This beast was not a man, not a lesser faerie. He was one of the High Fae, one of their ruling nobility: beautiful, lethal, and merciless.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Well, I’m finally doing it. After a year on Bookstagram and Booktok, I have finally started the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

The humans and the fae live separately for a reason. Based on every story, the fae are lethal, ruthless, and immortal—something that Feyre learns firsthand when she kills a wolf in the woods and a terrifying beast comes to claim retribution. However, when Feyre is dragged off to the faerie lands, her captor, Tamlin, quickly shows her that not all of the stories of the fae are true. They’re dangerous but also beautiful and civilized. And in danger from a looming threat that maybe only Feyre can stop.

I have mixed feelings about A Court of Thorns and Roses. This series has been so hyped, and the reviews I see either love it or hate it, so I’ve been nervous to start it. I did end up enjoying the book, but it took me a while to get there.

First, the writing isn’t fantastic. It’s not bad, but it is very simplistic and straightforward, and Maas doesn’t leave a lot of room for multiple interpretations of how sentences may read. As I said, it isn’t a bad thing, and once I got more into the plot of the story, I didn’t end up noticing it as much. That said, it is definitely not something I expect from fantasy—especially high-fantasy like this.

It also took a while for the plot to really pick up and for the characters to develop, but I think this is just something that the first book in any fantasy series suffers from, at least in my opinion. It took until about 40% of the way into The Eye of the World for me to actually start caring about the story.

However, once the story started to pick up, I really got into it. I loved the Beauty and the Beast parallels and the world-building. I enjoyed most of the characters as well, especially Lucien, whose roguish humor I found utterly endearing. Feyre’s character arc was compelling, and watching her absolutely kill it in the last quarter of the book was a highlight of the whole book.

Rhysand also ended up being intriguing. I know he’s one of the most loved books, but some of his actions were questionable (I won’t spoil anything specific, but see some of the above content warnings), so I’m not entirely sold yet. The only character I didn’t end up liking (or dislike in the case of the villain) was Tamlin. He was just sort of there, and my feelings about him can be summed up with the shrug emoji.

Overall, I am glad I read it. Although I’m still not quite sure why A Court of Thorns and Roses is so hyped, I enjoyed reading it, so I’m excited to continue with the series to see if I change my mind.