A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Sep 22, 2021 Shawna rated it liked it

Shelves: fairytaleesque-bb-cinderella-theme, hh-warrior, i-read-library, hero-dark-scary-cool-dangerous-dude, hero-stoic, pnr-angeldemon-fae-magic-witch-misc, ending-abrupt-poor-epilogue-needed, hero-brooding-serious-grumpy-aloof, fiction, audiobook-library

3 stars - Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

So this is an obvious Beauty and the Beast fantasy retelling with faeries. I also saw a few hints of the Twilight and Hunger Games series, but maybe that's just me. I liked the story, but it was too long-winded and could've used some editing. And Feyre drove me nuts.

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it's a series. If there had just been another chapter or two and/or an epilogue, I think this would've worked fine as a stand alone story and not needed any more bo ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Sep 20, 2023 Katyana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, tstl, ya-na

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There was a lot that I liked about this once I got past the FMC, Feyre. But she was a real headache for me. In the beginning, she's the tough younger sister - the survivor who keeps them all fed and alive, while they are all basically useless, spoiled brats. Her problem there was that she let them walk all over her as if she's a spineless doormat. My problem is that these two sides of her personality don't jibe. She hunts the woods that even tough mercenaries refuse to go into. Kills a wolf she' There was a lot that I liked about this once I got past the FMC, Feyre. But she was a real headache for me. In the beginning, she's the tough younger sister - the survivor who keeps them all fed and alive, while they are all basically useless, spoiled brats. Her problem there was that she let them walk all over her as if she's a spineless doormat. My problem is that these two sides of her personality don't jibe. She hunts the woods that even tough mercenaries refuse to go into. Kills a wolf she's at least half sure is fae, but gives no fucks because fuck those people, carries the dead deer home through the scary woods for miles, because she's a badass. But then gets there and not only accepts her sisters treating her like she's scum on the floor, but kind of wallows in that treatment. There's an easy solve here: "I don't share food with people who don't contribute, so you can either get off your ass and chop the firewood, and chop up this deer I risked my life to get for us ... or you can find your own fucking food." But Feyre is spineless.

Then she's taken into the faerie lands, and she is all spine - a prickly, racist brat. Let's be frank here: she murdered a fae who had done nothing to her. When she shot him, he just turned and looked at her... and she finished it off. But she treats the fae as if they are all monsters. Newsflash, bitch: the only monster here is you. She won't even apologize for killing him, because she doesn't regret it, she's that racist.

She also makes a LOT of stupid decisions. But in typical YA FMC mode, doesn't take responsibility for them...as if these things just happened to her, and she's a victim. She murdered someone in cold blood, and that's why she's in fae lands. She's not a victim. She's not even in a dungeon, she's in a rich, opulent palace being treated like an honored guest. She made a dumb decision to capture a fairy that she's been told can give her info ... but when it's a shitshow (which everyone told her it would be) she decides that the person who told her how this type of fairy can be caught was trying to kill her. No, dumbass. He just figured if you were really that stupid, he wasn't going to get in the way of Darwinism. And on and on. She's the reason for the TSTL tag on my review.

She's a fucking hard character to find a speck of sympathy for, much less like.

Around the 40% mark she started turning it around, and saw that she was a shithead. Started to engage with people who had tried to be kind to her bitchy, murdering ass. Realized she was being unfair.

This is when I really started to dig the book.

Then in the last 20%, she becomes this weird, awful whiner. To be fair, things take a terrible turn. She's justified in being unhappy. But where I have a problem with it is ... Feyre was barely surviving before the fae. She is this 19-20 year (19 at the start of the book, but many months pass - more than 6, I'm reasonably sure, so maybe 20 now by the end) who has lived a life of abject poverty, hardship, and horror since she was like 8. She has to have found moments of light in that hardship - we know she has, there's happy little bits of paint decorating the house, that she did in the rare moments where they had a few extra coins. But the Feyre of the end of this book ... she wins a trial, and rather than take a moment of like "okay, I can do this. One down, 2 to go" she is IMMEDIATELY thinking well, the next one I die for sure. Let me be frank - her situation sucks for sure, and would be terrifying, but I've not only seen worse, I was expecting worse. The trials take place over 3 months, and she spends nearly all that time in her cell. The trials are scary, one-evening events. She's injured twice (once in a trial, and once when they beat her after she showed up in their throne room), and in both cases is healed afterwards. She's fed. People are sneaking her help (though she's back to being the bitter bitch of early time in fae lands, so she doesn't appreciate the help at all). So while her situation is stressful, her fucking constant emo whining and negativity - even when things go well for her! - is fucking exhausting. Seriously fucking exhausting.

The MMC Tamlin is ... well, did you ever see the movie Enchanted with Amy Adams? It is a satire of classic Disney movies, basically (if you haven't seen it, go watch...I'll wait). The prince in that movie is a very handsome, very brainless, useless dude. That's Tamlin. I'm not a fan. He's trying to be all stoic, noble High Lord, but he's useless. He does nothing to solve his situation, and just watches things happen in a super passive way. He doesn't really balk or rebel, and he beats his own people when the bad lady makes him. Like, ugh. I'd drop this waste of air for Rhys in a hot second. Yeah, yeah, Rhys seems like he's on Team Evil Queen ... but he's a cunning badass playing the game in order to protect what he can while he waits for his moment to strike. He helps Feyre - a LOT - and not because she's a good bet (with all that whining, I'd consider her a bad bet, frankly), but because he is a secret softie, I know it. Feyre knows it too - she literally sees him help the Summer Court on the sly. But she persists in thinking he's some super bad guy, because she's dumber than a glazed donut.

*sigh*

I loved the twist about the curse. But overall I'm not in love with our two leads. When we finally get to know everything that has happened, these two pathetic turds have actually been the least impacted - all of faerie has been tortured by the Evil Lady for 50 years. Tamlin has been left more or less alone because she gave him a 49 year curse, and Feyre is new to it all and has 4 bad nights over a 3 month span, but acts like a total whiner about it. They're both exhausting.

But I have hope I'll like Feyre more as the series goes on, since I really liked her for a good stretch of the middle of this book. She's just got to shake off the whiny bullshit melodrama. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 02, 2017 Jamie ~ Bad Boy Inspector rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-paranormal-romance, genre-urban-fantasy, subject-pn-fae

4.5/5

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2024 Paula Phillips rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

You know how there are series of people who are like "You have to read this or else", this was one of those for me. I have had friends galore recommending this series and then this year I decided to do a 12 recommendations by 12 friends reading challenge and one of those 12 books was ACOTAR so here I am. I read it on Monday in one day and I have to admit, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. You see years ago, I was a big fantasy reader and then one day I woke up and couldn't read it - I fe ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2016 Irene Hollimon rated it it was amazing

Fantasy - I like the romance, the world, the characters and the story in general. But... what really sticks out in this book is the weakest set up for the next book I have EVER read- I don't we're in spoiler territory to say Rhysand makes it to the end of the book. The set up occurs close to the end of the book Rhysand is in the middle of a discussion and... poof! gets startled and is yanked out of the scene never to reappear- no more information is given. By implication we're pretty sure he's n ...more

Like · see review