Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J Maas
Publisher/Year: Bloomsbury USA 5/3/16
Length: 394 Pages
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #1
Overview
Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R.R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin–one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin–and his world–forever.
My Thoughts
To be honest, i’ve seen the cover for this book for the longest time and never managed to really get into it, but at least now i have and i think that there’s something interesting here. The real hesitancy that i have is that i’m not sure that i’m super into the whole Faerie thing which is the premise for this story, especially because i spent a lot of time in that spaces years ago, but this one has a bit of a twist to it that i’m ok with.
So as the summary hints, we have Feyre who is our leading lady, a mortal who’s forced to care for her family when they have almost nothing to support themselves and then because of a mistake that she made in hunting a faerie, she’s ‘kidnapped’ and brought to the one place that mortals are told to fear most. The Faerie realm.
That’s where our story really continues – we get to see how Feyre’s life changes from then on – her fear of being a slave for the rest of her life but in seeing that the reality is quite different, she’s given everything that she could want, and her captor Tamlin isn’t at all what he seems.
Of course there’s an underlying story here the fact that the mortals are kept in their space because of a Treaty that was put in place from a war with the Faeries, but that we slowly learn that it’s not just that simple. There are courts of Faeries that are on one side of things or another, and yet another kingdom of Faeries that has a completely different and darker agenda here that means that whatever sense of normalcy we hope to find here will never be the final bit of happiness since someone’s out for more.
Tamlin, our leading man we learn is not just the captor of sorts, but a High Lord and the ruler of his court. He’s the one that other High Lords actually fear because he’s supposed to have the most power of all – that is if ‘She’ didn’t steal all their power. His ’emissary’ Lucien becomes Feyre’s confidant in a want, and we get to see how knowledge is shared throughout in the hopes of finding a solution.
The journey that we go through in this story is one of trust, history, and trying to right past wrongs. We know that everyone’s trying to overcome some ‘blight’ that’s stolen the faerie’s powers, and there’s really no understanding on how to get it all back. We know that people are going to have to die in order to get to a resolution, and there’s a question of how close firendships and bonds will get in the hopes of making any progress towards overthrowing the bad kingdom.
Where we are left in this story is a place where we think that things are settled, yet you know that there’s going to be a war on their hands. We see friends go back to their courts, and yet we see a bunch of death to make us wonder who’s going to be the one to rule those spaces in the interim.
All in all it’s an interesting story. enough mythology to keep you interested, with bits of romance sprinkled though in ways that i was completely not expecting it. it gets downright dirty for a few scenes which caught me off guard given the overall tone of the story. I think that there’s enough of a mix of characters and a deep enough plot though to carry this one through so i think that if you haven’t read it yet, you should and if you have, i’d love to her your thoughts. Happy Thanksgiving and have a great night all!