Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

I had heard SO. MANY. good things about ACOTAR and it lived up to them all.

This book was supposed to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling and while it had certain similar elements and parallels, like a girl, captured by a cursed royal, roses, and a giant library, (because we all know that’s the best part about Beauty and the Beast. That library is lust-worthy.) it, to me, wasn’t much of a retelling.

The story is about Feyre, a nineteen year-old girl struggling to provide for her family. When Feyre kills a faerie, disguised as a wolf a beast called Tamlin comes to claim her, a life for a life. He allows her to live with him in the dangerous land of Pyrthian, where the faeries live. All of her life, Feyre has heard horrific tales of deadly faeries who live there and now she is to be captive in the land. But let’s be honest because even the back of the book says it, some Stockholm syndrome happens and Feyre finds herself in a sticky situation where she has major feelings for Tamlin. And pft. Who wouldn’t? He’s apparently a hunk. As time goes on Feyre learns of a darkness that is talking over the faerie lands, cursing Tamlin’s people and as fate would have it, she is the only one who free the lands and her beloved Tamlin.

Mkay, enough of that, I need to gush//rant. I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. This book is one of my new favorites. It’s beautifully written, romantic and CAN I JUST LIVE IN THE SPRING COURT? (Even though I literally hate real spring….I’m more of an Autumn gal myself.) But seriously, this place sounds immensely beautiful and as a painter, like Feyre, I want to paint every scene from Spring Court. The way Sarah describes the scenery is effortless and she makes it so easy to picture in my head. I can relate BIGTIME to Feyre’s need to catalog colors in her mind and just the way she takes in scenery, thinking about ways she can paint it later, the way she sees things through an artist’s eye is so me. This book sounds like Narnia’s long lost cousin. And for me to say that is saying A LOT because Narnia is my all-time favorite anything. This book will forever be on my favorites list and I will most certainly be painting something inspired by this book soon. Like….probably later today soon.

Recommended age:

14+

On to the ratings!

Stars..

0 = None 10 = Tons

THE FEELS:

This book has a good many feels, I’d say. From the interesting sisterly relationships to the way Feyre loves Tamlin, to the way characters regret the past and consequences.

6/10

Violence:

There is a good bit of violence which at this point doesn’t bother me. I've watched and read a lot of pretty gnarly stuff. But there are a lot of bloody scenes, including a couple severed heads, stabbings and protruding bones from body parts.

8/10

Sexual content:

There are several very steamy moments. Very passionate, almost New Adult sex scenes that are preeettttyy detailed. Not good for kids under at least 13. So for what I have read of YA I'm giving a pretty high score in this section.

8.5/10

Crude language:

Surprisingly, the crude language wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected form Sarah. The worse of the profanities were minor curse words. Words like “bitch” “bastard” and “damn” are used frequently.

5/10

Other elements/comments:

This book deals a lot with guilt, consequences, and lies. There is a reason behind all actions, however poorly made they may be but in the end those poor decisions came at a cost.

Overall:

Overall it’s safe to say that I loved this book and I can’t wait to dive into book 2!

10/10

Xoxo

- Sarah