January Finale: A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas

Hello again, Friends!

We've completed our read of Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses, and it's finally time to have our January Finale. Our Finales will be an overall review regarding our current read!

Ceraya's Rating: 7/10 The second half was a lot more interesting, but she still has a bone to pick with the author.

Brieanna's Rating: 3/5 This book was a super slow burn, but once it got rolling, boy did it roll.

Trigger Warning: Death, Violence, Sex, Mature Content, 18+ Only

Overall

~This book was a tough one to get through overall. This is because of the first half of the book. It was so slow and dragging that it felt impossible to get to part 2. The second half involved so much more action and exposition, that we finally felt like we weren't waiting on anything to happen. Something was happening in each chapter, and we were engaged for most if not the entire time.

~Removing the Glamour and seeing everyone in their natural forms for the first time was a great way to start the second half of the book. The Summer Festival Was very cute, in our opinion, full of joy and actual relationship-building between Feyre and Tamlin. They kiss and it's adorable. We love this. Seeing the world for what it really was opened everything up and allowed for so much more information about the world we hadn't yet gotten. And getting to see the Fae in a positive light during the festival was so interesting and lovely - it felt like we were being set up for action in a good way.

~ The Curse being revealed to be kind of a "Beauty and the Beast" style hex was a little silly in our opinion. We were not really shocked by it. The moment the book mentioned a curse that had to do with Tamlin, we rolled our eyes and immediately thought of the Beauty and the Beast Curse. Sure enough - an impossible love had to happen for people to be free. Of course it turned out to be more complicated than that - but even then, we weren't surprised. Ceraya was able to predict this from the beginning, and saw right through it.

~Amarantha was nasty and we loved it. She was an awful creature and we were delighted to see that she was going to really give Feyre a run for her money. Tamlin's lack of fighting for Feyre made us question him more. I know that if I truly loved someone the way I promised I did, I would stop at nothing to save them. Tamlin just sitting there and letting Feyre suffer without at least begging Amarantha to stop was a little shocking. A good example of this was that Feyre literally sold herself to Rhysand in order to protect him, but he did...nothing?

~The last 200 pages of this book is where things take off. It seems like the author put pressure upon herself to end with a bang and then produced some beautiful work to set us up for the second book in the series.

Feyre & Her Family

~There were lots of interesting action choices from Feyre in the second half of the novel. Her having to go back to the Human World, and then fighting her way back to Tamlin was noble, and showed that she actually wanted to do something with her strength and her soul. Her fighting the Worm, then facing the crushing room when she couldn't read, and then having to kill the other Fae and then Tamlin was violent but clever. The author definitely thought long and hard about these trials for Amnarantha to give to Feyre. And then Feyre's success was all the more rewarding.

~Nesta was way cooler in the second half of the book. We both like her a lot now. She's so strong-willed that the glamour magic didn't work? How incredible! We feel a lot happier knowing that Nesta tried to go see Feyre in Prythian, and that Nesta and Elaine wanted to help her. Nesta is turning out to be a bad-ass big sister, and we hope to see more of her throughout the series.

~Elaine, the ever-innocent, seems to stay that way. She is the pure one, clearly, and will not be tarnished in any way, as far as we can see. She focuses on flowers and house keeping and being quite domestic. She is a pure cinnamon roll and we love her for it. We also hope to see more of her. And hopefully some character development.

~Her Father - Still absent. Clearly he has little to do with the story and seems to have only been there to explain their poverty in the beginning. There is little about him in the second half of the book - other than it being noted that he doesn't seem to understand Feyre's relationship to Prythian or the gravity of the situation with Amarantha. We hope Feyre has a relationship with him, but we're not sure if it will go there.

~Feyre misses Prythian- The Spring Court became her home. The book even says she looks different since being there. And her generosity has grown as well- instead of just providing for herself and her family, she is giving gold to people who genuinely need it. She has begun to see that there is more to the world than just surviving. When Feyre hears about the Beddor family being killed and burned, and Clare's body not being found, it shocked us, and we actually didn't see it coming. We knew something bad was going to happen, but we didn't know things were going to end up this brutal. We knew exactly that both Feyre and the baddie were to blame, but didn't know where the fight was going to happen. In Prythian or the human realms?

~We are proud of Feyre for going back for Tamlin, because even though their relationship was young, it was the right thing to do, to protect him and her family in the long run. We liked this nobility in Feyre, because so often she has been passive while with Tamlin - and this is a big moment of dynamic action for her. We see that she has gone from a survivalist to a generous and loving person who gives what little she has to protect people. Even if she is human and going up against Amarantha.

~Seeing Feyre fight in the end is what we had wanted all along - she faces adversity and overcomes with the help of a few, or many friends. Notably not Tamlin. And in the end, her transformation into Fae (Deus Ex Machina, Again) seems to be predictable, but opens the story up to several sequels, which is exactly what happens.

Tamlin & The Curse

~FINALLY Alis tells Feyre SOME information, and we learn about the curse & Amarantha. We were thankful for the exposition in this case, to be honest. Normally we prefer showing, not telling, but for such a long tim ein this novel, we knew absolutely nothing, and we needed someone to clue us in.

~We would expect Tamlin to try to fight for Feyre a little more, and stand his ground against Amarantha and her curse, but instead he decides to resign himself to a fate of being a prisoner and instead puts everyone at risk instead of fighting Amarantha with Feyre. But I guess we can't win them all, can we? Tamlin tries to protect Feyre by making her go home, instead, which is confusing, but understandable. And as soon as Tamlin seemingly decides this for both of them, they finally consumate their love. But they both know she's leaving? This isn't romantic, this seems like he's taking advantage of her while he can.

~Once Feyre goes home, Tamlin really isn't in the story any longer, save for the end. What would be truly romantic of Tamlin is if he tried to run away with her or to fight alongside her, but instead he lets the curse win. He lets Amarantha win him and doesn't even really try to restore peace to Prythian. He seems to be on the wrong side of history, but we can't forget that he is a victim too. Someone who was cursed to do something impossible, and who, instead of forcing someone he loved to fight, decided to try to protect her in the best way he knew how.

~Under the mountain he just sits and watches as his "love" is tortured over and over again. The one moment he has alone with her he begins feeling her up and making out with her, instead of saving her? Interesting. Both of us like Tamlin less and less as this book goes on to be honest. Instead of using what power he has to gain allies and plan a coup, like Rhysand seems to be doing (the so-called Antagonist), or using what little power he has to fight for what he believes in, he lays down and lets Amarantha steamroll him and then break Feyre's neck.

Rhysand & the Night Court

~From the moment we met him in the first half of the novel at Calanmai, Brieanna knew he was going to become important, and she loved his dialogue in the second half of this novel. His first arrival was scary, seeing as psychic powers are now involved in the world-building. The Shapeshifting of Tamlin was spooky, but not nearly as dangerous as Rhysand scuttling around in peoples' minds. Learning that he can look into Feyre's mind and say out loud her desires for Tamlin is truly frightening and debasing. What else can his powers do?

~Rhysand helping Feyre during the trials was a wonderful twist in the end of the book, creating a morally grey character into a savior. We hope to see more of him in the second book. His dialogue and backstory seem very interesting and complex and he keeps the reader on their toes, not knowing his next move. Rhysand being an untrustworthy ally makes him an interesting read, and his flirting with Feyre makes the reader think he is the beginning of the love triange we all waited for.

~The Night Court in conjunction with Rhysand seems more powerful than Tamlin and the Spring Court. The Spring Court seems to be fun and fancy free, but the Night Court seems to be mysterious and therefore more powerful, which very well may be true. We're interested to see what might happen in other courts in the future books.

Sex And Mating Bonds

~Feyre and Tamlin's first sexual experience was not a mating bond or an animalistic experience, but instead was a nice moment between two individuals who like each other. Both of us have let go of our expectations that Tamlin and Feyre will mate. Maybe this bond hasn't kicked in? We believe it will be explained more in later books. But honeslty we do not think these two are the ones for each other. It would have happened by now. We also don't want them together anyways.

~Seeing Tamlin give up on the Curse and getting her to say "I Love You," retroactively was sad. We understand Lucien's reaction now with his anger. Would the mating bond have clicked if she had said it back? We don't really know - things feel undefined right now.

~Brieanna thinks that Rhysand's reaction to seeing Feyre as a new High Fae was the Mating Bond snapping into place for them, but we are unsure, as we have not yet read the second book. Ceraya thinks Feyre had something in her teeth maybe.

SHE - Amarantha

~We finally learn about Amarantha from Alis and this load of exposition finally gives us the catapult we need to fly into the plot again. Amarantha's whole deal and personality is revenge and vengeance. This is valid, but undying and incredibly overkill. He's just not that into you honey. Let Tamlin go. It is understood that she is the blight in these lands, and everything is falling apart because of her. So Tamlin is okay with making everyone suffer? Why isn't he fighting Amarantha? For his people if not for Feyre?

~If Amarantha keeps the powers of others inside of herself, why do we see so little of it? We wished that we could have seen more of her powers. Day, Summer, And Winter Court rebelled against Amarantha and that's why Rhysand killed the children in the Winter Court. We get that she's powerful enough to have others do her dirty work, and to torture Clare Beddor, and several others, but how did she get this powerful and what are those powers?

~Overall, Amarantha was a great villain. She was nasty, corrupt, easily hateable, and beyond that - and a gorgeous bad ass. She wore her victim's body parts that were still feeling and alive? Yuuuuck we love it.

Prythian - Under the Mountain

~Racism in Prythian comes to Light under the mountain. Tamlin and Lucien bring up that the Night Court Fae are evil, and this brings up the theme of darkness and blackness being bad. For example, why does Amarantha live under the mountain in darkness? Rhysand is "Tall, Dark, and Handsome," but is considered to be morally corrupt and Amarantha's "Whore." We also see more races brought up in terms of other courts, but it doesn't seem consistent. No rhyme or reason. Just new details when the author feels like it. It's almost like anything in this world can exist whenever the author wants it to, instead of there being any rules. The only rule we seem to understand is that High-Fae are very humanoid and the Lesser Fae are anthropomorphic or Nature-Based. We also see that the summer court characters are white-washed and have white hair and blue eyes. Let black people look black in media! They don't have to be "exotic" to be acceptable. End of Soap Box.

~We realize that the Treaty has been a lie the entire time and that humans can kill fae willy-nilly. It seems like there are no rules in this universe and no consqequences either. So what exactly are the rules in this world? It's become frustrating actually, that the rules seem to change when it's convenient for the author. This inevitably creates a world where nothing truly bad can happen and where there are no consequences for evil other than killing the bad guy. Rhysand killed a bunch of children, but he helped kill Amarantha, so does that mean he gets away with it? These are the real questions.

~When Feyre is dragged into the Throne Room, we were surprised by her tenacity when she was ready to fight. It was cool to see her stand up for who she loves. This strength is a side of Feyre we haven't seen since the beginning of the novel when she was surviving on rabbits. When we see what happened to Clare, we were shocked, and not ready for the violence that was described, but again appreciated that this was a mature novel that didn't hold back. Clare died for no reason - Rhysand got in trouble for it from Amarantha, but does this allow Clare's death to not be in vain? Again, the real questions.

~The Riddle was interesting, reminded us of the Sphinx Riddle from Oedipus Rex. The answer is "Love" and that was like, incredibly obvious from the beginning, and we refuse to believe that Feyre is that dumb. She's super smart, but somehow couldn't figure out the answer to this one?

~The First Trial: Sandworm - fun scene, we loved it, thought she was so clever and on her game. We finally got back to chapter one Feyre. We also just realized that we have no idea what Feyre looks like. This made us laugh. Rhysand helps her fix her arm and tattoos her, and she agrees to be with him one week out of each month. We think it was smart for her to take the deal and negotiate. She does care about herself. The only reason she survived mentally and physically within the trials is because of Rhysand and because of the deal she made. The house keeping tasks were annoying, and Rhysand stopped that from affecting her too. Thus, the Love Triangle (TM) begins for no reason- two hot guys going after one girl because she's the main character. Feyre confronts Rhysand over why he took Clare instead of her. The only answer we get is that "Amarantha plays her games, and I play mine." That's not good enough! People died!!!

~Then Rhysand making her dance drunk for him over and over again becomes the main focus of the story. While this seems debasing, we want to point out that this is also helping her and Rhysand. It shows that Rhysand has some freedoms under the mountain, and could help Feyre more, and it also shows that time is passing for Feyre in safe arms. We know that Rhysand is not going to truly harm her, if he wants her to live, so to be with him, even while drunk, is still far better than being in the cell with unknowns around then. Then we see Rhysand kill this Summer Court Character instead of making a mindless soldier, which is what Amarantha wanted him to do. This was a little bit redeeming of Rhysand. He's not just bending to everything Amarantha wants him to do, and is indeed playing his own "games." We want to know more about him.

~The Second Trial: This one scared us more than the first one because Feyre can't read! And Lucien was at risk! Feyre did get help from Rhysand, but it still felt like she took too long. After facing this second trial, Rhysand is protecting Feyre AGAIN by coaching her to get through facing off with Amarantha. He speaks into her mind, but instead of harming her, he supports her. What exactly does Rhysand want with Feyre? We wish there had been more character building between Feyre and Rhysand to show that there was at least some friendship between them before Feyre gets locked up. We hate him and then love him and then hate him and then love him. He's actually offering to teach her how to read too. He actually wants to help her in the future and he wants her to defeat Amarantha and live. And he's making promises to their future together; this makes Brieanna and Ceraya think there is something else going on behind the scenes, like Rhysand has a secret weapon somehow. It's also very cute.

~It has taken Feyre a long time to realize that Rhysand kept her alive and then kept her together. He keeps doing it too. She breaks down when she is high on Fae Wine and has a meltdown. Tamlin then takes this moment to get all frisky with Feyre, and this BOTHERED US to NO END. Rhysand walked in on them, He forced himself on her, but we give him a pass because he saved her life from Amarantha. So Tamlin's one moment alone with her and he makes out with her instead of trying to help her?!?! We're mad about this and do not like this choice. In this moment there is also some plot about The King of Highburn not keeping a leash on Amarantha just because she is so nasty, but again we want to see more about that nastiness from Amarantha.

~The Third Trial: Killing three Fae. The last one turning out to be Tamlin, with heart of stone (that says a lot), turning out to be true-We get a slice of Deus Ex Machina in this moment. We're surprised that Amarantha doesn't know Tamlin's heart is stone. Also, why?

Again there are not often consequences in this universe. This is another instance in which the author makes rules to suit the moment. Feyre feels awful about the two fae because she had the answer to the riddle the whole time, and these two individuals died for nothing. We really appreciate how much thought the author put into Feyre's guilt about killing these people. This is an interesting Moral Quandary for us - killing others for Tamlin and for Love, per se, but this is also when "Love" could have saved them all. Amarantha may have killed those two individuals anyways, but now the integrity of our protagonist is called into question. She is now morally grey herself, which leads us to believe that she will not remain with Tamlin, because she will experience a shit-ton of guilt for murdering these people knowingly. Stabbing Tamlin was the "hail mary" part of the story. It doesn't seem like she was thinking about the riddle much until it was too late. It was done to save Tamlin - a lackluster character- so it doesn't feel like it was worth it. With how bad she felt, it may ruin her that she killed those two people for something that wasn't that good enough in the first place.

~When all the High Lords give her a spark of magic and turn her into High Fae, we liked that we were able to still know what was going on while she was kind of dead, so we saw everything thru Rhysand's eyes. Very Cool. Another hint to Brieanna that they are mates. She knows that Rhysand and Feyre are bonded by bargain, but there seems to be a deeper bond that calls her back to life from Rhysand's summoning her. Whether that is mating or magic, we do not know.

Conclusion

~Ceraya is still in love with Lucien. Brieanna loves Rhysand. This book is very re-readable, with the curse being revealed towards the end of the book. This gives a lot of opportunity for the foreshadowing to be a lot clearer on a second read. It's almost like the entire first half was so dry because the characters weren't allowed to talk about the curse, but that resulted in the bombshells at the end landing strongly. Some moments are golden- well-written phrases and gems in this book. Beautiful phrasing and well-edited. Worth reading for the whole series. The finale was sweet, but also we want more. The author set everything up for another story to come from it, so we can't wait to see what else happens.

Theories For the Rest of the Series

~Mating Bond with WHO? Tamlin there to get her to Rhysand? Lots of Questions about this. Looking forward to the next book.

~Tamlin and Feyre only loved each other because of the Curse. Same with Rhysand and Amarantha - they were only together because of circumstance. Now that Amarantha and the curse are gone, these men are free agents. All of the sexy men in the story can now do whatever they want. Tamlin doesn't have to stay with Feyre, and Rhysand can pursue anyone he wants, including Feyre. Which is exciting.

~We think there will be consequences in the second book from King Highburn when he finds out Amarantha is dead. The plot thickens.

~We plan to read the rest of the series as Quick Reads!

Thank you!

~ We appreciate you reading through our January 2022 Finale. See you next month!

Love,

Ceraya & Brieanna