A review by katiecoconut21
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The third book in the ACOTAR series, A Court of Wings and Ruin resolves a lot of the major plotlines established in A Court of Mist and Fury. One of the longer books in the series, I was worried it would have a lot of extraneous filler. I found myself pleasantly surprised that I hardly ever felt that it was dragging on.

I felt like a lot of the war scenes were pretty well done, especially because a lot of romantasy writers tend to struggle in that regard...or they make it way too pretty. Mentioning the gore and the flies, well done, Sarah J. Maas. I will say that I wish Feyre had been involved more in these scenes, especially since she established in A Court of Mist and Fury that she can fight well, especially since
she killed the Attor
. It felt a bit like a wasted opportunity, but I understand that Feyre is considerably young compared to war-seasoned characters like Rhysand, Cassian, Azriel, and Mor.

The ending killed me and brought me back, and I guess
that's what happened to Rhysand too
. I was an absolute wreck when
Rhysand died pouring his power into fixing the Cauldron
, and then for a few chapters after too. I thought Sarah J. Maas had been mentioning how
Rhysand would rather give himself up than his friends or his people
for the whole book so that Rhysand and Feyre would work together when this sort of thing happened, but I was very wrong. Honestly, I was more surprised that
Tamlin actually helped bring Rhysand back to life
than
Rhysand being brought back to life
at all.

Overall, a well-done conclusion to a lot of established plotlines. I was already feeling depressed at the thought of leaving the world of ACOTAR behind, and I still have a novella and a novel ahead of me.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings