Sarah J. Maas: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Hi everyone 

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.
This YA series was hugely popular about ten years ago, but I never got around to trying it; until now. 
I read it on my e-reader.

"When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever."  

I found this book to be very, very mixed.

At its core, the story is basically Beauty and the Beast with a few twists. Unfortunately, the "beast" in this case is Tamlin, a gorgeous, boring, one-dimensional Fae king. Our "Beauty," Feyre, is the typical YA heroine; a young woman who doesn’t realize how beautiful and special she is. The comic relief comes from Tamlin’s best friend, but honestly, all the characters were so irritating.
Feyre’s lack of common sense was frustrating. Why does she never listen? Does she have to experience everything firsthand before believing what she’s told? And how is she illiterate when her family was once wealthy? It just doesn’t make sense. I did like her strength, skills, and self-awareness; she knows what she’s capable of, but she was also so stupid at times. Why would she want to go back to a life of slavery for her ungrateful family? And don’t even get me started on how dumb it was that it took her three months to solve the riddle.

The plot itself was confusing. Feyre was living in poverty, kills a Fae, and as "punishment," she gets to live in luxury and yet she still wants to escape? It wasn’t until halfway through the book, with a massive infodump, that the "punishment" even made sense. In the original Beauty and the Beast, at least the reader knows about the curse from the start.
And don’t get me started on the final part, when Feyre is trying to save Tamlin. The tests, the riddle, and Rhysand’s behavior (which bordered on unnecessary and problematic) were just utterly ridiculous. This very bad Fae gets completely undone by a stupid riddle? Feyre is falling for a man who sexualizes her?

That said, I did enjoy some parts. The world and the different types of Fae were interesting, and I would have loved to explore them more instead of getting infodumps. The development of Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship was enjoyable; not too romantic or dramatic, but obviously very predictable. There was enough action and political intrigue to balance out the romance, and the pacing was good.

It’s pretty easy to see where the relationships (between Feyre and Tamlin, and Feyre and Rhysand) are headed. I do like that it’s not going to be a typical, straightforward love story, but I really hope there’s no more attempted sexual assault in the next books. That was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the story.

I’m not convinced I’ll be reading the next books in the series. It was entertaining in a no-expectations, no-thinking kind of way, but also very exasperating at times.

Have you read A Court of Thorns and Roses? Did you feel the same way, or did you love it? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Happy reading!
Helena