Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR #1) by Sarah J. Maas

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult

Publisher: Bloomsbury YA

Publication date: December 2015

Hardcover: 432 pages

My Rating: ★★★★

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BLURB:

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jeweled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

MY REVIEW

I’ve been seeing this book a lot on Bookstagram and everyone seemed to love it so I finally decided to give it a try and I can’t believe I didn’t read it sooner. It was such a fascinating story, the words gripped me immediately and the writing enthralled me.

"The world was awash in hues of dark blue, interrupted only by shafts of buttery light escaping from the shuttered windows of our dilapidated cottage. It was like striding through a living painting - a fleeting moment of stillness, the blues swiftly shifting to solid darkness."

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in the series with the same name. This is the first book by Sarah J.Maas and I'm so happy I gave it a chance because I’ve been missing out on a wonderful adventure. In this magical world created by the author, humans used to live among Fairies but hatred and war made their cohabitation impossible and now their territory is divided by a great wall and a treaty is in place so that no one can break the newly established laws.

The story follows Feyre, a nineteen-year-old huntress who kills a wolf in the woods, but as chance has it, the wolf turns out to be a fairy in disguise and soon after that a beast-like creature shows up at the cottage where she lived with her cripple father and her two older sisters, Elaine and Nesta. The Beast demands her life for the one she took because she broke one of the rules of the treaty. But instead of killing Feyre, he takes her to his home in the Fae territory ( the land called Prythian). So now the heroine has to cope with this new situation and her confusing feelings towards her captor and try to figure out why she seems to be stuck in the middle of these fairy politics that she doesn't know anything about. As a retelling of Beauty and The Beast, half of the book was a bit predictable and there were some parts that were slower paced, but that didn’t bother me at all because the world-building and character development were fantastic.

“Once I'd dreamed and breathed and thought in color and light and shape."

Feyre has become one of my favorite heroines. She’s so brave and strongwilled, but also pure-hearted and a bit naive when it comes to the cruel world that surrounds her. She overcomes so many obstacles and even though she struggles in accepting her feelings for Tamlin, she risks everything to save him. Tamlin, the beast that took her away, turns out to be the cursed High Lord of the Spring Court (one of the realms of the Fairy territory) and a rather gorgeous and loving Fae. He is kind and generous with Feyre and although he tries to keep his distance from her at first, he easily falls in love with her beauty and brave soul.

The secondary characters were also well developed and played an important part in the plot. Feyre’s sisters got on my nerves a lot, in the beginning, their attitude was so frustrating. Both of them were acting like spoiled brats and even though by the end they’ve shown that they did care about her I still don’t completely like them. Lucien, Tamlin’s loyal friend, and Emissary for the Spring Court intrigued me a lot with his funny and charming personality. And then there’s Rhys. The violet-eyed High Lord of the Nigh Court, the most powerful and feared High Lord in all Prythian. He is pure darkness but he’s behavior towards Feyre makes me think he’s not the “Big Bad Wolf” everyone thinks he is. I’ll be honest I like him more than Tamlin, but yet again I’ve always liked the antiheroes best. He is such a fascinating character, and I hope to see much more of him in the next installments of the series.

"It took me a long time to realize that Rhysand, whether he knew it or not, had effectively kept me from shattering completely."

The ending was action-packed, intense and not at all predictable. If you love fantasy novels full of action, romance and magical beings this one is definitely a must-read. I can’t recommend it enough!