A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3)
Release date: May 2nd 2017
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Pages: 699
Source: No one sent it to me. I just love SJM.
Rating: 5 out 5 beautiful silver stars
Summary
From Goodreads:
*Spoilers*
Looming war threatens all Feyre holds dear in the third volume of the #1 New York Times bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit-and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.
As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords-and hunt for allies in unexpected places.
In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.
Review
Holy moly. I'm dead. And I have been for the past two days and a half.
I can't believe I'm going to say it, and I might deny it in the future but, I think I love this trilogy more than the ToG series.
Okay, that's the end of the review.
JK.
Where do I even start? I guess with the non-spoilery part?
This book was such a journey and it was so different from the previous 2 books. We get to see our fave characters mature, we get to see some old faces and some new ones, and most importantly, we finally get a diverse group of characters!
Sarah definitely lived up to the expectation and delivered a fantastic conclusion to Feyre and Rhys's journey.
Not everything was perfect, but it was quite close.
Spoilers ahead!
Can we take a minute to talk about how badass Feyre was at the Spring Court? A small trick here, another one there, man, the Lucien one killed me. And then the twins were the cherry on top.
I think the most nerve-wracking moment for me in the whole book was the chase between Feyre-Lucien and the Autumn Court. That was until, of course, our angel Cassian came in to save the day.
Plot wise, I think this was, as usual, fantastically planned. So much happened and so much was solved. I still can't believe how it all worked out. I honestly thought someone from the gang would have to die.
Since we brought death up, let's talk about how great the death of lil' King of Hybern was. Elain, gurrl, I didn't know you had it in you.
I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that this was entirely war-driven. It was filled with tactics and plans and yet the sarcastic banter we all love was still there. I hope we get something like this in the ToG books.
I want to highlight two very important points from the novel:
Diverse characters. I love, LOVE, the diversification of characters. We finally have people of different ethnicity and sexuality. The only thing I'm sad about is how long it took for her to include them. It was great to meet all these new characters with different backgrounds and stories. It gave the novel so much depth. It was also fantastic to know a bit about a certain character's dilemma (you know who I'm talking about.)
Character development. I was so surprised to see how far Feyre had changed, how much confidence she had gained. The whole scene with the high-lords was fantastic! If Feyre's change was a surprise, then Tamlin came in like a wrecking ball. I was so glad, that Sarah gave him a little room for redemption. Does it wipe all the shitty stuff he did? Definitely not, but it was a small step. So many people shocked me in this book! Elain, Nesta, Lucien, Mor, Jurien.
Now let's talk about everybody's favorite topics: SHIPS
I was so glad that the Feyre-Rhys relationship remained untouched. I was seriously concerned that the book could get ruined by adding some tension into the relationship. But fortunately, that didn't happen. If only, it grew stronger with each passing second.
You might think I'm crazy, but I'm happy that the Elain-Lucien ship is not really working out. Well, at least I think it's not. Plus, do you think it's a coincidence that we learned about how a bond can be rejected? I think not. My bet is on the Elain-Az ship. And I will sink with it. I don't really like Lucien. I hate that he just ignored everything that happened at the Spring Court. And I can't forgive him for it. No matter what he does.
Nesta and Cassian? Yep. Definitely mates. Can't deny it.
A mating bond is suppossed to be very rare. Acomaf felt like the Oprah show. You get a mate, you get a mate. So I'm quite content with how everything is going.
I want to address a more serious and controversial topic. When the first 8 chapters were released, there was a big commotion over a phrase in which, allegedly, Sarah J. Maas was implying that asexual people were soulless. You have to be quite dumb if that's what you took out of it. “perhaps any sort of physical passion had long ago been drained away, alongside their souls.” I hate it when people just go ahead and jump to conclusions. After having read the book, I can say that it was nothing like that. She was definitely not implying that you had to be soulless to be asexual. In context, it's really easy to realize that she was referring to how war had left them soulless and maybe all the horrors they'd faced had made it impossible to feel attracted to someone ever again. So please, just wait to get the full picture before opening your mouths.
As I said before, it was a monumental (literally and figuratively) conclusion and I can't wait till the novellas are released. So Sarah, can you hurry up, please? Thanks.
The big question is: is it better than A Court of Mist and Fury? In my opinion, I don't think it is. But it's almost there.
Rating
5 out of 5 stars
I have no more words or energy left. I need a year to recover from this roller coaster.
Sorry about the amount of gifs. Actually, no, I'm not sorry. I know you love them.
I'll see you on the next one!
How on Earth are we supposed to live after that? Any suggestions? What were your thoughts on all the controversy surrounding the book? Let me know!
