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| Source: Signature Reads |
"I love you," he whispered, and kissed my brow, "Thorns and all."
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #1
Published by: Bloomsbury USA Childrens on May 5th 2015
Genre: Some say YA some say New Adult Fantasy
Setting: Mortal Realm and Prythian
Format: Hardcover, 416 pages
Purchase: Fullybooked [PH] | NBS [PH] | Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 4.5 Roses
Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
I thought Cruel Beauty is a dark and twisty tale re-telling of one of my favorite classics, but ACOTAR proved to be a strong contender, and not just a strong contender but a fair and intricate one.
It is a very well thought of world with all creatures and places strong and real enough to actually be a source of everyone's nightmares. I couldn't actually conjure more scary creatures than the creatures I met in Prythian and I wanna see what they're really like because I don't trust my imagination to be that good, and I think they are really scary and gross and idk, I need to see some of them, but not in real life please!
All I could say was this re-telling was not pretentious at all with all the flaws that could mar a human woman which wasn't purposely concealed by a supposed perfectness of a heroine that could face anything. She is just human, a stupid human for that matter and she really is. I do not know if I liked Feyre's character or not and she is just too stubborn that I want to grab her hair and drag her back to the house and lock her there. She almost died enough times to last her a lifetime and she still manages to disobey orders! What?! Feyre has a death wish guys,and somehow, she's our main character and she can't die because we won't have a story anymore, right?
So I loved how the story unraveled. It was a rather slow world building and story telling but I think it was worth it once you get to the good parts. The story is woven perfectly, from the backstory to the curse, to the present situation and just everything falls into place. The problem only ever comes from Feyre. Everything, just everything is just, ugh, she's frustrating. Hahaha.
I think I've already said too much and I need to discuss more. Spoilery section ahead!
So of course I've been snooping everywhere about books and saw a little bit about the new ship that many have already been aboard. The Rhysand-Feyre ship and I still cannot comprehend how that would happen. Of course, I saw some comments that would say 'At first, I thought my ship would not sink, but it's really hard not to shift ship because...' I cannot continue because that would kill my curiosity and imagination about how the author can shift my ship to another ship. I'm quite angry, I tell you, because I already fell for Tamlin. HOW HOW HOW? Okay, let's stick to the situation at hand. I'll think about my Rhysand problem once I get to know him more. Ok? I'll keep my feelings at bay I promise.
Let's talk about Tamlin. Tamlin, I like him but not nearly as much as I like Lucien. Tamlin is cute and I did not really see him as horrible but his intentions are blurring out. I don't understand him for the most part of the book until the revelation of the big secret that everyone keeps from Feyre. Tamlin is our hero of the book but sometimes he gets a little coward and all he could do was kneel and beg and not really fight. I don't know what I felt about that because he's supposed to be the strong prince of the story. I liked him though and I am sailing on the Feylin ship ok?
Lucien is like,I did not like him at first because I think he's a bad person. I have my doubts as for anyone that doesn't involve the main characters. I've had enough books and movies that involve traitorous two-faced bitches, but Lucien is just not who I was thinking he is. He's loyal and amusing and a total prick sometimes, but that was the entertaining part, ok? He's sassy and likeable in his snarky own way. He is brave and I am hoping that he'll find someone for him. Because that would beeee great!
Rhysand. I have no opinion of him. YET. He is an interesting character and we do not know much about him but he's an ass and let's see what the next book tells us about him and how things would play out that I would be burning my Feylin ship to the ground just to hop aboard the Feysand (is that what they call it?) ship. Let's see... I'm skeptical but let's freakin' see.
It was a slow budding romance between Tamlin and Feyre, and Tamlin was so sweet and romantic and all that shit that comes from being a high lord of spring court and everything was lovely. I love that he did not force her to love him despite the curse and I think he really fell hard for Feyre because he puts her safety first rather than face the consequences of the breaking of the curse, because Amarantha is shitty like that.
All of Tamlin's efforts went downhill in the end though because Feyre decided that she still had a death wish and she would save the whole Prythian because she's the heroine, and at the end of the day she would live and continue on to the second book. So at the end of the book, everything was exciting with breath-stopping badass scenes. We saw that Feyre is dumb on a lot of things but not under duress. Her hunting instincts always seem to click on the right places that always saves her dumb ass. I know I seem harsh on Feyre but I can't help it. She just seems stupid on most parts when she's not being badass on a battlefield.
Towards the end, we saw more of Rhysand and his never-ending arseness and I hated him more and more but he's interesting in a way that it is so obvious that he would turn his back on Amarantha anytime and if he could kill him, he would, but he can't so he'd just be her whore.
The bargain tattoo. Let's talk about that bargain with Rhysand and Feyre. So this thing would bind them and will have them time to spend together on the next book. AND THEN WHAT? A week a month for eternity and I'm supposed to fall in love with Rhysand? Oh please, don't kid me. Not when he does those things to Feyre every night and I can't stand that Tamlin just watches and ughh everything felt wrong!
Then there's this riddle. Fairly easy Feyre! Why haven't you figured that out right then and there!! Could have saved you from all the stupid trials you know? But the trials were interesting and heart stopping, so maybe it was a good thing that Feyre has her human shortcomings.
There were three trials for Feyre. One is with the wyrm thingy that showed how clever she is in trapping monsters and killing them. Next is a riddle I think? And she gets to answer by pulling the right lever with the right answer. There were three levers with I, II, and III written on top of them and if she picks the wrong one, both she and Lucien would die by being crushed with a descending hot chandelier on top of them. But we have an illiterate heroine, ladies and gentlemen, which she could have remedied by the way, because she had a lot of time on Tamlin's manor doing nothing you know? But it's just not for her and it could have cost her her and Lucien's death. So she picked one lever and she felt a stinging something on her hand that had the tattoo. Hmm. interesting. Next lever, and there it was again. Sooo, Rhysand was trying to send her a message to save her. So she went on for the last lever and they were saved. The last trial came. MORE DEATHS! There were three faes in front of her and she is to kill them with an ash dagger. One, kill! Two, kill! Three, surprise, surprise!! Feyre's gonna kill Tamlin with her own brutal hands! Surprise! Amarantha playing god working against Feyre's favor people! But then again, our pretty little Feyre had this little flashback inside her head and she knows, she knows that she could stab Tamlin and not kill him, I don't know how she figured that out but she did and eventually she did learn the answer to the riddle but Amarantha is just a bitch and she still wants to hold everybody by the balls and decided to kill Feyre because apparently, she's just a sore loser when she said,
"I'll free them whenever I see fit. Feyre didn't specify when I had to free them...blabla Foolish, stupid human."
Wow, Amarantha, so mature. She couldn't accept that there was someone meant to break her curse. Stupid bitch, of course there is always someone, even a human, that will break the curse, and she can't admit that she lost. Okay, not yet, the curse has not been lifted yet because Tamlin is still on his knees and can't do anything. Rhysand, still a mystery, tried to stab Amarantha but she's still powerful and then surprise, seconds before she would die on Amarantha's hand, she FINALLY learned the answer to the riddle. LOVE, of course, come on people, love is always the answer no matter how cliche it is. So the curse was broken but her neck snapped and there's no going back from that and then Tamlin our lovely beast killed Amarantha in the end.
The next events were like Breaking Dawn, where Bella was resurrected after dying and became a vampire. Feyre became a fae because all seven high lords sprinkled some faerie dust on her and that was all I could do not to laugh. It was funny for me. So yeah, she was resurrected because of those glitters and now everyone is happy.
At the near end, Rhysand and Feyre had a little encounter that is now foggy in my memory because I don't like Rhys, but there was a moment where Rhys was hit with shock about something from Feyre. Did he saw that Feyre has powers? Did she have powers? Or what? What is it? Is it related to the bargain bond between them that could make Rhys send some signal to Feyre when needed? WHAT IS IT?!!
Ok, that's it, my heart was racing the entire time I was typing the last parts of this review, but I gotta get my feelings out there. Bye!
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