PLEASANTLY SURPRISED | AM I MAAS "TRASH" NOW?!

A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR #1)
by Sarah J. Mass
Bloomsbury USA Childrens | May 5, 2015
(oh look, my birthday)

      She stole a life. Now she must pay with her heart.
      When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin-one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world. 
      As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.

So, this book is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, of sorts. I have many thoughts on this. A) My mind can't help but wander to Cruel Beauty. It was a great book because it was complicated; the descriptions were beautiful and dreamlike; the relationship was slow-burn and it had sass, tons of it. A great book with a compelling story, beautiful writing, fantastic characters and plot. B) This "retelling" should be called Beauty ON the Beast(s). The shade... But, I do like the little twist on the tale we all know and love.

Tamlin-Tim Tam-is not particularly Beast-ly. I thought Tim Tam was Legolas, but fae, with anger issues/meets The Hulk. In other words, a really majestic, "bear" fighting machine. He was a sexualized version of Beast. The romance was too saccharine sweet and overwhelming. The romance between Tim Tam and Feyre took up about 50% of the book, which is a bit much. I understand the author's developing the romance, but I found it mostly boring with sprinkles of excitement. However, I LOVE what Maas did with Feyre. I think her character is a wonderful twist on Belle.

In Cruel Beauty, Nyx was searching the castle and trying to find the magical rooms, which made the story exciting. Ignifex and Nyx also had a really entertaining and sassy banter, but the history is much clearer in ACOTAR and done EXTREMELY well-it's not an info dump and it blends with everything else.

This book has gorgeous writing. Maas is a great writer! I felt that I was there because of the detailed, vivid, beautiful descriptions. Maas also knows how to make you feel things. She made me hate Feyre's family with a SICKENING passion. I felt pity, hate, and disgust. I hated them right off the bat-it did not take long whatsoever. I felt a lot of things reading this book.

A lot of the book is about getting acquainted with the Spring Court, the budding romance, getting to know the inhabitants, and learning about the history. So when the trials occurred, I was really excited. I found the trials very entertaining because they were very dramatic and it was a matter of life or death. It was high stakes and pretty awesome. It's the riddle that fucked everything up! It's such a predictable and easy riddle-I suck at riddles and I figured it out faster than she did. It was childish attempt in my opinion. It could've been the Bilbo and Gollum riddle scene! There was so much potential!

I enjoyed this book. I love the characters, the story, and the history. I think the story has a great conclusion, so I don't know why it warrants a series.