A Court of Frost and Starlight (Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.1)

by Sarah J. Maas

A gorgeously written tale as lush and romantic as it is ferocious ... Absolutely spellbinding - New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Bracken

In this companion tale to the bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses series, Feyre, Rhys and their friends are working to rebuild the Night Court and the vastly changed world beyond after the events of A Court of Wings and Ruin.
But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it a hard-earned reprieve. Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated – scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.

Sarah J. Maas is a global #1 bestselling author. Her books have sold more than nine million copies and been translated into 37 languages. Discover the sweeping romantic fantasy for yourself.

• ISBN10: 1408890321
• ISBN13: 9781408890325
• Publish Date: 1 May 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Imprint: Bloomsbury YA
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

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

I finally read the novella A Court of Frost and Starlight in the ACOTAR series. I should have read it when it first came out in 2018, but I was busy working full-time. I was excited to read it, but now I need to read the next book after getting new POVs in the novella. 

Storyline/My Thoughts: After finally reading it, here are my honest thoughts on A Court of Frost and Starlight. It’s not my favorite in the series. I only gave it three stars, and that’s being generous. I almost gave it two stars, but I bumped it one star after getting Cassian’s POVs and seeing Feyre and Rhysand happy together. I love the High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court. After Sarah J. Maas did to them at the end of ACOWAR, they deserve happiness. I loved getting both Feyre’s and Rhys’s POVs in this book. Rhys is so in love with Feyre and still is a mother hen to her. 

I love the interaction between Feyre, Cassian, and Azriel. We got more words from Azriel in this book (not his POV). Another thing I loved reading about is how Feyre is painting again. It took her some time to get back to painting, and I’m proud that she’s doing it again. 

Feyre’s younger sister has changed in this novella, and I liked seeing her up and moving around cooking with the twins and gardening. Although I am bothered by something about Elain, I’ll mention what I didn’t like later.

Here’s why I didn’t give this novella more stars. In this novella, I read more about the characters eating and drinking. Yes, they celebrated Winter Solstice together but was it vital for some of the scenes. Don’t get me wrong; I loved getting a story with the characters all together again. Some of the characters made me not like them, though. Nesta, for instance, I was not too fond of this novella. She has decided to isolate herself from everyone and do things that I never expected out of her. She’s treating her sisters like crap and Cassian. Don’t even get me started on how she treated Cassian. I wish Sarah J. Maas would have at least said what was in the gift that Cassian wanted to give Nesta for Winter Solstice. 

I didn’t like Amren either. She was cold to Feyre, and she said something during the celebration that made the mood change. Seriously, Amren, I know you are upset with what happened to you but get over it. 

Still, I wouldn’t say I like how Elain treats Lucien, and I feel terrible for Lucien. Even Tamlin doesn’t want anything to do with him. 

Tamlin, what can I say about him? But he is still upset with Feyre being with Rhys. I hope he finds his mate eventually. (Hopefully) For now, though, I agree with Rhys; I can’t forgive him for what he did to Feyre in the second full-length novel and for locking her away. I can’t forgive him. 

Other than those things, it was an okay novella. I am excited to read the next full-length novel, though, finally. Here’s hoping I eventually start to like Nesta. She better not hurt Cassian. 

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

Steam/Spice: ⭐️ ⭐️

Would I recommend this novella? Yes. If you have read the first three full-length novels in the ACOTAR series, and enjoy the New Adult Fantasy genre.

[Rach Wood]

I really liked the first three books, but this one was pointless. I might have loved it if it was clearly marketed as a bonus story, since we get to know better the characters’ backgrounds and their current state of mind, but not much plot development happened. In short, this book is just a bridge between the ACOWAR and whatever comes next. I was expecting a lot more, so I wasn’t able to enjoy the atmosphere of it. The descriptions of Velaris and the Illyrian war camps are exquisite, and I appreciated it, as well as some scenes regarding the meaning of art and creation to Feyre, but every time I thought we were going somewhere it would switch back over to shopping, food discussions and recaps of everything we just read in the previous novel. I hope the next one gets back on track.

[Artemis]

The Artemis Reader

As you know I’m a huge fan of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series (and definitely not of the Throne of Glass series) but this felt like straight up fanfiction. It is empty, devoid of any plot and pure fan entertainment.

It was lazy writing, lazy character development, and honestly definitely makes me not want to read the garbage that will be Nesta/Cassian in the next trilogy. Where is the writer from A Court of Mist and Fury?? Where are the strong female characters who were able to pick themselves up.

I gave this three stars because I felt like being generous but when I sat down to write this I had to demote it a star. It was painful to read this when I was so excited for another little snippet of this world. I felt like I was reading some Throne of Glass series novella with the focus on romance and strong males and just pointless word vomit on 200+ pages. I felt bored and immensely underwhelmed revisiting these characters again after finishing the final book a few months ago.

This was clearly written to bridge a gap between the old and new series, and while only a novella I was still expecting more plot. Which apparently is too much to ask for when it comes to Maas’ churning out six-book series.

Not recommended and I definitely wouldn’t shlep out the $18 for this book (thank you local library!), if you really feel the need to read this definitely borrow from a friend or your local library.

[KitsuneBae]

There is nothing wrong with this book but it was as boring as fuck

[adarkershadeofrosie]

- Oh, SJM, curse you for giving me unrealistic expectations in men!!!
- What a nice winter-themed novella for me to read, and in, like, less than 48 hours, too!
- Rhys is still the ultimate book boyfriend and will always have space in my heart.
- I am READY for the next book to come out in February, because I have a new conquest in Cassian and Nesta.

[reveriesociety_]

It was cute, but I'd been expecting for it to have a clear plot, even if it's a novella. It was cool to see the characters after everything that happened, but still, it needs to have a purpose.

I think since Sarah was already planning a Nessian book, Cassian and Nesta are really the 'main characters' of this story, even though they don't get nearly enough pages. I found myself skimming to the parts where they're there. Hell, the excerpt at the end has more purpose than the rest of pages. In that sense, it was disappointing, but at least it built up the excitement for that next book.

[whisperingchapters]

I don't understand why many don't like this novella. Yes, nothing extreme happens, but I'm so happy to have gotten this novella, because I just couldn't part with my Illyrian babies, Amren, Mor, Feyre, Elain... I couldn't fathom not having more of these characters in my life. So this novella means everything to me. These characters mean everything to me. They deserved a break from everything. They deserved happiness, and this novella gave them that. ❤️

[Chelsea]

There really was no need for this book. Maybe as a short story ebook type thing if you cut the page count in half but even as a shorter novel there wasn't enough here. Pretty typical of SJM honestly. She tends to put more extra words in than she needs and forgets about the plot. I loved seeing the gang all together and this little glimpse of their "normal" lives but nothing happened in this story. Rhys and Feyre were pretty annoying too? Was that just me? Were they always like that and I just missed it?

[littleread1]

This may be just me, but I don't think I remembered enough of the specifics of the original series to really enjoy this peek into their lives. Also, And this is a SPOILER ...


WHY. Babies ruin books. Why do they have to start trying right now? Ugh.

[llamareads]

You know how when you love a series, you joke about how you could literally read about the characters sitting around a kitchen table eating burritos and you'd be happy? And most authors are like, "No, no, you wouldn't, there's no story there"? Now I understand why.

People go shopping. There's multiple character POVs, so you get to even witness more shopping. People reminisce about the war and how awful it was and how much it changed them (it didn't). Rhys apparently cannot stop thinking about sex, even when he's supposed to be making alliances and stuff. Feyre, despite being High Lady and all equal to Rhys and everything, doesn't go on those alliance-trips, instead she stays home and hands out coats to people. And thinks about answering mail. And then there's more shopping, and they eat, and then they go shopping again. There's no overarching plot - beyond the fact that Winter Solstice is coming so they need to get presents and then they're all going to celebrate together - and no real character development. I repeat, NOTHING HAPPENS. This could all have been summarized in like two paragraphs at the start of the next book.

Speaking of the next book and it's couple... Nesta's suffering from some pretty awful PTSD and yet... nobody seems to understand? Not even Feyre, who went through her own lash-out-at-people phase? Some found family if they can't even be bothered to understand what she's going through.

The constant references to "mates" and "males" doesn't bother me that much, but "gentlemales".... that's a step too far even for me.

So basically I spent the entire novella being either bored or pissed off about Nesta, so, yeah, I'm really worried about the next book, whenever it's going to be out.