If you missed my review of A Court of Wings and Ruin, you can find it here.
I am in love with this series. When my sister-in-law and I started our little club, we started with this series. I don’t know what I was expecting because, at the time, it was at the beginning of my shifter, fated mates kick that I am on now. The books I was reading had a good amount of spice, and I liked that a lot. I was told there was spice, but I was disappointed in the first book on that, but the story was rich, so I kept going. I came to find out that the series is like a good chili. The heat builds.
In books one through three, we see the story from Feyra’s point of view, with a couple of instances where we get Rhys’s point of view. In ACOFAS, we get a little of everyone. Elain and Lucien are not part of the POVs though I would have liked to have had them. The point of view change can be jarring for readers, which is understandable. I did a lot of reading on the Dreame app for a while, and stories on there would jump between points of view, so I didn’t find it interrupting my reading flow. The part that I did was every so often, we would change from, say, Feyra to an omnipotent point of view. That was confusing.
In ACOFAS, we get to see Winter Solstice in Velaris. It is very much the Yule or Christmas of our world. Loved ones gather food is had, gifts are given, and it’s in the winter. Oh, and even they have family drama. Other courts know of Winter Solstice but places like the Summer Court (such as Varian) celebrate the solstice of their court the biggest.
We also see in ACOFAS some of the healing from the war. We saw Feyra toy with painting again in the last book, but in this one, she has a breakthrough. In her pain, Feyra needs to find an outlet, and she sees the people of Velaris who need a similar outlet. What better way than through art?
We see things mainly from Feyra and Rhys’s points of view, but we get chapters with Mor, Nesta, and Cassian. The one with Cassian and Nesta leaves many more questions than answers or closure. Nesta is so traumatized she is completely cut off from her feelings, and Cassian is having too many. I think this was a setup for the next book, as it is not from Feyra’s POV but Nesta’s. Cassian is tied to Nesta, so I know we will see him too. Mor’s chapter, I feel, added nothing to the book. It didn’t detract from it, but the book would have been the same without it.
Elain and Lucien make appearances in the book, but Elain was always a side character, so I don’t actually need a chapter from her, but I do wonder about her thoughts on Lucien. Lucien has been a significant part of the book, but he didn’t get his own chapter. He wears his heart on his sleeve, so I suppose we don’t need it. The chapter he appears in pretty well covers his state of mind. I would love a moment, kind of like what we had when Feyra slid into Lucien’s mind when he saw Elain and spoke to her.
We get even more spice in this book. There is one scene in particular that is mind-melting, and there isn’t enough magick at my disposal to live up to that scene. You will see what I mean. My husband says he feels undermanned by a statement like that. He was in the room when I and my SIL were discussing this. It’s his fault, not mine, that he heard it. I assured him there wasn’t a way to recreate it, so he felt a little better.
All in all, the book was OK. I think because there was so much going on in the first three books and this was not so action-oriented, it was almost a disappointment. I think that if I had been one of you that followed the releases, this would have been more fulfilling. It would have been a nice visit with friends instead of going from one extreme to another in a matter of days, not months. I want to say, though, that if this book was simply a vehicle to tie up Feyra and Rhysand so we can move on to Nesta and Cassian (at least, that’s what I am thinking), the book did this well. I do like this book, and if it is the vehicle I think it is, then I think it is an important book.
My SIL and I are taking a two-week break and then start on A Court of Silver Flame. I will have my review for them out as soon as I can. I hope you are enjoying my thoughts on the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I apologize for being so late to the game. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
