Nineteen year old Feyre is the bread earner of her family, which includes her two sisters and her father. One day on her desperate hunting trip she kills a faerie wolf. Then a large beast life creature takes her away as punishment from Children of the Blessed Land to the other side Prythian. Soon she realizes her captor is not an animal but Tamlin - A High Faerie and a High Lord.
Prythian is ruled by Seven High Lords - Spring Court, Summer Court, Autumn Court, Winter Court, Dawn Court, Day Court and Night Court. Tamlin is the High Lord of Spring Court.
As Feyre begins to stay with Tamlin, she begins to slowly warm up to him. Things don't seem to be as it is shown to her. An ancient wicked shadow is growing to harm all the faeries and Feyre must find a way to stop it.

- Who is out there to bring Tamlin's downfall?
- Does Tamlin fall in love with a mortal like Feyre?
- What does Feyre do to help Tamlin?
- Does she survive in the end?


Rating - 5/5 Stars
Recommendation - Very High

Conclusion,
This book was an absolute captivating beauty, I couldn't put it down till I finished. Human Vs Fae and how Feyre a human tries to fit into the land of faeries. As she crosses the wall and enters the land of Prythrian, the thoughts that cross her mind, her journey Spring Court, how she warms up and develops feelings for Tamlin and the story that follows to help Tamlin and his land. A journey that I thoroughly enjoyed and can't wait to embark upon the rest of them in this series.

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.)

When I saw an opportunity to read this book I took it as fast as I could. I had already previously read two of the author's works (The Assassin's Blade and Throne of Glass respectively) so I knew that Sarah J. Maas was someone I wanted to read. So far, this is my favourite out of the three books she has written that I have personally read.

Disclaimer: This review may include some spoilers. If you want to read this book without any prior knowledge then this review may not be for you.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is loosely based on Beauty and the Beast which made a little nervous at first. My biggest fear when going into this novel was that it was going to be predictable as I am already familiar with the general idea. Thankfully, it most certainly was not! I found myself so eager to continue reading that I almost read the entire second half of the book in a single day!

The story follows Feyre who lives in a world where humans and faeries both exist independently of each other. Feyre, who is human, is forced to leave her mundane life and live with Tamlin who is a faerie. As with any great novel, the concept is a lot more complex than just a sentence or two, and this is no exception. You'll find yourself begging to know what comes next at the end of almost every chapter!

One of my favourite things about the story is the world it takes place in. It is a fascinating universe and Sarah J. Maas does an incredible job making it as vivid and lively as she can. Exploring the places Feyre finds herself in was such a fun aspect, and I'm so excited to see everywhere that wasn't explored in the sequels. The world seamlessly tied in with rich and full characters that felt realistic and believable. There was nothing empty about the storytelling, the characters or the world in which it takes place which helps the reader glide through the story with ease.

One of my only complaints about the story was that a major character isn't introduced until the latter half of the story. He plays a key role and it's clear he is important in the rest of the series. Unfortunately, since he was introduced a lot later than most other characters we didn't get to know him as well I would have liked. This, however, is superficial and hardly takes away from the story at all. In fact, I'm sure most people wouldn't mind this, especially since this is only the first book in a series so we will learn more about him in the future.

After considering everything I mentioned above, I decided to give this story a 5-star rating! It was an internal battle between a 4-star and a 5-star rating, but ultimately I felt that it was worthy of a higher rating and that I wouldn't feel honest with myself I downgraded it to a 4-star rating.

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 part of this book for me was Prythian (the Faerie realm). The world-building was really great in my opinion, and I loved the descriptions of the little magical parts of the world, as well as the Courts of the Faerie kingdom. It was really interesting to see the world of 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 for one another.

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, so I am giving it a 3/5. 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.

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

First time reading Sarah J Maas, so thanks NetGalley for the opportunity. Enjoyed the book, and will need to get some other of her books. Fantasy with challenges and riddles, which is good to have separately, and to have both even better.

I read the first two Throne of Glass books and kinda stopped with the third (it seemed to slog for me). I know this is a different “world” but I really enjoyed it. It was world building with tons of detail and beautifully written dislike that I now have to go read the others to learn more but I think this one wrapped up well enough as a stand alone as well.

So I've actually read A Court of Thorns and Roses before (here's my original review). I used to love to re-read but I haven't felt like I've had time to re-read over the last couple of years. I originally borrowed the series from Holly. So when I saw A Court of Thorns and Roses available for review, I jumped on it.

My biggest excitement about doing a re-read of this series was the big reveal that comes in book 2. And I knew that so much of book 1 is set up for that one moment, so I was excited to go back and see how much foreshadowing I might have missed and just see the setup coming. And honestly, I have to say it was just as good the second time as it was the first.

I remember my friend Lacy warning me that A Court of Thorns and Roses had a slow start, and I remember not being as put off by that the first time as I expected given her warning, but this time it was even more noticeable for me because I knew exactly how far I needed to read before the action started picking up and given what I know this time that I didn't know before had me uninvested in aspects of the story that I originally devoured. I can't say too much because I don't want to spoil the story for new readers. Fans who have already read this one will know exactly what I'm talking about.

One thing I complained about in my original review is that Sarah J Maas has a tendency to over-describe. I don't need to know what every meal consists of, what each character is wearing, or what each place looks like to the point of not needing to imagine or fill in the blanks myself. I can't tell you how many times I skimmed during this read-through because the description was just too much. This was especially difficult for me when the action picked up the last 30% or so of the book. In those intense moments of action, I need to move along quickly. And given the length of her novels, I personally think it would be beneficial to trim some of the excess descriptions.

I really hadn't thought much about how I would feel like I needed to continue reading the remaining books of the series after finishing A Court of Thorns and Roses, but I mean duh! A Court of Mist and Fury might be one of my all-time favorite build-ups and reveals ever. So, of course, I need to read that!

Favorite quotes:
-It took me a long while to realize that [...], whether he knew it or not, had effectively kept me from shattering completely.

-“Everything I love has always had a tendency to be taken from me.”

-“Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.”

I think my original rating of 4 Stars stands for me. I am tempted to give it 4.5 because I know just how much of this book builds to that pivotal moment in the next. But truthfully I still agree with all of my original reasons for rating it 4 Stars. Too much description is my biggest negative. Upon Further Review of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the final verdict is 4 Stars. Have you read A Court of Thorns and Roses? What did you think? Let me know!

<img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/Fnz5oInGEe5yw/giphy.gif"/>
<i> "Be glad of your human heart, Feyre.
Pity those who don't feel anything at all. </i>

Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feyre had no easy life. After her mother died, her family lost all their money and people came and destroyed her father.
Now they life in a small house without money, without hope for a better life.
Feyre is hunting in a dangerous forest every day, so she can feed her family, even though she is the youngest.
But then one day, she kills a big wolf, more a monster than an animal.
A beast appears and demands a price for the death of his friend. So he takes Feyre into his realm, Prythian, full of dangerous fae, high fae and high lords.
Full of intrigues, monsters, riddles and secrets.
I need to say it: the first time I read this book I was absolutely in love with it. But then I continued the series and realized - this is not the best book in the series.
It’s still really really good and I love everything about it, but it wasn’t SJMs best work and so I can’t give it the full five stars.

Character ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feyre is not an easy character. She is stubborn, but extremely loyal and brave.
She is smart in some way, even though she has a few flaws. I think her best personality trait is that she can adapt to a situation really fast. And that sometimes saves her life.
Next is Tamlin, our beast. I liked him the first time but rereading the book I realized he was the wonderful prince (or high lord) Feyre needed in this time, but they were not perfect for each other.
My absolute favorite character was Rhysand (surprise surprise). He was so mysterious, dangerous and smart. He used every situation for his own purpose, but also secretly saved and protected many people.
I loved him so much. I can’t wait to meet him again in book two.

World ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Next to our human world there is the realm of the fae - one of them is Prythian - ruled by seven High lords in their own courts.
Each of them represent a season or a time of the day - spring, summer, autumn, winter, dawn, day and night.
Every court is different by its rules, it’s lands and people.
I loved every facet of this world building - it was so special with festivals, rituals and feasts.

Relationships ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oh, this wonderful retelling of beauty and the beast. Tamlin - the beast who takes Feyre - aka belle and shows her that there is a better life to hope for. A life full of beauty, gardens, love and happiness.
But then something terrible happens and the new love between Tamlin and Feyre is tested.
In the beginning I liked the protective way Tamlin had. He saved Feyre again and again.
But when he really needed to save her - he chose his people over her.
Even though she never stopped fighting for him.
So all in all it was a beautiful love story, but I can’t wait to see more of everything - especially the relationship between all of the characters.

Writing style ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love SJMs writing style. It’s beautiful and addictive full of beautiful phrases, interesting characters and a fascinating world.
It was a little bit slow in the beginning, but it improved with every written page.
I can definitely recommend this book to anyone. 👏🏻

I absolutely loved this story!! I want more and I after my next commitment I am getting the next book.

In this story we meet Feyre and her family. Once a family with means, now living in poverty, Feyre must hunt their every meal as their father is unable to. While out hunting one day Feyre spots a doe. On the verge of starving as well as her family she stalks the doe while doing so spots a wolf. A very large wolf. She thinks for a minute he could be a fairy but brushed that thought aside. It was either kill the wolf or let the wolf have the doe. She killed the wolf just as it went for the kill on the doe. Her family gets food for another week or so and some money for the pelt of the wolf.

And then all hell breaks loose, Feyre and her family are visited by a fairie who knew that someone had killed the wolf/fairie. Feyre admits it was her and the claim is laid for her life in exchange for killing the wolf. Feyre was raised to hate all fairies as they had tortured humans for centuries. She is taken from her family to his kingdom, not long after she starts to “befriend” Lucien while still holding on to some dislike towards Tamlin, See these guys were cursed and are stuck with some masks they all wore to a ball many years prior. I love Lucien, under all that annoyance of the human he cares. (I know he does!) Then Tamlin, for Tamlin I think it was always a bit more than rescuing her from that miserable life she had even though he claimed it was a treaty law of a life for a life,,,,blah blah...I never bought that! Lol. He CAN NOT TELL HER CERTAIN THINGS that would probably answer the riddles that he and Lucien from time to time seem to throw at her. The “why her'' questions and the reasons she is treated so nicely instead of being thrown in a dungeon. Because he needs her, he needs her to break the damn curse! The curse that Amarantha put on the entire Fae world. They CAN’T SPEAK OF IT! PART OF THE CURSE!!

Anywho …..there is so much going on in this story that I could write my review as a book on the book lol, but I won’t bore you with that! GO GET THIS BOOK!!!!! I freaking loved this story line and all the characters! Two nights in row up till after 2am reading. Let me tell you that has not happened to me in years!!! I was gripping my tablet thinking son of *&%$# to the OMG *sigh (tears welling up) moments! All the ups and downs, the love that blooms and the deep connections that Feyre makes with some of the Fae. I love that out of hate came love and understanding, especially now at this time in our real world. LOVE can and will come with UNDERSTANDING and RESPECT for eachother but it will also come with sacrifice.

Go get lost in this book tonight!

This is one of my all time favourite book series and I have read it at least 3 times. This unexpected play on The Beauty and The Beast tale will draw you in and leave you wanting more. The rest of the trilogy is just as good, if not better, than the first book and will take you in an unexpected direction and introduce you to some of my favourite characters ever in this genre. This new cover is gorgeous and I cannot recommend this series enough!

This was an interesting take on Beauty and the Beast with the addition of the fae. Freya as a character could be annoying at times. I wasn't super sold on the romance part. I really liked Rhys. And Lucien was good. I will be reading the second book soon.

Recommended: not really
Stay away if you want drama and action and conflict and pressure. If you're okay with just learning about the daily life of a person learning about a world of fairies then you might like it

Thoughts:
This book came out years ago and even then I thought to myself that it didn't sound quite like something I would like. Despite the fact that I had loved the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Mass, I just had a bad feeling about her sophomore series and, well, I wasn't wrong.

Frankly the first 70% of this was pretty boring. I feel like that's completely blasphemous for a Maas book, and in fact maybe if I hadn't read her other series this wouldn't have seemed so painful in comparison! The majority of this book was just about Feyre living at the manor, wandering around and having random conversations and thinking about art. While the world was promising, nothing was happening. I just kept thinking, what does any of this matter? Part of the plot hinges on the fact that Feyre herself doesn't know what's going on, but since I also then didn't know what was going on as a reader there was no excitement or push to keep reading.

My other main issue here is that when we finally did get some motivation and story for things that were going on, it was just plopped out there by a side character telling a story over the course of a few pages. It wasn't delicately woven in; there were no hints; it was just "here's all your exposition and background in one convenient block." I almost felt like the book could have started there and I would have been able to read it just fine.

Now, okay, the ending was exactly what I had been looking for the whole time! The last 25% was exciting and clever and had fascinating characters in a world that I was dying to see more of. If the rest of the series is more like that, I will totally continue to read it! However, at the moment I definitely need a break because this one was pretty disappointing overall. I would like to see more of Rhysander, though...

Which brings me to the point of the relationship between Tamlin and Feyre. the development felt weak and nonsupporting of where they ended up at. Their conversations and actions together felt like they were missing some steps between beginning and end that made it hard for me to buy into their relationship or, really, to care about it.

Final issue: that riddle WAS SO OBVIOUS, FEYRE. 😑

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

A retelling of The Beauty and the Beast with twist! Love it!
The story is slow to build, and the characters took time to come into their own. But once they do... Wow!
Feyre is strong and independent. I hated initially how she was mistreated by her family despite being the breadwinner and the strongest one. And I liked her journey till the end.
And Tamlin....swoon!

One of my all time favorite series of books without a doubt.

This is the first time that I have ever been completely engulfed into one love story and then had my mind so totally flipped upside down it left me dizzy.

SJM has me falling hard for this beautiful world she has created, full of characters come together to tell one incredible story.

I will be reading and re-reading this story for years to come, loving it more and more everytime.

I have been wanting to read this book for a while and have seen it everywhere so I was very excited to be accepted for this arc.

This beauty and the beast fantasy retelling was not something i usually read however I was completely obsessed with this fantasy book.

I was so involved in the story of Feyre she had such depth as a character and I was completed invested in her journey.
I agree that the first hundred pages are slower, but this book needed to be a slow burner purely fo the character development. Without this I would not have been so involved in the story and I left this book dying to read the next two in the series!

I was completely sucked I by the story and I’m only annoyed I hadn’t read it sooner2

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

* This review is based on an arc provided in exchange for honest feedback

A court of Thorns and Roses follows the story of a girl thrown into a situation over her head and out of her comfort zone after unknowingly committing an evil act by killing a friend of the main male character. Our heroine must come into her own sense of self and power while living as the "guest" of this Fey character.

There is much I loved about this tale in that it is very reminiscent of the beauty and the beast narrative I grew up with given a slightly darker start and more time for the romance element to build.The cover art for this edition is glorious and with this opportunity to read the book through this format I have been inspired to purchase and read more of the series.

All that said there is much the book left to be desired. Pacing throughout is erratic and character development for anyone outside of the main cast is next to non existent. There are distinct gaps in the world building that I am hopeful may be addressed later in the series.

I would recommend this book to fans of Casandra Clair as the writing style, and tropes employed are very similar. Those who read and enjoyed the book Serpent and Dove may also want to give this book a try.

For the first 200 pages I had a hard time sticking to this story. However once I got around the 200 page mark, I couldn’t put it down. I would have liked a faster paced story in the beginning but it’s a slow burner. If you love slow burners, read this.

This book was so good and so bad at the same time! And SO ADDICTIVE. Like I can't stop thinking about how bad I want to read the next book. And the next one and the new one. Help!

I loved the writing and the characters, and the world Sarah J. Maas created here. Except sometimes, I hated it. Everything was either too much or not enough. Nothing in between. First two-thirds were just pure romance and at the end, it suddenly became this blood-thirsty adventure.

But it was also really romantic and witty and wonderful. And I was sold the second Rhysand appeared. So yeah, I guess I am just sucker for romance and clever dare-devils.

I went into this book not knowing it was a Beauty And The Beast retelling. It was a pleasant surprise. I wanted to read the whole series before I reviewed this book that was given to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I can’t say that decision really helped me since this book could very well be a stand-alone and Mrs. Maas flips the script and takes the story in a whole new direction. I won’t say it was a bad decision on her part but just something to be noted.
It’s hard to come up with any new insights into this beloved book series so I’ll just say that I really enjoyed the story. I’m not sure I was completely over the moon for Tamlin. I liked him in the beginning but then he went flat on me. He was kind to Feyah and her family but he but as a big bad beast he was a little weak. He really doesn’t become the hero until after Feyah AS A HUMAN beats the big bad evil fey empress at her own game. Tamlin never fights for her or tries to show her any support. I understand he thinks he’s doing it to protect her but still, he just sits there like a dog in his kennel.
Those feelings aside I was sucked right into this book. So much so that much of my adulting took a back seat while I was engrossed in Feyra’s story.

I absolutely adored this book! By the time I finished, I went and purchased the rest of the series. I love fantasy and it was different than I’ve read before. I cannot wait to see what happens between Feyre and Reese. I love that she outsmarted the magic characters. Cannot wait to read the rest.

I am BLOWN AWAY by how much I liked this book! I haven't read a lot of Fantasy since high school, but this book reignited a love for the genre in me!

The novel is a loose retelling of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, where Feyre, after killing a faerie, is reprimanded and forced to live with her captor in the faerie realm. The book is a combination of Fantasy, New Adult, and Romance.

I found the faerie realm to be fascinating, with an intricate map at the beginning of the book that I kept referring back to. The characters were all very fleshed out, and by about 30 pages in, I was hooked and needing the second book in the series.