Photo Credits: Benjamin Voros Edited by Vaishali Title: ‘A Court of Mist and Fury’ Author: Sarah J. Maas Series: (A Court of Thorns and Roses) Genre: Fantasy Fiction, New Adult, Faeries, Publisher: Bloomsbury YA Year of Publication: 2016 Version: Paperback ISBN-10: 9781408857885 R E V I E W...RE-READ: 21/12/2021 - 22/01/2022 ➜ I recommend that every Maas fan or Maas newbie read this during December; this re-read was a really great fit for the season (but every newbie should of course read ACOTAR before taking a rapturous dive into this cosmic jewel. But make no mistake that it'll make your skin tingle on any given day, within any given season. ➜ I was just full to bursting with happiness to re-read some of my favourite scenes; which of course always have to Include a purring Rhysand. Still so glorious. So magnificently present on the pages, so unapologetic, so calculating, so self-sacrificial with a voice for telling bedtime stories, a brilliant mind that lent itself to centuries of trickery and a tortured visionary soul buried under a lifetime of duty so deep, he'd victimise himself quicker than he'd witness his land and people suffer. What a man. Apologies, what a 'male.' So complex is our High Lord, but let's also not forget the delicacy that are his wings and his very enviable wingspan. His iron fidelity to his friends and his people is a living entity in its own right. Maas had no idea what she started when she envisioned the Illyrian Power of Three. Rhys (who doesn’t have a last name because the seven letters of his name drumrolls a reputation that apparently precedes itself) still remains one of my favourite ever fictional heroes. Ever. And my laptop has the honour of being his namesake. ➜ I can't not mention our collaborative dreaming collective, so completely in and of themselves, so singularly powerful, all made for history to sing their names...very powerful, very grounded, with the bickering familiarity, rapport and bearing of people who carry the weight of everything they’ve loved and lost between them. I love them. The badassery of their court is just enviable. Rhys's inner circle still makes me yearn to have one of my own and I just want them to take my heart already - though I think Amren would take that a tad too literally. While most people are still waiting on their ticket to Hogwarts, I'm waiting for admittance to make a home in Rhys's city of dreams and starlight. Alas, I settle on watching the night sky through my bedroom window, wistfully gazing at every synchronised formation of birds as I try not to pretend that they’re not Illyrian warriors circling the skies. ➜ Of course, as my inner feminist likes to remind me, a woman can save herself. But I like to see a hero swoop in and save his lady in waiting too. I can't help it, I'm just human (and a ravenous romance reader). But I think a heroine saving her hero is a truly underestimated pleasure; it gives me just as much butterflies - a callback to Feyre hunting through the dark night of a dangerous forest to slaughter Rhys's kidnappers. What a woman. Again, apologies, what a 'female.' But really, this book is Feyre's becoming and I loved seeing her cultivate and take back her power. Water wolves assemble. ➜ Even though Rhys does explain why he did what he did to Feyre Under the Mountain, it's easy to spot that he doesn't really apologise for the way he used her. Granted, it was all done in the name of fighting back, and using sharp chicanery to do what was necessary to take advantage of this one final opportunity to be free from Amarantha's control. But even knowing that, even knowing what Feyre meant to him even then? I did want to see some remorse for that. Still, his love for her is an unassailable thing that I’m sure would outlive even the last dying star, and I’m also sure that I’ll continue to champion them until my light blinks out. Consummate love given life, and what a (healthy) power couple they are. Their relationship is gradually nursed and so beautifully timed, an almost opposite to Feyre's relationship with Tamlin; numerous relationships in fiction aren't quite put together with fine hands but the author pulls Rhys and Feyre's courtship together with magnificence. ➜ The story always hints at the stratospheric height of Rhys's power; how unparalleled, how frightening, how unmatched and blinding. And in the moments where he does use his magic or explains it, it's suggestive enough in small doses that we know he could do a world's worth of damage. And despite thinking that we never really get to see it in full blast or on a bigger scale, I'm actually ok with the allusion and the suggestion and the not-fully-disclosed mystery. There's an appeal and a seduction in what’s held back and it does build up anticipation in a way that never fails to leave me with awe and wonder filling my bones. Mor's power though is more obscure, and even though she's also described as having such great power, I still don't really know what that is. ➜ Wouldn't it be great for Rhys to have his own novella that gave us an inside look at what he did actually endure Under the Mountain? Fifty years of imprisonment and suffering and I don't doubt that there's so much that happened that's still left unsaid. I also don't doubt that it would be an eye-opening addition to explore that bit of his history. An interesting take if Sarah J. Maas wrote a novella detailing something like that from his perspective. And some of the scenes he had with Feyre Under the Mountain from his POV; I would have liked this yesterday. ➜ I did re-read purely for comfort and not with the purpose of analysing but I do want to point something out. I was under the impression that the town house couldn't be winnowed into but in Rhys's solitary chapter at the end of the book, when they barely escape Hybern, he winnows directly into the town house? I'm wondering if I actually happened upon an inconsistency or if I'm naturally overlooking something. ➜ And finally, a plea to Sarah J. Maas - I ask for you (from the deepest catacombs of desperation) to please concoct another dreaming collective as fine and brilliant and formidable and puissant as the court of dreamers. If you do, I promise to buy said book quicker than anyone can say Illyrian Fae warriors. But really, this book is a formidable ode to justice, ownership, equality, right, hope, a vision that challenges, successes and is a triumph for liberation. It's a battle and a blight and a star-studded transformation where central characters fight with every breath as pillars and protectors of a better existence. It's a vision given life. And It's just magical. ORIGINAL REVIEW: August 2017 RATING: 100 stars forged by the night skies of Velaris! I find that words, though just as potent and ageless can never remotely do any kind of justice to the capacity for which I feel. Which is why I hold the firm belief that emotions are stronger than words and this is why I don’t think I can ever precisely articulate my feelings through words when I read such an irreplaceable piece of literature. Which in itself is ironic seeing that the book itself is the source of my nameless feelings, and that authors such as Sarah J. Maas damn well know how to portray feeling using language. Maybe I’m not that well versed in the art of masterful writing, but I will always try my best to express, and so I shall!
This story is carved from stardust, forged from dreams and travelled from the cosmos to greet me because it was out of this world sensational. ‘ACOTAR’ was a great read, but ‘ACOMAF’ was breath-taking, it was authentic fantasy at its best and contained all the nuanced elements of an incredible story. The plot was brilliant, the characters were all fascinating and I was invested in each one. The storytelling was even better than the first book, the ties that bound everyone were fleshed out really well, and Sarah J. Maas just has a way with words and finding stories in people and places that draws me in like a bear to sweet-tasting honey. If a treasure such as this had never fallen into my lap I would be none the wiser, and all the more deprived, walking around with my head under cold waters, oblivious to starry night skies, citrus-scented seas, wingspans, violet eyed heroes, cities of art and sky-high castles. "So I’m your huntress and thief?” “You are my salvation, Feyre.” When I first joined Goodreads I was hesitant to write reviews for many reasons, namely because It’s a difficult thing to express using the medium of words when they don’t always capture a feeling in its entirety or its quality, and also for the general insecurity that everybody experiences: would anyone really be interested in what I have to say. But I thought that it was imperative for me to share my reading experiences and communicate in the way I do best which is by writing, and hence I started writing reviews for myself, and I thought if others read them that was great and if they didn’t, that was fine too…. "I once lived in a place where the opinion of others mattered. It suffocated me, nearly broke me. So you’ll understand me, Feyre, when I say that I know what you feel, and I know what they tried to do to you, and that with enough courage, you can say to hell with a reputation. You do what you love, what you need.” ...But there are some novels that are so much more than just a book, than just a piece of literary fiction, and there are some authors that explore us as humans in the best and worst light, that write about things that really need addressing, that bring us back from our own horrors and dark places, that are cathartic and teaching, that openly share, that touch and rip the core from a specific subject matter to reach a person in an intangible way and yet a very real way; that say ‘hey, I’m going to rip you apart, but don’t worry I’ll put you back together…maybe’, that crush us and restore us, and sometimes leave us breathless and panting on a sideroad, that show us desire and the opposite of desire, that say ‘oh, you’re going to hate me, but I’ll make you love me’, that say ‘love me or hate me, but I still taught you something’, that paint such austere pictures but create characters that say ‘well, the painting is not yet finished then’, and that study perceptive, wounded, yet audacious leads such as Feyre and Rhys that carry a book into the outstanding, perhaps even farther than that. "You think I don’t know how stories get written-how this story will be written?... I am the dark lord, who stole away the bride of spring. I am a demon, and a nightmare, and I will meet a bad end.” “He thinks he’ll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key…He was the one who let me out.” I usually write lengthy reviews, but I don’t think all the words in the world could equate to how much I enjoyed and immersed myself in this novel. It’s an unequivocal favourite, its captivating, it’s shocking, it’s rousing, its heartfelt, its dreams personified, it’s unconditionally optimistic, its inspiring, visionary, everything you’d want to read about in a novel and everything that makes a novel worth reading, for the richness and matter of the story alone. It explores so much and its packed with engaging content, keeping pace and never faltering, wonderfully balanced and yet again I would have read it for the prose alone. "I wonder if some part of me knew what was waiting for me. That I would never be a gentle grower of things, or someone who burned like fire-but that I would be quiet and enduring and as faceted as the night. That I would have beauty, for those who knew where to look, and if people didn’t bother to look, but to only fear it…Then I didn’t particularly care for them, anyway. I wonder if, even in my despair and hopelessness, I was never truly alone.” This book examines mental health in a carefully informed way just as much as Feyre’s freedom of choice is at the forefront, and addressed throughout the book constantly. I appreciated its ties to feminism, female rights and power, including that the male lead is a feminist himself. This book was upliftingly poignant, yet positively tear-jerking as we follow Feyre slowly claw her way back to life and happiness, and her internal struggle and tribulations were principal in the crux of this story. Feyre’s suffering is darkly despondent yet so transparent, and Rhys’s major part in this story, and in Feyre’s life and pain was the apex highlight of my reading this book. Saying too much would spoil so much, but I never thought this book would deviate, taking such a drastic U-turn in its ascent to an unpredicted terminus. “There are different kinds of darkness. There is the darkness that frightens, the darkness that soothes, the darkness that is restful. There is the darkness of lovers and the darkness of assassins. It becomes what the bearer wishes it to be, needs it to be. It is not wholly bad or good.” Among other things I rate and review books based on my overall enjoyment, what I felt, what it provoked in me, how visceral my reading experience was, themes and ideas explored, how much I love the characters and how well the author portrays their ideas. This book did so much more than that, and I often wish that I’d never read it just so that I could read it and experience it all over again for the first time! S T A T O S P H E R I C, M E S M E R I C & W H O L L Y E X C E P T I O N A L! If Sarah J. Maas is this determined in her literary crusade, hell and heaven should tremble in her wake because she is, indeed, a wicked saint, primed with the gilded gift of a storyteller's passion. This book is a GAME-CHANGER. Everybody needs to read this. “To the people who look at the stars and wish, Rhys.” “To the stars who listen-and the dreams that are answered.” I gave this book 5 stars - Disclaimer: This book isn’t suitable for young readers as it has a lot of mature adult content, including sex scenes and scenes of an intimate nature. --------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- _______________________________________________________________ R E L A T E D P O S T S : ● BOOK REVIEW: 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' by Sarah J. Maas _______________________________________________________________ THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! Favourite Parts/Things I liked: 1) Everything. 2) Mental health representation. Feyre’s struggle with depression and PTSD. Whether you have personally struggled with depression or have known someone who has, it is not an easy thing to manage or be around and I think Rhys is amazing with how he handles Feyre and the ways in which he helps her in her recovery. 3) Everything about Rhys! 4) Everything about Feyre! 5) Everything about Rhy and Feyre together. 6) A thought for a thought. 7) Rhys and Feyre exchanging notes. 8) Rhys being a feminist. 9) Cassian! 10) Mor! 11) Azriel! 12) Amren! 13) The Court of Dreams. 14) I want to live in Velaris. 15) Where do I get a ticket to be part of Rhys’ inner circle? 16) I’m wondering if there are Illyrian males available upon my request to take me for rides across a starlit sky? 17) Feyre and Amren bonding. 18) Wingspan shenanigans. 19) Starfall… 20) Feyre saving Rhys from Hybern’s soldiers. 21) Feyre accepting the mating bond. 22) The cabin… 23) Sensitive Illyrian babies. 24) I love Rhys more than Rowan…and I love Rowan very much. 25) Feyre defending The Rainbow with her water wolves. 26) Rhys’s chapters…I need more Rhys chapters. 27) The last 50 pages! 28) I never thought I would take such a U-turn from loving Tamlin toloving Rhys. F A V O U R I T E Q U O T E S: “You can be a pawn, be someone’s reward, and spend the rest of your immortal life bowing and scraping and pretending you’re less than him, than Ianthe, than any of us. If you want to pick that road, then fine. A shame, but it’s your choice. But I know you-more than you realise, I think- and I don’t believe for one damn minute that you’re remotely fine with being a pretty trophy for someone who sat on his ass for nearly fifty years, then sat on his ass while you were shredded apart.” ‘Maybe it’d be a mercy to be ended – A broad hand gripped my face – gently enough not to hurt, but hard enough to make me look at him. “Don’t you ever think that,” Rhysand hissed, his eyes livid. “Not for one damned moment.” “There was a choice – in Death…I knew that I could drift away into the dark. And I chose to fight – to hold on for a bit longer. Yet I knew if I wanted, I could have faded. And maybe it would be a new world, a realm of rest and peace. But I wasn’t ready for it – not to go there alone. I knew there was something else waiting beyond that dark. Something good.” “The land will run red with blood, Cassian, regardless of what we do with her family. It is now a matter of where that blood will flow -and how much will spill. How much human blood we can save.” “Did you enjoy the sight of me kneeling before you?” “Isn’t that all you males are good for, anyway?” His answering smiles evoked silken sheets and jasmine-scented breezes at midnight.’ ‘I did not want to die. I did not want to be eaten. I did not want to go into that sweet darkness.’ ‘I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal. I was a survivor, and I was strong. I would not be weak, or helpless again. I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.’ “There are good days and hard days for me – even now. Don’t let the hard days win.” “Why don’t you just hide in one of those pocket-realms for a bit?” “It doesn’t work like that. There’s no air there.” I gave him a look to say he should definitely do it then, and he laughed. “Fine. Practice all you want in privacy.” He jerked his chin at my tattoo. “Give a shout down the bond if you get anything accomplished before breakfast.” I frowned at the eye in my palm. “What-literally shout at the tattoo?” “You could try rubbing it on certain body parts and I might come faster.” ‘I’d forgotten how strong I was. “Yes, you did,” Rhysand snarled, reading the surprise on my face, the icy calm shattering. “You forgot that strength, and that you can burn and become darkness, and grow claws. You forgot. You stopped fighting.” “Put a shirt on while you’re at it,” I quipped. A feline smile. “Does it make you uncomfortable?” “I’m surprised there aren’t more mirrors in this house, since you seem to love looking at yourself so much.” Rhys’s lips twitched. “There’s the Feyre I adore.” “He locked you up because he knew- the bastard knew what a treasure you are. That you are worth more than land or gold or jewels. He knew, and wanted to keep you all to himself…The issue isn’t whether he loved you, it’s how much. Too much. Love can be a poison.” ‘What do the tattooed stars and mountain on your knees mean? That I will bow before no one and nothing but my crown. So dramatic.’ “I have known many High Lords. Cruel ones, cunning ones, weak ones, powerful ones. But never one that dreamed. Not as he does.” “Why does anything cling to something? Maybe they love wherever they’re going so much that it’s worth it. Maybe they’ll keep coming back, until there’s only one star left. Maybe that one star will make the trip forever, out of the hope that someday- if it keeps coming back often enough-another star will find it again.” “When you spend so long trapped in darkness, Lucien, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.” “I love it when you look at me like that.” “Like what?” “Like my power isn’t something to run from. Like you see me.” “And then-then I learned your name. Hearing you say it…it was like an answer to a question I’d been asking for five hundred years.” “If you were going to die, I was going to die with you. I couldn’t stop thinking it over and over as you screamed, as I tried to kill her: you were my mate, my mate, my mate. But then she snapped your neck.” Tears rolled down his face. “And I felt you die,” he whispered. Tears were rolling down my own cheeks. “And this beautiful, wonderful thing that had come into my life, this gift from the cauldron…It was gone.” ‘And I wondered if love was too weak a word for what he felt, what he’d done for me. For what I felt for him.’ “I want you to know that I am broken and healing, but every piece of my heart belongs to you. And I am honoured-honoured to be your mate…. I love you. And I’d endure every second of it over again so I could find you. “You fell in love with me, because I reminded you of your friend? He flicked my nose. “I fell in love with you, smartass, because you were one of us-because you weren’t afraid of me, and you decided to end your spectacular victory by throwing that piece of bone at Amarantha like a javelin. I felt Cassian’s spirit beside me in that moment, and could have sworn I heard him say, ‘If you don’t marry her, you stupid prick, I will.’” “You may be my mate, but you remain your own person. You decide your fate-your choices. Not me. You chose yesterday. You choose every day. Forever." I love interacting with fellow readers, reviewers, bloggers and writers. Hearing about reader opinion is the fuel to my reader appetite, so get in touch and comment below! SHARE ON FACEBOOK L E A V E A C O M M E N T A N D L E T' S T A L K A B O U T
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