A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

    I just finished A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, and I really enjoyed it!  For those of you who don’t know, this book is a fairy tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast involving faeries and humans.  It takes place in a world called Prythian where the land is divided in two by an invisible wall—three quarters of it belonging to faeries and a quarter belonging to humans.  There is some tension between the two sides and our main character, Feyre, gets thrown into it when she "accidentally" kills a faerie, violating the treaty set in place to keep the peace.  I give it a 90% rating and would highly recommend it!

SPOILER ALERT

    Now, lets discuss.  First of all, I felt a real connection to Feyre from the beginning.  I loved how determined and selfless she was--she reminded me a lot of Katniss Everdeen, but with more emotion.  I liked her subtle character development as well and how she seemed to open up and become more sassy and funny as she got to know Tamlin and Lucien better.  We got to know the real Feyre who wasn't focused on trying to survive which I really enjoyed reading.  

    In the beginning, she was definitely more cold and emotionless, but I guess she had to be with who she was spending her time with.  Nesta was horrible to her!  And Elaine and her father were just so helpless.  No wonder Feyre cared about them so much she'd sacrifice her lively hood for them, but at the same time wanted to get rid of them.  It was heartbreaking when Feyre revealed how Nesta's words hurt her--that Feyre feels she's insignificant and unremarkable and cold because of her sister.  I have a theory for why Nesta hates Feyre so much, though.  I thought it was strange that Feyre was the younger sister but was in this sort of parental role when normally that would be the older sister's job.  Maybe Nesta feels hostile to Feyre because she knows that should be her job, but doesn’t know how to do it since she grew up in luxury whereas Feyre didn't.  Their fortune was taken away from them before Feyre became accustomed to it.  Additionally, knowing all this makes the scene towards the middle of the book so much sweeter because we find out that Nesta actually came and tried to rescue Feyre from Tamlin.  I think that lifted a huge weight off Feyre's shoulders because she didn't feel the guilt of leaving her family behind or the fear that they forgot about her and didn't care about her.  It's a perfect example of not realizing what you have until it's gone.  It was really sweet, and I hope we hear from Nesta in the future.

    While I might not have liked Feyre's relationship with her sister, I absolutely LOVE her relationship with Tamlin!  Here were two broken people who had so much taken away from them, and they were able to find hope in each other.  Tamlin's curse was just horrible.  It broke my heart reading about how Tamlin had to send his friends across the wall to die in order to save the rest of his court.  He has such a kind soul, so no wonder he sent Feyre away when he learned Amarantha was on her way!  That was a little frustrating considering it was three days before the deadline, but I get it.  He was tired of seeing the people he cares about die and by sending Feyre away he was choosing to save her instead of giving Amarantha another person he loved.  Tamlin's family was also murdered leaving him in a role he didn't want to fill, so you could definitely say his life wasn't sunshine and rainbows.  It was just so beautiful reading about their love story and how they understood each other and were able to accept their flaws by loving the same flaws in the other, if that makes sense.  In the beginning, they both had their emotions and thoughts held under lock and key, and it was so satisfying to read about how they opened up to each other and helped shoulder the other's burdens.  Perfect duo, in my opinion.

    But I'm scared, now, because I have a feeling Rhysand is going to put some chinks in their relationship!  I hated Rhysand in the beginning, but now I just don't really trust him at all.  The way he treated Feyre throughout the entire book was like she was his property, which isn't okay with me.  He drugged her and made her do things she wasn't aware of and then licked her cheeks and stuck his tongue in her mouth, like what?  Did anyone else think the licking cheeks thing was weird?  I get that he was doing it to save her and the rest of the world from Amarantha, but seriously dude!  There wasn't another way you could get that done?  And why did he have to take her away from Tamlin for one week a month for the rest of eternity?  I don't get why he had to do that, but maybe that will become clear in the next book.  I really want to know what his relationship with Tamlin is as well because we know Rhysand's father killed Tamlin's father, but we haven't seen them interact with each other yet.  How will Tamlin react to Feyre and Rhysand's bargain?  He was upset when he saw the tattoo on Feyre's arm, but he still doesn't know the extent of the agreement, so I really want to know how all of that is going to go down.  Towards the end I also got the feeling that Rhysand is starting to really like Feyre, so I'm guessing there will be some sort of love triangle going on?  I can feel the sexual tension already.

    Speaking of sexual tension, what is the deal with Amarantha trying to force people to love her?  First she makes Rhysand be her whore and then she's torturing Tamlin because he doesn't love her.  The only explanation I've come up with is that Amarantha loves to play games.  She's punishing Rhysand because his father killed Tamlin's father, who was apparently close to Amarantha during the war.  Tamlin refuses to be her lover and then says her sister loves Jurian more than her, so she puts a curse on him and his entire court and forces them to wear masks until the curse is broken.  And then she sets up the three trials for Feyre...do I need to say anything more?  There's a part of me that felt sorry for her when we learned what happened to her sister, but that doesn't excuse everything she's done and what she was planning to do.  I'm happy we won't need to deal with her and her twisted mind ever again!

    Some questions I still have, though, is what the King of Hybern's role will be in the next few books.  Amarantha is dead, but I'm afraid that the King of Hybern might be even worse.  I'm still kind of confused about him, too, like how did he come to rule an entire island, yet the seven High Lords in Prythian only get a little land?  Is Hybern a separate country from Prythian?  Why did he have to sign the treaty with the humans if he never dealt with them?  He didn't have to split his lands with the mortals, so why does he care what they do?  The way I see it is that the King of Hybern is this power hungry ruler who wants to expand his land and in order to do that the humans need to be destroyed.  Maybe they'll be more answers to this as the series goes on.  

    I'm also excited to see how Feyre adapts to being a High Fae.  She's such a strong, brave, stubborn character that I think it will be really interesting to see what she does now that she's immortal and has a new body.  Will she have any cool powers?  Now that she's also going to live forever, she's going to have the guilt of killing those innocent faeries with her for her entire life, and since guilt kind of shut her down after leaving her family, I want to see how she'll carry it this time.  I think Tamlin will be able to help her a lot, but we don't know what he went through while Under the Mountain.  I was positive they would be able to work through it together, but now that Rhysand is adding another element, I'm not too sure.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

    Let me know what you thought of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas in the comments!