Review by kittykels - A Court of Thorns and Roses

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kittykels 's review for:

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

3.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

This is my second read-through, so it's a different experience now that I know the series of events.

I don't love the characters as much as I did the first time.

The first time I read this book, I found the love story between Feyre and Tamlin to be compelling. When she said she loved him, I loved him too. This time, I'm not as compelled to believe she loves him. They haven't really gone through anything to solidify those kinds of feelings for each other. He bought her paints and spent time with her. They talked a bit, but she also talked with Lucien. I mean, I guess I can believe Tamlin loving her. He knew he was looking for a Fae-hating human to fall in love with him, but I don't think he expected Feyre to be as compassionate and understanding of the Fae and their "blight" as she was. However, I also didn' t find that compassion to be genuine and compelling. There wasn't enough time or experience between her killing Andreas and her holding the hand of the dying Fae to justify her complete change of heart. That should have been the beginning of her change. There should have still been some fear and hesitation at that point. Finally, I think Amaranthe falls flat at the end. We know she hates humans and it all stems from the love she had for her sister and maybe even Tamlin, but I feel like her riddle was dumb her behavior was just... a weird choice. I think she needed more character insight or development so we could have fully understood what the heck she was doing. Being told she was angry wasn't enough.

I think the author spends too much time trying to write pretty descriptions of the wrong things, and not enough time writing solid growth of characters and/or plot. She's definitely not bad at character development, at least not in her later books, but sometimes I feel like she cares too much about imagery and not enough about substance.

Content Warnings