A Court of Wings and Ruin (2 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation]: A Court of Thorns and Roses 3 (Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)

by Sarah J. Maas

Amanda Forstrom (Narrator), Holly Adams (Narrator), Jon Vertullo (Narrator), Anthony Palmini (Narrator), Danny Gavigan (Narrator), Natalie Van Sistine (Narrator), Melody Muze (Narrator), Matthew Bassett (Narrator), Karenna Foley (Narrator), Gabriel Michael (Narrator), Shawn K Jain (Narrator), and A Full Cast (Narrator)

• ISBN13: 9798212375672
• Publish Date: 1 October 2022 (first published 2 May 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Graphic Audio
• Edition: Adapted ed.
• Format: Audiobook (MP3)
• Duration: 6 hours and 32 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

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

Holy Moly! Sarah J. Maas has become an all-time favorite author since I began reading her books. I can’t get enough of her books and the worlds and characters she creates in them. The first time I read A Court of Wings and Ruin, I was scared to read it since I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to know what Sarah would put my favorite characters through with the war with King Hybern. I knew she was going to make it epic and tragic. Now that I’ve read the book a second time, I’m so happy that she continued to write more in this series after this book. I’m finally going to read the novella and the fourth book in this series since I have held it too long. But, for now, my thoughts on the third book and why it had my heart racing the whole time. 

Storyline/My Thoughts: The minute I began reading A Court of Wings and Ruin, I knew my emotions would go haywire. The second book left a big cliff-hanger at the end, so this book picked up from that one.

Feyre is a kick-butt heroine in this book, and I have to say I fell even more head over heels for Rhysand in this story. He had already won me over in the first two books, but this one was over the top.

I won’t go into the story because I do not want to give anything away, especially to readers who haven’t started this series. (You are missing out if you haven’t. This is one of my favorite series by Sarah J. Maas. However, her other series are favorites, too. The ACOTAR series will stick with me because these characters always feel like family.

Here are the things I enjoyed about this book:

• Feyre has learned about her powers and strength and uses them even more in this story. She’s grown so much from the first and second books. She manages to piss off people by making plans without telling them about it. I loved a particular scene when she unleashed some of her powers with the High Lords present. They didn’t know what hit them.
• Rhysand. I seriously love the High Lord of the Night Court. He gave Feyre choices in the second book instead of locking her away as Tamlin did, and he keeps having her decide in the third book. He has to trust her to do what she has to do in the Spring Court with Tamlin after what happened at the end of the second book. It’s not going to be easy for him, but he sucks it up. The other Inner Circle members are not happy about it. When Rhys and Feyre reunite, everyone knows to disperse and give them time together. Rhysand has now managed to go on the top of my list of all-time favorite book boyfriends above all others. How he treated Feyre, and his other exceptional qualities made him go on my list. Seriously, Sarah can write such fantastic male leads in her stories that are unforgettable.
• All the High Lords are introduced, and I liked learning about them. I especially loved learning some secrets about them and how Feyre won some over, and others didn’t trust her or Rhysand. I wish we could get books of some of them, not all of them, though. Not Beron! I couldn’t stand him.
• Feyre’s sisters grew on me in this book, especially towards the end. I was not too fond of Nesta at the beginning of the series, especially how she treated Feyre, but she won me over. Elain bugged me with how she treated Lucien, but I can understand why she has not accepted their bond yet. She doesn’t know him. I can’t wait to read their books.
• Cassian, Azriel, Amren, and Mor….I can’t get enough of these characters and hope each one gets their own happily ever after, especially after learning so much more about them in this book. Mor did tick me off until she confessed to Feyre something in this book that made me understand her better.
• The bargains that Feyre made to get help for the war against the King. I was scared for her when she made those bargains, but the ones she got assistance from saw something in her that had them helping her. She will forever be a kick-butt heroine to me.
• The ending, oh gosh, that ending. This book friggin’ wrecked me at the end, and I had to take a moment to breathe after reading it. I couldn’t believe what Sarah did to one certain chararcter. I almost didn’t forgive her. I felt for ALL the characters during the ending of this book. Remember, I think of them as family, and I don’t like them getting hurt.

I could go on and on with my favorite things about this book, but the review would be too long.

I give this book five stars, and if you haven’t read the first two books, I highly recommend you do because you’ll want to read them in order. Otherwise, if you don’t read in order, you’ll not get the full story behind what’s going on, especially with Feyre.

Sarah J. Maas has become an auto-buy author for me, and my husband and children may be jealous of Sarah. I’ve spent so much time reading Sarah’s books in the last two years (catching up on some of them and rereading). I’ve reread the TOG series and finally read her Crescent City series, and now I’m doing a read-through of her ACOTAR series. My husband didn’t realize that I reread books until he saw the tabs I had in the ACOTAR. I’ve mentioned to him why I buy the physical books because once I’ve read them and they become favorites, I want to be able to return to them repeatedly. Thanks, Sarah J. Maas, for writing these amazing stories for your readers to read.

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/series? Yes. I highly recommend this book/series to readers who enjoy New Adult Fantasy stories.

God I actually hated this book. So much repetition and the plot wasn’t interesting. 

[Berls]

4.5 stars

My first thought when I started listening to this book was "WHAT?! They changed the narrator?!" I will never understand why narrators are changed mid-series, at least not one the original one was fantastic. I would rather have a delayed audiobook release than switch narrators. That being said, Amanda Leigh Cobb did do a really good job with this book and her voices were not too jarringly different. It just was a bit of shock/disappointment to lose Jennifer Ikeda.

I'm trying to figure out how to review this without spoiling because this is the the book of reveals and twists upon twists. Like, something twists, then twists again, and then bam! one more twist! It keeps you on your toes. But not annoyingly, just this is a war with many sides and players and who you can trust is a constantly changing landscape. One twist I totally called and might have cheered when it came true at the final battle! Sarah J Maas wrote the war brilliantly. There's so many different sides - spying and intrigue, planning, deception, failure and victory, chaotic battles and "orderly" battles. If you like fantasy and action packed stories, this one is definitely for you.

The plot was fantastic, but the characters were even more so. Some of that bleeds into plot, since trying to figure out what's real and what's deception in each character is such a huge part of this book. But I loved the relationships (both romantic and friendship/family), loved seeing more of Feyre's sisters, and loved getting to know more histories on some of our already established favorites. There's this one part with Feyre - toward the end, so I don't want to spoil anything but - I loved that it was about loving yourself, even the not-so-great bits.

I am so glad I was able to finally reread the first 2 book and wrap up this trilogy! I realize there are more books - but for me, they aren't part of the original trilogy and are more like a spin off than a continuation, since we're switching main characters. I will probably read them eventually, because I do LOVE the characters they're focused on, but for the time being I'm content with this book as my ending.

[vagasker]

This one is the best out of the series so far. It feels like a great ending to the story. I saw there is a fourth book out so hopefully it is not going to spin completely out of control. The first three books feel like a great contained story with a satisfactory ending. One small let down is that the ending is a bit too good and it would have been more impactful if the war had some more diré consequences than what it had now.

3.5

[Mad Soul Child]

Было гораздо захватывающе, чем в первой книге, но без кринжовых моментов и описаний не обошлось. Пока что вторая часть тащит эту серию

[whisperingchapters]

Love this even more than the first time I read it. ❤️

[llamareads]

I was super excited for the whole "Feyre infiltrates the Spring Court!!!" storyline and wow, did it just go downhill from there. Sure, there's lots of battles and stuff, but Feyre can't fight in them so she just... stands on a hill and watches? There's a lot of stuff that's supposed to be really epic - well, after the first half of the book where basically nothing happens - and we're constantly told about how awful war is and everything but... that's the problem, we're told and not shown. There's no real emotional connection to the hordes of dying people so it just ends up being flat.

Also, Feyre is so dumb in this book. OK, sure, go spy on Tamlin... but some of her actions were just plain cruel and unnecessary. Then, THEN! After half a book anticipating a meeting and everyone telling her, "Hey, don't show your powers! It'll ruin all chances of an alliance!" bam! she shows her powers but somehow it's all fine? Look, if you're going to tease that doing something would be terribly awfully bad, then I expect some sort of repercussion, not for it to be swept under the rug because somehow Feyre is wonderful and smart and oh so talented magically.

Speaking of magic, I had absolutely no clue what was going on with the Caldron or how the magic system even works, and how Nesta and Elain tied into that. I had no idea of the usual limits on the power, besides being told, multiple times, how Super Awesomely Powerful Rhysand and Fayre and Cassian and Azriel are.

I appreciate that SJM is trying to add some non-straightness to her world but, wow. One High Lord's in a relationship with his main general -nice power imbalance there! There's a Deeply Inspiring Story about a lesbian couple and basically Moses parting the Red Sea that just... I really can't even. There's a High Lord who's super into orgies! But the worst, the absolute worst: the way Mor's bisexuality was handled was so cringeworthy that I downgraded the book a star just for that. For the love of little red apples, if this is the kind of gay rep you're going to write, just don't.

Also, just stop trying to pair people off in general. Not everyone needs a romantic interest (or, heaven forfend, two). Why does every single woman in these books have to be in some sort of weird love triangle?

Am I going to read the next book? Probably, because it's supposed to be about Nesta and Cassian and Nesta is pretty much the only character I can still stand.

[mitabird]

3.5 stars

[thepunktheory]

**Spoiler warning**
Full review on my blog!

I can't remember the last time I've been crying so hard.
Sarah J. Maas managed to rip my heart out with this one. I don't even know what to do with all my feelings.
To be honest, I can't remember any book ever affecting me this much. I finished A Court of Wings and Ruin in one sitting and was torn between reading more and getting closer to the end. I didn't want this to be over, didn't want to leave all those characters behind.

Not just the characters we already fell for. Like Rhysand who is just about perfect in every way. Or Feyre who is intense and relatable. Or Azriel, Cassian, Mor and Amren who deep are so much more than they seem at first glance. We get Feyre's sisters who are now also High Fae and we already know that Nesta is more than a handful. But also Elain, sweet Elain who always ways nothing but good. ACOWAR also marks the return of Lucien who appears to be a more complicated character than we knew until now.

I was also excited to learn a bit more about the other High Lords and their respective territories. I hope Sarah J. Maas will write some more books that allow us to explore all their courts!