SPOILERS! And keep your eye out for my take on "molten chocolate" from A Court of Thorns and Roses and cheese and chive scones from A Court of Mist and Fury!
I want to start by saying I aggressively loved these books and I'm furiously typing this review so I can start the next one! I read these pretty quick and felt that they went hand in hand so I wanted to review them in one post. I'm also sick and therefore this post will probably sound like some terrible fever dream but here goes nothing!
A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES
"For having the nerve to request where I slaughter you, I'll let you in on a secret, human: Prythian must claim your life in some way, for the life you took from it. So as a representative of the immortal realm, I can either gut you like swine, or... you can cross the wall and live out the remainder of your days in Prythian."
Set in a world where only a mere wall separates mortals from a dangerous, magical land of faeries, Feyre Archeron cares only about ensuring her family survives each night. After losing all of their money years ago, the Archerons get by only when Feyre journeys far enough into the forest to hunt, but the closer she gets to the wall, the more likely she is to come across one of the faeries who seem to slip through the cracks to murder unsuspecting humans. But when she kills a wolf in the woods and a terrifying beast arrives to demand her life in return, Feyre discovers that everything she thought she knew about the immortal realm-- Prythian-- is vastly different from what's in front of her.
Her captor is not actually a terrifying beast, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the Spring Court. After a rocky start, their feelings for each other morph from fear and disdain into a fiery romance. But a strange plague on the land is stripping the fae of their magic and allowing horrifying creatures to lurk in the shadows. Feyre quickly realizes that if she wants to stay in Prythian with Tamlin forever, she'll have to do something to stop it.
"I love you," he whispered, and kissed my brow. "Thorns and all."
REVIEW
Okay, LISTEN: I read this book for the first time while in college. I was super busy and read it over a long period of time and I think I didn't really get the full effect because of that. I also had no idea what the rest of the series had in store so I wasn't motivated by the knowledge of how MUCH BETTER THE SERIES GETS (when I say better I think we all know what I mean: less Tamlin). However, this time, I knew where it was going and I sped right on through.
This book definitely feels like two books inside of one, and as someone who likes books to be ridiculously LONG, I respect Maas for doing that when she could have easily cut it into two.
I have to be honest, when I first read ACOTAR, I actually really liked Tamlin, and I was even charmed by him again this time. He's prickly when you first meet him, but it's such a classic Beauty and the Beast story that I knew his grumpiness was a defense mechanism. Feyre pushes back no matter what he does, so I can't say the blame is fully on him, anyway. The rest of what ensues is mostly just flirtation back and forth until we realize that the amount of danger everyone is in is much more than we had originally been lead to believe. It comes to a head when Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court shows up and gives us a good scare. This sets Tamlin in motion to release Feyre from their deal and she's sent off back into the mortal world. Obviously, realizing she loves him, she hops right back into the thick of things.
The real good stuff starts when Feyre goes Under the Mountain to save him. I've genuinely never seen a plot twist like that before-- usually the kiss ends the spell and we go straight into happily ever after. This time, it's not enough: they miss the deadline and Feyre is forced to make a deal with the magic sucker herself, Amarantha. If she can survive three grueling tasks, Amarantha will revoke the spell she cast on Prythian and allow Tamlin to go free.
"I love you," I said. "No matter what she says about it, no matter if it's only with my insignificant human heart. Even when they burn my body, I'll love you." My lips trembled, and my vision clouded before several warm tears slipped down my chilled face. I didn't wipe them away.
The chapters we spend Under the Mountain are really interesting to me because we see how Rhysand and Tamlin differ even before the second book. For instance, Rhys shows his true self while in private with Feyre-- being sweet and caring but also still a bit of a pain in the ass just to get under her skin. It's nice to see that he already knows how to help her-- she responds best to snark and he's got an unlimited supply.
"I've been thinking of ways to torment you when you come to my court. I'm wondering: Will assigning you to learn to read be as painful as it looked today?" He vanished into shadow before I could launch myself at him... It took me a long while to realize that Rhysand, whether he knew it or not, had effectively kept me from shattering completely.
Meanwhile, the minute Tamlin gets a second alone with Feyre, what does he do? Does he try to make sure she's okay, both mentally and physically? No. Does he try to convince her to leave while she's still alive? No. Does he give her any advice on how to survive the final challenge? Still no. He tries to sleep with her. In that initial moment, we were all thinking oh it's potentially their last moment together, it's a moment full of passion and love. But when you look back at it, it's really frustrating. He barely tried at all to help her with any of those challenges, and perhaps I'm being harsh because he was extremely limited in what he could do, but still!!!!!! If it was real, true love, he would have done every possible thing he could do to make her safe. And of course, the only smart one in the whole place, Rhys steps in and puts a stop to it because he knows they're damning themselves by taking such a risk.
The final challenge where Feyre has to kill three innocent fae was really dark and surprised me, honestly. Usually we can look at our heroines and know that they do what they do for good reason, even if it's a bit immoral. I think that's usually because the bad things are rare and typically an accident. Seeing Feyre forced to stab two faeries who have done nothing wrong is hard to watch (read?), especially because it's either kill three innocents or doom the entirety of Prythian forever. It's a classic trolley problem, but somehow worse. This dilemma and its repercussions really drive the plot of A Court of Mist and Fury.
And there he was-- my High Lord, my beloved, kneeling before me. "I love you," I said, and stabbed him.
I am... quite obviously... biased over here, but I would really quick like to point out Rhysand's reaction to Feyre's death vs Tamlin's reaction. Tamlin goes the begging route, hoping that he can convince Amarantha to, I guess, change her mind?? But over in the corner here we've got my main man Rhys SCREAMING Feyre's name and charging at Amarantha to kill her. I don't know about everyone else, but I do think I have a preferred method of being avenged, and it doesn't include begging.
"Feyre!" someone roared. No, not someone--Rhysand...Then Rhysand was on his feet, my bloody knife in his hands. He launched himself at Amarantha, swift as a shadow, the ash dagger aimed at her throat. She lifted a hand--not even bothering to look--and he was blasted back by a wall of white light...Rhys's arms buckled as he fought to rise, and blood dripped from his nose, splattering on the marble. His eyes met mine. The bond between us went taut. I flashed between my body and his, seeing myself through his eyes, bleeding and broken and sobbing.
Our ending leaves us with much to be figured out: what's gonna happen with the bargain Feyre made with Rhys? Why did he look shocked and vanish all of a sudden the last time they saw each other? Is everyone gonna be happy now? (Why do I feel like I can hear Sarah J. Maas laughing in the distance?)
I don't even know how to talk about this book anymore, honestly... we just gotta get into book 2.
A COURT OF MIST AND FURY
Maybe I'd always been broken and dark inside. Maybe someone who'd been born whole and good would have put down the ash dagger and embraced death rather than what lay before me.
After defeating Amarantha and destroying the curse on Prythian, Feyre Archeron must face the consequences, both good and bad, of her actions.
Living in the Spring Court as a high fae with her High Lord isn't what she had expected it to be, though. Instead of joy and freedom, she finds more closed doors and secrets. And she can't forget the terrible things she did to get where she is, nor can she forget the bargain she made with the mysterious ruler of the Night Court.
Feyre learns that being brought back to life by the Lords may have given her special abilities--abilities that could make her the key to fixing new problems arising on both sides of the wall. But only if she can figure out how to fix her own problems first.
I was burning through books every day--stories about people and places I'd never heard of. They were perhaps the only thing that kept me from teetering into utter despair.
REVIEW
I've gotta say: I can't imagine this series gets any better than this book. I will be utterly flabbergasted if A Court of Wings and Ruin makes me feel as gooey as every single chapter of ACOMAF. Let's try to get through this all in the order it plays out in the novel...
Tamlin. The hardest part about reading this book was witnessing the emotional abuse he puts Feyre through. I've been through something like that in my own personal life and I know a lot of other people who've been through it, too. And yes, I know Tamlin suffered significantly Under the Mountain and that's why his behavior changes so drastically, but at the same time, seeing him treat Feyre so poorly and then continue to get away with it by saying "I'm so sorry, I'll try harder" was horrifying. He didn't try at all, he wouldn't even listen to her when she said she needed help. She simply asked if she could go into town to get out of the house every now and then and HE LOCKED HER UP. And meanwhile, Feyre is making excuses for him and allowing everything to drag her so far under that she can barely feel anything anymore. We look at it from the outside and wonder how could she let him treat her like that? But we have to understand-- she just knowingly damned her soul for this man, she killed for this man, and she risked everything for him-- the last thing she wants is to admit that he wasn't worth all the pain and torture she suffered. I, personally, believe that no matter what hardships we deal with in our lives, there's never an excuse to treat others poorly because of it.
The girl who had needed to be protected, who had craved stability and comfort...she had died Under the Mountain. I had died, and there had been no one to protect me from those horrors before my neck snapped. So I had done it myself. And I would not, could not, yield that part of me that had awoken and transformed Under the Mountain.
Moving on to our time with Rhysand after Feyre is saved from the Spring Court. First of all, we all knew that wouldn't be the last we saw of Tamlin, even if Mor went through all of the correct precautions when taking her away. I thought the cuteness of Rhys's friends was a little bit contrived or, I don't know, expected? Like of course the big bad High Lord of Night has goofy friends who don't take him seriously. With that being said, I still absolutely grew to adore each of them. Amren is potentially my favorite, though, because she's so wildly intriguing and badass. She drinks blood and scares everyone and apparently I'm into that!
Experiencing Velaris makes a lot of things in this series-- about Rhys, specifically-- make sense. He's got a solid backstory already built for us to unlock and we see his soul represented in his city. My favorite thing about Rhys is how fleshed out his personality is-- I always felt that Tamlin was just kind of... there and nice? Rhys is a good, kind person who will literally do anything to keep the people he cares about safe-- but not in a way that makes his loved ones suffer (which is what Tam does). But when Feyre is on the brink of despair, instead of coddling her and asking her if she's okay (which is obviously not what she wants) he pokes fun at her and tries to get under her skin. He's doing this because he can tell that when Feyre's mental health gets bad, she goes numb--which somehow no one else seems to understand?? Eliciting any form of emotional response from her-- whether it's rage, happiness, or something in between-- helps to heal her. I found this to be really insightful, and it also helps show how well Rhys and Feyre fit together. I love that they become friends and teammates before anything else.
I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal. I was a survivor, and I was strong. I would not be weak, or helpless again. I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.
One thing I really loved about this book was how many grueling tasks Feyre had to take on [usually] by herself. She deals with the Bone Carver (with some help from Rhys), the Weaver, and the Suriel. It's not that Rhysand is abandoning her by leaving her to take on these scary beings alone, it's that he knows what she's capable of and trusts that she can handle it. It gives her a lot of time to find herself again and grow her new abilities. These moments also help us learn more about the world of Prythian. I found it all quite refreshing! I also had to mention the Suriel because I saw this meme the other day (meme credit to @considerable_length on instagram) and I needed to include it in this review, please enjoy:
BUT ALSO.... THE INFORMATION WE RECEIVE FROM THE SURIEL........ I wish I could have read this when it first came out, because I already knew that Rhys and Feyre were mates. But can you imagine that huge surprise??? I mean we were all hoping for it, surely, but the Suriel just casually spilling those deets is WILD. I definitely didn't expect Feyre to react poorly, though. I don't blame Rhys for keeping it a secret-- obviously she would have pushed back and assumed it was manipulation if he had told her sooner. He wanted their relationship to blossom without any outside influence so that he knew it was real. At the same time, he didn't want to force her into a relationship with him. I think keeping it from her was both considerate of her mental health and also romantic.
"I couldn't force the bond on you. I couldn't try to seduce you into accepting the bond, either. Even if it gave Tamlin license to wage war on me. You had been through so much already. I didn't want you to think that everything I did was to win you, just to keep my lands safe. But I couldn't... I couldn't stop being around you, and loving you, and wanting you. I still can't stay away."
It would be crazy if I didn't mention Tamlin's betrayal at the end. I totally saw that coming! We knew he wasn't going to give up easy, but it was kind of terrifying that he went so far to get Feyre back. Also ridiculously stupid. The fact that he openly refuses to believe that Feyre and Rhys are mates just shows how far beyond redemption he is. I still like Lucien a little bit and think that he can earn my respect back, but he's really got to put Tam in his place and stop being pushed around. Lucien thinks things are grey when they're clearly black and white. I understand that everyone who doesn't know him thinks Rhysand is horrible, but Lucien knows Feyre well enough to see that she's not a fool who's been manipulated into a horrible relationship. I have high hopes for Lucien in A Court of Wings and Ruin.
Tamlin lunged for me over the few feet that remained. So fast-- too fast-- I became mist and shadow. I winnowed beyond his reach. The king let out a low laugh as Tamlin stumbled. And went sprawling as Rhysand's fist connected with his face.
I've spoken a lot about the romance in this book, but I would like to talk about the big ole war plot going on over to our left. I'm actually decently afraid of our foes in A Court of Mist and Fury. We've got the king and Jurian who are both clearly very powerful as well as bloodthirsty. Maas is not afraid to paint terrifying pictures of torture for us, so I'm really nervous to see what ensues in the next novel. I'm also a glutton for punishment when it comes to books (I like a book that can make me sob) and I feel that I've got a lot to lose, so I'm prepared for my heart to be ripped out.
I gave Lucien a sweet, sleepy smile. So our game began. We hit the sweeping marble stairs to the front doors of the manor. And so Tamlin unwittingly let the High Lady of the Night Court into the heart of his territory.
MOLTEN CHOCOLATE + CHEESE AND CHIVE SCONES
From ACOTAR:
Though dinner was to be served soon, Alis had a cup of molten chocolate brought up and refused to do anything until I'd had a few sips. It was the best thing I'd ever tasted. I drank from the thick mug as she brushed my hair, nearly purring at the feel of her thin fingers along my scalp.
From ACOMAF:
Hungry again, I found Nuala and Cerridwen, and I gobbled down cheese and chive scones while thinking through what I'd seen, what I'd done.
Both of these yummy treats jumped out at me and since they're both fairly simple, I decided to make them in the same day! Here's how they came out!
I think I overcooked my scones a little bit just because I was worried about undercooking them, but they still came out yummy! I just put a little bit of butter on them and they made a nice treat.
Check out that molten chocolate though... talk about RICH. It was so thick and tasty!!! However, that's a HUGE mug I put it in and you should definitely not drink that much. It was just my cutest mug-- for the sake of the photo-- but if you've got something smaller (like a little espresso mug maybe? a cute teacup?) then I'd definitely recommend using it. It was basically like drinking a melted chocolate bar.
Molten chocolate recipe: https://tasty.co/recipe/creamy-gourmet-hot-chocolate
Cheese and chive scones recipe: https://laughingspatula.com/cheddar-and-chive-savory-scones/
If you didn't know, I bake something from a book every week and post live updates on my Instagram. Tune in to @picklesandpages on Wednesdays to check it out!
NEXT READ: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
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