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

by Sarah J. Maas

[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.