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A Court of Thorns and Roses
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas | 2015 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.7 (107 Ratings)
Book Rating
After reading the Throne of Glass series, I didn't think that I could love SJM's next series as much. How could it compare? It doesn't, but not in a bad way. While it's also a book about the Fae, a Court of Thorns and Roses is set in an entirely different world with its own set of unique characters. It is also vaguely a retelling, or reimagining, of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale, which I loved. The human and Fae worlds are separated by an invisible wall and a Treaty that was crafted after a brutal war which took place 500 years earlier.

We are first introduced to Feyre, a girl who tries to take care of her family as best she can despite being the youngest. It is on one of her trip into the forest to feed her family when she stumbles across the path of a wolf whilst hunting a deer. After shooting and killing both animals, she skins the wolf and carries the deer home for food. Unfortunately for her, the wolf was actually a Fae male and her actions force her to make a choice. Either be killed or live forevermore in the Fae realm.

It is not much of a choice and Feyre chooses to go with Tamlin to his estate in Prythian, the land of the Fae. Tamlin, she later discovers is not only a High Fae, but the Lord of the Spring Court and much more powerful than she realized. He is joined by Lucien, another High Fae who is originally from the Autumn Court and not much else besides a few workers. The large estate seems empty and a little bit sad.

As one can expect from a Beauty and the Beast retelling, the girl must fall in love with the shapeshifting Fae beast to break a curse. the curse is not known to the reader or Feyre until the end of the book. She must fight to prove her love under the most harrowing of situations and trials.

A must read, especially if you wish to find out what happens. Highly recommended for teen/young adult readers who like fantasy, supernatural creatures and magic. The world building is amazing, the magic is awe inspiring and the lands are populated by a variety of characters from the heroes to the villains, the cowards, the friends and the just plain misunderstood.

Reread Feelings:
Slight spoiler warning for ACOTAR and ACOWAR.

A second read-through of a Court of Thornes and Roses let me to notice a lot more details that I had missed during my first introduction to the world. The inspiration that the novel drew from Beauty and the Beast was also more prevalent than I had realized. Her family life and desire to protect those she loves is directly pulled and inspired by the original novel. Tamlin’s beast form and temper are also reminiscent of the Beast in the story.

Knowing how the book ends and what happens in ACOMAF, you can more clearly see the actions and personality of Tamlin. He is very protective of Feyre and a little bit controlling, but without any direct threat to her life it is not as apparent. The events that occurred Under the Mountain pushed him over the edge and turned that protectiveness dark. It became corrupted and too strong to be overlooked. He also has an explosive temper and anger, but you see it less frequently as the book goes on. That doesn’t mean it goes away, so his personality in the second book is not as surprising as I thought it was my first time reading the series. It still like him in this series, but I don’t love him as much as I did during the first read through.

The incredible world of Prythian is just so packed with different faeries, Courts, and intense story that you can’t focus on everything the first time you read it. You discover more magic the second, or third, time you read through the book because you know the story and can now also focus on the read of the world building and character development. To me, that is fantastic writing when you can always discover something new hidden in a book you love.

I fell in love with the series even more on the second read-through, especially Rhysand. You truly appreciate just how much he did for Feyre, not just healing her arm when she was on death’s door but mentally and emotionally supporting her when she was ready to give up. He puts on a dark front, but his every action belies his true feelings. Rhys lies to Amarantha about the identity of Tamlin’s human love, even though it could mean his end and his people’s if she discovers the truth. On multiple occasions, he plays the bad guy to maintain a façade but secretly does good. I appreciated and recognized his acts a lot more the second time reading, and it made me fall in love with his character even more.

Even though I know what happens in the book, the emotions are still so prevalent. You ride the story’s highs and lows, feel yourself filling with light when there is goodness, and fear for the dark. I can’t even describe my feelings. I was walking around my room reading the final pages as Feyre is being hurt – and someone calls out her name. I just sort of collapsed to the ground, with my hand on my heart and my feelings bursting from my chest about that particular Fae male. You could almost hear the pain and horror in his voice as he cried out for her, and it destroyed me. The final moments of the book were so beautiful and made me a little teary.
  
Rating: 3.75

Lord Benjamin, the youngest of the Westfeld brothers, is a broken werewolf. He can no longer change in the light of the full moon. Horrified at himself, he seeks out a healer—a witch, although he isn't sure he believes in them—and comes across the beautiful Elspeth Campbell. But in order to let Elspeth heal him, he has to tell her everything. And spilling his guts to a beautiful Scottish girl isn't the easiest thing in the world.

Elspeth isn't quite sure what to think of Lord Benjamin… especially when her sister witch, a seer, claims that he will take her away from them forever. She vows not to leave them, but when she meets him… she begins to have second thoughts. Falling in love with him hadn't been part of the plan.

Tall, Dark, and Wolfish was really cute. I adored Elspeth: she was a fun, stubborn, slightly sarcastic character who was strong in herself. And Benjamin… poor broken Benjamin who lost his wolf-ness. I loved their interactions and I loved their dialogue. I especially liked the interactions between Ben and Will, his brother. They're just… great.

The writing was satisfactory… but the accents were great. Elspeth and her witch sisters spoke in their Scottish accents, and it was written with the accent. Although it was a little hard to read at first, you can catch onto the sound of their voices quickly, and it adds to the character.

I was pleased at the plot: at first I was wondering how Dare would stretch the limited romantic plot into a full length novel, but there were a lot of aspects and sub-plots that were woven in, making it an exciting fun story.

Although, all things considered, it was just a tad sappy. But not enough to make me put it down. I think I read it through from beginning to end in about four hours.

Content/recommendation: some language, some sex. Ages 18+
  
Honestly, I can't believe I read the whole thing. Here's the premise of the first story: Girl gets turned into vamp. Has sex. Has some more sex. A tiny bit of plot. Even kinkier sex. Sex, sex, sex. And more sex than plot throughout the remainder of the story. Honestly the redundancy got really boring. Now, I knew this was erotica (or Erotic Romance as it says on the spine) going into this, but I had read that there was a good plot in there too. I would think even erotica would have at least equal plot with the sex, if not slightly more. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, this is the only book in this genre I've read. And seeing as it does say it's also a romance, I would expect some feelings and emotions behind all the rutting sex in almost every possible sexual situation known to man (and wolf), but no, there's nothing there. The second story is slightly better in the love territory, but the plot is a complete disaster. While I didn't care for Tori in the first story, I hated her here. What a *bleep*! And if there's nothing I despise more, it's a Mary Sue; every guy wants her, she's this perfect creature, et cetera, et cetera, excuse me while I throw up. And it's carrying it too far that everyone hates Sarel and she has to suffer that much because she made a big mistake, but geez, deal with it! She knows she was stupid and wrong, and Eli forgave her. Bunch of hypocrites.

So it sounds like I totally hated the book, not so. The ideas are solid and in between sex scenes in the first story, it was well-written. So overall, not the worst thing I've read, but far, far from the best. I do have another in the series sitting here that I'll give a try, although I think it might be my last one by this author, unless she goes strictly romance.
  
Perfect Trouble
Perfect Trouble
Barbara Elsborg | 2019 | Contemporary, Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
an enjoyable 90 minute read
I was gifted my copy of this book, direct from the author and I thank Ms Elsborg for that. This is the first I have read of her work, and I hope it will not be the last.
Jonah has a knack for getting into trouble, and he is paying for it for the next 7 years. Getting Jinx off pack lands shouldn’t have been too difficult but Jonah had history with said pack, and they would kill him for sure. Jinx knows Jonah is Trouble with a capital T but she also knows, deep down, he may be the only one to keep her alive.
For the most part, I did enjoy this tale of a faery and a wolf, but for a minor niggle or two, I really did.
Jonah’s mind, even at rest, is going a million miles an hour and I really did struggle at points to keep up with his internal ramblings! I mean, me and my sister can flip a conversation on a penny, and continue as if we had been talking all the time about that subject, but Jonah’s mind? Lord I really did struggle to keep up with him!
Also, I usually like plot twists, but towards the end, they were coming fast and furious. Good plot twists, that I really did NOT see coming at me, but there were just too many in a short space of time.
Some darker themes touched on, mostly how the younger females are treated within the pack, not in great detail, but enough to warrant a warning. It’s not overly explicit, I thought, but it does give enough heat off to make it interesting. A bit violent in places, but needed I think, since Jonah stole gold off the pack and they want it back!
Are there more books with these people? Some interesting characters in the place where Jonah is working!
Overall, a very enjoyable 90 minute read.
4 solid stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
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