Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Rose, #2)

I’m pretty sure that at this point most of you have already read A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2) by Sarah J. Maas, but for those of you who haven’t…

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 cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas’s masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

I have to say that the Maas’ writing has really come a long way. I just finished reading Throne of Glass (her first novel) and compared to ACOMAF – wow, just wow. She’s really grown as a writer and themes that you find in this series are much more mature and a darker. Granted, I’ve only read the first book in ToG so I’m sure the growth is evident in the later books, as well. Her descriptions have the ability to completely paint a vivid picture in your head without taking multiple pages to do so..*cough* Tolkien *cough*.. And that cliffhanger?! HOW CAN YOU BE SO CRUEL, SARAH?!

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

Our characters have all gone through quite a few changes since we left them at the end of ACOTAR. Feyre is suffering pretty badly from PTSD, leaving her practically in pieces and barely alive. While I understand why she acted the way she did, I was a little annoyed at all of the self-pity and sulking she did for the first half of the book. Luckily, it finally grew manageable and then disappeared completely. I was going to smack her (figuratively) if it didn’t. But then again, we have to lay some of that blame on Tamlin. No longer just the boring and secretive love interest, oh no, now Tamlin is the crazed overbearing jailer! Instead of trying to help Feyre cope with her issues, he ignores them and decides the best way to help her is keep locked up in the Court. To him, the best way to prove his love is to never let anything happen to her again, or let anything happen period. Love’s a bitch, right? Instead, Rhysand is now the savior. We finally get to hear all of his tragic backstory and finally get to meet the real him. TOTAL BABE.

Here’s my issue – while I’ve been Team Rhysand since the moment he showed up in ACOTAR and have pretty much been indifferent towards Tamlin the entire time, this extreme personality change was a bit much to me. Why can’t Tamlin have at least some redeeming qualities left to make this love triangle at least a little interesting? Obviously he will never beat Rhysand, but still, I want to see some more struggle! I just didn’t buy this sudden intense personality that Tamlin has in this book, it didn’t make any sense to me. And also, what the hell happened to Lucien? I loved him in the first book, but in this one? He was just so weak and had lost the snarky personality that we all loved. I’m giving you a chance to redeem yourself, Maas, in the next book so don’t let me down!

Luckily, we get a whole host of minor characters that are all just insanely interesting and fun! They each have their own distinctive personalities and personal stories, that at times I found myself more interested in than them rather than in Feyre. I’m sure you’re all in love with Cassian but I’ve got my heart set on the tortured Azriel. Seriously, I need a spin-off series on what our 4 new friends were doing the past 50 years!

Acourt of mist and fury

Basically, this book was amazing from start to finish. Unlike the first story, it was immediately riveting without the long slow buildup. I did think the that middle could’ve used a little something extra to spice things up a bit, and not in the sexual sense because we definitely got that in spades, but just in the plot itself. However, I couldn’t tear myself away from this book. I stronglyyyyy recommend this series if you haven’t read it yet. If you’re new to Maas, I would recommend it first over her Throne of Glass series. Start strong, right? But seriously, read it, love it, obsess. Then join me and Team Rhysand as we crush that awful Team Tamlin! Hahahahah, just kidding… Sort of.

Finally Verdict: 5/5 Stars

What did you think of ACOMAF? Team Rhysand or Team Tamlin? Cassian or Azriel?

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wonderfilledreads

Obsessive book reader and blogger. Texas girl. Sports fanatic. Lover of travel, video games, and scented candles. I also just really enjoy sleeping. #noshame

25 thoughts on “Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Rose, #2)”

  2. This is a great review, and I am so glad you enjoyed this book as well. ACOTAR series is one of my all-time favourites and I thought this second book was so much better than the first one. I will admit to be a Tamlin/Feyre shipper until ACOMAF and now I’m all about Rhysand! I do think all three of them (Tamline, Feyre and Rhysand) are still a little damamged by what happened with Amarantha and I thought it was really interesting seeing the PTSD angle in this book but yeah I enjoyed ACOMAF a lot more when Feyre started taking action and not letting anyone push her around!
    God that cliffhanger though, I need the third book now! 😀

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    1. Thank you! This series is so good!!!.. And I agree, the PTSD has really affected them all. I just had a hard time with how much it completely affected Tamlin, turning him into a completely different person. I’m interested in seeing how he is in the next book. That cliffhanger is killing me!!!

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      1. I feel a lot of the times books can just kind of skip past the PTSD thing so it was nice to see it highlighted a little in this book.
        I think Tamlin could go one of two ways; either he redeems himself and helps Feyre take down the king, or he becomes worse and has to be taken down himself! Either way it’ll be interesting to read that’s for sure! 😀

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  3. A really valid point I got from a friend was that Tamlin was ALWAYS kind of a douche. Like I’m pretty sure most people liked him and shipped Tayre but there wasn’t a full fledged 100% YES. He did have shitty undertones and I feel like ACOMAF was when they were really highlighted.

    My one issue with SJM has always been how she can do a 180 with a character. She can quickly make a character a total asshole and destroy any redeeming qualities in order to destroy the readers love for them. I won’t spoil anything but this isn’t she first time she’s done it.

    She’s my absolute favorite author though. LOVE her writing and worlds.

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    1. I do agree about the whole Tamlin thing. I didn’t particularly care for him in the first book, but that was just mostly because I found him boring as a character. His complete asshole turnaround in ACOMAF kind of took me by surprise, I just wasn’t expecting it to be that much of a change. I’ve only read the first book in ToG so far but I plan to finish the series next month so now you’ve got me wondering which character am I going to end up hating there! I definitely am enjoying her book sos far though, so I hope this doesn’t become a consistent thing with her stories or I shall get very angry lol.

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  7. Yes. Yes. Yes! I liked the first book. I LOVED this second book. I can’t wait for the third one. I think it will help us understand what happened to Lucien, why he’s behaved so strangely.

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  8. Wonderful review! I definitely agree with you regarding Sarah J. Maas’ writing style, it has definitely matured since her first book, Throne of Glass. You will be able to see her writing develop even more during the rest of that series. But, overall, I have always found her writing style to be immensely beautiful and she has a wonderful talent for weaving such strong themes throughout her books. Plus, her characters are amazing.
    The change with Tamlin did seem a little dramatic, but thinking back to his actions in the first book it doesn’t really surprise me. He often belittled her, he even physically hurt her, and whilst she risked her life for him, I fail to see where he had to actually risked his life to save her. Yeah, he did things for his people — but what about Feyre specifically? Honestly, I found him to be a bit of a coward.
    Anyway! Again, wonderful review 🙂

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  9. I traded books and got this book. I really wanted to get my old books off my hands. I need to buy and read the first book and see what all the hype is about. Great review!

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  10. Don’t get me wrong, I’m also 100% team Rhys, but I agree with you about the sudden personality changes. I loved this book, but it felt like there was a strong push toward Rhys in the way that all of a sudden, Tamlin was this super-controlling guy, not-so-great guy that was basically the devil. It came out of nowhere, which made me a little sad because the whole book was built around their love. Anyway, great review! I think this book grew leaps and bounds from ACOTAR and it showed. 🙂

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