I had been asked by a dear friend of mine to read this book, nay, this series, quite some time ago. Between being in a gaming frenzy and a reading slump, this request was pushed to the side for far too long.
Ashley, I truly am sorry for the delay in my boarding the ACOTAR train.
All I have to say now is…I’m in it for the long haul baby! I could slap myself for not listening, for denying myself this journey for so long. This book took me by storm. Sank its its claws into me and dragged me in to this fascinating world of fae and human conflict, passion, and intrigue.
I am warning you all now, this will NOT be a spoiler free review and breakdown.
I repeat there WILL BE spoilers!
You have been warned.
Book Blurb
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.
Now let’s break it down.
Pulling from the Classics
Firstly, A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) is definitely borrowing from Beauty and the Beast in this first book. I feel it has enough of its own bones to not be an outright retelling, but it’s definitely taking several key elements.
We have the competent daughter of a father that is seen as less and arguably incompetent. Our protagonist may be illiterate, but she is a huntress and the “brains” behind providing for her severely dependent family. In her quest to provide for said family, she inadvertently kills a wolf that we later learn to be a faerie. A monstrous “beast” arrives to collect for her transgression (in most Beauty and the Beast stories she takes a rose from the Beast’s garden) and informs her she must live with him for the rest of her years. While living with him a curse becomes apparent and it’s up to her to break it. There is also a time limit in which this curse needs broken, but unfortunately Feyre has no magical rose to keep an eye on for the countdown. And just like in Beauty and the Beast, when it comes down to it, love is the answer.
Maas may have pulled heavily from this classic story to frame A Court of Thorns and Roses, however, she builds such a strong world, and such strong characters, I personally wouldn’t call it a retelling. It shares DNA, but it’s not a clone or copy.
What I Loved
Pacing
We know going in this going to be a Fantasy Romance book, and for a lot of books in that category, we typically don’t have to wait too long for the payout. The kiss, the eventual hookup, the admitting of feelings.
A Court of Thorns and Roses does a very good job with the “slow burn” romance. And I loved this for two big reasons.
First off, it made it known that the Romance in the Fantasy Romance, was second to the Fantasy. The Romance will eventually propel some aspects of the story forward, but this is first and foremost, a Fantasy book. We have to set the stage, build the history, and explore the world.
Secondly, I hate it, absolutely hate it in books and novels, where the protagonist (usually a female) is depicted as a certain type of character in the beginning and as soon as the love-interest shows up she starts doing things pretty out of character.
So I appreciated the fact that Maas does not have out main protagonist, Feyre, turn into a ditz and lovestruck dolt when she’s taken into Prythian and meets some handsome faeries.
Outside of the romance aspect, the pacing is this slow build-up of questions, intrigue, combined with this foreboding sense of doom.
I felt like the more I read, the faster I read.
Family Dynamic
Right from the start, we are given a clear picture of Feyre’s family. It’s a familiar dynamic -sadly- that’s relatable to many. One child feels obligated (in this instance due to a vow to a dying parent) to take are of everyone.
Everyone.
And mind you, Feyre is only eight years old when she makes this vow to her dying mother. She is the youngest, and the only one her mother asks anything of with her dying breath. That’s a lot of pressure for anyone, let alone a child.
Feyre to her credit, does not shirk from this vow.
She teaches herself to hunt, to provide meat and money by way of selling pelts and such, to take care of her family.
And where are her two sisters while this is happening?
Waiting.
Sitting in their tiny cottage, waiting for the youngest to return. If she returns with anything, she is greeted by greedy eyes and complaints for one thing or another. Complaints on the size of the kills and how long or little it will last them. How much money the two elder sisters will get to blow on things they could do without, only to complain they need more.
Feyre, after having been out in the elements for this kill, also is full expected to clean it without assistance.
Let’s just be honest here.
Feyre is expected to do everything for everybody.
After her father, the former “Prince of Merchants” loses all their money, he has his knee bashed to pieces by creditors. They broke his knee and his spirit, and let him live only due to Feyre begging them to stop while she soils herself. He occasionally sells wooden figures he carves, or begs for coins, but that brings in little money if he does those things at all. He gives no effort to try and provide for his family besides these two activities.
Which leads us to Nesta.
Nesta is the eldest and the most bitter about the family falling from wealth and comfort, and therefore hates her father. Hates. She also hates Feyre. I’m pretty sure the only thing she doesn’t hate is their middle sister Elain.
However, Nesta doesn’t do anything to help provide for her family either. She doesn’t believe in getting her hands dirty it seems. Even though they’ve fallen from grace as it were, she still has the mindset that she is above others.
But, she also hates Feyre for being the one to provide for their family. A little backwards, no?
Feyre is providing for them and it burns Nesta for two reasons. One, that it is her baby sister doing the providing, and that their father some seem to give a damn enough to try harder because of this. All this anger makes Nesta a bitter, cold, and hostile character.
I can see where she’s coming from though, however, it doesn’t stop my from muttering “bitch” under my breath during certain scenes. That being said, she’s a strongly written character, and I feel she may receive more page time later on in the series along with some interesting character development.
Nesta is also the figure in which Elain most clings to. The middle child, and yet the one who acts the youngest in my opinion. She too has taken the fall from comfort and wealth hard, but in a more innocent sense. From her demeanor and speech, I as a reader wasn’t sure if she completely understood the severity of all that has happened and what needs to be done. Even Feyre, at one point, says that Elain doesn’t help out but it’s more so because it just doesn’t even occur to her to do so. Whereas Nesta straight up refuses out of spite and bitterness.
These family members, though undesirable and frustrating seem very “real” to me. I think we all know someone who has let wealth define them. Someone who is mean spirited and resentful of pretty much everything. Someone who, may not fully grasp a situation and therefore sees things through a simpler and brighter lens.
But someone has to be responsible…and that’s Feyre.
It’s unfair. Completely unfair.
The weight of a family on one individual, and we never see them thank her.
I think that is the most real thing I’ve ever read in any book. That’s why even though those interactions frustrated me, and made me angry, I loved seeing a family dynamic that was so sadly believable.
Feyre
As a character, I loved Feyre. From the brutal hunting Feyre to the, “I’ve fallen in love with a faerie?!” Feyre. Her thoughts that we get access to, as they story is told from her perspective, just feel so authentic to me.
She doesn’t hide from the scary beast that shows up at her door after she kills the wolf in the forest. She puts herself between it and her family and accepts the consequences of her actions, all the while being fully aware of her limitations.
She’s human.
For her first few weeks at our beast Tamlin’s estate (more on him later) she is constantly trying to find exit strategies. She takes cutlery from the dinner table as makeshift weapons (even knowing they will do little good against a fae adversary) and she does her best to map out the house even though she is illiterate and unable to label things. She even seeks out Tamlin’s second in command, Lucien, to try and figure out more of her predicament, how to possibly get out of it, and even tries to learn more on what’s wrong in the fae realm of Prythian itself. Even though he’s her enemy as far as she’s concerned at this point, it’s tactical and a good strategy to try and get information, and proves how resourceful she can be.
Her character development from hardcore faerie hater to lover, though predictable (it is a Fantasy Romance) is well done and as mentioned above, a nice slow burn.
Instead of her being totally smitten from close to the beginning like most after seeing Tamlin in his human form, she’s still focused on her family and how they’re going to make it without her. It takes her getting to know Tamlin and Lucien, their history, and more about the faerie world before she starts realizing that they’re no different. Yes, they have powers and are ridiculously pretty, but they also eat the same food and have equally messed up families and family drama.
At the end of the book she must take her human abilities as a hunter and her new-found love of both Tamlin and Prythian, to face off against a set of trials posed to her by the evil faerie queen, Amarantha.
So we have this young woman, who killed this wolf in the beginning, and even before she knew it was a faerie, she had thought to herself if it had been, she was glad for shooting it dead. Now at the end of the book she’s willing to sacrifice her own life for not only her lover and faerie High Lord, Tamlin, but also for the faerie realm of Prythian.
I’d say she’s had a change of heart, wouldn’t you?
Amarantha
Did I love the evil faerie queen? The big baddie presented in book one?
Yes. Yes I did.
Is she absolutely a heartless and evil individual?
Yes…and no.
I can’t say she’s totally heartless. What drives her to such lengths is a shattered heart after the death of her sister who had been betrayed by a human she [the sister] had fallen in love with. However, her sister was the only thing grounding what “good” she had in her. She was a ruthless general before, don’t get me wrong, but now? She is raging and unchecked, and both the faerie and human worlds will pay if she gets her way. One if don’t bow to her will, and the other simply for existing.
I think Amarantha is a good villain because of her viciousness, her very relatable motive, and the grand scale of her endeavors. She is a combination mad queen and bloodlust, and I honestly wish we would’ve gotten more of her in this book.
The Hints…
Maas does an excellent job in my opinion od dropping subtle hints, clues, and foreshadowing in her books. I have read her Throne of Glass series up until Tower of Dawn (and then life happened…but I will return to that world soon!) and enjoyed the clues and shadows she would drop.
ACOTAR has given us so many.
Keep in mind, this is my very first read-through and I went in blind. I avoided and saw/read no spoilers myself. None. Even still, I have avoided any other’s opinions and comments on the book.
Are you ready?
Feyre’s Heritage
First off, I think Feyre has faerie blood somewhere down the line. I’m almost 100% positive. My reasoning? At one point in the book, fairly early on, Tamlin asks Feyre about her mom. Tamlin makes some excuse that he didn’t “see” any signs of an older woman at her family’s cottage, and that’s why he’s asking. I call bullshit.
“Didn’t…,” Tamlin interrupted, his deep voice surprisingly gentle, “didn’t your mother tell you anything about us?”
(A Court of Thorns and Roses, pg. 79 in the 2020 Bloomsbury Publishing edition)
Not parents. Mother.
I’m declaring right now that Tamlin or his family knew Feyre’s mom and she was either part or fully fae.
Last piece of evidence: her name is literally Feyre (fey-ruh)… I mean come on, how close to faerie can a name get without actually being the thing itself. Even Amarantha mentions, “An old name – from our earlier dialects.” (pg. 313) Just my theory, we shall see how this plays out.
No HEA with Tamlin
Tamlin is not her true love/mate.
Say what?!
Nope. Again, calling it. If I learned anything from Throne of Glass, the first guy the main female sees is not always the HEA (happily ever after). Which again, a round of applause for the realistic element here from Maas.
That first “love” we experience is usually not all we make it out to be. We get those rose-colored glasses on and see little else. We’ve imagined what our first relationship will be like, and when it finally happens, we believe it’s perfect and we were lucky enough to find “the one” on the first try.
Life is rarely so generous or simple. Though not impossible.
We grow as individuals and change as life throws obstacles at us.
Why do I think Tamlin is not Feyre’s HEA?
Rhysand.
When Feyre first sees Rhysand, she notes that he is, “the most beautiful [she had] ever seen.” (pg. 188)
We first meet him at a cave during the Rite. As soon as he came onto the scene I knew. This is the guy. This is the guy who has already been through some shit and he’s going to be the darkness that Feyre is going to be able to be her raw self with. Bad stuff is going to go down, and he’s going to be there, and he’s going to be the only honest and real individual Feyre can count on. Just a theory, a gut feeling.
Later on in the book, Rhys does some terrible verging on evil things. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I feel he’s become this way to survive and be close to the true enemy at the same time. He’s created a character to live in this cruel world, and he’s playing the part.
Yet he also “helps” our protagonist by making a deal with her. (If you have any faerie book history or knowledge, you know deals with faeries are always treacherous and double-edged) In doing so, he enlists her help to take down Amarantha, and aids her in the three trials Amarantha set’s forth for Feyre in order to free Tamlin from his curse.
Skip ahead to the very end of the book, and when Feyre’s neck is snapped, killing her, she doesn’t fully leave the room. She begins to see her own body and the scene from another’s eyes. Rhysand’s eyes. There is a connection there. Maybe through their deal that had been made, maybe more, but there is a connection there that has transcended death.
The final clue I see as to Rhys being her actual HEA, maybe even mate, is a quote.
His eyes locked on mine, wide and wild, and his nostrils flared. Shock – pure shock flashed across his features at whatever he saw on my face, and he stumbled back a step. Actually stumbled.
A Court of Thorns and Roses, pg. 415
What I Didn’t Love
Tamlin
What?! Do I have a vendetta out on Tamlin?
No, but I’m also not a huge fan.
Tamlin takes too much material, is made up of too much from the Beast in Beauty and the Beast in my opinion, but without the redemption. Again, in my opinion. Even his beast form is similar in description. Feline and lupine features, horns etc.
I didn’t care for their chemistry. Some moments were good, like when Tamlin takes her to the glen he loved as a child. But he is always telling her no. For her safety is the main “reason” but with no explanation as to why, hardly ever. She’s too independent to take that so she gets herself in trouble a couple of times due to this lack of communication.
Do I think Tamlin cares for Feyre? Yes, a hundred percent.
That being said, she originated as a means to and end for him. She was the one who was meant to break the curse. His life literally depended on her. On the flipside, she needed someone to care for her, to take the burden of survival off her shoulders for even a little amount of time. They’re two wounded creatures in their own ways, and they find comfort in knowing another wounded creature.
And that’s my fear, and why, I don’t believe Tamlin is her HEA. During the whole of book one, he doesn’t change.
In the popular Disney movie Beauty and the Beast film, it’s his tempt and meanness that get him and his estate cursed. But by the end of the movie, we see him turn from anger. We see him turn kind.
Tamlin does not have that character growth. He still is just as secretive, and “guardian” like as he was in the beginning, and that’s why I’m not a fan.
Feyre’s Family Provided For
Okay…maybe I do have it out for Tamlin.
Not intentionally though.
Don’t get me wrong, I did want her family taken care of since their sole provider was whisked away. And we know none of them are stepping up to the plate. That being said, I wanted them comfortable, not spoiled.
They’re richer than ever thanks to some “investment” Tamlin sets up for the dad. They hold a ball in honor of Feyre returning to them…
They were bitter about being taken down from wealth, wallowing in pity, and complaints, and they’ve seemingly learned nothing it seems of humility or to be humble about their good fortune.
Maybe it shouldn’t upset me, but it did.
I kind of wanted them to suffer a little without Feyre, for them to grasp how much she did, and be grateful for all she did. Not to be rewarded.
However, it could be a good plot device if Feyre ever does want to leave Tamlin? He’s mentioned before (before he sent her back for her “safety”) that if she went back her family would not be provided for, essentially threatening her. So just as it’s been used against her before to keep her in the Spring Court, it could be used against her in the future…possibilities.
Amarantha’s Trials
Did I like Amarantha? We’ve already determined yes. I loved her background and the sense of ruthlessness that came with her. So when she offered Feyre two ways to free herself and Tamlin and his people I was surprised at her generosity.
Solve a riddle, and they can leave right then and there, with her blessing.
Beat three trials and everyone gets to go with her blessing, but no date is specified. Faerie shenanigans and loopholes.
Granted, this is after she’s tortured and killed another human, and she’s bored seeking amusement. I just wish it had been on of her court to propose the trials and left her this bloodthirsty queen. I get that we are going for a mad queen vibe, but I was hoping she’d be even more brutal with our main protagonist. After all, she’s there to prove her love.
Resurrection
One last thing I wasn’t a fan of, but I understand it needed to happen, is the resurrection of Feyre.
Amarantha is so pissed she’s been bested and Feyre triumphed through the three trials, that she breaks Feyre’s spine. But with her dying breath she’d muttered the answer to the riddle, immediately releasing Tamlin from his curse, and allowing him to slay Amarantha. Very, very well written scene.
For her sacrifice and for freeing them from Amarantha’s rule, the High Lords of Prythian gift Feyre with everlasting life, and turn her into a High Fae.
This act will move the story forward for sure, but I still hate such resurrection scenes in books and movies. It seems like there is always a chance for a loophole, and bam! They’re back with no true sacrifice. I don’t think that’s the case with Feyre, but still disliked that there was a resurrection scene in this book regardless.
In Conclusion
I loved reading A Court of Thorns and Roses. It was a delicious book, and I devoured it as if I was starving. It set up the start of the Prythian realm nicely, gave us several characters that were easy to love and relate to. That slow burn romance combined with world exploration, so that the romance isn’t always “front page” is super nice to read. As well, it set up a possible second big baddie to face in book two, A Court of Mist and Fury. Which is where I’m off to now!
I gave A Court of Thorns and Roses,
Until next time,
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