A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

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Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #1
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 433
Genres: Fantasy, Retelling, Fairy Tale Retelling, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Backlist Reader Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

My Review:

4 stars — You know what sucks about coming into a wildly popular series years later?  You hear things…you see people talking about things.  And so you end up with expectations, or hints to plots or characters or whatever.

So what’s the result?  The result is that I couldn’t just let myself go while reading like I should have.  I found it hard to invest in some characters and relationships.  I started having theories that could make things work out for where I was in the book, even though I knew they probably weren’t true…and they weren’t.

But the thing is, despite all that, I was sucked into this story.  I kept wanting to see what was going to happen.  I was curious about the secrets being kept, and how pieces of the original story/stories would play out.  I’d entirely forgotten that Beauty & the Beast is also based loosely on Cupid and Psyche…until we got Under the Mountain, and then I remembered pieces of that mythology.  I appreciated the ways in which Ms. Maas wove elements of those tales into her own tale.  I think knowing it was a retelling might have also given me certain expectations, and so don’t expect it to follow faithfully.  That’s probably where the story lost me the most.  I wanted to fall in love with the Beast…I wanted a romance to ship…and, well, that’s not quite what I got.

I don’t read a lot of Fae/Faerie stories, so I enjoyed all the new kinds of creatures, and the way their part of the world was laid out.  It was all pretty new to me, so it all worked.  I will admit that I’m not sure I’m ever going to be a huge fan of Fae/Faerie, since, you know, they’re kind of cruel assholes in many circumstances.  Even the good ones are jerks a lot of the time.

As for Feyre?  I don’t know.  She starts out so cold and remote.  And I thawed towards her a little for sure, but I’m not super girl crushing on her or anything.  I definitely feel for her though, especially given that ending.  Maybe that’s also why I’m feeling so out of sorts — because she’s left feeling SUPER out of sorts at the end there.  AND I still don’t know how all these things that I know about the series are actually going to play out.

SO yeah.  I definitely enjoyed it, but I’m also feeling cautious and wary.  I’m hoping the next book is what I need to really pull me all the way into the fandom.