Sunday, May 21, 2017

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

A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3) by Sarah J. Maas
Blurb:
Looming war threatens all Feyre holds dear in the third volume of the #1 New York Times bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

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. 

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.

My Review:
Have you ever seen a movie preview and it looks good, but then they really start promoting it and when you finally see the movie its not what you were expecting or hoping for?

That was ACOWAR for me. The ending of ACOMAF was agonizing - I wanted to find out what was going to happen so badly and then I had to wait a whole year for ACOWAR to come out, which was excruciating. But I let the excitement build, I bought into the hype, I preordered three different copies, and worst of all, I sped through other amazing books while waiting for ACOWAR to arrive in the mail.

And on May 3rd, the day after the release when I received two of my copies, I eagerly began reading. Now, two weeks later I just can't do it anymore and it makes me want to cry. I'm stopping at page 320.

Why, you ask? Because I am so unbelievably bored.

Let's start at the beginning (and I'll try not to be too spoilery):

Back in the Spring Court with Tamlin: 
I was expecting that Feyre would make Tamlin pay for what he'd done. I wanted her to torture him and make him suffer. Did I get that? No :( it was pretty unexciting. She turned his people against him. Big whoop. I mean I loved what she did Ianthe but Tamlin got off way too easy. And I also expected him to put up more of a fight. I never did see him reenter the story because I stopped before that.

Return to the Night Court, Rhys, and the Inner Circle:

Is it just me or is Rhys completely boring in this book? I know, I know.. you're hating me right about now. I'm hating myself. But he just wasn't as good in this book. He was kind of a pushover when it came to Feyre, just kind of... soft. Where was the cockiness and the swagger? I saw hints, but it wasn't the same.

Nesta & Cassian: Are they mates? I never got that far so I don't know but dammit I just wanted them to hop in the sack and put everyone else out of their misery.

Elain: Possibly the most depressing character of all. Seriously, someone get the girl some uppers! I felt so sorry for Lucien as Elain sat staring out a window whining that her human fiance wouldn't want her anymore. Hell, I wouldn't even have minded if she'd gotten with Azriel!

Ok, mini rant over... Basically what it boils down to is that I've read and loved three novels by SJM: ACOTAR, ACOMAF, and Empire of Storms (because I'm reading that series in reverse). SJM was a major contributor to me falling in love with the High Fantasy genre in the first place.

Maybe the excitement and the pacing of EOS ruined me but this book really seemed to drag. As far as I got, there were a few sections of action, but mostly it was stagnant and inactive. Instead of the story progressing it was repetitive: Feyre trains with Cassian, Feyre trains with Azriel, Feyre has fairly boring sex with Rhys (more on that later), Feyre coddles Elain and squabbles with Nesta. Yawn. Where was the action? Where was the adventure? Did SJM really cram all the epic battle scenes into the end and I just not get there?

Back to the sex scenes - I know a lot of people say SJM's scenes are too steamy but I disagree. For me they usually pack the perfect amount of heat - but hey, I'm 24 and I like it dirty. But in all honesty I found the sex scenes in ACOWAR to be rather dull and again repetitive. There was no heat for me.

Overall, I had so much excitement riding on this book and in the end I was left feeling let down and disappointed. Feeling like my fandom let me down. Will I read another SJM book in the future? Probably. I need to see how the TOG series ends. I just need a break after ACOWAR.


My Rating:
2.5 of 5 Stars

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