A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Summary from Goodreads:

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.

Review:

So, I was mostly disappointed by A Court of Thorns and Roses. Then, I liked A Court of Mist and Fury a little more than book 1, though I still just felt like there was something I wasn’t getting that the whole book world got, but me. And then this third book happened. And I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing with this series or not. I love Maas’ other series. And maybe I just expect too much from her because of my love of those other books. Either way though I liked this book the least in the series so far.

I didn’t hate it. I wouldn’t have read 705 pages if I hated it entirely. It did take me a significant amount of time to truck through it all, which is weird because even with the previous books in this series, a Sarah J. Maas book has never taken me more than a few days to read.

Book 2 ended with a big cliff-hanger. And thankfully, this one picked up right where that left off. You’d think with my drastic need for this book to come out and the way things left off in the previous book, I’d be flying through the beginning. You’d be wrong. The beginning was super slow. And that is my first problem. How can a beginning where (BIG SPOILER AHEAD FOR BOOK 2 –Warning you now) the main character is under cover with her ex, an evil priestess, and some seriously evil characters and not with her “mate” be boring?

The beginning moved so slowly I thought about putting this book down a few times. This should have been a hard-to-put-down part. I should have been biting my nails. I should have loved the suspense and revenge-like plotting. I was bored. There was not enough of any of those things I just said. I needed more suspense, plotting, and drama.

Then, finally, Feyre escapes (after her little bit of revenge that seemed more petty and less helpful for Rhys), and the pace picks up a bit. My second problem with the book, and it’s a problem I had from the second book, was all the “mate” business. Am I the only one creeped out by its usage? Like why can’t the characters ever say each other’s names instead of, “my mate.” It feels more animal than human. And it certainly reminded me of imprinting from the Twilight books. It felt like a cheep way to get away with insta-love. And every, single important character has one…It was too much. I was hoping this would be less eye-roll inducing for me in this book than it was in the last one. I was wrong. It was worse.

I liked the romance between Rhys and Feyre. However, the “mate” stuff kept taking me out of he story and I kept rolling my eyes. And I wish I could have enjoyed that stuff more because I know how sizzling Maas’s romance can be.

The second half of the book was a lot more action-packed. But, it was my least favorite kind of action-packed. It’s the one element of a lot of fantasy books that I just never got into, nor ever enjoyed as much as everyone else: war. It was all about fighting in war, planning for war, making alliances for war, etc. And war just isn’t my favorite thing to read about. Did Maas write it well? I think so. It’s just unfortunate that when the writing finally picked up, it did for a kind of fantasy style that I never liked.

There was a deeper sense of girl power in this book than in any of the others in the series so far, and I loved that. I loved how Feyre’s sisters had a big role to play. I loved that stuff wasn’t necessarily easy for the sisters just because of who they were now. I loved that the animosity between the fairies and the humans was still a thing. And I loved all the meetings with all of the high fey. There was some serious banter going on.

All in all, this could have been better. The beginning could have been so much more interesting. The “mate” terminology bothered me even more in this book than it did before. It kept taking me out of the story in parts I really didn’t want to be taken away from. And then, the book became a war book, and I personally hate reading war stories. The characters were still fun to read. I loved the girl power and the banter between the high fey. But, I’m not sure this was enough to keep me interested enough to continue with the series. I give it 6/10.