading!