It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a retrospective book review, and since my next non-retrospective book review isn’t quite ready yet, I thought it was high time I posted another.

Retrospective book reviews are basically book reviews, but they’re on books that I read before I started this blog. So, in order for them to get their day in the sun, I go back through them and see if my opinion when I originally read them holds up. So yeah, that’s basically it.

This time I’m gonna go over another book in a very popular series that I’ve already gone over before. That’s right, I’m going over A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, the sequel to A Court of Thorns and Roses.

“To the stars who listen—and the dreams that are answered.”

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

THEN: ★★★★★ • 5 / 5

NOW: ★★★★☆ • 4 / 5

“Tell me what you see.”
“A world divided in two.”

Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court – but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms-and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world torn apart.

My review for A Court of Thorns and Roses

I have a complicated relationship with the books (that I’ve read) in this series. With ACOTAR, it was that the book started off pretty slow and ended up being just a generic YA fantasy novel. With A Court of Mist and Fury my feelings are a bit more complex than that.

A Court of Mist and Fury is an NA (formerly YA) high fantasy romance novel written by Sarah J. Maas. It is the sequel to A Court of Thorns and Roses and is therefore the second book in the eponymous series. ACOMAF was also originally published on May 3, 2016 by Bloomsbury.

Stuff I Liked

The Court of Dreams.

The people who knew that there was a price, and one worth paying, for that dream. The bastard- born warriors, the Illyrian half breed, the monster trapped in a beautiful body, the dreamer born into a court of nightmares

…And the huntress with an artist’s soul.

Though this book had a similar problem to its predecessor – that being, it started off slow – it didn’t feel nearly as bad to me; likely because it wasn’t slow for as long. And once ACOMAF got going, it got going.

Also, even though Maas doesn’t focus as much on her world building as I’d like (she chooses instead to focus on… other things), I did like the bits of world building that she did decide to show. I also enjoyed some of the strange creatures and monsters she added and opted to give page time to.

I also quite liked many of the characters introduced in this book. Mor was a great friend for Feyre, and I liked Cassian and Azriel. I really liked seeing Feyre’s sisters – Nesta and Elain – again, as I didn’t expect it at all. (Cassian and Nesta’s sexual tension was also amazing.) Amren was the MVP character-wise though. She was so cool.

The new places that the characters travelled too were also really cool. I loved seeing more of the Faerie Courts of Prythian, and I can’t wait to see more.

There you are. I’ve been looking for you.

His first words to me— not a lie at all, not a threat to keep those faeries away.

Thank you for finding her for me.

I’m more on the fence now on the romance than I was when I first read ACOMAF, soon after it was originally released in 2016. I’ve decided to put it in the Stuff I Liked section, however, because when I first read it I absolutely adored it. Rhysand and Feyre had so much more chemistry together than Tamlin and Feyre ever did, and I really liked Rhys and Feyre as a couple at the time.

The climax and the ending were also heart pounding. When I finished this book, I was immediately chomping at the bit for the next book. It was sooo good, and I needed to know what happened next!

But that’s pretty much all that I liked about it, even if this stuff made me rate the book very highly when I first read it (and why I can’t bring myself to rate it that much lower now).

Stuff I Didn’t Like

When you spend so long trapped in darkness, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.

I absolutely despised what Maas did to Tamlin’s character. Now don’t get me wrong – I didn’t particularly like Tamlin in ACOTAR. But I didn’t hate him either, and after his cardboard cutout personality in the first book, I was looking forward to seeing his personality develop in book two, as well as his and Feyre’s relationship.

But that never happened. Because Maas decided to assassinate Tamlin’s character.

Now this is something that I’ve always hated. Even way back when, when A Court of Wings and Ruin hadn’t even come out yet, and everyone was praising A Court of Mist and Fury for being a perfect book and how perfect Rhys and Feyre were for each other and just fück Tamlin. I hated this even then. Because I absolutely hate things like character assassinations – as it indicates bad writing. And I still stand by that.

I also didn’t really, really didn’t like the smut. But I just hate smut in general, so that’s probably just a me thing.

Final Thoughts

Truth is deadly. Truth is freedom. Truth can break and mend and bind.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas was a fantastic read when it first came out, but its near perfection has definitely weathered some over the years.

I still like it to some degree, and recommend it to fans of fantasy-romance, but I don’t like it nearly as much as I did when I first read it. It’s not a bad book (though if you’re looking for it, you can see the cracks starting to show in the narrative in ACOMAF).

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

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