Reviews with content warning for Murder - A Court of Thorns and Roses (Parts 1 & 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]

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A Court of Thorns and Roses (Parts 1 & 2) [Dramatized Adaptation], by Sarah J. Maas

347 reviews

lcesario's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I absolutely loved this book! I haven’t been this excited to read a series in a LONG time!! I avoided the Tiktok hype for as long as I could but I am so happy I gave in! I had a hard time getting through some parts at the beginning that I found to be slow or frustrating but I think by page 100 I was fully invested. I can’t commend the author enough as the character/world building was so easy to understand but so intricate that it was a unique experience for me. Ultimately; I found the story to be gripping, lots of twists, and I was completely immersed into the world I was building every time I picked up the book! I will be reading this as my comfort series from now on!!

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hazel_heart's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I really hate Feyre. But even still, she didn't deserve what she has gone through.

I'd say that this book is mainly a romance book with high fantasy flavour. The romance takes place between The Beauty and the Beast but the plot twist is that the Beast is also beautiful and he sparkles. He's very hotheaded and shows his beast claws and roars at tiniest things. The Beauty has a severe case of damsel in distress syndrome, she'd not survive a single day without a hot strong male saving her life. Overall, I didn't find their romance to be very lovely. But I think it's up to preference.

Spoiler

First half of the book is Feyre being dragged to this Fae Land called Prythian. She'll be talking to herself most of the time about her plans to escape these terribl-y hot Fae. Even though the Fae already told her that she's free to go wherever she wants and that she's not a prisoner. But I think it's a running theme I missed out on, Feyre might be legally deaf. She will ignore most things being told to her and each chapter will begin with Feyre making silly plans in her head about escaping. But her plans are so silly that everyone kinda feels embarrassed for her.

Anyways, one thing leads to another, she develops stockholm syndrome and decides to save the Beauty/Beast from an evil fae queen. And even though I hated Feyre until that point, I still felt bad for her because certain terrible people keep taking advantage of her against her will, repeatedly, for months. But she still saves the day and instead of doing anything remotely reasonable, she just wants to bone. Oh yes, she wants to bone more than anything. In the middle of a world-ending event, she risks it all to bone her hot Fae boyfriend. She dies and gets resurrected and she's in the mood immediately. But she has gone through a lot, I guess. Bone to your heart's content Feyre, you go girl. Bone away.

PS: The book felt a bit repetitive. Feyre kept talking about the same things over and over again.
PSS: Nesta is a Queen!

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skylar17's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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alliejm00's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cescanatalia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

First time reading Sarah J Maas's A Court of Thorn & Roses and let's just say, it makes me have this mixed feeling about this book.

BOOK COVER :

Love the red colour; it definitely attention grabbing and I think it allures people to read it. There's also another version of cover; it's a female clad in black dress with red background but my personal preference is for sure, the red cover with intricate painting of wolf in it.

CHAPTER 1 :

Sarah introduces Feyre right away as main character. She has this stubborn, reliable,strong-willed character due to her background as the one who has to provide for her family. In my opinion, Feyre doesn't have this strong "right in your face" moment or charisma to be main character; She provides for her family, yes that's good but she did out of promise to her deceased mother who made her swore to protect them on her death bed. There is this wild thoughts in my head that say, if Feyre doesn't swore or make promise, I bet she'll be the one who left and find adventures out there after her family went poor.

Chapter 1 is bit intriguing though it's easily guessable where the plot is going; Feyre, out of desperation and hatred, accidentally killed a wolf she saw on the forest. Later though, the wolf's friend, which is a Fae, came and demand Feyre to exchange her life in place for his friend. From there, we don't need Einstein to guess what will happened next to Feyre.

CHARACTERS :

Besides Feyre, later we were introduced to Tamlin, the one who demand Feyre to go to Spring Court in place for his deceased friend, later we known as Andras. Tamlin is a High Lord for Spring Court which like governor in real life and he has this mysterious, aloof, cold and rigid aura. His cold and unapproachable aspect kind of create this invisible bridge with Feyre; they have this awkward tension & their stubborness clash with each other.

Now for Tamlin, I do admire his leadership and responsibilities towards his court. He's a man of words, protecting and trying his best to make Feyre feel at home. One thing I don't find interesting in Tamlin is how half of the books, Sarah doesn't explore his expression more; as far as I read, Tamlin, if he's not growling, he's snarling, clenching his teeth or flexing his claws or fangs (which is still absurd to me, 'cause at one point, the claws came from his knuckles and Wolverine's the only thing that came to my mind 'stead of Fairies).

And we also introduced to Lucien, Tamlin's emissary and act like his second-in-command slash best friend for centuries. Lucien, contradict to Tamlin, has this bright and glowing spirit, approachable, yet sarcastic traits, which make him as my number one lovable character. Especially after I learn more about his past, the urge to protect this ginger haired baby is getting stronger (Sarah was so wrong for putting him in death chair as Amarantha's second challenge for Feyre 😑)

Later, we also introduces to Ryhsand or Rhys, this dark mysterious yet cunning High Lord of Night Court. A literal definition of red flag, that's my first impression of him. Now when I say earlier, that I have this mixed feeling about ACOTAR, Rhysand is on my top five; that man or Fae, even though he's giving this dangerous and full of threat especially towards Thamlin & Feyre's relationship, but he's a loyal and caring inside; he willing to be servant for Amarantha as long as he could protect his court, kind of giving this Slytherin's traits for me (sorry for HP reference there xD).
I admire him for helping Feyre indirectly but also dislikes his meddling with Feyre's love life.

And our villain, Amarantha. Evil, cunning, sinister High Queen who obsessively in lust with Tamlin. She apperead later in the books, torturing Fae left and right while trying to make Tamlin hers. Now, from the introduction of her to discussion of her past and what she is as Fae, I could say, our villain is villaining. She came for blood and gore, she doesn't afraid to kill anyone whose in her path.

But towards the end, when she realize she's lost, there's this tiny bit speck of moment where she's afraid of Tamlin who regains his consciousness and plead for her life. Kind of bit funny to me, cause girl's not as powerful as she tought she is yet she dare to manipulate and keep half of High Fae's magic and when it backfired on her, she's scared. Like why you play gamble for your life, Amarantha? Such a high risk taken for a villain who doesn't think further of the consequences of her action.

Now, Feyre.. Our main character which for me, fail to do her job properly. First of all, I appreciate her for being brave and ready to fight Amarantha to save Tamlin even though there is this unbalance scales of power between them. She's giving hope and optimism and I just love it. The only thing I don't find her interesting is her ability for being stupid and make bad decision. I swear, this girl just testing my patience everytime she's being stubborn specifically when Tamlin had advised her to stay inside his home or Lucien warned her to not look for Suriel. Later, she almost sacrifice Lucien's life due to her slowpoke brain ( I literally holding my breath when this happened; girl just so fuckin' clueless)

Between these four characters, I like Lucien-Feyre's interaction the most; they have this longtime bestfriend kind of chemistry which makes their conversation and banter fun to read. Thamlin-Feyre fall on the second place; they start slow and hard to read but later in the chapters, the ice between them melt down and create this sexual tension which lead us to top notch smut; it's a nice plot development for both of them.

Talking about development, sadly I don't think our MC has prominent character development. What I don't expect is Nesta, Feyre's older sister. She, from a cold, cynical, spoiled girl turn into tough & reliable older sister. It's surprise me, like a lot because you can't see any of these trait from her in the beginning, not even a glimpse and then suddenly, you have this information of Nesta's went to the Wall just to take Feyre's back and she understand what Feyre's going through and makes her realize about her feelings and push her to go back to Spring Court. Like, come thru protecting older sister! Nesta is representation of tough love first children has to give to their siblings and I live for that 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

PLOT :

Now, everyone who's read this could easily guess ACOTAR is literally a re-endition of Beauty and The Beast but with magical being; later though, it's a mixed of Beauty & the Beast meet Twilight with a bit of sprinkle of Hunger Games; and Feyre, instead of being a nerd, she couldn't read to save her life. Tamlin, instead of curse that turn him into Beast, there is this Blight or some kind of curse upon his land which makes him wear mask 24/7.

It's hard for me to say this but ACOTAR has drain my will to read. I even pause it for at least weeks just because the pace is like a roller coaster; in the beginning, it's so slow with no prominent character or events happened (besides Feyre moving to Spring Court) and then it goes fast with Tamlin-Feyre making progress but it slowed down again until mid story almost to the end and it goes fast again in the end. It's torturing to read especially if your main character are Feyre with her inability of thinking logically and making right decision.

Sadly, I don't vibes well with the pace. It's slow, stagnant and unengaging and I think, for opening a series, ACOTAR has done its job properly but not well done. She doesn't have this kick which I thought will make readers curious enough to read the next series. But for me, the possibility exist. I probably will read the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury.

ENDING :

When I say there's bit of Twilight happened, I refer to the ending here. Predictable, that's all I could say.

SUMMARY :

ACOTAR has been put on my list of "BOOKTOK/BOOKSTAGRAM THAT DOESN'T WORTH THE HYPE".

It's good, I love how the world building introduces us to Fairies and their separate Courts also Mortal Realm where human resides. It's not easy to create a fantasy world and I give applause for Sarah J Maas for creating this world building nice and proper. I'm still at first book so I couldn't say much about it, maybe later though when I finish the series.

Though it's good, I find her characterization of Fae is a bit off. It's really different from Fae per usual, it has claws and fangs and it's more animal look alike rather than graceful, elegant, glowing Fae. I think Sarah's Fae is more vampire than what she meant to.

That's why I say I have mixed feeling because at one point, I don't vibes well with what she trying to say through her character but at the same time, I admire her creativity and strong willed to make different characters in a book.

I give ACOTAR three stars out of five 😊

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kit666's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

So, it took me ages to finish the book, because I was reading it along with the Last Podcast Deep Dives ladies. That kind of took me out of it at times, because I had to read in shorter increments and couldn't go at my own pace.
I did enjoy the book a lot! It isn't what I usually go for, but the podcast made me curious and I'm glad I checked it out! I will definitely be reading the next book!
Loved the hot and heavy stuff, but also really appreciate how it doesn't go with the stereotypes or puts a twist to them.
Maas also wasn't afraid to make things ugly for Feyre,

Spoiler

like having her be beaten up with bruteIforce. No magic, justIviolence.
I certainly didn't expect her to die!!! OR GET TURNED INTO A HIGH FAE! I mist admit that I enjoy the relationship between Rhys and Feyre... It feels sensual and forbidden, with him opening up to her. But they also seem like they could develop a deep friendship, especially during her weeks at the Night Court. Very interested in how the sequel will play out. Though I must admit that the whole getting her drunk and making a dance while she's blackout drunk is very questionable of him. On one hand, he did her a favour by making her forget on the other it's still a cunt move.
Also interested in the whole geopolitical struggle between the King and the mortal realm. THAT FEYRE ISN'T A PART OF ANYMORE. I hope we get a view into how it feels to be a high fae now. I'd love to be shown the difference it makes and whether Feyre has magical powers now. If so, will they correspond with her personality? The spring court?a little bit of everything, because all the courts worked together to make her high fae?
Can't wait!
I also assume Nesta will play a bigger part. In general I'm curious to see how her family will respond to her being a faerie now.

Definitely a recommendation if you're into fairytale retellings, dirty action and a hint of lust.

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effy's review against another edition

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4.25

Review on 2nd re-read: This was the upteenth re-read of this book for me and once again I had a really fun time with it. It is far from perfect and definitely not the greatest thing but I really enjoy getting lost in this world and falling in love with these characters all over again.

This re-read was particularly enjoyable as I know this story so well I liked seeing the hints of what was to come sprinkled throughout. I did fell like there were maybe a couple of points where the magic doesn't quite match with how it works in later books but the magic system is quite soft so...

What was particularly interesting to me on this read was that

Spoiler

I didn't fall in love with Tamlin that I usually do. I also didn't feel the fiery hatred that usually kicks in very quickly into ACOMAF but usually I do kinda fall in love with him and am feeling the romance between between and Tamlin.

This is the first time that I have re-read these books with my eyes as opposed to listening the the audiobook so it is very possible that makes a difference.

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