A Court of Thorns and Roses
Fantasy, High Fantasy, Young Adults
Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Thorns and Roses, Book # 1
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
May 5th 2015
Hardcover
419
English
January 1, 2020 January 3, 2020
Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
About the book
A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in a trilogy series named as the first book by Sarah J. Mass. It’s a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast and that’s what attracted me the first time.
It is set in a fantasy world. This lend is called Prythiam and the world is divided in 7 courts, plus a small piece of land where human are confined.
We follow Feyre’s story, a 19-year-old girl who goes hunting quite often, to help her family, father and two sisters. In fact, the mother passed away when she was very young and on her deathbed Feyre promised to take care of the remaining family. Now, why a mother makes an 8-year-old daughter promise that, I don’t know, but that’s what guides the girl in her life. Shortly after the woman’s death, the father makes the wrong investments and loose everything, forcing the family to live in poverty and misery. This is why Feyre hunts, for the sustenance of the family. During one of these hunts, she kills a wolf which was about to eat her food (a deer). Once killed the wolf, she manages to kill the deer and feed her family for several days. But unfortunately, the wolf is not a normal wolf, it is a magical creature and one night after Feyre sells the fur of the two animals, earning a lot of money for her family, another magical creature breaks into her modest home and wants her in place of the wolf’s life (and his friend), because this is the Treaty that humans and the Fae have (a life for a life). Treaty signed many years before, when there was a war between humans and the Fae, which ended with the liberation of the human world and its confinement in the earth to the south of an invisible wall that divides the two worlds.
But the beast gives her a choice, instead of being killed, she can go and live with him, in the world of fairies and magical creatures. Feyre is forced to leave with this magical creature whose name she will discover is Tamlin and to live in the Spring Court, the court just past the border with the wall.
But not everything is as it seems, Tamlin and his people are forced by a curse to wear metal masks that cover part of their faces and have their powers reduced. Feyre is the key to solving it all.
What I think
I liked the book, the first part when Feyre is at the Spring Court a little (much) more than the second. I gave 4 stars instead of 5 for the fact that during the story, Feyre is humiliated in front of the whole fairy world and I don’t like this. Maas could very well have written this book without this fact, but she didn’t and therefore I can’t give 5 stars.
For half of the book Feyre’s father is just a useless space occupant. He serves no purpose and characters like that are just useless to everything, even in the real world. And I must say that the most hateful sister in the beginning, Nesta, eventually became the sister I liked the most.
Characters
I like Feyre because she knows what she wants, she knows what sacrifice means, but not for this reason she lowers her head, but as soon as she arrives at Tamlin’s court she immediately looks for a way out, as soon as she understands the curse, she seeks a way to help the kingdom although it is not hers and is aware of stories about fairies that are not beautiful or fictional. But throughout the story she understands that not everything is as it seems and the stories she heard about the magical world aren’t true.
Tamlin, as it should be, at the beginning is a bit enigmatic, it is not known if he is a beast or a “man”, he often has aggressive attitudes, but he is also capable of being a good host. Immediately from the beginning, he tells Feyre that she is not a prisoner, but it is better that she remains in his estate because she is safe there, instead outside the villa gates the world is dangerous, as Feyre herself will discover later.
Conclusion
I already have the following books and I will certainly read them, but as for Mistborn, here too, I do not want the following books to spoil the beautiful ending of this book and I have the bad feeling that the second book will do it. Because I don’t like Rhysand at all and he is, apparently, the character that is loved the most from what I read online so I am very afraid that because of him I won’t like the rest. But we will see… maybe I’ll totally change my mind.
3 coffees on “A Court of Thorns and Roses”