A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1) in #ASeriesAMonth2018

Nov 02, 2018 Paula | pastbookish rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, 2020

This. Book. Is. Amazing.

I can’t wait to read the rest of this series aahhhhh!!!! And i cannot believe it took me this long to read this book.. W H Y 🤦🏻‍♀️

Reread review:

I’m glad i reread this one because i was refreshed with the story of it. I didn’t want to move on to ACOMAF without rereading this because i honestly forgot most of it—it’s been 2 years.

Anyway, i’ve seen a lot of rave so far about those who have read this series and they were all team Rhysand. I still couldn’t understand why every ...more

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Apr 04, 2018 libraryofjonna rated it did not like it · review of another edition

1.5 stars

I decided to reread A Court of Thorns and Roses because I keep having this nagging feeling that I didn't give A Court of Mist and Fury a fair change when I read it back in 2018. I listened to the audiobook of it in about 2 days during work hours and I honestly can't remember anything that happened in it so I don't think I payed enough attention to it to truly judge it. And the book is so beloved even by people who hate this one that I feel like I have to try again. I am wondering if I'v 1.5 stars

I decided to reread A Court of Thorns and Roses because I keep having this nagging feeling that I didn't give A Court of Mist and Fury a fair change when I read it back in 2018. I listened to the audiobook of it in about 2 days during work hours and I honestly can't remember anything that happened in it so I don't think I payed enough attention to it to truly judge it. And the book is so beloved even by people who hate this one that I feel like I have to try again. I am wondering if I've made a mistake though cause this reread of ACOTAR made me lower my rating, from a 2 to a 1.5, so I'm worried for ACOMAF now.

So this novel doesn't work me for many reasons, but one positive about I can say is that I did like the writing quite a bit at times, especially some of the environmental descriptions, like when Feyre's paintings all over her family's cottage were described. I also thought some scenes were pretty strong in terms of the emotions the writing evoked, unfortunately though most of those moments didn't feel earned as a reader, they didn't feel built up enough, which lessened their emotional impact. I did struggle with the writing at times though as well, Maas has certain quirks that bother me quite a bit. One of those is her tendency to interrupt sentences so that Feyre doesn't finish her thoughts, either by something dramatic happening or just by letting the sentence drift off which just became frustrating because it felt like a lazy way to not have to think through certain things. Certain phrases were also just repeated over and over again which became frustrating, one could think Feyre was a terrible painter reading this novel based on just how many times she describes things as so beautiful she wouldn't be able to paint it justice. Also wtf is up with the purring? And the constant use of male and female? Gave me the biggest ick.

Arguable the most important part of this novel is the romance between Feyre and Tamlin and unfortunately I just really didn't get it. I didn't think it was convincing at all and I never truly believed in their love for one another. I never got why Feyre fell for him, it felt like it came out of nowhere. Rhys being introduced didn't make things better. I know people love him and maybe I will after rereading the next book, but in here he's awful. I get he has his reasons but so much of what he does is just unacceptable. I just hate that both of the potential love interests in here are incredibly possessive and how the way the book is written seems to want us to find it hot when they violate Feyre. Most of my annotations while reading this book was 'ew' for these exact reasons. Feyre herself isn't great either and I was constantly frustrated with her thoughtless decisions throughout the book.

In terms of the plot I didn't really think it did anything particularly interesting. A lot of the book is clearly based on Beauty and the Beast, but it does nothing interesting with that story. The way the beast's curse is adapted just feels very cheap and the novel loses the core message about beauty from Beauty and the Beast in the process. Then everything that happens towards the end of the book is very much ruined by the fact that a certain reveal is laughably obvious. Overall it just wasn't great. It's definitely readable and especially the Graphic Audio audiobook is nice and immersive, but there's just too many things bothering me about it that I can't give it a higher rating than this. ...more

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May 12, 2021 Jenefer R rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021-read, 2025-read

I was certainly not bored, but I just don’t get the hype. Some parts were well done. Others just meh.

Why does everyone trip and fall over Rhysand???

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