A Court Of Thorns And Roses Discussion

Hey! So instead of writing up a review for the highly anticipated new Sarah J Maas book, A Court Of

Thorns And Roses, I thought I'd do a discussion sort of thing, because it's only recently out, and I want to recommend it, but I don't really know how I feel about it. So here is a spoiler-free discussion!

A Court Of Thorns And Roses, or ACOTAR, is about faeries. The main character, Feyre, is a human girl growing up in a faery-occupied world. She is a huntress, and one day, whilst hunting, she makes a huge mistake and is sucked into a faery world. Here is the blurb;

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.

Now, Sarah J Maas is my favourite author, probably. She's definitely up there with Cassandra Clare and Jandy Nelson. I adore Throne Of Glass, I really do, they're some of my favourite books. But this book did not live up to the standard I hoped it would.

Feyre felt like a more chilled Celaena (of Throne Of Glass). I liked her, but she didn't make me yell "MY SWEET BROKEN CINNAMON ROLL" like my other favourite SJM characters do. I felt like she was a bit more passive than Celaena, that she was a bit more observant rather than reactant.

I also feel that the narration would've been better in third person. The first person worked fine, but I must admit, I prefer my fantasies in third. I would've liked a few chapters in Tamlin's (the love interest) POV, or some of the other characters like Lucien (Tamlin's best friend).

The thing I was most thankful for in this book was the lack of love triangle. There was so much potential for a cheesy, horrible love triangle between Tamlin/Feyre/Lucien, or even Tamlin/Feyre/Rhysand, and I was so, so relieved that never happened. I loved that the friendship between Feyre/Lucien was completely platonic, and that Tamlin never needed to get jealous. We need more platonic relationships in YA.

I would have loved to see more female characters, though. Besides Feyre and her briefly appearing sisters, the only female characters we saw were Feyre's maid in Tamlin's court, Alis, and the evil faery queen.

The pacing of this book was hard to follow with. The start was fairly slow and romancey, and the end was fast, dangerous and bloody. There were some points in this book where it was hard to persevere (and maybe it's because I'm in a reading slump), despite the beautiful writing. I even had to stop and read another book before I could bring myself to finish the book.

Tamlin was just a bit dry, to be perfectly honest. He was quite solemn and stoic, and I did like him, but I would've loved to see some more developing of his character. I did, however, love his friend, Lucien. And another character, Rhys... well, you can form your own opinions about Rhys when you read the book.

ACOTAR was a good book. I did enjoy it, despite everything I've said here. I would recommend it to fans of Throne Of Glass and the Iron Fey series. So go and read it, then come back here and I might even write up a full review.

See you all next week!

Lily xoxo