A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Pages: 432
Overall: 4/5
Setting: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot and Themes: 4/5
Cheers Factor: 4/5
Pairing: Faerie Wine
This is what I imagine the wine Feyre drinks at the Summer Solstice would taste like. Slight warning it uses the whole bottle of champagne so you can share with friends...or not I’m not here to judge you.

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Ingredients
-1 bottle of Champagne chilled (I used Lamarca Prosecco it achieves the same purpose and just depends on which type of sparkling wine you prefer)
-1 bottle of ginger ale (2 liter)
-2 10oz bags of frozen strawberries
Instructions
-Combine ingredients in pitcher or punch bowl serve and enjoy​​

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"Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don't feel anything at all."

Take a Shot: In this Beauty and the Beast retelling follow Feyre as she is taken North of the wall into Prythian, the faerie realm, to pay a debt where no human has gone and come back from. Watch as the secrets of what is happening in this foreign land entangle themselves with Feyre’s life and she finds herself as the one who could potentially save the man she loves and his entire species.

I recently read this for the second time and my first time reading it was in the notorious March and April lockdowns of 2020. I decided to re-read the series for the release of A Court of Silver Flames. So some of this is parts of my first read and others will be about my second read. 

    When I first read this I felt that it was a little slow in all honesty. I remember asking my former roommate, who recommended it to me, like is this it? However, once I got the gist of the book and that it was a beauty retelling I felt more invested. Seeing as Tik Tok had already alluded to a change in love interests by Tamlin becoming a villain I also was acutely aware of the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin. I was more so reading to get to a part where I felt Tamlin became the bad guy, but ultimately he didn’t and that had me hooked. 
I feel like Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship felt so surface level. Which in retrospect was the point and made more sense in my second reading of the book. However, in a first read through the characters all felt a little light. I felt like I still didn't entirely know a lot of the characters and that’s partly because the story is from Feyre’s perspective and unlike SJM’s Throne of Glass series where the third person gives you more information on every character. Upon my second read however, I learned more about the characters in getting to see them in scenes that happened when I knew their motivations. I also have to say it, reading this again was painful watching Feyre feel like she’s in love with Tamlin when he’s clearly an asshole and is not a nice person.

Aside from the characters I love the setting of Prythian and think it’s a great place to have all our action play out and I also loved the explanations of Under the Mountain. The story of how Feyre ends up there and why she’s in Prythian is also good too in following with Beauty and the Beast. I really enjoyed all of the external aspects like the Suriel or the trials. All of those elements were quite fantastic.
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Overall, I am obsessed with Sarah J. Maas and no one can convince me otherwise. It is a fact of life and I will buy everything she ever published for the rest of her life. Thank you that is all.

"'I love you,' I said, and stabbed him."