A Court of Thorns and Roses – Review

Wow – I’m back after five months and it feels awesome! If you were wondering, I took an extreme break because of my high school finals, but now they’re over, I’m on the train to take a mini vacation with my best friend and is there a better way than to use this opportunity to start writing again? Anyways, I have not read much, but I did finish Sarah J Maas’ amazing book A Court of Thorns and Roses, so here’s a review!

Synopsis:

Feyre has to hunt in order to keep her family alive, with her disabled father and ignorant sister, she is the only one that is able to care for her family. So when she spots a huge wolf in the forest near the border to the Fey lands, she takes the chance of killing it. But as it turns out, the wolf was a faerie, and with him comes a friend claiming Feyre as his due to a long-term treaty between the Human and the Fey world. When Feyre is forced to accompany the faerie to his court, she not only discovers new worlds, but also a deadly blight able to kill both Human and fey…

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Publication Date: May 5th 2015

Pages: 419

My thoughts:

The plot was the only reason I was skeptical at first: personally, I am not extremely patient when it comes to the start of a book, the plot has to be there immediately, no pages full of description – either action, drama or mysteries straight away. My dad always used to say Read the first two pages and if you like the book, buy it – and surprisingly, I didn’t love the first pages, but I was mesmerized by everything beyond! My point here: the story started too slow for my taste, but the past picked up and the rest of the journey was incredible!

The story was far more intricate than the synopsis reveals: there’s politics, relationships, hatred, oppression and so much more. I loved to see Feyre adjust to the Fey lands and learn the differences and then obviously get to know Tamlin and Lucien.

On to the characters, which were my favorite: while Feyre did annoy me sometimes, constantly complaining and Sarah J Maas explained her situation 100000 times, I still loved her as a protagonist – she’s fierce and witty. The two people I loved most, however, were Tamlin and Lucien, I really enjoying getting to know their friendship and the different approaches of treating Feyre (not going to spoil here). Lucien reminds me of some other YA character and I want to say Cardan from The Cruel Prince or Matthew from Chain of Gold – but I’m not sure, so if you have an idea, COMMENT!!!

Anyways, Tamlin was such a cute character, I love everything about him! The only flaw in the characters, I see, to be honest, is the villain’s weakness: the person (not gonna reveal any details!) doesn’t really have a personality, a back story or motivation except for one minor detail, but it’s not super complex and thought-out, which was a tad bit disappointing…

The writing, to be honest, wasn’t my favorite. There is nothing specific to point out here, but Sarah J Maas’ writing didn’t seem extraordinary – I wasn’t blown away. I’ve more so realized this now after just starting to read Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare and compared the writing – I love Cassie’s style, she’s very poetic, witty and enchants you, whereas Sarah J Maas is simple and dry. However, I don’t want to exaggerate, she did manage to create a special atmosphere in describing the Fey lands with all the magical places that seemed to die for!

Recommendable: for all the YA and fantasy lovers out there!

All in all, the review comes across kind of negative which I definetely did not intend: the small flaws of the start, the villain and the writing are only minor details that annoy me personally. Overall, the story was amazing and the characters incredible and I would recommend this to any of my followers!

Happy reading – have a great start of summer!