annie-flint
Written on Mar 5, 2025
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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.
- ISBN10 1619634449
- ISBN13 9781619634442
- Publish Date 3 December 2015 (first published 5 May 2015)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 3 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Bloomsbury YA
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 432
- Language English
Reviews
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.
aschlue96
Written on Apr 11, 2022
Renee
Written on Jun 3, 2021
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
Written on Jun 1, 2021
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
Written on May 25, 2021
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
Written on May 16, 2021
Martha G
Written on Apr 11, 2021
kerrydarkeyes
Written on Apr 5, 2021
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
Written on Jan 22, 2021