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A review by tanya_tate
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
3.0
Spoilers! (Somewhat)
Edit 1 05/10/2017 Tamlin Rant
Edit 2 05/18/2017 Did Tamlin get redeemed?
Edit 3 05/30/2017 Due to the fact that Flame in the Mist was a such a disappointment that I DNFed it @34% while I did finish this one and enjoyed it (even if I had major problems with it) I'm moving it to 4.5 stars. So now it's officially a five star on here ( until GR get off their asses and create half stars)
Edit 4 10/17/2017 The word "Perhaps" was used 203 times while the word "Mate" was used 194 times....
Edit 5 With more consideration I'm dropping this to 3 stars.
OG Review 4 Stars!
Oh boy boy boy boy boy.
My most anticipated book of 2017.
The book I been dying to have in my hands since May of last year.
Was it as good? Yes but not without its disappointments
Was it better than ACOMAF? Hell No! Not by a freaking long shot.
Ok Let’s start off with the Good.
The characters are probably the reason why I'm giving it a four. Everyone was pretty much solid in this book for the most part.. Although it not to say they didn't have their moments that I wanted to strangle or smack them across the head for the decisions they made ( Cough Neasta,Rhys and Feyre to a certain extent)
High Lady Feyre" Cursebreaker" Acheron : She slayed in this book big time! She was straight up badass from being a sneaky bitch in the Spring Court to see her grow in all three books is truly a blessing to see and I'm so glad I was along for the ride. From a starving huntress to the badass High Lady to the Night Court. She deserves the little sisters award for being the best damn little sister you can ever have! ( Little sisters unite!) I'm so sad to see her story ending but I'm so happy with the ending she's got! Be happy in Valaris Baby Girl! You deserved it. She's truly a Badass Protag!
High Lord Rhysand: Oh Lawd! Where do I begin with him? I honestly went from hating his guts in ACOTAR to him being second on my book boyfriend/ husband's list behind Mamoru Chiba! He really did sneak up on me because I really thought he was going to be the typical " bad boy" character that was misunderstood until the love of a good woman change him of his ways. The way half the fandom gravitated to him at the end of ACOTAR even after knowing all the unethical shit he did, made me really think that way. I have seen so many fandoms who excused a character who did horrible things to a main character in order to ship it and because that character was so hot. (cough Gaston from BATB, Kylo Ren from Star Wars, and Diamond from Sailor Moon) So I was really really wary of his character at end cause I know it was a possibly that he was going to become a love interest. .I respected him since if wasn't for him, Feyre wouldn't made it but I couldn't stand his ass. ACOMAF took me for a loop with his character because this is not Rhysand by a long shot. He was ALWAYS a good,kind hearted and sarcastic person who played that role in order to save his friends and the people he love. He just finally showed that side to Feyre as he started to fall in love with her. Yes he did explain his actions but he didn't excuse them at all and actually apologized to her. He sacrificed so freaking much in order to protect the people he loves for freakin 50 years! He always thought of himself as a monster but he never was one at all. Him trying to prove that he's not one still flows through ACOWAR to the point that I wanted to smack for still being so self-sacrificing again. He's such a good character and I'm so glad he's finally getting the happiness he deserved along with Feyre and the fam. ( Praise the lord we finally get to really see how powerful he is! Lawd!)
The Dream Squad! * plays clique*
Mor: I really hope she gets the happiness that she deserves because she's just awesome. Everything about her character arc actually makes sense. Yeah I know everyone wants to say SJM pull that out her ass for the sake of diversity but she never made Moriel a ship tho. She just actually proved that because someone give long glances to someone that they should automatically be a ship. . Ha guess again!
Amren: MEAN OL' AUNTIE AMREN TO SAVE THE DAY!!!!
Cassian: *fans self* Love you boo!! Only you can make killing folks look sexy!!
Aziel:Please find happiness!! (cough with Elain cough)
The Acheron Sisters: When a 500 plus old king is scared of you and trying to be very petty,you know that you are a badasses. Nesta and Elain come through for their little badass sister when she needed them to be. Nesta really come through because I went from wanting to pop her to wanting to high five her. I hope that one of the novella is about her to see how she fully deal with not having the cauldron powers anymore, her father's death and her feelings towards Cassian.
Lucien: One of those novella’s be about him Sarah! I'm not happy that wasn't in a nice bit of the book! He's almost like the Chaol of ACOTAR! ( cough I hope he ends up with Vessa ..cough I'm not saying I ship Elain and Az tho... )
Tamlin: I'm going to pray for you.... You need to get some of that salt off.... Everytime I think about feeling a little sympathy for you, I think about the fact you called the woman that you supposed to have loved,a whore to her face in a meeting of your peers...That you are playing on how Feyre felt that she was a traitor when she started to get over you and starting to fall for Rhys in a short period of time. Everytime I think about that you gave her father and sister money for their estate, I think about the fact how you locked her in that house and didn't realized that she was wasting away. Everytime I think about the fact that you did save her from Hybern , I think about the fact you sided with Hybern in order to get her back which you sold everyone out. Every time I want to feel sorry for you losing support of your men, I think about the fact you killed some of them which you realize Feyre was gone and then side with Ianthe instead of them. Sure you gave a bit of your power to revive Rhys which you told her to be happy, but doesn't excuse none of your actions since you haven't apologized the her. So Tamlin, you don't get any pity from me because everytime I want to feel pity, I think about the things you done and will not accept responsibility for. In the words of Feyre " You don't get to rewrite the narrative" ( I think that Sarah was listening to Hamilton when she wrote that.)
Beron and Eris: I'm going to pray for yall too and hopefully yall don't end up dead soon. I guess you only have four sons now....
Ianthe: Tell Bellatrix hello for me! :-)
The Suriel: Say hello to Dobby for me as well! :-)
Hybern: Tell Sauron and Voldemort hello in hell!
As far as the new characters go, the next trilogy better be about Miryam/Drakon so I need a prequel badly! (Also novellas about Winter and Day courts rulers)
Diversity: SJM actually listened to her fans on this. Was it perfect? No But it's a start and I applaud her for it. Hopefully the next set of ACOTAR Books will have even more. I just hope that next time it feel more organic and not something she have to do in order to get people off her back.
The last 100 pages took me on another level or bawling.
The battle scenes was so freaking lit! I feel like I was watching Braveheart!
Let's get to the disappointment.
The pacing: Something was very off with the pacing of this book. One moment I was engaged and the next moment I was like " get on with it and stop slogging your feet. In all the updates I've seen in my GR feed this is what everyone been saying the most. They feel like they are slogging to get through it. It all honestly it shouldn't been a 700 page book. SJM could have have honestly took at least 100 pages off. ( not the last 100 which was the saving grace of this book.)
The writing: Where do I begin with this? To show you how the writing in this book wasn't that great I'm going to tell you the number or passages or quotes I highlighted that I deemed memorable with both ACOMAF and ACOWAR. I think I highlight now
ACOMAF : 105 Highlights
ACOWAR: 16 Highlights
This shows you that ACOWAR wasn't quite as memorable or quotable to me as ACOMAF. ACOMAF had quotes that were like tattoo deemable to me. ( If I ever got a tattoo) I don't know what happen with the quality of the writing in this one. It's like right now, I'm honestly trying to rack my brain on what honestly happen in majority of this book which means I reread will happen later this year. (It’s sad I know). I stg I don't want to see the words " Perhaps, Male, or Mate" in a book in a while cause SJM relied on those three damn words to damn much. It didn't make any sense to keep on using mate that much because she could have use husband/wife she Feyre and Rhys discussed what they should call each other in ACOMAF. She could have rotated with them and use My High Lord/Lady as well. I really think that scene when Beron insults Feyre after she tries to drown him would have been more powerful if he would have said " Don't insult My High Lady" instead of my mate. Oh well..
Also this book really exposed the weakness of having one 1st pov when it had the chance to having another pov which could have strengthen it. SJM should have written more chapters in Rhys' pov instead of just two. Especially when him and Feyre were separated when she was still in the spring court and during the battles. Seeing the battles in her pov was kind of disservice because she really wasn't in the thick of things in all the battles while Rhys was right in the thick of it. So you really couldn't get the sense of how dire things were in the battle field when the person whose head we're in was on mountain tops watching it. I was really disappointed with the second battle when she actually left where they was battling at and we didn't know what happen to everyone until the battle was over. It was only once we short of saw things in his perceptive during a battle and the only reason why because she was in his mind. I don't think it would have hurt to have switching povs in order to get the whole scope of everything which was a lot in this book..
Also it was lot of " tell don't show" in this book which was very disappointing. I know Sarah has always did this but she really did it in this book. Yes Rhys Thank you for telling me that one of the biggest plot points in the whole story aka the wall that separates the mortal and fae lands fell instead of actually showing me falling. It still a “oh shit " moment but it subdued because we didn't actually see it fall! The wall become an afterthought instead of something they been trying to prevent from falling since the first freaking book!
One of the things SJM is very good at is interweaved other stories into her story. If you look at the ACOTAR series as a whole, it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling mixed in with Hades and Persephone, Eros and Psyche, and the ballad of Tam Lin. She interweaves the stories that we know into her story really well. I feel like in this one she didn't execute it as well as she did in the other two books. It's ok to take a well-known Bible Story and incorporate it in your story but not pretty much take the whole thing without interweaving your own creativity in it that you have to look hard to find it. Now she did do well with the Snow White illusions but it was more to be desired with that as well. She did well with the poison apples but so much more to done with the mirror in my opinion.
It was others things with the writing too like leaving some storylines open. I understand leaving some storylines open since it supposed to be spinoffs but what's the point of not really giving Feyre and Tamlin true closure? Sure Him telling her to be happy and she sending him a thank you note and wanting him to be happy as well is fine but it really would have been nice to see them actually talk and finally clearing the air between them. For him to actually apologized for what he did and to apologized for what she did at the spring court and them to make an amends. SJM books have been very relatable when it comes to relationships and to me that wasn't relatable. Especially the fact when in her other books you had one couple who talked it over and truly made amends. Do I wanted Feyre and him to become friends? Not really. Did I want them to clear the air so wouldn't get in the away of court business anymore? Yes. Especially the fact how salty and disrespectful he was towards her during the court meeting. I just really wanted him to realize what he's done so won't happen again.
Did Tamlin get redeemed?
To me he really didn't get redeemed . Just because he did those two things at the end to help Feyre doesn't make him redeemed. He can easily throw those two things back at Feyre when he want to act salty. He Just like he threw the fact that he help her father and sister out in ACOTAR. He can also throw back at her face that he told her "Be Happy" as well. If he truly got redeemed then he would have apologized for Feyre for his actions and they would have made amends. Since that didn't happen,he didn't get redeemed because he didn't learn to take responsibly for his actions .That would have been the first step to me cause he would have realized that what he was did to Feyre was killing her and would try to correct his behavior before he does it to someone else. Feyre wishing him happiness is her saying that she's done with him and it's no point for her to hold bitterness in her heart for him. She move on and she's going to have a happy life. He's the one that got to get his shit together if he really wants too. So in all honestly he didn't get away with everything for the following reasons:
He's court or soldiers don't trust him anymore.
He doesn't have Feyre anymore.
He doesn't have his friend who he treated like shit anymore.
The other high lords probably can't trust anymore since he was siding with Hybern most the time.
He lost everything and he only got himself to blame for it. Either he continues to blame others for it or take full responsibility for it.
Also one of reasons I love SJM so much is she turn tropes on their heads and say fuck this shit. If you read my final review of ACOMAF I wrote last sunday, I said that one of my fave things about it that it took the whole love triangle and turn it on it's heads. This book started to feel too tropey to me cause it feel like she started to throw all the tropes at it. Some examples
Bad guy that actually good guy working from the inside: Well Jurian, Snape did it better than you.
Jilted ex-lover acting like an ass: Turn down the salt Tamlin
Someone had an affair with someone's wife and this character is this character's dad : How many soap operas have you been watching to do that to Lucien, Sarah?
A good character may have betrayed a character but really they didn't: Side eye at Amren.
It's many more she committed but that's main ones I can think of right off the bat.
Feysand Smut: Sigh. See I love my smut as much as I love my fluff (believe me I'm called the the Sailor Moon Fanfic Smut Queen on tumblr) but SJM goes overboard with it every single time when she finally puts her main couples together. I love seeing sexy times in books but it's a time and place for it.
Reunion sex after her being gone for a month? Yes Please! Smiling Ear to Ear with that!
"Sex for breakfast "? Ok ! Fine before Cassian kicks her ass in training.
Almost Libary Sex? You're pushing it! Just stay fluffy with that! ! I need yall to be finding information to help yall with the wall.
Massage the Back sex? Well orgasms supposed to relax the body and muscles so...... You get a pass on that one..
War Camp Tent sex twice? JUST WHY?? We are in war yall! Especially the second one when I was like “Boy you just fought all day! Take your ass to bed to save your energy and stop trying to play hanky panky with her!!"
Were they as bad as Rowan/Aelin? No but she was pushing it since she was trying to be coy with it and not all go all out like chapter 55 in ACOMAF.
Their relationship as whole was awesome since they still had the banter,( I was on the ground laughing at some of it) , they really showed they had each other backs to the end ,and communicated a lot. Although he should have told her about his contrived plot for Mor's daddy and the Fall court to join them but that's for another day. I love them to bits which I though was never going to happen....
Also what happen to Isaac Hale??? I guess he's the Gale of ACOTAR..... Well Gale and Hale Rhymes! Well played Sarah!
All and All I really was expecting so much more but the fact these characters that I love got the happy ending they deserved, I'm ok with it. It's not perfect by a long shot but sloppy but I'm happy with the outcome. It just also shows that we need to be very careful on how we hype books in the book community. Everyone and their baby mama was ready for this book which made it kind of overwhelming seeing my GR update feed being flooded with it.
ACOMAF will still be the best book in the series no doubt about it but I still love the series as a whole.
One more thing
When the first eight chapters come out on overdrive, it was a little discourse about it being a little acephobia towards the beginning. With the whole twin thing, you have to look at the whole context of the situation and not just that paragraph which people are not doing. Feyre was observing them looking at disinterested at Ianthe trying to impress them. A person who waited until the perfect time to make her entrance to meet the twins and flounces around the Spring Court like she’s the baddest bitch there. A person who loves the power she has over men and women. A person who in the next chapters was freaking pissed that Feyre upstaged her during the Summer rite and trying to get back in favor. Feyre was shocked at the fact they showed no emotion towards her flouncing but more into themselves which she considers soulless. It just shows to me that Feyre still got a little naivety in her. Also physical passion doesn’t have to mean you want to have sex with a person. I mean Feyre has physical passion for Tamlin and Ianthe because she passionately wants to cause physical harm to them. That's my take on it.
Last thing
Since Lucien's "surname" was released everyone was wonder what Rhysand's was.
Is it obvious what it is?
It's Acheron! He took hers. :-D
You can also read my review on my blog!
https://tanyasreading.wordpress.com/2017/05/07/a-court-of-wings-and-ruin-by-sarah-j-maas/
Edit 1 05/10/2017 Tamlin Rant
Edit 2 05/18/2017 Did Tamlin get redeemed?
Edit 3 05/30/2017 Due to the fact that Flame in the Mist was a such a disappointment that I DNFed it @34% while I did finish this one and enjoyed it (even if I had major problems with it) I'm moving it to 4.5 stars. So now it's officially a five star on here ( until GR get off their asses and create half stars)
Edit 4 10/17/2017 The word "Perhaps" was used 203 times while the word "Mate" was used 194 times....
Edit 5 With more consideration I'm dropping this to 3 stars.
OG Review 4 Stars!
Oh boy boy boy boy boy.
My most anticipated book of 2017.
The book I been dying to have in my hands since May of last year.
Was it as good? Yes but not without its disappointments
Was it better than ACOMAF? Hell No! Not by a freaking long shot.
Ok Let’s start off with the Good.
The characters are probably the reason why I'm giving it a four. Everyone was pretty much solid in this book for the most part.. Although it not to say they didn't have their moments that I wanted to strangle or smack them across the head for the decisions they made ( Cough Neasta,Rhys and Feyre to a certain extent)
High Lady Feyre" Cursebreaker" Acheron : She slayed in this book big time! She was straight up badass from being a sneaky bitch in the Spring Court to see her grow in all three books is truly a blessing to see and I'm so glad I was along for the ride. From a starving huntress to the badass High Lady to the Night Court. She deserves the little sisters award for being the best damn little sister you can ever have! ( Little sisters unite!) I'm so sad to see her story ending but I'm so happy with the ending she's got! Be happy in Valaris Baby Girl! You deserved it. She's truly a Badass Protag!
High Lord Rhysand: Oh Lawd! Where do I begin with him? I honestly went from hating his guts in ACOTAR to him being second on my book boyfriend/ husband's list behind Mamoru Chiba! He really did sneak up on me because I really thought he was going to be the typical " bad boy" character that was misunderstood until the love of a good woman change him of his ways. The way half the fandom gravitated to him at the end of ACOTAR even after knowing all the unethical shit he did, made me really think that way. I have seen so many fandoms who excused a character who did horrible things to a main character in order to ship it and because that character was so hot. (cough Gaston from BATB, Kylo Ren from Star Wars, and Diamond from Sailor Moon) So I was really really wary of his character at end cause I know it was a possibly that he was going to become a love interest. .I respected him since if wasn't for him, Feyre wouldn't made it but I couldn't stand his ass. ACOMAF took me for a loop with his character because this is not Rhysand by a long shot. He was ALWAYS a good,kind hearted and sarcastic person who played that role in order to save his friends and the people he love. He just finally showed that side to Feyre as he started to fall in love with her. Yes he did explain his actions but he didn't excuse them at all and actually apologized to her. He sacrificed so freaking much in order to protect the people he loves for freakin 50 years! He always thought of himself as a monster but he never was one at all. Him trying to prove that he's not one still flows through ACOWAR to the point that I wanted to smack for still being so self-sacrificing again. He's such a good character and I'm so glad he's finally getting the happiness he deserved along with Feyre and the fam. ( Praise the lord we finally get to really see how powerful he is! Lawd!)
The Dream Squad! * plays clique*
Mor: I really hope she gets the happiness that she deserves because she's just awesome. Everything about her character arc actually makes sense. Yeah I know everyone wants to say SJM pull that out her ass for the sake of diversity but she never made Moriel a ship tho. She just actually proved that because someone give long glances to someone that they should automatically be a ship. . Ha guess again!
Amren: MEAN OL' AUNTIE AMREN TO SAVE THE DAY!!!!
Cassian: *fans self* Love you boo!! Only you can make killing folks look sexy!!
Aziel:Please find happiness!! (cough with Elain cough)
The Acheron Sisters: When a 500 plus old king is scared of you and trying to be very petty,you know that you are a badasses. Nesta and Elain come through for their little badass sister when she needed them to be. Nesta really come through because I went from wanting to pop her to wanting to high five her. I hope that one of the novella is about her to see how she fully deal with not having the cauldron powers anymore, her father's death and her feelings towards Cassian.
Lucien: One of those novella’s be about him Sarah! I'm not happy that wasn't in a nice bit of the book! He's almost like the Chaol of ACOTAR! ( cough I hope he ends up with Vessa ..cough I'm not saying I ship Elain and Az tho... )
Tamlin: I'm going to pray for you.... You need to get some of that salt off.... Everytime I think about feeling a little sympathy for you, I think about the fact you called the woman that you supposed to have loved,a whore to her face in a meeting of your peers...That you are playing on how Feyre felt that she was a traitor when she started to get over you and starting to fall for Rhys in a short period of time. Everytime I think about that you gave her father and sister money for their estate, I think about the fact how you locked her in that house and didn't realized that she was wasting away. Everytime I think about the fact that you did save her from Hybern , I think about the fact you sided with Hybern in order to get her back which you sold everyone out. Every time I want to feel sorry for you losing support of your men, I think about the fact you killed some of them which you realize Feyre was gone and then side with Ianthe instead of them. Sure you gave a bit of your power to revive Rhys which you told her to be happy, but doesn't excuse none of your actions since you haven't apologized the her. So Tamlin, you don't get any pity from me because everytime I want to feel pity, I think about the things you done and will not accept responsibility for. In the words of Feyre " You don't get to rewrite the narrative" ( I think that Sarah was listening to Hamilton when she wrote that.)
Beron and Eris: I'm going to pray for yall too and hopefully yall don't end up dead soon. I guess you only have four sons now....
Ianthe: Tell Bellatrix hello for me! :-)
The Suriel: Say hello to Dobby for me as well! :-)
Hybern: Tell Sauron and Voldemort hello in hell!
As far as the new characters go, the next trilogy better be about Miryam/Drakon so I need a prequel badly! (Also novellas about Winter and Day courts rulers)
Diversity: SJM actually listened to her fans on this. Was it perfect? No But it's a start and I applaud her for it. Hopefully the next set of ACOTAR Books will have even more. I just hope that next time it feel more organic and not something she have to do in order to get people off her back.
The last 100 pages took me on another level or bawling.
The battle scenes was so freaking lit! I feel like I was watching Braveheart!
Let's get to the disappointment.
The pacing: Something was very off with the pacing of this book. One moment I was engaged and the next moment I was like " get on with it and stop slogging your feet. In all the updates I've seen in my GR feed this is what everyone been saying the most. They feel like they are slogging to get through it. It all honestly it shouldn't been a 700 page book. SJM could have have honestly took at least 100 pages off. ( not the last 100 which was the saving grace of this book.)
The writing: Where do I begin with this? To show you how the writing in this book wasn't that great I'm going to tell you the number or passages or quotes I highlighted that I deemed memorable with both ACOMAF and ACOWAR. I think I highlight now
ACOMAF : 105 Highlights
ACOWAR: 16 Highlights
This shows you that ACOWAR wasn't quite as memorable or quotable to me as ACOMAF. ACOMAF had quotes that were like tattoo deemable to me. ( If I ever got a tattoo) I don't know what happen with the quality of the writing in this one. It's like right now, I'm honestly trying to rack my brain on what honestly happen in majority of this book which means I reread will happen later this year. (It’s sad I know). I stg I don't want to see the words " Perhaps, Male, or Mate" in a book in a while cause SJM relied on those three damn words to damn much. It didn't make any sense to keep on using mate that much because she could have use husband/wife she Feyre and Rhys discussed what they should call each other in ACOMAF. She could have rotated with them and use My High Lord/Lady as well. I really think that scene when Beron insults Feyre after she tries to drown him would have been more powerful if he would have said " Don't insult My High Lady" instead of my mate. Oh well..
Also this book really exposed the weakness of having one 1st pov when it had the chance to having another pov which could have strengthen it. SJM should have written more chapters in Rhys' pov instead of just two. Especially when him and Feyre were separated when she was still in the spring court and during the battles. Seeing the battles in her pov was kind of disservice because she really wasn't in the thick of things in all the battles while Rhys was right in the thick of it. So you really couldn't get the sense of how dire things were in the battle field when the person whose head we're in was on mountain tops watching it. I was really disappointed with the second battle when she actually left where they was battling at and we didn't know what happen to everyone until the battle was over. It was only once we short of saw things in his perceptive during a battle and the only reason why because she was in his mind. I don't think it would have hurt to have switching povs in order to get the whole scope of everything which was a lot in this book..
Also it was lot of " tell don't show" in this book which was very disappointing. I know Sarah has always did this but she really did it in this book. Yes Rhys Thank you for telling me that one of the biggest plot points in the whole story aka the wall that separates the mortal and fae lands fell instead of actually showing me falling. It still a “oh shit " moment but it subdued because we didn't actually see it fall! The wall become an afterthought instead of something they been trying to prevent from falling since the first freaking book!
One of the things SJM is very good at is interweaved other stories into her story. If you look at the ACOTAR series as a whole, it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling mixed in with Hades and Persephone, Eros and Psyche, and the ballad of Tam Lin. She interweaves the stories that we know into her story really well. I feel like in this one she didn't execute it as well as she did in the other two books. It's ok to take a well-known Bible Story and incorporate it in your story but not pretty much take the whole thing without interweaving your own creativity in it that you have to look hard to find it. Now she did do well with the Snow White illusions but it was more to be desired with that as well. She did well with the poison apples but so much more to done with the mirror in my opinion.
It was others things with the writing too like leaving some storylines open. I understand leaving some storylines open since it supposed to be spinoffs but what's the point of not really giving Feyre and Tamlin true closure? Sure Him telling her to be happy and she sending him a thank you note and wanting him to be happy as well is fine but it really would have been nice to see them actually talk and finally clearing the air between them. For him to actually apologized for what he did and to apologized for what she did at the spring court and them to make an amends. SJM books have been very relatable when it comes to relationships and to me that wasn't relatable. Especially the fact when in her other books you had one couple who talked it over and truly made amends. Do I wanted Feyre and him to become friends? Not really. Did I want them to clear the air so wouldn't get in the away of court business anymore? Yes. Especially the fact how salty and disrespectful he was towards her during the court meeting. I just really wanted him to realize what he's done so won't happen again.
Did Tamlin get redeemed?
To me he really didn't get redeemed . Just because he did those two things at the end to help Feyre doesn't make him redeemed. He can easily throw those two things back at Feyre when he want to act salty. He Just like he threw the fact that he help her father and sister out in ACOTAR. He can also throw back at her face that he told her "Be Happy" as well. If he truly got redeemed then he would have apologized for Feyre for his actions and they would have made amends. Since that didn't happen,he didn't get redeemed because he didn't learn to take responsibly for his actions .That would have been the first step to me cause he would have realized that what he was did to Feyre was killing her and would try to correct his behavior before he does it to someone else. Feyre wishing him happiness is her saying that she's done with him and it's no point for her to hold bitterness in her heart for him. She move on and she's going to have a happy life. He's the one that got to get his shit together if he really wants too. So in all honestly he didn't get away with everything for the following reasons:
He's court or soldiers don't trust him anymore.
He doesn't have Feyre anymore.
He doesn't have his friend who he treated like shit anymore.
The other high lords probably can't trust anymore since he was siding with Hybern most the time.
He lost everything and he only got himself to blame for it. Either he continues to blame others for it or take full responsibility for it.
Also one of reasons I love SJM so much is she turn tropes on their heads and say fuck this shit. If you read my final review of ACOMAF I wrote last sunday, I said that one of my fave things about it that it took the whole love triangle and turn it on it's heads. This book started to feel too tropey to me cause it feel like she started to throw all the tropes at it. Some examples
Bad guy that actually good guy working from the inside: Well Jurian, Snape did it better than you.
Jilted ex-lover acting like an ass: Turn down the salt Tamlin
Someone had an affair with someone's wife and this character is this character's dad : How many soap operas have you been watching to do that to Lucien, Sarah?
A good character may have betrayed a character but really they didn't: Side eye at Amren.
It's many more she committed but that's main ones I can think of right off the bat.
Feysand Smut: Sigh. See I love my smut as much as I love my fluff (believe me I'm called the the Sailor Moon Fanfic Smut Queen on tumblr) but SJM goes overboard with it every single time when she finally puts her main couples together. I love seeing sexy times in books but it's a time and place for it.
Reunion sex after her being gone for a month? Yes Please! Smiling Ear to Ear with that!
"Sex for breakfast "? Ok ! Fine before Cassian kicks her ass in training.
Almost Libary Sex? You're pushing it! Just stay fluffy with that! ! I need yall to be finding information to help yall with the wall.
Massage the Back sex? Well orgasms supposed to relax the body and muscles so...... You get a pass on that one..
War Camp Tent sex twice? JUST WHY?? We are in war yall! Especially the second one when I was like “Boy you just fought all day! Take your ass to bed to save your energy and stop trying to play hanky panky with her!!"
Were they as bad as Rowan/Aelin? No but she was pushing it since she was trying to be coy with it and not all go all out like chapter 55 in ACOMAF.
Their relationship as whole was awesome since they still had the banter,( I was on the ground laughing at some of it) , they really showed they had each other backs to the end ,and communicated a lot. Although he should have told her about his contrived plot for Mor's daddy and the Fall court to join them but that's for another day. I love them to bits which I though was never going to happen....
Also what happen to Isaac Hale??? I guess he's the Gale of ACOTAR..... Well Gale and Hale Rhymes! Well played Sarah!
All and All I really was expecting so much more but the fact these characters that I love got the happy ending they deserved, I'm ok with it. It's not perfect by a long shot but sloppy but I'm happy with the outcome. It just also shows that we need to be very careful on how we hype books in the book community. Everyone and their baby mama was ready for this book which made it kind of overwhelming seeing my GR update feed being flooded with it.
ACOMAF will still be the best book in the series no doubt about it but I still love the series as a whole.
One more thing
When the first eight chapters come out on overdrive, it was a little discourse about it being a little acephobia towards the beginning. With the whole twin thing, you have to look at the whole context of the situation and not just that paragraph which people are not doing. Feyre was observing them looking at disinterested at Ianthe trying to impress them. A person who waited until the perfect time to make her entrance to meet the twins and flounces around the Spring Court like she’s the baddest bitch there. A person who loves the power she has over men and women. A person who in the next chapters was freaking pissed that Feyre upstaged her during the Summer rite and trying to get back in favor. Feyre was shocked at the fact they showed no emotion towards her flouncing but more into themselves which she considers soulless. It just shows to me that Feyre still got a little naivety in her. Also physical passion doesn’t have to mean you want to have sex with a person. I mean Feyre has physical passion for Tamlin and Ianthe because she passionately wants to cause physical harm to them. That's my take on it.
Last thing
Since Lucien's "surname" was released everyone was wonder what Rhysand's was.
Is it obvious what it is?
It's Acheron! He took hers. :-D
You can also read my review on my blog!
https://tanyasreading.wordpress.com/2017/05/07/a-court-of-wings-and-ruin-by-sarah-j-maas/