A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Adult Fantasy, High Fantasy

 I purchased this book and chose to do an honest and unbiased review.  The author neither requested nor is associated with this review.

 Goodreads Description:

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.

Here's What I Thought: 

Some day, I am going to be consistent at doing reviews on books.  Today is most likely not that day, but some day. On the upside, I didn't just stop reading all together this time. I just stopped blogging. Maybe I should do an update post on some of the better books I read that I did not post a review for...

I finally caved and jumped on the bandwagon gave this book a try. Overall, I liked it but it definitely has problems. Plot-wise, it’s basically a Beauty and the Beast retelling which I liked. The plot moved fairly quickly, it was easy to read—well…. I’ll get to that later. I’m not going to go into a summary of the plot, because if you’re that curious, read it, as I do recommend it if your looking for something without a lot of depth. I give the plot itself 4 stars.

Time for characters:

Feyre is the main character and is essentially our Belle of the story. I found her character to be very flat and did not have much growth. Her inner monologue from when she killed the faerie in the beginning to when she killed the faeries at the end were almost identical. With that being said, I’m not saying that she should not have done it in the end, just that I expected more depth to her thought process due to growing through her experiences. The one thing I do love about her is that she did not come into the story as the innocent maiden fair. She had a life and a lover before Tamlin which is a nice change.

Tamlin, the Beast, is basically a jerk. Once his curse is revealed, it basically invalidates their entire “love.” He used her from the beginning, but now he suddenly loves her so? Um… No. I do have a bit of commentary that I would like to share that is an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think when he bit Feyre that it was strictly non-consent. She did tell him to let her go, but her inner monologue was very different. Granted, he did not know what she was thinking, but it is reasonable to assume that her bodily actions were more in align with her thoughts and he picked up on that. I am NOT saying that it was ok or excusing him, just stating my opinion that I don’t feel it was clear-cut non-consent. Other than that, his character was completely garbage and his wooing of Feyre was incredibly forced. He basically sat on his ass and watched while Feyre fought to save everyone.

I love Lucien. He reminds me of Cogsworth. In the beginning, I was not sure how I felt about him, but the more I learned about his past and the more I saw his sarcastic wit, the more I loved him. He is seriously too precious and deserves better than what he gets.

Alis, I don’t have much to say about other than she is sweet and reminds me of Mrs. Pots.

Rhysand is a bad boy and I can’t wait for more of him. He reminds me of a likeable Gustan. He is exactly the type of character that I always seem to be drawn to. Even after everything he puts Feyre through, he was still a gentleman at the end of it all. I still don’t know if it was strictly to his own benefit or not, but he does seem to genuinely care for Feyre. He certainly fought way harder to save her in the end than Tamlin. Their relationship seems to have more of a natural progression from hate to not hate. I don’t think Feyre is quite to liking him yet, but I certainly do.

Amarantha is the big bad. The notorious “She” throughout the book. In my opinion she was a good villain. She had a complex backstory and she was truly twisted. I liked her (as a villain).

A brief note on Feyre’s family, as they did not play a large role: I think her father is a worthless deadbeat; Elain is sweet, but seems insignificant; Nesta is kind of a bitch, but I do believe she loves Feyre.

Other than Tamlin and Feyre, I really like the characters and from that standpoint, I give it a 3.5 star rating. I’m hoping to see some major Feyre growth in the next book, although I don’t think my opinion will change with Tamlin.

Now for my major gripe with this book. SJM’s writing style. What editor let a manuscript go to print with that many em dashes and ellipses? It is EXCESSIVE! There is a minimum of one em dash on every page! Her use of ellipses is almost as bad. Is it really that hard to use a comma or a period or finish a thought? I know they are versatile punctuation marks, but use of punctuation should not effect the flow. Various writing styles normally don’t bother me but this was so over the top that I couldn’t help but notice. I felt like it was death by em dashes.

SJM also finds particular words or phases that she repeatedly uses over and over. As a nurse, talking about bowels doesn’t bother me, but I have no desire to read again and again how her bowels turned watery. She uses the terms “male” and “female” enough that I felt like I was back in biology class. There are other words. Man. Woman. Lady. Guy. The last word that stuck out to me was “inconstant.” It is just so awkward and it’s used again and again and again in the last quarter of the book.

All of this together drove me crazy. Enough so that I give the book 2 stars based on writing style. Put it all together and I give the book 3 stars. I like it enough to be starting the second book tonight, but it is far from the next great American novel, so to speak.

 

Any Thoughts?

Opinions on this series are pretty polarized. I am actually surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. Did you love it or hate it? Why? Drop a comment below and we can discuss.

About The Author:

Sarah J. Maas is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Crescent City, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and the Throne of Glass series. Her books have sold more than twelve million copies and are published in thirty-seven languages. A New York native, Sarah lives in Philadelphia with her husband, son, and dog. To find out more, visit sarahjmaas.com or follow @therealsjmaas on Instagram.