A review by mariaslibrary
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

Despite the fun fantasy premise, I could not get myself to actually care about these characters. I didn't find Feyre or Tamlim endearing or see why they were so quickly smitten with each other. I hear the second book explains that better, but regardless, I don't know why I should care about them?

The narration also felt like a lot of explanation, lots of telling. I wanted to love this book but honestly found it tedious and was dragging myself through it trying to figure out when I would actually feel invested... I never did.

I mostly read #ownvoices works, reading this work was an outlier for me, but I found the lack of diversity a bit of a slap in the face and awkward. You can create a world of all kinds of creatures and yet the amount of types I heard pale & golden to describe skin & hair...

I really only pushed through instead of it being a DNF because I keep hearing book #2 is better and makes it worth it. Fingers crossed.