Girl has nightmares about everything she went through saving her faerie lord and the faerie realm. Faerie lord fears for the girl’s safety and won’t let her leave the house. Girl goes back and forth–some days she gives in to depression and lets him keep her in; some days she tries to rebel and wants to get out and do something. Faerie lord refuses to allow her to do anything. Then Faerie lord #2 swoops in–is it to save her? Is it to call in their bargain? Is it to piss off Faerie lord #1? Yes and yes and yes. Girl begins to stand up for herself. Girl begins to live again and dream again. Girl has some sexy fun time with [SPOILER]. Girl becomes an integral part of a Faerie lord’s inner court, and becomes part of the fight against an old nemesis.
A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book in the Court of Thorns and Roses Trilogy by Sarah J. Maas. I can’t possibly summarize without giving away a few spoilers from book one so I apologize for that. Feyre, our female protagonist, is a human soul now living in an immortal fey body. She has everything she once wanted, but nothing is the same. She is haunted with nightmares and her “faerie prince” is overprotective of her safety. And then Rhys swoops back in her life to call in on their bargain. And things get fun from there.
Just writing all that made me realize how typical teen supernatural romance that all sounds. Female protagonist–check. Love triangle–check. But I have to admit that I absolutely loved this book. I actually read it last year and chose it as my first book to read in 2017. I wanted something familiar and enjoyable to begin my year with. I liked the first book, but this book to me has what I want. Feyre is strong and flawed. She does mess up here and there, but she usually is able to admit when she’s wrong. And she manages to stand up for herself. I LIKED her; I count it as a plus that I didn’t feel the urge to punch her. I am also happy with how the author handled the inevitable romantic “crisis” in the story.
I have really enjoyed reading this book multiple times in the past six months. I like the characters, warts and all. The writing is maybe a bit on the easy-reading side, but it honestly didn’t bother me. I could live with fewer uses of “purr” and “prick”, but the author managed to make me catch my breath a few times, and my lions appreciated the sexy fun time in the story. I enjoyed the playful banter between characters, and I really, really liked that there were so many seeds planted in the first book about R.’s story. I mean the first time I read book two, I immediately had to go back and re-read book one to line the two stories up. I thought it was pretty well done.
It’s a teen fantasy romance book, so definitely keep that in mind. I do recommend it–I loved it and will re-read it unapologetically. BUT, if you dislike all teen fantasy books, then this may not be the right fit for you. Also, I haven’t really enjoyed Sarah J. Maas’s other series, Throne of Glass, like I have this one. I will continue reading both series because I will read anything by an author I like, but I just don’t really love the Throne of Glass characters. I DO love the characters in A Court of Mist and Fury.
Note: I have rated this a 5 but mostly because I love it in one of those purely guilty pleasury kind of ways. I first read this book in August and when I reviewed it, it was about my sixth or seventh time reading it. If I had to rate it for its level of writing on a broader scale, I would give it closer to a 4, if that helps. But I’m keeping my 5 here just because this will probably continue to be in my rotation of about ten books that I read and read over and over again several times a year. :)
This is good to know. I’ve read all but the last of the Throne of Glass books. I enjoyed it, but after a while most of the characters started to grate.
See, when I figured out where Maas was going with this (because this long after publication, it’s inevitable that I’d have been exposed to some plot spoilers) shortly after finishing the first book, I was pissed off. If Feyre went through all that in book one to prove her love to Tamlin, she just up and changes love interests in the sequel. Thinking back through the book, though, it’s not like Tamlin was the most exciting of her two options and if her other suitor (see I don’t want to spoil it for people who haven’t read either book) is even vaguely better, than it’s probably good for Feyre to trade up. I liked HER a lot.
I really should get round to reading this, I’ve seen it on so many Best of 2016 lists. It wouldn’t be the first time the second book in a paranormal series is considerably better than the first.
I totally get where you’re coming from on this. She went through hell in book one for Tamlin. And the author, I think, does a fairly credible job of addressing it in book two. I guess it depends how willing you are to want her to be with someone else by the time it all comes to happen… if that makes sense. I’m sure it isn’t to everyone’s taste. It just may have come to me at the point in time where I really needed this particular story :)