The reading experience

Romance

Moderate

Spice

2 out of 5

Tone

Tense, Funny, Romantic

Pacing

Moderate

Tropes

Friends to lovers, Forced proximity, Fae

Series

Ongoing series

A Court of Thorns and Roses Review: The Book That Ruined My Free Time

Spoiler-free review first, followed by a spoiler-filled discussion of Book 1.
No spoilers from later books.

In June 2024, I read A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: I thought I was starting a book.

What I was actually doing was unknowingly signing away a significant proportion of my future free time to fictional faerie men and their increasingly complicated personal lives.

It was my first proper introduction to fantasy romance, or romantasy, as everyone now calls it. Before that, the world of fae, magical courts and immortal men with questionable decision-making skills was largely unexplored territory for me.

Fast-forward to now, and I've read ACOTAR three more times and my Audible listening average is currently sitting at around 223 hours a month 🙈🥴.

Yes, really. I can share screenshots if you don't believe me 😆.

That's over seven hours a day. Audible must be absolutely delighted with me. My sleep schedule, less so.

And the ridiculous thing is, it all started with this one book.

What is A Court of Thorns and Roses about?

A Court of Thorns and Roses, usually shortened to ACOTAR, is the first book in Sarah J. Maas's fantasy romance series.

It follows Feyre Archeron, a nineteen-year-old human girl struggling to keep her impoverished family alive by hunting in the woods.

When she kills a wolf, a terrifying beast arrives at her home demanding repayment. Feyre is taken across the wall into Prythian, a magical land inhabited by powerful, immortal faeries.

There, she meets Tamlin, the mysterious High Fae who rules the Spring Court, and discovers a world full of beautiful places, dangerous creatures and secrets nobody seems particularly keen to explain.

There's romance, magic, mystery, ancient curses and enough unresolved emotional baggage to keep an entire team of therapists employed indefinitely.

It's loosely inspired by Beauty and the Beast, but the world grows into something much bigger.

Why ACOTAR is such a good first fantasy romance

If you've never read romantasy before, ACOTAR is one of the books I'd recommend starting with.

One of the biggest challenges with fantasy is getting into an entirely unfamiliar world.

Sometimes you open a fantasy book and within twenty pages you've been introduced to six kingdoms, four magical bloodlines, seventeen political alliances and a prophecy involving somebody's great-grandfather.

I'm sorry, but I've only just learnt the main character's name.

ACOTAR is much easier to settle into.

Feyre is human, so she doesn't understand the faerie world either. She's suspicious of everyone, unfamiliar with the customs and has very little idea what's actually happening around her.

Which is perfect, because neither did I.

You learn about Prythian alongside her, rather than being expected to memorise an entire fantasy encyclopaedia before the story starts.

The romance gives you something familiar to follow while the magical world slowly opens up.

And as the story progresses, you begin to realise there's much more happening beneath the surface.

It doesn't throw everything at you immediately. It gives you just enough to become curious, then gradually makes the world more complicated.

A very effective strategy, apparently, because two years later I'm still here.

I thought I'd found the adult Harry Potter

When I first read ACOTAR, I remember thinking it was the adult version of Harry Potter.

Not because Feyre and Harry have particularly similar lives. One has a wand and a school timetable. The other has a bow, a terrifying landlord and some exceptionally attractive faerie problems.

But because of that feeling.

That feeling when you discover a fictional world that seems enormous, full of possibilities and completely separate from ordinary life.

I loved that about Harry Potter, and ACOTAR gave me something similar as an adult.

It was the sense that there were so many places I hadn't explored, people I hadn't met and secrets waiting to be uncovered.

Now, after considerably more time exploring the fantasy genre, I'd probably give the 'adult Harry Potter' title to Fourth Wing instead.

But that doesn't take anything away from ACOTAR.

It was the first book to give me that feeling again, and I think that's why it means so much to me.

The romance is cute, but the mystery kept things interesting

One of the things that makes ACOTAR work is that it isn't just about the romance.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a good romance. Particularly when it involves mysterious men and an entirely unreasonable amount of tension.

But the book also gives you a beautiful, slightly unsettling world to explore.

The Spring Court sounds gorgeous, with its gardens, magical landscapes and endless springtime.

Yet there's something strange about it.

Everyone is wearing masks. There are dangerous creatures lurking beyond the estate. Tamlin and Lucien clearly know things they aren't telling Feyre.

And you start wondering what on earth is actually going on.

The opening is definitely slower than the later part of the book, so if you prefer nonstop action, you might need a little patience.

But once the story changes direction, it really changes direction.

I went into ACOTAR expecting a fantasy romance and came out of it realising that apparently nobody in Prythian is allowed a simple, peaceful existence.

Is ACOTAR spicy?

A little, but probably not as much as you might expect if you've seen the series discussed online.

The first book focuses more on the romance, attraction, tension and developing relationships than explicit scenes. There is some sexual content, but ACOTAR isn't one long collection of increasingly creative reasons for characters to remove their clothes.

As an introduction to romantasy, I think that balance works well. You get time to care about the characters and the world before everything becomes more intense.

If you're coming straight from contemporary romance and want to try fantasy without being overwhelmed by world-building, it offers a comfortable starting point.

My final verdict: Is A Court of Thorns and Roses worth reading?

Absolutely.

I'm giving A Court of Thorns and Roses 5 out of 5 stars.

And I know that after reading so many other fantasy books, I could probably sit here and make an argument for why certain stories have better pacing, more complicated magic systems or stronger world-building.

But sometimes a five-star rating isn't just about technical perfection. Sometimes it's about what a book means to you. ACOTAR introduced me to an entire genre I now absolutely love.

It's the reason I started exploring more fantasy romance, discovering new fictional worlds and spending a mildly concerning amount of time listening to audiobooks.

I've returned to it three times since June 2024, and I suspect it won't be the last.

Would I have more free time if I'd never discovered it? Almost certainly.

Would I have a more reasonable Audible listening history? Without question.

Would I change anything? Absolutely not.

If you're thinking about giving fantasy romance a go, ACOTAR is a brilliant place to begin.

Where to find the book:

• A Court of Thorns and Roses on Amazon
• Explore Audible with my invitation link

 

 

🌹 SPOILER VERSION BELOW:

LET'S TALK ABOUT ACOTAR PROPERLY

Warning: Major spoilers for A Court of Thorns and Roses (Book 1) from this point onwards. No spoilers from later books.

Right. Now that everybody who hasn't finished the book has hopefully left the room, we can discuss a few things. Because there's quite a lot to unpack.

Tamlin, the curse and that suspiciously perfect Spring Court

Tamlin's introduction is hardly romantic: A terrifying beast arrives at Feyre's house, takes her away from everything she knows and informs her that she's going to live in a magical land filled with creatures she's been taught to fear.

Lovely. Very normal relationship beginnings 😳.

But the Spring Court gradually starts to feel like somewhere Feyre could belong. Tamlin encourages her painting, shows her beautiful places and begins to earn her trust. Then we discover the truth about the curse.

The whole reason Feyre ended up there is connected to a desperate plan to free Tamlin from Amarantha.

Andras wasn't simply an unfortunate wolf in the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd been sent into the human lands hoping his death might set the conditions of the curse in motion.

Which makes you look at the relationship rather differently.

Would Tamlin and Feyre have fallen in love under completely different circumstances? Maybe.

But knowing there was an enormous magical deadline hanging over the whole situation certainly makes those romantic moments more complicated. It's one of those details that becomes much more interesting when you reread the book.

Rhysand. Feyre darling. Need I say more?

Then there's Rhysand: dark-haired, mysterious, dangerous, thoroughly arrogant and clearly keeping about seventeen secrets at any given moment.

His first appearance during Calanmai introduces somebody who feels entirely different from Tamlin.

And then we discover he's the High Lord of the Night Court 👀.

Rhysand is particularly fascinating because you can never quite work out what he's doing.

Is he a villain? Is he helping? Is he manipulating everyone? Does he actually have a plan, or is he just extraordinarily confident at improvising?

And the way he addresses Feyre..."Feyre darling."

Honestly. It's two words. Why do two words have that effect? 😍 (you HAVE to hear the audiobook version of this......swoon...ish)

Under the Mountain was a completely different experience

The shift from the beautiful Spring Court to Amarantha's horrifying world Under the Mountain is quite something. Suddenly, Feyre isn't exploring magical gardens or falling in love.

She's fighting for her life.

The Middengard Worm trial is brutal, but I love that Feyre survives using the hunting skills she had long before arriving in Prythian. She's resourceful, observant and stubborn enough to keep fighting when the odds are ridiculous.

Then there's the second trial, when her inability to read becomes a life-threatening problem. Rhysand helps her, but his bargain for one week of her time every month is hardly a generous act of charity 🤬. And let's not ignore the way he treats her at Amarantha's parties 👊.

Yes, we gradually discover he's working against Amarantha. Yes, his situation is far more complicated than it initially appears. But some of his behaviour is still genuinely uncomfortable. For me, that moral complexity is part of what makes him worth discussing.

The ending: deaths, becoming High Fae, and nothing is actually resolved

The final trial is awful.

Feyre has to kill three faeries, only to discover that the last one is Tamlin.

Thank goodness she remembers the detail about his stone heart. And then, after everything, she finally solves Amarantha's riddle. The answer is love. Of course it is.

We've spent an entire book watching a magical Beauty and the Beast story unfold, and somehow the answer to the deadly riddle is the most obvious thing imaginable.

But Amarantha kills Feyre anyway.

It's one of the biggest turning points in the story, because Feyre doesn't simply survive the experience and return home. The seven High Lords resurrect her as High Fae. She's no longer human. She's now immortal, magically changed and carrying the trauma of everything she's endured.

And just when the story seems ready to give us a lovely happy ending, Rhysand looks at her, reacts as though he's realised something enormous and promptly disappears.

Excuse me?

What exactly was that 😮?

Why I still give ACOTAR five stars

For me, ACOTAR is one of those books where knowing what happens doesn't ruin the experience of revisiting it.

I love it because it was the beginning of my fantasy-reading obsession.

It introduced me to a genre I had barely explored and made me want to find more stories that gave me that same feeling.

And that's worth five stars to me.

So, I have to ask: when you finished Book 1, were you completely Team Tamlin, or was Rhysand already living rent-free in your head?

Because I'd love to know.