I was given the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas, by my friend who had been raving about them for months before I finally gave in and decided to give them a try. It was winter break and I was sitting around all day at home doing absolutely nothing, so I thought I might as well get some reading in. I have always been a fantasy fan, so the premise of a land where both humans and Faeries coexist was very intriguing to me. The main character of the book, Feyre, is introduced as a starving human teenage girl, who is the sole provider for her impoverished family of four. Her crippled father has given up on life, and her two older sisters expect Feyre to do all the dirty work (hunting, cleaning, shopping). Feyre and her family live in a small village bordering the land of Prythian, where various civilizations (known as Courts) of Faeries live. There is a wall dividing the two races, and the humans are terrified of the Faerie people. One day, Feyre kills a wolf when she is out hunting, desperate for any meat or pelts that could buy her family the smallest amount of food. Little did Feyre know that by killing that wolf she would be launching the first day of the rest of her life.
The reader follows Feyre as she is stolen into the land of the Fae as penance for unknowingly killing a Faerie. A Faerie named Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court, takes Feyre with him to Prythian where she is to live the rest of her days.
Sarah J. Maas has a way with character development that guarantees investment into the stories of each Faerie or human you encounter throughout the books. These books truly are “page-turners” and I read the series in literally a week. There are so many unpredictable twists and turns as well as masterly crafted plot lines. I don’t know what I would do if I had to wait to read one of the books in the series, as the cliff-hangers at the end of each book left me so eager to continue. Maas writes in a way where there is meaning in the things she lefts unsaid as much as the things she writes down.
I highly recommend everyone read these books, no matter what genre you tend to prefer to read. I told a lot of my college friends to read the series, and they scoffed at the idea of reading a book about Faeries, but this is definitely one of the top three book series I have ever read. I am also looking forward to reading Sarah J. Maas’s new series, Crescent City, which is supposedly the same vibe as A Court of Thorns and Roses.
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