I never considered myself a big reader or lover of fantasy. Sure, I love the Harry Potter series and have watched every LOTR film, but it has never been a genre I go out of my way to browse through. It's even interesting to me that I feel this way because I'm a writer, and in some part that means I love made up shit (or to put it more nicely I like fiction).
You could say I like fantasy with elements of the realistic. Some part of it is usually grounded in the familiar and not too fantastic that I have a hard time following along or end up losing interest. I'm not usually one to fall into the seemingly over-hyped books on bookstagram that pop up every few posts. In general, I find that books everyone seems to love either really are that good or I end up taking a love or hate stance with no in-between. When it comes to the A Court of Thorns and Roses series I can genuinely say that bookstagram made me do it (even though I don't really love that phrase if I'm being honest). The first time I read someone's description of the series they called it "faerie porn", meaning I was equally grossed out by that assessment and intrigued. Sex scenes in books usually end up making me cringe because often they come across as heavy handed and unrealistic as porn on the internet. Smutty books are another thing I don't actively seek out, but I think we all like a little spicy read with substance every now and then. THIS IS YOUR "THERE MIGHT BE SOME SPOILERS" WARNING. After I finished reading the first book in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, I'm not sure I was entirely sold. It followed the whole "normal girl ends up being the chosen one" arc that is extremely overdone, but I will say that Feyre as the main protagonist didn't veer into the achingly annoying territory a lot of those characters tend to end up in. There isn't a lot of action in the first installment other than a few run-ins with dangerous creatures before the nail-biting conclusion in the final 1/4 of the book. Most of the story is spent establishing where Feyre fits into the larger story of what has happened to all of the faeries who have been cursed by Amarantha, a sadistic faerie determined to subjugate the entire realm. The stakes are high and it isn't clear until much later in the story exactly how this curse can be broken before time runs out. As someone who loves to read romance, I didn't love the pairing of Tamlin and Feyre. If someone more or less kidnapped me from my family and forced me to stay with them forever, I don't think I'd end up developing feelings. Even if that man was a faerie with otherworldly beauty. Tamlin attempting to make Feyre comfortable while she is stuck with him, for selfish reasons I might add, doesn't exactly scream romance. It probably isn't an unpopular opinion to say that I believe Tamlin never really loved Feyre, but it wasn't impossible for her to love the version of Tamlin that he was showing her. If we read Tamlin and Rhys as foils to one another then it redeems the lackluster romance in the first book because Feyre and Tamlin just aren't supposed to be. As soon as he gets what he wants he keeps up this appearance of wanting to keep Feyre safe only to put her in a cage of his own design, much like the cage she was in under the mountain. Which brings me to Rhys. Sweet, sweet Rhys. I think Sarah J. Maas is a genius for presenting him the way she does upon his first appearance, only to shatter everything you thought you knew about him. He is an utter ass, and a pompous one at that, the first time we meet him. He seems to be caught up in Amarantha's cruel games, while by all appearances Tamlin seems to be fighting against them. Little did any of us know at that point Rhys would become one of the most complicated and well-liked characters in the series. Talk about a plot twist because I really didn't see that one coming after the events of ACOTAR. The first book may have left me feeling a bit lukewarm, but the way it sets up A Court of Mist and Fury is fantastic. The second installment is when all of the puzzle pieces shift and begin to slot together as Feyre begins to realize how serious the threat in the faerie realm of Prythian is. Not only does she have a part to play in saving the fae, she now has to find a way to save the humans on the other side of the wall separating their worlds. Like the title suggests, these are just my mad ramblings about a series that I've quickly become obsessed with. And my mad ramblings about yet another male character that unfortunately isn't real, and that would be Rhys. Another seemingly rough and tough guy who has been through an emotional and physical ringer that could have broken him, yet he found a way to become better because of it. I may have said out loud "you sly son of a bitch" when I realized Rhys is the bad boy, the good kind of bad boy I'm supposed to like. Once again, another fictional man has raised the bar for all of the men in the real world. He definitely gives off the "man written by a woman" vibes that everyone is freaking out about lately (because he was written by a woman and that makes all the difference). Rhys and Feyre are enemies to lovers, even though in Rhys's mind he was never Feyre's enemy, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't love a good slow burn with plenty of tension. Maybe I haven't read enough of the series yet to confirm whether or not it is faerie porn, but I think it's appropriately spicy for my taste. The sex scenes aren't vulgar or described in a way that makes you want to laugh and vomit simultaneously. What we have here is a well-written fantasy series with characters you can't help but root for, and I just got a text from the library that I can pick up the third book as I type this. Talk about perfect timing.
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