A Court of Wings and Ruin (Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)

by Sarah J. Maas

[Artemis]

I read the other two books (here and here) in this series in the span of two days, so it should be of no surprise that I also finished A Court of Wings and Ruin in two days. I find it extremely weird to have such different reactions to Maas’ Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses, but the latter is definitely the better series. This review is spoiler free (for the most part), so as always read with caution!

This book is about 600+ pages. There is a lot of ground to cover, and if she plans on expanding the series into another three books she has a fair amount of set up to do as well.

Maas has improved drastically from Empire of Storms to Wings and Ruin. And thank god. I don’t think I could have taken anymore of the disjointed monologues and melodrama that seemed to appear on every page of Empire. Maas has really got a knack for writing battle scenes, which is usually something I skim over (sorry, but sometimes its a pain to read about sword on sword/fighting action!) but I read every word of the Summer Court battle it was that well written and planned out. However there was a lot of “dead air” in between important plot developments and reveals. The first battle scene at Summer Court was by far the better of the two – it was better paced and the action was written better. Maybe because the build up to the final battle was so drawn out over this last book. The pacing takes some dips and turns, but Maas makes up for it with some powerful revelations and set ups for future books.

There is a lot going on with each and every one of the characters in this book. It would take hours to get into it all. Maas manages to close out some story lines and also create new ones (and introduce other courts!) so that the story can continue after Feyre and Rhysand battle Hybern. I enjoyed the diverse character developments and the contemporary issues (lots of gender/sexuality exploration) that appeared in this book.

The erotic content is easy to skip over, because it gets a bit redundant. And honestly – I could have done without it in the last book. Maas is definitely branching away from the “young adult” genre into the “new adult”. A Court of Wings and Ruin is a powerhouse of a finale from Maas. I’m interested in seeing where the next three books lead View Spoiler » and if her writing improvements for this series are any indication, I can’t wait for the next complex and diverse story.

Now wishing that Throne of Glass was as good as this series, but alas I know the Chaol-centered sixith book and final seventh will not match up.