A review by amartin48
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

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

3.75

Honestly, after falling in love with ACOMAF, this next installment in the series fell a bit flat. 

First and foremost, this is a book about war. While I felt the pacing worked well, the battle scenes did start to feel repetitive, and I felt myself eager to get past the action and on to some character development. Speaking of which, I felt as if the characters took smaller strides of development as compared to the last book. For instance,
Feyre made leaps and bounds in ACOMAF in terms of growing into someone who could accept love, who could love herself, and who was confident enough in herself to be powerful. I was hoping to see Nesta and Elain, who were also put through a traumatic transformation, have similarly dramatic character arcs, but it seemed they didn't change all that much by the end. Not only that, but Rhysand and Feyre seemed a little stagnant in their relationship in this book. As a reader who was invested in their relationship, I'm so happy to see them happy, but I was also looking forward to seeing they work through some real difficulties as a couple.
Essentially, this book seemed to be a bit more plot-driven than its predecessor, which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just wasn't what I was expecting. 

However, what really let me down about the plot was the constant deus ex machina that seemed to be wrapping up the hardships of this book in a pretty bow. Instances such as
the seemingly unending supply of surprise armies that came to save the day, or that there were no really big sacrifices that anyone had to make. Sure, Rhys "died" briefly, but the entire main cast made it out alive. Even Amren after what was supposed to be a big sacrifice moment. That, and Tamlin being portrayed as this irredeemable villian, but he just so happens to show up as a good guy at all the right moments?
The convenience of it all really took me out of the story at times.  

That all being said, I have to admit that I still enjoyed this read, and it had some lovely twists and turns that kept me turning pages. I felt invested in all the main characters, and I was cheering them all on from page one. This felt like a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. That, and it does leave room and intrigue for other spin off stories, which is a very exciting aspect of this in-process series!
 


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