A Court of Thorns and Roses ~ Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the story of Feyre who’s grown up hearing tales of how terrible the faeries over the wall are. One day whilst out hunting, she kills a large grey wolf, a shapeshifted fae. Retribution turns up on her doorstep and drags her across the wall to live out the rest of her days in a faerie court. Along the way, she finds that her kidnapper, Tamlin, is nothing like the faeries from the tales. 

Like everyone else, I’ve heard lots of good things about acotar and am well aware of how popular the series is on bookstagram and booktok. Having read A Throne of Glass back in November, I was a little sceptical, as I didn’t rate the writing quality (even if I begrudgingly enjoyed the plot). A Court of Thorns and Roses is of a much better quality of writing than A Throne of Glass and I found myself anticipating when I could next sit down and read a chunk. 

Additionally, I was a little bit hesitant with the idea that Feyre would fall in love with Tamlin in an enemies to lovers sort of thing as I really didn’t enjoy that aspect of A Cruel Prince by Holly Black. However, Maas only makes it enemies to lovers on one side; Feyre views Tamlin as her enemy and captor, but he doesn’t treat her as his enemy which made the whole thing a lot more stomachable. 

I enjoyed the plot and loved the hints thrown in about what was to come later on in the novel. I was expecting this to be a young adult novel when it is in fact a new adult novel, so the maturity of the plot and the character arcs (and that little bit of spiciness). I very much enjoyed the more mature storytelling and just wish that new adult books could be separated from the YA genre. 

I said I was curious about reading the rest of the A Throne of Glass series, but I am definitely going to be reading the rest of acotar at some point soon. I gave it three and a half stars.

C🌙