CarenzaOnBooks

Sarah J Maas is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Throne of Glass series and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, as well as a USA Today and international bestselling author. Sarah wrote the first incarnation of the Throne of Glass series when she was just sixteen, and has now sold in thirty- five languages. A New York native, Sarah currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and dog. (Taken from Sarah's website)

Plot

A nightmare, I’d told Tamlin. I was the nightmare.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

Taken from Goodreads.

Following A Court of Mist and Fury, I had very high hopes for this book and sadly my high hopes weren't met. I have been a fan of Sarah's since 2015 and managed to catch up with all her books very quickly. I can say that I prefer the ACOTAR series as I prefer trilogies, so when I knew that this part of the series was coming to an end, I was excited to see how Sarah wrapped it up. I know that a lot of fans of the ACOTAR series were either happy or let down by ACOWAR, but I fall somewhere in the middle. I enjoyed it, but it didn't compare to ACOMAF. I ended up giving it 4/5 stars, which is still a lot more than you would have thought. 

Trying to turn my opinions into something articulate with structure is going to be a challenge, so I'm settling for articulate rather than structure. One thing I loved about this book was how fast paced it was. I was sure that it was going to be a very long time before Feyre and Rhysand were reunited, but it happened after over a hundred pages. I think the pacing of the book was one of the reasons why it got higher than what I was initially planning on giving it. It hooked you in and was almost impossible to put it down. I haven't felt that way about a book in a very long time.

Something I had an issue with was the way Sarah handled Mor's sexuality. I know that several fans of the series have had issues with this part of her character. For someone as big as Sarah in the YA writing world, the lack of diversity in her books is shocking. But when she did included some diversity, it was (in my opinion) poor. Having a character who is gay suppress their sexuality for hundreds of years and lead someone on is just wrong. It was a chance for Sarah to have some great representation of diversity in her books and in my opinion, she just threw it away.

The character development from ACOTAR to ACOWAR is amazing. These books have been very character driven, which is something I am not usually a fan of, but in Sarah's books it is something I like. I think that this is what invested me in the story line when I picked it up last year. Characters such as Lucien, Cassian and Azriel are the ones I am the most invested in. I know that lot's of people are invested in Feyre and Rhysand's story, but I personally don't care for them. I found them quite irritating in this book and considering they were both narrators, that's not a good thing.

Like I mentioned, I wasn't invested in Feyre's story line as I found her annoying as a narrator. When you find the narrator annoying, it's never a good sign. I found her very whinny and self-centered in this book. All the things she did to Tamlin were cruel and even if Tamlin made many bad mistakes to get Feyre back, what Feyre did to Tamlin was equally as bad. Putting an entire group of people at risk because one person made a bad mistake is idiotic and selfish.

I'm very glad that the remaining books in this series won't focus on Feyre and Rhys as I'm done with their story. I am going to be continuing with this series, but I am looking forward to reading more about some of the other characters.
Love,
Carenza x