ARC Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

For as much hype as this book had, I was hoping for a little more. (Also I actually read this a while ago, but am very overwhelmed with school so I’m tapping into my review reserves)

19 year old Feyre lives near the wall between Faeries and humans, where a tenuous treaty keeps the two worlds at peace. However, one day while hunting in the woods, she kills a wolf and brings on the unexpected wrath of one of Tamlin, one of the Fae. She is forced to return with him to the Faerie realm, where she must confront her warring feelings for him, as well as a dark power that is growing in the land.

There were several parts in this book that I got lost in, both in good and bad ways.

The most enjoyable aspect of it for me was Prythian (the Faerie realm). The world-building was really great, and I loved the different Courts of the Faerie kingdom. It was interesting to see Faerie mixed with a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, as these are two concepts that worked great together, but I would never have thought of.

However, I was disappointed with the characters. The enemies-to-lovers relationship we got in this book felt rushed, forced, and just awkward at times. Despite the story lagging on in many parts, the romance was very fast in a way that wasn’t believable. It seemed like there was so much of the plot that could have been condensed and instead replaced with a better buildup of the different character’s feelings. 

The other major problem I had was the repetition (both in language and plot). I NEVER. EVER. Want to see the words growl, snarl, feral, ignorant, or human ever again. I think I would have been less frustrated with this if a more expansive vocabulary had been used instead of the same four descriptive terms over and over. Additionally, there was a lot of rehashing of Feyre’s inner thoughts that made the book much longer than it needed to be.

Despite the problems though, I think that the general storyline had a lot of promise. I was very invested in the world and wanted to find out its fate, even if I didn’t connect very well with the characters. I’m really excited to see more of Prythian, and hope that writing will be better divided between character building and plot in the next books of the series.

Happy Reading!

Rating: 3/5
Pacing: slow beginning, medium end
Content warnings: mentions of sexual assault, gore
Intended audience: Adult* 

*Side note, there is a lot of debate about if this book should be categorized as YA or not. I believe this is an adult book, as there are many graphic scenes, and a lot of the central plot points revolve around physical intimacy

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