When we start A Court of Wings and Ruin Feyre is pissed off with Tamlin and rightfully so. He pretty much plays right into her trap because he's too blinded by the fact that he still actually loves Feyre (or who he believes Feyre is anyways) and believes he's done the only thing he can to 'save' her from Rhysand. And of course he's also too blinded by Ianthe's sweet temperate priestess act to see her for what she truly is.
I'm not sure I would have had that restraint not to gut Ianthe the first time I saw her again, unlike Feyre who played her oh-so-well. I definitely would have murdered the bitch in her sleep though. Nobody messes with my sister. Her eventual ending was well-deserved and pretty much perfect, that greedy bitch.
Also, those creepy siblings/twins were evil. I was glad Feyre and Lucien sent the Bogge after them. They well and truly deserved it. They should have obeyed her orders purely has lady of the household. Tamlin should have backed her up on it and then her and Lucien wouldn't have been forced to take such drastic measures. Of course, when they'd spiked her and Lucien's food with faebane, that was just the icing on their death-cake.
I wasn’t sure I’d been born with the ability to forgive. Not for terrors inflicted on those I loved. For myself, I didn’t care—not nearly as much. But there was some fundamental pillar of steel in me that could not bend or break in this. Could not stomach the idea of letting these people get away with what they’d done.
Lucien won himself some more points in A Court of Wings and Ruin. Even though Elain is his mate, I liked that he kept himself very restrained and just stayed mostly in the background away from her whilst she eventually became much more of herself again. And, speaking of Elain - the Cauldron gifted her with something extra when it Made her because it liked her - which is a little bit disturbing really. Although, Elain being a seer did come quite in handy several times once they all figured it out.
Elain had always been gentle and sweet—and I had considered it a different sort of strength. A better strength. To look at the hardness of the world and choose, over and over, to love, to be kind. She had been always so full of light.
The most beautiful story arc (apart from Rhysand and Feyre's relationship) in the whole ACOTAR series is the relationship between Rhys, Mor, Azriel, Cassian, Amren and of course, Feyre. Rhys' speech just before the really big battle is a key point of that relationship. How each of those people helped make him what who he is now, instead of whom he might have been if he had never met any of them. Cassian taught him resilience, loyalty, honour and strength, and how those things can make the best of a person. Azriel taught him that's it's the family you choose, rather than the one you are born into that really matters, and that you can still find hope when the whole world is telling you to despair. Mor taught him that light can be found in the darkest of places if you have the ability to find it, and that kindness can exist even amongst the worst cruelty. Amren taught him how to keep his power from consuming him completely. And of course, Feyre is his mate - the missing piece of him.
“The great joy and honour of my life has been to know you. To call you my family. And I am grateful - more than I can possibly say - that I was given this time with you all”
The whole theme of ACOTAR is that dreams can be very powerful things - for both good or bad. Rhys had a dream of living in a peaceful land and he began trying to make that happen. Feyre had a dream of a better life - she went through the wall and although her life with Tamlin wasn't the once she dreamed of, it did lead her to Rhys and all of the others. Even the monsters have dreams - in Feyre's last conversation with the Suriel, it asked her to leave the world a better place than she found it.
Now, I am not one to cry over a book - in fact the last time I remember getting properly teary out a book character was in Harry Poter and the Deathly Hallows. However, I had to wipe the eyes clear twice in A Court of Wings and Ruin. You know what I'm talking about. First Sarah J. Maas stabs you sharply in the heart with Cassian, and the knife is pushed deeper with Nessa. Then of course, Elain comes along and Sarah J. Maas takes her great big dagger out of your heart, closes the wound and pats you on the head. Not too much later she presses on the still-healing wound with Amren and her princely fellow Valeran (sp?). Then she rips your heart out out of your body, stomps on it and kicks it around for good measure with Rhys. Then of course, because she does still love us in her sick, twisted fashion, she dusts our hearts off so their clean, and then shoves them back inside our chests. My god woman, stop trying to kill me!
as I am clearly a glutton for punishment I can't wait for the next book.