A Court of Mist and Fury

“The Court of Dreams. The people who knew that there was a price, and one worth paying, for that dream. The bastard-born warriors, the Illyrian half-breed, the monster trapped in a beautiful body, the dreamer born into a court of nightmares ... And the huntress with an artist's soul.”

After I started writing book reviews a few months ago, it has never happened that I couldn't find enough words to write about a book. But this book left me dumbfounded with all sorts of feelings swirling in my head and heart.

ACOTAR was a fine book but it felt nothing like the hype that surrounded it. I only started enjoying it through the last 100 pages which intrigued me enough to continue the series. I didn't expect anything different from this sequel too, but this book blew me away. The standard of ACOMAF is way way above ACOTAR that sometimes, I can't believe it's written by the same author, especially because I haven't read any other books by Sarah J. Mass. This book is now going to be my standard against which I will compare any romance novel in the future and I don't see many coming close to it.

The book deals very well the character of Feyre, her pain, guilt, nightmares, claustrophobia and PTSD. She endured unbearable torment and had to do unspeakable things Under the Mountain to save her love and his lands. She actually died before being resurrected. Now months after the ordeal, she is trying to deal with her pain but has no one to support her. Tamlin has his own fair share of nightmares and doesn't want to think about any of them, Lucien wants to help but can't go against Tam's orders, Ianthe just wants Feyre to be a model wife and Lady of the Spring Court to provide hope and stability to the people. No one bothers to see what Feyre really needs. She is disintegrating in front of their eyes but they are blind to it. Tam's all consuming need to control everything about Feyre leads him to do stupid things that finally push Rhys to save her and whisk her away to the Night Court.

Rhys is nothing like the mask that he presents to the world. He does everything possible to let Feyre know that she can get through her trauma and pain. He shares his own past and his nightmares, shows her a side of himself that no one knows, so that she can believe that she too can learn to live again. He introduces her to his Court of Dreams, his amazing friends that become her strength and support at a time when she needs them the most. Mor's cheerfulness, Cassian's steel, Azriel's silence and Amren's otherworldliness – all mask a past full of pain but they have gotten through it and made themselves into a close knit loving family – and that's what Feyre starts to love. Each of them provide her the friendship, stability and confidence to move through her guilt and start feeling again.

Feyre and Rhys's relationship is probably the best romantic pairing I have read in recent times. It's just so beautiful and I don't have enough words to describe it. It's built on trust, honesty, equality, partnership and most importantly a deep friendship. Their relationship evolves from hateful words to cheerful flirtation to being great friends, that their love never feels forced. They treat each other as equals and trust each other's choices and decisions so implicitly that it feels like a relationship worth emulating. I never stopped pitying Tam but he was just too broken himself to help Feyre with what she needed to heal herself.

There is so much more I want to write but then, it won't be a review anymore. I have so many feelings that when I started writing down all of them, it came to around 9 pages which I don't think I should reproduce here. I can just say that this book is beautiful, the characters are so amazing that I want to go live in the city of Velaris among all of them because I feel they are all my friends now. And Rhysand... Rhysand... Rhysand... there are no words to express my feelings about him... Just nothing... I just wish there are many many many books featuring him because I don't want him to go away so soon from my life.

“He thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story.” She snorted. “But I forgot to tell him,” I said quietly, opening the door, “that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key.” “Oh?” I shrugged. “He was the one who let me out.”