Hello my fellow bookworms,
Today's post is gonna be a good one because I will be reviewing Sarah J Maas' most recent book
A Court of Mist and Fury. The first half of this review will be spoiler free for those who haven't read ACOMAF, but have read
A Court of Thorns and Roses (The first book in the series).
The second half of the review is going to be a discussion which will include some
major spoilers, but don't worry, I will give you a warning when the spoilers are coming for you who haven't started or finished ACOMAF.
Let me start off by saying that this book is for ages 16+. It is a new adult, high fantasy. Despite what goodreads or Ibook or whatever site you're looking at says, this book is
not appropriate for anyone under the age of 16. I repeat, if you are under the age of 16, wait a couple years
then read it.
The reason behind my nagging is because there are actually quite a few explicit sex scenes in this and I mean full on, very descriptive, in-ya-face sex scenes. Honestly, coming from someone who doesn't
love sex scenes, I didn't mind the ones in ACOMAF at all. I thought Sarah (the author) wrote them in quite a classy way, which made the scenes kinda enjoyable.
Something I really enjoyed about this book was first of all: Feyre's PTSD. We all know back in the first book that Feyre went to hell and back to save Tamlin. She
literally died and came back to life. So after an event like that, there was honestly no doubt that she would be effected somehow. But the way the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was written and staged was so well done. I really understood how Feyre was feeling becuase it was translated onto the page so well. In some books I find characters with PTSD quite agitating and whiny (I don't blame them for being like that, but sometimes they annoy me), but the way that Feyre's illness is expressed was so well put and not really shoved in your face like "SHE HAS PTSD, PITY HER!!!" know what I mean?
I was so delighted to also discover more about the brooding, High Lord of the Night Court, Rhysand (pronounced Reese-sand). Rhys didn't have the
biggest role in ACOTAR and I just really wanted to learn more about him. This sequel definitely did not disappoint. I will talk about him more in the spoiler-filled portion of this review, but just know that you will learn so, so,
so much more about Rhys in this book.
There is of course evil and conflict in
A Court of Mist and Fury. The main plot of conflict is revolved around the King of Hybern who was talked about briefly in ACOTAR. If you don't remember, Hybern is a Fae country and in old times, before they built the wall separating them from the human realms, the humans were the fae's slaves. So you can no doubt imagine that the King of Hybern is probably not the nicest guy, but he basically wants to break down that wall and enslave the humans again.
All in all, I felt this was a fast paced book which was very surprising seeing as it was 600+ pages. Honestly, I do not think there was a single dull moment where I was 'bored', while reading
A Court of Mist and Fury. I gave it a
5/5 stars, but if I could I would give it 50/5 stars.
!!!SPOILER DISCUSSION!!!!
Lets begin by talking about all the new characters we get to meet in ACOMAF:
- There is of course Ianthe, my new least favourite character. From the moment of Feyre and Tamlin's attempted wedding I knew she was trouble. I didn't think she'd be such of a bitch to actually sell Feyre's sisters out to that Conniving Bastard of Hybern. Honestly, I hope Feyre melts Ianthe with her badass powers.
- Cassian. Cassian is kind of a ray of sunshine in Rhysand's court. He has a light, good sense of humour and always knows how to make someone smile. Then in the blink of an eye he can to into an Illyrian warrior in cool scaled armour. I was possibly the most heartbroken at the end of the book because of Cassian's wings. Illyrian warrior's love their wings and now Cassian's are shredded to pieces!
- I adore Azriel. Even though we don't learn too much about Azriel's character, I still think that even though he is a stone-cold warrior, he has that light side come out, like when he and Mor went to dance, I really want to see that side of him more often.
- Mor is such a strong and influential character. I actually see parts of Celaena Sardothien from Sarah J Maas' Throne of Glass series in Mor... maybe I'm the only one. I actually think Mor is an amazing influence on Feyre particularly, seeing as Feyre is gaining her emotional and physical strength. I dont know if I skimmed over these parts or was half asleep while reading them, but I am a little confused about how she is The Morrigan, I just don't understand her signifigance, but fear not, I will read up about her.
- Amren is like a nicer version of Manon Blackbeak (Also from the Throne of Glass series), even though she is a blood-sucking badass, she can be somewhat nice to Feyre and deep down, she really cares. I do want to hear more about what Amren is though, because I feel like the book touched on it, but didn't go into enough detail for me to truely understand Amren's character.
- And of course we get to know more about Nesta and Elain who are now Fae too! I strongly disliked Nesta in the first book, just because she was so mean to Feyre and so unforgiving. But now that I have seen this side of her that is so strong and willing to fight, I actually kind of like Nesta now. Elain, though. I still don't know enough about Elain, so I can't really judge her.
I think now I need to vent and rant about Tamlin. Tamlin, Tamlin, Tamlin. I feel as though my love for Tamlin slowly decreased by every page in the first several chapters. He's so blinded by his love for Feyre and it frustrates me so much because I can't really hate him because he thought what he was doing was right, but it really wasn't. It honestly makes me wonder- after seeing him in this new control-freak, selfish light- it makes me wonder if he was always this way. In ACOTAR was he this dominant? Or was it just his lust blinding him... or then again, was it his jealousy of Rhysand making him go nuts? I. Don't. Know.
The fact though that he was so blind towards anything but his love for Feyre makes me want to just askjsbfahj!!!11!! How could he not tell she was dying? He was seeing her full on naked and stuff, but couldn't tell how sick she was. He somehow didn't notice that she had nightmares every night, even when they slept right next to one another. He sat with her while they were supposed to eat in the morning, yet he didn't notice that she wasn't eating a thing. WHAT. THE. HECK?!? I noticed too that some things Tamlin would say sounded as though he assumed he owned Feyre and that really annoyed me too; she isn't his pet, he doesn't own her, she owns herself.
And I knew he was going to end up doing something so incredibly stupid, like bargaining with the enemy, so it wasn't a surprise to see him in the throne room at the end of the book.
But Lucien... I get he is so loyal to Tamlin, but there is a line. Lucien could tell how effected Feyre was and that she was ill, he wasn't blinded like Tamlin, but I think Lucien was too scared to defy Tamlin, or go against Tamlin's strict wishes of having Feyre confined to the Spring Court grounds.
So the sexual tension between Rhys and Feyre... can we take a moment to appreciate it! Those little notes they'd write to each other made me smile so freaking much. And then they turn out to be MATES!!!! MATESSSS. M. A. T. E. S. I am still processing that and then they went ahead and go married!? And then Feyre is suddenly HIGH LADY OF THE NIGHT COURT!!! And the bond!
I actually stopped breathing when their bond 'got broken.' I was so pissed because that was 500 pages worth of bond building and it just went in the blink of an eye. But their bond ran too deep and Rhys was like 'lol Feyre's our spy now.'
I am actually kind of scared for Tamlin in book 3.
Ok so I think this is enough of me ranting for one post. I might make a part 2 discussion, just to reel off more things I found A-MA-ZING with this book. As always, thank you for stopping by.
Happy reading,
Love Zoe
