Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #1
Published by Bloomsbury Children’s on May 5, 2015
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Romance, Fairies, Fae
Pages: 416 : Hardback edition
Source: Purchased from Barnes and Noble
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A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beastwith faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it… or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!


 

Pre-reading perceptions/phobias

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As a few people know, I have terrible (I mean, really awful), popular series anxiety/phobia. You can thank sophomore year of high school with everyone hyping up Looking For Alaska, which ended with me hating it. And Lady Midnight in more recent years. Yikes. I’m still recovering from the backlash I got on that.

Extremely popular series’ are the worst because I begin to hear so many things about the book without formulating my own opinions and then it clouds my judgement when I read the book. “It’s a fairytale retelling! You’ll love Tamlin! You’ll love Rhysand! Feyre is awesome! Feyre is annoying! This is AMAZING! This sucks!!” were all things I had heard prior to reading ACOTAR and I just got confused and ended up putting it aside when I had tried to pick it up in September.

But then something compelled me to pick this up this week and I blew through it. I mean I really massacred that sucker, and it was nice to fall so deeply into a book again, which is something I haven’t done in awhile. Sarah J. Maas’ books always seem to leave me out of breath and feeling as if I had just run a marathon.

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Hype, hype and more hype

So does ACOTAR live up to the hype? Depends which hype. The over hype? No book lives up to the over hype, because it’s just so excessive. But yes, I would be safe to say that ACOTAR is that good. So good that it made me change my plan of analyzing the Throne of Glass series for my senior thesis to analyzing this series. Seriously.

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Cast of characters

I just…I love Feyre so much. I’m conflicted about Tamlin since I know that he becomes…problematic in ACOMAF, but there are enough other good things going on in this book that I won’t spend too much time talking about him. He’s sexy, he’s dangerous, and of course, reminds me a hell of a lot of the beast from Beauty and the Beast. But Feyre…she’s a really compelling main character. Sure she’s biased in her perceptions of those around her, but who isn’t??

And Lucien. MY GOD LUCIEN. He has to be my favorite character of the series thus far, suprisingly. He’s so sassy and such a jerk face, but I love his banter with everyone so much. *greedily hunts for fan art of him* Please just let him be happy and full of love in the next book *crosses fingers tightly*

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All the feels

So, how did ACOTAR rank for me? Five stars and a coveted (haha I stroke my own ego too much) place on my all-time favorites shelf. Any book that makes me constantly think about it, even when I’m NOT reading it, obsessively talking about it with friends, and devouring it in a matter of days/hours, while also leaving my feels in shreds is something that comes once in a blue moon these days. What I love so much about Maas’ books is that every sentence and chapter are so…calculating. You can clearly tell that there is some excellent foreshadowing going on or that descriptions and plot twists are not for nothing, that is going to come back later and be important to the plot. In other words the writing matters.


Sexy Times

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They…weren’t as steamy as I thought they’d be? I mean sometimes they just fade to black (which is fine. If I needed steamier scenes I’d pick up a Jay McLean book to be honest). Like, I, a mature adult, can handle a few scenes like this. Though sometimes I feel weird reading them, because it’s like…should I leave? You two need a moment? I’ll be over here pretending not to watch this.

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Concluding Thoughts

Give ACOTAR a chance. Try to avoid the hype (AND THE SPOILERS. JESUS) and fall in love with this world that Maas weaves and builds then destroys us all because you are NOT going to be okay by the end of this book. At least you’ll have ACOMAF right next to you to dive into next, which I hear is even better. I guess we’ll find out. This was my face while I was reading ACOTAR and is bound to become a permanent expression as I read ACOMAF:

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And if you’re interested: some of my immediate knee-jerk reactions from Goodreads updates as I read ACOTAR this week:

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8 Replies to “Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas”

  1. The steam definitely kicks up in ACOMAF, haha. And boy, do I have news for you about Lucien……

  2. YESSS Lucien is my favorite too. The snark, man.

  3. I have avoided Maas due to the hype as well. I am always afraid I will hate it too, so it makes the read hard for me to get into. But you have swayed me, and I will have to add this to my TBR. It sounds like it has so many good elements, that I’m doing myself a disservice shying away. Great review!

    1. Oh wow really!? That means so much to me! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do and I look forward to creeping your blog to see your thoughts 🙂

  4. Hahaha, I’m really glad you enjoyed this one! That Raven gif is how I feel about all SJMaas books, to be honest. They are just so hyped but I have read the first two of ToG and liked them, so I think I’ll enjoy the rest of her work. I hope you enjoy ACOMAF just as much!

    PS. @heyiamdivergent on Twitter referred me to you ;).

    Jess @ POB!

  5. Yeah! I am so glad you liked this so much! It’s always a nice feeling when a really hyped book lives up to your expectations. 🙂 Can’t wait to see what you think of the sequel! Thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous review! <3

  6. I liked Lucien too, although on his first few appearances on the book I doubted him. But on later parts, I began to like him!!!

  7. […] Carter  |  The Paige-Turner  |  Chelsea @ Star-Crossed […]

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