I love retellings. I love Beauty and the Beast. So I was bound to love
A Court of Thorns And Roses.
★★★★★
I've loved every Sarah J. Maas' book I've read this far and this one did not disappoint me.
We follow a human girl named Feyre. Her mother died, her father is depressed and her two sisters are demanding and not suited for rough living. And since they lost their fortune and moved to a little cottage Feyre has had to look after her family. She does it to honour her vow to her mother on her deathbed. But harder times come, they have no food and no money to spare. Feyre hunts farther away in the woods to find any game in the dead of winter. She faces a huge wolf which she kills. But the wolf was Fae, or rather High Fae. She has to pay for the kill with her own life or by living her life in Prythian, the Fae lands.
Feyre is such an amazing character that truly feels alive. She knows what it is to be hungry and what it is to wealthy. She knows neither of them come without costs. She knows what it is to be desperate and to act out of desperation, still feeling the fear it inflicts. During the book she grows more courage and independency and a lot more stubborn she was at the beginning. And maybe she has been very stubborn and courageous originally but the turns in her lifer have made her subside those qualities and put fear and desperation into their places.
The thing that really caught my attention was Feyre's feeling toward her family. To me it seemed that she cared about her family, that she wanted to take care of them but she didn't love them. It's unusual because usually all heroines are so in love with their families and they don't want to leave them at any cost. But Feyre merely argued against the idea of leaving just save her life. Not her family's. I admire Ms. Maas for that.
There's Tamlin, you fall in love with. He is adorable. A bit awkward and doesn't know how to act around Feyre. Some might think that is he truly is awkward, wouldn't he then be badly written character? No. Not at all. It's really adorable to follow his clumsiness and it suits perfectly in contrast with other characters. Tamlin is a High Lord, but we find this out later. It doesn't come out
as a huge surprise given it's a retelling from Beauty and the Beast. He suffers along with his court of a curse that is a huge spoiler, but it binds them to wear masks that don't come off. The curse is broken by a mortal, but how is too a huge spoiler.
Then there's the Tamlin behind the awkward outer shell. The Tamlin who has teeth and attitude. A will and desire to protect his Kingdom and those he cares about.
The other two main Fae are Lucien, who's part of Tamlin's court and then there is Rhysand. Rhysand the Mysterious I would call him. I don't know what he wants of Feyre and what his intentions and motives are. I hope these we will find out in the next book,
A Court of Mist and Fury.
My thoughts went from basic emotionless reading to 'holy what's going on?' to 'Oh my God I'm dying' to 'Just stop you killing me'. And that went over and over again. I know that Maas' books are intense and full of emotions that really make you feel something but this. Really. Hurt. And. Made. Me. Happy. The whole experience made me crave for the next book. I had two sentences scribbled to my notebook of reviews:
''Am I supposed to live through this?'' and ''Really, you expect me to breathe?''
You can make your own conclusions of how awesome those feelings are during the book.
It really is a page-turner and actually quite fast to read. I would recommend to pick it up now, so it's over and you can mope until the next book comes out!
And if you haven't read the book yet, check the pronunciation guide in the end.
