Review: A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I don't think you have any idea how excited I was for this book - I was counting down the days... Literally COUNTING DOWN EVERY LAST SECOND until I knew what was going to happen between Feyre and Rhysand. Oh, I loved A Court of Thorns and Roses, please don't get me wrong. In the beginning, I loved the Beauty and the Beast retelling I was seeing there - until it started reminding me of all the "bad" things about that story, but I'll get into that later.

Feyre's Journey

I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal.
I was a survivor, and I was strong.
I would not be weak, or helpless again. I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.

Feyre transitioned from a captive, a victim in a ploy from the Spring Court to break the curse laid upon them by Amarantha to one of the strongest players in the forthcoming war. She brought all of the power inside herself from the seven High Lords and instead of shrinking and believing that it was something secondary and something foreign inside her, they became her powers. She shaped fire, water, air, light and darkness to her will. By the time the confrontation happens with Lucien near the stream, she's accepted that though she does have Tamlin's shape shifting powers, she doesn't need to take a form anything his, she can take whichever form appeals to her and it that she chose to show wings and talons to them, to show that she felt Rhysand's form was beautiful and appealing, it BROKE me. I think my heart melted into a puddle of goo when Feyre finally accepted how she felt about Rhys!!!!! We got to watch Feyre come in to herself, help heal herself after the emotional torture of being Under the Mountain, and then we got to see her fly free. We got to see her glow, like a star and all because of one man...

Rhysand

"I have two kinds of nightmares: the ones where I'm again Amarantha's whore or my friends are... And the ones where I hear your neck snap and see the light leave your eyes."

"He locked you up because he knew - the bastard knew what a treasure you are. That you are worth more than land or gold or jewels. He knew, and wanted to keep you all to himself."

I had such a hard time choosing what quotes I really felt showed just how DAMNED MUCH HE LOVES AND RESPECTS HER!!!!!!!!!!!!! The terrible evil High Lord of the Night Court wasn't so terrible at all. Hell, he was actually a great feminist and one of the most supportive, caring friends that anyone could ask for. I fell in love with the Night Court crew, and Velaris, the second I knew of them. I'd been somewhat in love with Rhysand since we first met him, in A Court of Thorns and Roses he wasn't shown to us the way we saw him here. That was only the beginning of Feyre's story, the beginning of her happy ending, so of course we barely knew him then. I thought from the moment we met Rhys at Calanmai that he was the one that she was meant to be with, but then I love a bad boy. Rhysand, however, is not a bad boy - not at all, not even a little bit. He's a fabulous actor, able to play the parts required of him, the mask of the cruel High Lord to the Court of Nightmares and when it is needed most, he proves that he can act with the best of them.

Tamlin

Do you really remember the story of Beauty and the Beast? I don't mean the ever propelled love story that Disney fed us as little girls, because there are also some horrible things about that one, but this story took that tale and brought it out in the open. It's not always wrong to love your captor, I didn't say that I didn't love Tamlin at first. A Court of Thorns and Roses really was Tamlin's part of the love story. I actually read this and realized, I don't think that this was ever meant to be a love triangle, not a true one anyways. You were meant to see the first novel through Feyre's eyes at the beginning; the prisoner who falls in love with her captor because he spins her a tale that pulls on her heartstrings. Tamlin plays the 'Oh woe is me!' card so very, very well. Feyre to him was a piece of property, something to possess. Feyre was never something that he could own, that anyone could own. He tried to make her a prisoner again, after they were back from Under the Mountain, he tried and for a while he succeeded, but they had both changed when they came back and then they could never fit together again.

As though he realized he was losing his grip on her, Tamlin became even more possessive and protective of Feyre. He stopped seeing her, but then, I have to wonder just how deeply he had ever seen her - he had always tried to suppress her freedom in attempts to "protect" her from the world around her.

Breathing became difficult.
I was trapped.
I was trapped inside this house. I might as well have been Under the Mountain; I might as well have been inside that cell again -

My heart wept Feyre. All she wanted to was to get out, he was smothering her. She was finally seeing that she had no true freedom, there was nothing truly for her in that manor and she was finally admitting it to herself.

This doesn't mean that Tamlin is a bad person - he's just not right for Feyre. He could never let her be fully equal to him, he could never do what Rhys did - she would never be the High Lady of the Spring Court, but she is the High Lady of the Night Court. She is a member of their ragtag crew, their family. I love everything that Feyre has gained and my heart hurts that Tamlin couldn't see that she wasn't his to control, that she wasn't his puppet but her own, beautiful person.

You mean I have to wait a YEAR to find out what happens now????

I don't know that I can survive it! I love this book, the writing, the beauty of it all! I may just need to devour the series again and I know that I am definitely going to be pushing Sarah J. Maas and her Throne of Glass series up on my reading list. Somehow it will have to help me survive the long year ahead!


View all my reviews