I’ve been putting off this review for a while now because I needed the chance to gather my thoughts and get my feels under some semblance of control.
A Court of Wings and Ruin has been a wild ride and I consider it now one of my favorite books EVER. And I don’t say that lightly. The reason for this is more than because I enjoy the story, or the author, or that it’s a YA novel.
It’s the writing!
I always appreciate well-written books that make me feel what the characters feel and literally make my heart beat along with rhythm of the story. ACOWAR had me wrapped around it’s book-finger and I felt like I was immersed in the story and was Feyre myself. And since Feyre is an artist I was particularly drawn to her ideas for paintings.
ACOWAR offers a beautiful fast-paced ending to the trilogy (although I believe there are going to be more books). The best part of this book, in my opinion, was the character development and background information not previously provided. Feyre did the majority of her development in A Court of Mist and Fury, but every other character is changing a great deal in this book.
Rhys, our charming High-Lord of the Night Court, is revealed to have flaws. Gasp! I actually love this very much:) Despite his many hundreds of years of experience he is still called a “sneaky bastard” by Amren and shows shame and remorse over some of his decisions and actions. He makes mistakes, but everything he does he does for his friends and people. He is a very selfless character, to the chagrin of his court, and always volunteers of himself before making them sacrifice. I absolutely love the way Feyre describes him:
“Choice. It had always been about my choice with him. And for others as well. Long before he’d every learned the hard way about it.” (pg. 217)
Another character we get the pleasure of pursuing more is Lucien. In the last book he proved himself to be a fair-weather friend to Feyre by ignoring the pain she was in and not confronting Tamlin about it. He even admits that Feyre was a better friend to him than he ever was to her. After Feyre escapes back to the Night Court, she had no choice but to bring Lucien along, and we see (slightly) more interaction between him and Elain. He becomes more fear-less and begins to see that the good in the world is worth protecting and fighting for. I was very pleased to see this change in Lucien.
Really I could go on all day about each and every character, but I shall limit myself to only one more: Nesta. Not much information is given in the first book about Feyre’s sisters, and while a little more is provided in the second, Nesta really comes into her own in ACOWAR. She is a sharp mean-spirited soul that is fiercely protective of Elain, but paradoxically hardly bothers with Feyre. Not much love is displayed between these two until ACOWAR, but Nesta becomes more likeable in that she apologizes for abandoning Feyre in the past and works to help the Night Court defeat Hybern. My heart softened when Nesta volunteers to help and says, “I do not want to be remembered as a coward.” (pg. 396)
The beauty of this book really shone in the last 150 pages. Chapter 65 onwards had my heart racing and I struggled with rationing the story to preserve it as long as possible and consuming it all at once. My absolute favorite moment in the entire story was when Feyre tracks the Suriel again and mourns the creature as it lay dying. Nobody loves the Suriel (certainly not I) because it does nothing extraordinary and is a background creature, but I came to appreciate the Suriel when it helps her even at its own risk. This scene also showed Feyre’s kind-heart and her inability to leave others in their time of need.
I had the pleasure (and pain) of finishing ACOWAR on a plane ride, meaning that I had a good chunk of time to scarf the story down, but also could not leap and squeal as I longed to do. I could LITERALLY hear my heart pulsing inside my chest and my fingers itched to turn the next page longing for more. ACOWAR was an intense rollercoaster yet maintained a well-groomed writing style that I came to fall even more in love with as I approached the end. Sarah J. Maas initially amazed me with her Throne of Glass series and has since astonished me with her growth as an author and in her treatment of characters in her Court of Thorns and Roses series. I was sorry to finish the book but look forward to her spinoff novels that continue different character’s stories.
I do have to say though, that the amount of sex scenes was unnecessary. I knew this series was going to be steamier than her previous one but the content only increased in ACOWAR and could have been toned down or at least insinuated. And while I was in love with the writing, Maas could have been more broad in her word choice and phrases. I felt like a lot of these were run-down with usage.
That being said, I am proud to declare my delight with A Court of Wings and Ruin! I give it 5 dazzling stars and recommend to lovers of Maas’ work and mature young adults (due to sexual content).
Now, how to get back to normal life…
Tiffany
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