A Court of Thorns and Roses: Enter the EPIC fantasy worlds of Sarah J Maas with the breath-taking first book in the GLOBALLY BESTSELLING ACOTAR series (Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)

by Sarah J. Maas

The first instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON and TikTok sensation, from multi-million selling and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas

Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan – Time
Harry Potter magic, Taylor Swift sass, Fifty Shades-level athleticism – The Sunday Times
With bits of Buffy, Game of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series of total joy – Stylist
Spiced with slick plotting and atmospheric world-building ... a page-turning delight – Guardian

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Feyre is a huntress, but when she kills what she thinks is a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor, Tamlin, is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal Fae.

And there’s more to the Fae than the legends suggest.

As Feyre adapts to her new home, her feelings for Tamlin begin to change. Icy hostility turns to fiery passion that burns through every lie she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But shadows are creeping in, and Tamlin has a dark secret that he cannot share. Fate brought Feyre to Tamlin for a reason, but saving him from the darkness that threatens his world will lead her down a path that she can never return from.

Enter the world of Sarah J. Maas and discover the sweeping romantic fantasy that everyone's talking about for yourself.

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5* reader reviews
‘This is the first fantasy book I’ve ever read . . . I’m hooked. I’m addicted’
‘I’m a standard romance girl but this swept me off my feet’
‘Her writing is exquisite; her characters complex . . . and worlds all-consuming’
‘This book has ignited my spark for reading again’

• ISBN10: 1526605392
• ISBN13: 9781526605399
• Publish Date: 2 June 2020 (first published 5 May 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

I’ve decided to reread the ACOTAR series. It’s been four years, and after rereading Throne of Glass and reading Crescent City finally, I miss the ACOTAR characters. I’m so glad I found Sarah J. Maas’s books when I did back when I was working. She’s one author who can suck me into any story she writes. I’ve read all of her books in either one day or less than five days. It all depends on if my family and schedule allow me.

Storyline/My Thoughts: A long time ago, humans were slaves to the High Fae until a war broke out, and humans won their freedom and gained land to live on due to a wall that separated them from the High Fae. Immediately, the book starts with the main character Feyre out in the woods to hunt a deer for her family. She ends up having to kill a wolf that was about to kill the deer she wanted for her family. She knows what the wolf truly is, but it was either let him eat the deer, and her family starves, or kill the wolf, who is a Fae. Humans don’t like the Fae, so she doesn’t like them either. A beast-like creature comes to find her, and he demands payment for killing the wolf who was his friend. She dies or comes with him back to his home, where the Fae dwells.

Feyre decides to go with him, and the whole time she’s over at Spring Court, she is worried sick about her family. Feyre realizes while with the High Fae that something strange has happened to them. The blight is plagued their world, and Feyre is determined to find out if there is a cure for it. She doesn’t realize that the blight is not something you want to mess with, especially when the High Fae at Spring Court is scared it’s coming to get them again.

What I loved most about this book was how strong-willed Feyre was in the book. She was not afraid to stand her ground, especially against Tamlin. Feyre goes through different emotions with Tamlin because, at first, he’s scary, but then he starts changing to protective over her. Feyre falls for Tamlin, which I found Tamlin a little over the top at times, but he grew on me. (Although, in the case of Sarah with her female MC’s first love interest, let’s just say it never works out.)

The best part of the story comes toward the end of the book when Feyre finds out what the blight is. Let’s say the ending has a lot of action, bloodshed, and sadness. Out of all the characters, though, one character that stood out to me in the book was Rhysand. He was fascinating and evil at the same time. He’s that morally grey character you love to hate. At least, that is what I found him to be, in my opinion. I don’t want to go into too much detail about his character because I’ll give away his best/worst qualities. He was great, though.

The first book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series is addicting to read due to the storyline and characters. Sarah J. Maas did another fantastic job. I’ve read this book three times, and I play on rereading it as many times as possible.

I give this book five stars and look forward to rereading the rest of the series. Sarah J. Maas has become a favorite author of mine since her books always manage to keep me out of a reading slump.

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the ACOTAR series and I highly recommend reading in order.

Steam/Spice: ⭐️ ⭐️

Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you are a fan of New Adult Fantasy books, this book is for you. You’ll enjoy this series if you’ve read Sarah J. Maas’s other series, Throne of Glass and Crescent City.

This review will contain spoilers. 

I did not mind the writing style as much, since I do not pay enough attention to it while reading. If I don’t like unimportant parts, my mind just skips over it. 

I did mind the romanticized rape and saying that Rhysand was not to blame at all since he only paraded her around as his sex slave such that Tamlin would kill their tormentor. As if Tamlin wouldn’t already hate her anyway for all she did to him. I also refuse to see how Tamlin would hate Amaratha (if I recall correctly) more after Rhysand’s abuse of Tamlin’s girlfriend. It is all on Rhysand. 

Also, there is no storyline. Everything related to the curse is way too specific, the villain is very one-dimensional, and the trials that they come up with make no sense at all. It feels as if the plot is entirely motivated by Sarah J. Maas thinking about where she can put more sexual moments into the book.

However, I will be continuing with the series since I own the books and I want to know when everyone is going to hate Tamlin so much and begins to care for Rhysand. Also, the parts that have consentual sexual tension are ok and I want to see what happens to Lucien. I actually like his character and the more complex family dynamics and hope we see more of that it the next books. 

[nora]

The character interactions were ridiculous and didn't make sense for the characters or setting at all. Feyre took two seconds to flip from faeries are murderous and evil, I HATE THEM, to I wonder what his chest feels like pressed against my chest uwu.

Feyre spends the middle section of the book continuously trying to NOT do what she is told. Love the independence, girl, but jeez learn to take some advice.

The last third read like torture porn, where Feyre is powerless to influence her situation, but is still conveniently saved by random side characters just in time to move the plot forward.

Also, "My own bowels turned watery with shame and fear".

[Berls]

Original review (October 2015):
I knew that A Court of Thorns and Roses was a twist of Beauty and the Beast and the fae. But that was pretty much all I knew and as a result, I guess I didn’t really know what to expect. But A Court of Thorns and Roses was most definitely not what I expected. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, I really enjoyed it.

I think there were only two big negative in terms of what I was expecting. First was the fairytale retelling aspect. Typically when I read a retelling, I expect it to be a twist on the original fairytale… but this felt like it was just a twist on the Disney version. And isn’t that already it’s own retelling? But I LOVE the Disney version, so I’m not complaining exactly… but it is disappointing that it felt so familiar (though there were significant differences – particularly in the last quarter). The other thing that really bugged me – and this is something I can only allude to if I’m going to avoid spoilers – but there’s this riddle towards the end and I found it so incredibly easy to solve after hearing it just one time. Feyre is supposed to dwell on it for MONTHS and she finds it difficult. I don’t know, it just really bugged me.

But those are really my only criticisms for A Court of Thorns and Roses. I absolutely loved the world and I felt like Sarah J. Maas’s use of the fae was very well done. The characters were addicting and I had no trouble falling for Tamlin along with Feyre. Every character was pretty complex, even her family, who seem pretty simple at first glance end up surprising you as the story progresses. Every character seemed to have layers upon layers – at times I had a hard time because those I had decided I hated I was starting to seriously LIKE. I love complexity like that, it’s more real.

I had the privilege of listening to A Court of Thorns and Roses and the narration definitely helped bring these characters to life. Jennifer Ikeda did a great job with the voices – they were varied and helped me keep all the characters straight. I listened at 2x speed too, so her pacing worked well – I’m not able to speed up all narrators and still have a nice listen. So I’ll definitely be continuing this series on audio.

I’ll be interested to see how things continue – since it started as a fairytale retelling but the fairytale bit is done but there are future books planned. There’s no cliff hanger, but there are elements left enough in the air that you can see plenty of potential. I look forward to seeing how it will develop. Definitely worth a read – though I should note that while it’s selling as YA it has sex scenes that are more explicit than I would expect in a YA book. Just FYI.

Updated review (May 2021):
I think I agree with most my initial thoughts. I now know that it's not based solely on Beauty and the Beast, but also East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and Tam Lin. I'm not actually familiar with the later two fairy tales, but I'm guessing that they are responsible for the unfamiliar later half of the book (along with future books).

My other thing is that some of the characterizations of the Fae that I overlooked last time, kind of bothered me this time. One is kind of a spoiler but I won't say it, but it breaks one of the cardinal rules of the fae. In addition, Feyre thanks the Fae constantly. That's not commented on, but you're not supposed to thank the Fae. Put together, those two characterizations were kind of like when you make Vampires that don't drink blood (even the sparkly Cullens drank blood).

My rating stays the same and I'm really glad I reread the book - as I'm moving along in the series and I had forgotten so much!

[vagasker]

This was my second (or third according to Goodreads although I do not remember that) re-read and I still think it is a 3.5/4 star book. It still very much feels like a YA book but just with a slightly sexy twist. It could have been 5 stars if only I cared about the main characters. Instead Lucien and Nesta are my boos.

I loved this so much. I think I'm realizing that I love fantasy books more than I thought. I admit that it started off a bit slow and I didn't understand everything that was going on. It didn't grab me immediately but I was enjoying it. Somewhere around the 30% mark it began to move faster and by the 40% mark I could not put it down. This has the Beauty and The Beast vibes for sure I think it's considered a retelling of sorts. I already have the second book in this series from the library but this time in audio (23 hours!) I cannot wait to dive in.

[kerrydarkeyes]

The first half had me, I found Feyre convincing as a protagonist, her motivation was believable for me, and although knowing the story was reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast made the curse less suspenseful, I was still curious to see where it all led.

It dropped from a four-star to a three-star for me starting with the Rite, and Feyre’s disregard of the Very Important Rule not to leave the house, which felt inexplicable after all the smart choices she’d made up until then. And when Rhysand showed up, oh-ho, who’s this, a toxic love interest, methinks?

[herseriallife]

A Court of Thorns and Roses is one of my favorite book series. It is brilliantly written by Sarah J Maas, my favorite author. I am re-reading in anticipation for the release of A Court Of Silver Flames, a sort of spinoff series digging further on Nesta and Cassian story from the ACOTAR series. It's been such a pleasure to rediscovering the series with audiobook. If you love fantasy series and haven't already, read the ACOTAR series!

[kymmiejournals]

I love it! Im surprised I love Rhys better than Tamlin in this book. They’re both wicked but Rhys is more mysterious. There are only a handful of major characters introduced here, with a few minor characters who helped build the mortal world of Feyre. No major cliffhanger, so you’ll do fine if you want a HEA ending, but know that there are still stories yet to uncover and why Rhys suddenly stumbled when she stared at Feyre, that alone will make you want to read the next book. The riddles and the plot twist all makes sense and I suggest you to keep reading when you tire of the “Beauty and the Beast” retelling because it’s not(?) Funny thing is, this book seem like a subtle retelling of “Cinderella” (where Feyre is bullied by her 2 sisters in the first few chapters), “Beauty and the Beast” (when Feyre was captured by a shape-shifting High Lord Tamlin and fell in love), “Snow White” (Amarantha the villain and her 7 little dwarves or 7 High Lords bound to her because of some black magic)

more like 3.5.
the first 15% of this book was too slow, a bunch of details that didn't make me interested.
& the narrative ;D oh boy.