A Court of Thorns and Roses (Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)

by Sarah J. Maas

[tellemonstar]

This review was originally posted on book reviews with the blogmonstarOh My Freaking God. A really good sort-of retelling of my favourite fairytale? I mean, A Court of Thorns and Roses had me at 'Sarah J. Maas' but combine that with Beauty and the Beast and you've got a Blogmonstar trap, basically. Needless to say, it did not disappoint. I read the majority of A Court of Thorns and Roses on the train to Melbourne on Tuesday. It's a four hour trip so plenty of reading time. Did I mention Beauty and the Beast is my favourite fairytale? Particularly the original version (but I also loved Robin McKinley's Beauty, and of course the animated Disney version. And the stage play.) I really enjoyed the subtle changes to the original storyline that Sarah J Mass threw in - ie. Feyre can't read, the whole masquerade mask/shapeshifter thing.

I liked Lucien - even at the start when he wasn't being very pleasant. It was quite understandable why he wasn't the friendliest towards Feyre in the beginning, and eventually he came to realise that she wasn't so bad after all, and she felt the same about him so it was all worth it in the end. I thought Rhysand was a jerk - and let's face it he is, but he did have a few minor redeeming points so I'll forgive some of his flaws. Even if he did help Feyre only to meet his own agenda, without his help she really would have been screwed.

Like I said, A Court of Thorns and Roses is essentially a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast. Of the original fairy tale, as Feyre has two older sisters as well as her father (who is not a kindly old inventor). There was some differences to the orgianl story that in no way detracted from the re-telling and even though you knew there were certain things that had to happen in order for the B&tB story to hold up, the plot of A Court of Thorns and Roses is still different enough to hold up by itself.

Amarantha is a scary, crazy bitch. Like, bug-nut cray-cray, and vicious and sadistic with it. It's one of those things that pretty much every Fae in the book agreed about. So much so they they tried to avoid saying her name wherever possible. Sort of like Voldemort.

Also, yay for no cliffhanger. Story summed itself up nicely and didn't leave us hanging. *looks pointedly at Empire of Glass). I've got no idea what's going to happen in book 2, although I intend on starting it tonight so I guess I'll find out later, but A Court of Thorns and Roses finished quite neatly with all major questions and most minor questions answered.