A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas | Book Review

Title: A Court of Wings and Ruin
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Published: 05/02/17
Genre: new adult, fantasy, romance
Pages: 705
My Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads page

Attention: There are spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk. 

Synopsis

A nightmare, I’d told Tamlin. I was the nightmare.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

(This synopsis is from Goodreads.)

Thoughts

Before I forget this, I’m just going to say that A Court of Wings and Ruin just RUINED my life. Ha. See what I did there? Yeah… this is the quality humor you get when you come to my blog. Welcome, if it’s you’re first time here and I hope I can make more terrible puns that will cause you to slap your forehead.

Despite loving Sarah J. Maas as an author, I didn’t enjoy ACOWAR as much as I enjoyed her other books. I had a couple minor issues with the story.

For once, I didn’t like how the relationship between Nesta + Cassian and Elain + Lucien/Azriel wasn’t solidified by the end of the story. LIKE HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SHIP THEM IF WE DON’T KNOW IF THEY END UP TOGETHER!?! This is the last book following Rhysand + Feyre and their crew which means we might never know who they end up with. And that upsets me greatly. I’m sure Sarah J. Maas left it up to the reader’s interpretation or wishes, but I’d rather know how she wanted the story to play out.

Also, why was is so easy for the Bone Carver and the Weaver to die but not a bunch of High Fae? Like, yes, High Faes are powerful but they aren’t as powerful as the creatures who were on the Earth much longer than they were. Am I the only one who thought that they were killed off to easily?

I liked the ending, but it still left me with a couple questions including the whole relationship thing Nesta and Elain (mentioned above) and what they would do with Bryaxis on the loose. Also, we know where the new Cauldron will be placed but will the next couple books be focused on that? How will Rhysand’s powers be affected now that all his original powers made the Cauldron? What about Amren?

I feel like a lot of my questions aren’t answered because we don’t know too much about the sequel to this series. I made a whole post about the announcement of the three additional books (which you can read here). If you don’t want to read it, here’s a TL;DR version of it:

ACOWAR is the last book following Feyre and the crew but they might make a cameo in the next three books. The next three books are basically going to be a spin-off series.

Because that’s all the information that Maas is willing to give us, I’m questioning whether or not my questions are going to be answered in the next books.

Besides all that, I really enjoyed this book. It was an emotional roller-coaster. In one moment everything is fine and dandy, and then in another everyone is dying. There were so many close calls with all the characters that I was surprised that a lot of them survived. Especially that time when Amren released her human form and later Rhysand died. Not cool, Sarah J. Maas. Not cool.

I also loved all the surprises. Actually, scratch that. I had a love-hate relationship with all the plot twists and surprises. It was like getting an unexpected package in the mail. You don’t know what’s inside, just like the plot twists. Some of them were good and some of them were bad, but all of them were great. When I started ACOWAR, all I knew was I should expect the unexpected, but yet the unexpected always all caught me by surprise. That is why I love this series. YA fantasy novels tend to get repetitive, but that is not the case with this novel.

If you like fantasy, overly protective faes, and badass females, you’re going to love this series.

Characters

Feyre Archeron

How she is alive after all of this amazes me.

Rhysand

That ending gave me a legit scare because when I first started this book I was like “Sarah J. Maas better not pull a George R. R. Martin on me. NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS CAN DIE. Except Hybern. He can burn for all I care.”

Amren

My favorite blood-drinking, out-worldly, slightly terrifying… I don’t even know what she is. It was never really explained. We need more of Amren’s backstory. Maybe the sequel to this series will explain that? Probably not, but I hope it does.

Cassian

How he’s alive after all of this amazes me.

Azriel

How are you not dead? Like, Azriel, I love you and all, but you shouldn’t have been able to survive all that.

Mor

I did not see that secret reveal coming.

Elain Archeron

I can’t tell whether or not she likes Azriel or Lucien.

Nesta Archeron

I understand why she is the way she is, but would it kill her to be a bit nicer to Feyre?

Lucien

He pulled a Chaol Westfall on us. If you don’t know what that means, Chaol is from Maas’s other series, the Throne of Glass series, and he basically is absent for a whole entire book because he was sent on a different mission and was only ever mentioned twice in Empire or Storms. Lucien kind of did the same thing. He was sent off on a mission and was gone for at least half the book before returning.

King of Hybern

What is WRONG with you!?!

The Autumn Court

It’s like keeping up with the Kardashians or something because their family has a whole lot of DRAMA.

Conclusion

I give ACOWAR 5 / 5 BBC Sherlock heads. I still feel like I’m on a roller-coaster.

Until next time….