Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - A Court of Wings and Ruin

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A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

70 reviews

csmall73's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my 2nd favorite book of the series. I am a huge fan of feyre and her destruction of the spring court. Burn it all to the ground baby. Did not think it was possible to fall harder for rhysand. The political intrigue in the book is intriguing not angsty. The battles epic and realistic reactions to experiencing such things. I love the built family and the support they all have for one another.

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emmerylynn's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I read this book so quickly; I could not put it down!!! Feyre's development went OFF! There were some really tense scenes and, again, so many Maas-esque twists and turns. However, I wish there were some actual character deaths. It seems that Maas added some "deus ex machina" plotlines/characters to ensure no main characters died. I think the plot would've been more poignant if we saw some actual sacrifices made. Of course, I want to see all these characters thriving; however, it just did not seem realistic. There are also sooo many unanswered questions at the end, which do not seem to be addressed in the conclusion.

EDIT: I’ve now read this book twice and it is a literal masterpiece. The questions left unanswered do get explained in later books.

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jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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meghansarmiento97's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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helena_sq's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

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merenguita's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Okay so I liked it overall I guess, I mostly enjoyed it but I don't think it's a very good ending to this story (I know there are more books but the arc that was building up for now ends here) and there was a lot of missed potential.
First of all I don't think Sarah J. Maas knows hot to write action properly, which would be fine if the whole ending of the book wasn't set up to be a full on war. So we get to just watch from afar for most of it because Feyre doesn't really fight much and even when she participates it's quite boring tbh. The scene in the second book where Feyra defends Velaris is a lot better so I don't know why this was so boring for me.
Also I think there are some scenes that are there just to shock the reader and don't really make sense

Like when Feyra doesn't tell Rhysand or anybody about the Bone Carver, I get why she doesn't say anyhting before but she should've said somehting after so that the soldiers are prepared! same thing for Rhysand and his bargain with the Weaver

And the romance also became kind of stale, there wasn't much development and Rhysand kinda bored me in this book tbh... but Tamlin became an intresting character so it was fine.
I will say something good: There were some scenes that were *chef's kiss* and got me on the edge of my seat, when there are politics discussions, all the history and different characters being put in the open was very intresting.
And then there are some choices for the ending that I didn't like or even kind of pissed me off, that made no sense in my opinion.
About Rhysand:

He should've died honestly... if you're going to get him to give everything in him so he has a dying scene and nobody can do anything about it AND even say that the magic that turned Feyre shouldn't work, well, IT SHOULDN'T WORK. Fake out deaths can be done correctly and this is not it

About Amren and the stakes of the war:

Again, she should've died, it was kinda emotional, gave her a good ending, a good ending speech I think, it made sense that she was the one to create the turning point to win the war and then she's just back... just like that. And her + Rhysand coming back to life, Cassian surviving when EVERYBODY said he wouldn't... in the end no one important dies and the war doesn't really feel that devastating

About the dad:

So yeah, he dies but I don't think he counts as an important character, so the last statement stands, but I would like to say i quite liked that he reappeared and got a chance to talk to his daughters and that Nesta gets so emotionally hurt after everything, it makes sense and I like it

About Lucien:

SO MUCH MISSED POTENTIAL, I wish he would've been more present for the story, so that we could see some character growth but instead we just get him pining over Elain just 'coz they're mates (I don't like the mate system in general)

About Tamlin:

I think I liked his arch in general, because it was more dynamic and intresting than most of the characters but his ending was a bit underwhelming... I think it would've been fine if he just hugged or tried to apologise to Lucien and had stated to heal the relationship with his best friend

So yeah... Maybe it deserves less than 3 stars but because I have more trouble with the second half of the book than the first, which I enjoyed more so that's what I'm giving it.

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tierneymichele's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book gave me so much satisfaction- the plotting and revenge are beautiful to me, regardless of consequences. Another masterpiece.

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amelisan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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midnacine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

**spoilers for A Court of Mist and Fury**

I didn't think I'd have the energy to write this review. But here we are. Let me preface this review by stating I believe SJM to be a problematic author and have been reading this series with a grain of salt. I also wanted to be clear that I changed my rating of the previous book earlier today so I could accurately rate this one.

Looking at this book as a whole, I definitely enjoyed it more than I did ACOMAF. There weren't nearly as many cringy spice scenes, which I definitely appreciated, and the supporting characters finally got their chance to take more of a main role in the story. With that being said, I had a lot of issues, detailed in the spoiler section:

The entire first half of the book was exhausting to read, mostly because there was just a lot of Feyre continuing to make excuses for Rhys and refusing to acknowledge the fact that Rhys is just as bad as Tamlin. I think it took me until like 55% in order to actually sit down and commit to finishing it. After that, once the story had shifted focus to the war and the subplots with Cassian, Nesta, and the other High Lords it was fairly easy for me to get through.

The other glaring issues for me were as follows:

1. Rhys' virtue signaling (especially when it came to the Priestesses in the library)
2. The heteronormative bullshit of the mating bonds and then SJM dropping a bunch of queer people in without actually developing the relationships between them and their partners and not even offering both the characters names
3. The amount of abuse apologists among the main characters but especially in Feyre
4. The repetitive use of certain words and/or phrases (I stopped counting how many times "vulgar gesture" and "black adamant" were used)
5. So many times throughout the book where Feyre "revealed" something that felt like it was already known or just common sense
6. The plot hole of Feyre's dad having gathered this massive army and showing up at precisely the right moment when he didn't even know Hybern existed
7. Amren coming back after having this beautifully poetic send-off as the ultimate sacrifice - it just completely ruined the impact of the moment

Tbh I'm just really excited to finally be done with Feyre and Rhys' story and move on to Nesta and Cassian, and possibly Elain and Lucien. I'm just so much more interested in them. However not excited for the **SPOILER FOR ACOFAS** pregnancy trope I know is coming in the next few books. So yeah, I guess we'll see how it goes.

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vaguely_pink's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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