Good Morning Everyone,

Hope you’re all doing well. Considering my stellar posting performance across July and August, I have somewhat dropped the ball in September. I can’t even say I’m reading and not posting, I have officially fallen into a reading slump. However we’re not yet half way through the month and there’s still time to claw it back.

Book 📖

This book doesn’t really need an introduction. A Court of Thorns and Roses by @therealsjmaas is adored by book bloggers and readers. This series is everywhere I look on Instagram. I am very behind the curve and late to the ACOTAR party, but I have arrived finally.

Description 🔖

After nineteen year old Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, she didn’t expect a beast to come and drag her from her family home as retribution. She’s taken to a foreign land that she’s only heard about via legend and although still frightening, she learns that it wasn’t a beast that took her, it was in fact an immortal faerie.

As Feyre settles in and learns to adapt to her new home her feelings towards the the faerie; Tamlin, start to turn from hostile to passionate and all of the terrible things she has been told about faeries start to fall away as lies. However there is a shadow growing over the faerie lands and Feyre learns that if she isn’t able to stop it, Tamlin, his lands and his people will forever be destroyed.

General Thoughts 🤔

For a girl who says she’s not that into fantasy, I got pretty into this book. My usual problem with fantasy is that I struggle to keep up with the languages, terminology, names, rules, lands and all the other fun stuff. However this book didn’t feel like hard work from that perspective. There was enough explanation and back story to make me understand, however not too much that made the book feel laborious.

It has taken me quite some time to get through this book, but that is of no fault of the book; completely down to me. What I did find was that I was able to put it down and pick it up easily without losing the thread of the story.

Characters 👫👭👬

Firstly, I have to admit, the fact that Feyre was only nineteen completely flew past me until I was writing this review. I wish I had had her courage and determination at such a young age. At the beginning of the story I thought that she was going to be so stubborn that she would end up getting in her own way and creating her own unhappiness. But as soon as Feyre started to accept her new life, I felt like she really settled into herself and became an absolute boss.

I had mixed feelings about Tamlin. I particularly liked that he had a soft centre and obviously cared about Fayre’s safety but there was something niggling me about the two of them together. They didn’t feel meant to be but I can’t express exactly what is giving me that hunch. Though I enjoyed reading about their relationship developing, I didn’t feel fully invested in it.

Writing Style ✍️

This is the first Sarah J. Maas book that I’ve read and I can understand why she has been so successful and has such a huge fan base. Her writing style and tone made me feel like I was being carried along with the story. It was easy to follow, but not boring. Descriptive but not paragraphs and paragraphs of scene setting. The balance seemed to be just right on all fronts.

I did get to a little less than half way through and felt like it started to get a little samey and I was waiting for something big to happen to reignite the story. That feeling didn’t last long though and I was soon engrossed in the story and the action all over again.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I’m glad that I finally jumped onto the ACOTAR bandwagon and caught up with the rest of the book world. I should really stop saying that I don’t enjoy fantasy because this book is another one that has proved that theory wrong. I really enjoyed being swept away with these characters in this story and I look forward to joining them again for the second book in the series.

😍😍😍😍😩