Read From: 31st May - 5th June 2021
After not particularly loving A Court of Mist and Fury, I didn’t go into this book with high hopes. Especially as a lot of people say this one is their least favourite of the series. Well... I think my five star rating says it all. Never did I ever think I would turn into a Sarah J Maas stan but if I’m being completely honest, this book completely blew me away! It exceeded every single one of my expectations and those 700 pages went by way too quickly. I haven’t ben able to stop thinking about this book since I put it down, there were plot twists galore and my love for (most of) these characters has done a complete 180 from being pretty impartial to their existence all the way to being unapologetically obsessed with them.
The character development definitely speaks for itself. With Feyre’s new High Lady status, it’s pretty obvious that she turns into a total badass and I was HERE FOR IT. In this book, Feyre is literally the definition of a strong female character - I loved how her relationship with Rhysand developed and how they were never overshadowing one another. They could effectively work together and protect each other while still being their own person and I loved that. It was also great to see more of Nesta and Elain - who admittedly I hated at the beginning of this series. Mor, Cassian, Azriel and Amren... I love them all and absolutely adored how this book explored their character arc’s a bit deeper.
All of this character development was accompanied by an extremely action packed plot. There were many times that I couldn’t actually tear my eyes away to put the book down because I was itching to know what happened next. Even where the action momentarily lulled, there was always something going on to build up tension where you just KNOW that something drastic is soon going to happen. I would be lying if I said there weren’t times that I audibly gasped or widened my eyes in shock at certain things that went on over the course of the novel.
I have absolutely zero criticisms of this book. It takes a lot for me to give a five star rating in the first place, let alone when it follows a slightly disappointing previous book in a series. Everything I felt hyped up into feeling about A Court of Mist and Fury, I actually felt about A Court of Wings and Ruin. I’m not going to say I recommend this - mainly because this review has been filled with spoilers for the previous books in the ACOTAR series and chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve either already read this book or have read up to it. So, if you still have this book to go - stop what you’re doing and READ IT NOW! And if you have already read it, I hope that you loved it just as much as I did.