A Court of Wings and Ruin

Velarisreads

I will try my best to make this spoiler-free because SO MUCH happens

"Oh goodness. I will try my best to make this spoiler-free because SO MUCH happens! Now, this book came to me on its release day (thank you, Amazon). I started reading it almost immediately and then I had exams. This is why it took me so long to finish it. I would try to read it before work or before class, but I wouldn’t be fast enough. So, we know what happened in the second book. Feyre went back to Tamlin, but surprise! It’s just a little trick. She will find her way back to Rhysand. Duh, she does. That’s not really a spoiler. War is looming and she, as the High Lady, must work with the Night Court and her mate, Rhysand, in order to win this war and bring peace to all. Literally. So, I want to write this review differently. We love these characters so much, so I am going to break it down by character. No spoilers will be revealed for the characters. I will be careful. New characters are introduced in this book, but I will be letting you know about the familiar characters. - Feyre - So, the ending of the second book had us shook. For real. In the third book, Feyre is truly a badass. She is not taking any of Tamlin’s shit, let me tell you that. She is determined to find her way back to Rhysand and, yes she does, as noted above. When they reunite, of course there is the love-making. They wouldn’t be mates if they didn’t get it on, you know? Anyway...it’s a bit of an emotional reunion for Feyre, seeing her friends and such. Especially her sisters. We get a glimpse of them almost immediately, but I’ll talk about them lately. Throughout the book, Feyre is now a High Lady of the Night Court. She slowly learns how to control a room and she learns more about herself. This book really shows us how strong Feyre really is. - Rhysand - Right now, Rhysand is probably going through hell because he isn’t with Feyre and he isn’t sure when she will be back. It gets kind of worse when Feyre tries to get back to him. During that journey, their bond is silent. When they reunite, you get that giddy feeling reading their interactions again and I’m actually glad their separation doesn’t really last long. This is only if you ship them, though. In this book, I definitely got a sense of a struggle with Rhysand. It’s almost as if the ending of the second book and its events really made him vulnerable and he is definitely scared of losing Feyre and we learn more about his time with Amarantha when he was her icky love slave or whatever. We learn more things, too. I like this side of him, this vulnerable side. There are moments during the impending war where he expresses his fear of losing his family. I’m going to say that there is a moment with Rhysand where you stare at the book and you want to burst into tears. That’s all. No spoilers. - Lucien - Everybody wants Lucien. They wanted more of Lucien. I’m going to say, in my own opinion, that I was kind of disappointed in Lucien’s part of the story. I feel like there was not enough of him. He seemed to be absent, physically, for over half of the book. Before its release, I saw that people were excited to read more of Lucien and his POV. But, I was disappointed that it was lacking. I think his story isn’t over yet, though. There didn’t seem to be any closure for him. Hopefully, since this world continues, we will get more. - Nesta - Oh, Nesta. I think she is a love/hate character. We get more of her in this book and she becomes more likable, though still frustrating. Let’s just say the situation between her and Cassian drags and it just makes you roll your eyes. Not at Sarah, of course. At Nesta. She is so stubborn and it just annoyed me at times. However, with that aside, she definitely learns to become stronger and to accept herself as a Fae, which I find important. I mean, she doesn’t have much of a choice. She still has the attitude in her, but she has her badass moments. - Elain - Oh, man, It was heartbreaking to read about Elain and how she was handling things. I don’t know how else to describe it, really. It’s even worse when Lucien tries to interact with her with hardly any progress. In this book, Elain is stuck on Grayson. I mean, we know that isn’t going to happen anymore. But, it’s just sad. Again, with Lucien, I don’t think her story is finished. There are some unanswered questions. On a happier note, Elain learns to find her voice and her inner strength after what she went through. That made up for the rest of it. - Cassian - Oh, Cassian. He is still a smartass. But, something is definitely up with him here. I’m pretty sure it’s because of Nesta and her ignorance of him. He tries to hide the fact it bothers him, but you can tell it really does. We also see Cassian’s bond with Rhysand and how strong it really is; their fear of losing each other in this war. Cassian definitely wants to prove himself in this war and we see that, but some of the scenes were scary. Not sinister or anything. But, as a reader, you are very scared and worried something bad will happen to him. I’ll stop there, for your sake. I’m combining a few other characters together for one reason: - Amren, Azriel, Mor, Tamlin - Why are these characters combined? Well, let’s start with Amren. We only see Amren when she is helping Nesta and her connection with the Cauldron. There is a scene of betrayal, sort of. But, besides her AMAZING ending, she doesn’t feature that much. Azriel is kind of the same. He felt too much like a background character for me and, though there are scenes where you pray for him as you keep reading, I wish he was featured more. I don’t think he got much closure either. Which brings me to Mor. Oh man, we have a bombshell with her. I won’t reveal that, though. But, I wlll say her lack of closure goes with Azriel. Tamlin, Tamlin. I hate him, but I kind of don’t after reading this book. He spends most of the time just being pissy about what Feyre did, making innuendo jokes to get a rise, and just acting like a fifteen year old. However, there are moments where it seems he wants some kind of redemption or something. I will say that I do think he is still in love with Feyre, but I think his story is at an end. The closure is definitely there and hopefully he will find his own happiness. I want to reiterate that these opinions are my own opinions and how I felt about the book. Regardless of some of the negative opinions, I am still giving this book five stars. This book had me on edge and I’m glad but sad that this is the last full novel. Unless the book Gods and Sarah want to bless us with another full novel that isn’t a novella or something. I’m still praying. If you haven’t read this book because you are scared, don’t let that stop you. I was scared the whole way and I kept reading. I am very happy with this book and I loved entering this world again. This will probably be a series that I will definitely reread. That doesn’t happen often. Bottom line: You’ll always be wanting more of Feyre’s story. ["

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May 30, 2017 Verified Purchase

Kyera

This entire series was a treasure - but there were cheers and tears in equal measure in ACOWAR.

"A Court of Wings and Ruin further expands the fantastic world that Sarah J. Maas has built for us. We predominantly saw Feyre’s life in the human world and Tamlin’s Spring Court in A Court of Thorns and Roses. Then we were given a look into the mysterious Night Court and some time to explore the Summer Court in A Court of Mist and Fury. We are finally able to experience the other Courts in the third book, beyond brief mentions. The first Court we are given more information about is the Autumn Court, where Lucien hails from. Lucien is developed much further in this book, although we have gotten to know him fairly well throughout the first two books – it was nice to get more backstory and an explanation about why he is the male that he is. We also get to experience more of his father’s personality, as well as his eldest brother Eris’. She describes each palace, forest and street in Prythian with such vivid detail that the entire land comes to life in your mind. The strongest part of this series is the world building, although that does not mean that any of the other aspects of the series are lacking. I personally believe that her strong suit is illustrating such fantastic lands and that shines in this book. Each Court has its own way of ruling and they tend to keep to themselves. Although they have relations with one another, their alliances and communication are generally not very strong. This makes convincing them to all join together to face Hybern’s threat much more difficult, especially when all of the Courts don’t even agree that the King is a threat. Although the main characters were well developed over the course of the first two novels, they continue to grow in the third. Elain and Nesta especially take a more central role in the storyline than they did before, which allows the reader to get to know them better. More of Amren’s backstory is also revealed, which was honestly not something I ever expected to learn about because I didn’t think any of the characters were brave enough to question her – despite desperately wanting to know more about her. As you’re reading, you actually get chills as big actions are taken or decisions are made. You are that invested in the story, the characters, and the world that it physically affects you. I never felt that the pacing was slow, rather each event and scene built the narrative towards the final, explosive climax. It was a steady, enticing pace that pulled me in and never let go. If the book wasn’t as long as it is (and I didn’t have to leave my house to go to school), I would have sat there for ten hours straight reading. Each character, good or bad has become real so their struggles, triumphs and pain resonate within you. It is the book that makes an impact like this that will stay with you. I cheered and cried in equal measure reading this book. The stunning conclusion to this series left me breathless, and glad that though this story might be done the world of Prythian still had more tales to tell us. ["

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May 5, 2017 Verified Purchase

Esslie

Okay, well, I didn't think it could get any more interesting and intricate, but it did!

"Okay, well, I didn't think it could get any more interesting and intricate, but it did! Now, I feel I must mention that I do not choose books because they feature romance - it's a nice-to-read-every-now-and-then - so I predominantly started reading this series because of the fantasy. That said, I love Feyre and Rhysand's relationship. While I am not the biggest fan of the "mates" trope (I don't like feeling cornered into something, for me it is about who you choose and who chooses you), it doesn't feel so typically "matish." There is choice and freedom in the relationship, which is also contrasted by some of the other Fae males throughout the series; it adds a nice social/political complexity to the story, but also makes you love Rhys all the more. I also very much enjoyed the friendship between Feyre and Mor; it is raw and real and you can tell that Mor cares for Feyre more than just as her High Lady. It made me reflect on how your life is not only your own and how much it matters to those who care about you, and vice versa. Now what I really savoured was Nesta and Elain's character development - I like where this is headed and it was such beautiful poetic justice [spoiler ahead] that these sisters took out the King of Hybern. It shouldn't have been Feyre, that wouldn't have felt right. The twists and turns had my heart racing; I laughed, I cried, I nearly threw my Kindle against the wall - really, my head was spinning by the end of it. In a good way! The only thing I didn't particularly enjoy were some of the last chapters covering the war with Hybern. Yes, all odds were against the Courts, it really didn't look like they were going to make it - and they shouldn't have. Not as well as they did - the war felt too rushed, the help that came in, miraculously, felt too forced and there were too many aspects easily solved. A moment of silence for those we lost, though. My favourite thing about this book is the worldbuilding, the fantasy, at the end of the day. I loved meeting more of the court High Lords, learning more of the history before the wall, seeing the hundreds of years' history between the characters, and getting a better understanding of the magic system, creatures and lore. There is some good LGBTQ representation in the story and I do hope we get to see more of this as the series continues - getting to read from such a character's perspective would be brilliant! A great part of the series indeed! ["

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January 26, 2025 Verified Purchase

Heather 🌸Kiss The Pages🌸

Not as great as Book 2 but still an amazing conclusion to a great series

"I feel utterly ruined right now. It took me a while to put this review together because I'm not sure how I feel right now... My emotions are literally all over the place. In a lot of ways this book was a great conclusion to one of the best fantasy romance series I have ever read. However there were a few things that happened or rather did not happen that just made me want to scream with frustration!! So the book starts off exactly where book 2 finished. Tamlin has taken Feyre back to the Spring Court after she was forced to be separated from her Night Court Family by the King of Hybern after the betrayal of Tamlin. She plays the deceptive role very well and both Tamlin and Lucien believe that Rhysand had been playing mind games with her to trick her into staying with him. I loved this first part of the book! Feyre was very cunning. She literally played the Spring Court like a chess game and manipulated Tamlin, Ianthe and others like players on the board. This is the Feyre we have grown to know and love! Eventually after a series of events she reveals her truth and returns to Velaris and Rysand! Oh Rhysand! The Dark Lord anti-hero who became the protective, loving, romantic mate that we fell in love with in Book 2. This brings me to the main issue I have with this book. I'm not sure how to explain it. But I just found that there was something lacking with Rhysand in this book. First of all I just did not feel the connection between Feyre and Rhysand like I did in Book 2. Something was just off... And Rhysand who is the most powerful High Lord... He was always tired or drained in battle. I was like COME ON... He somehow seemed weaker to me. And when he came face to face with Tamlin, the man that kidnapped his mate, his love, his High Lady... well lets just say nothing much happened. My Rhysand that I know would have kicked his ass. Now don't get me wrong I still loved them together and I did still get some feels, like when they first reunite after her return from the Spring Court. "Rhys lifted his chest enough to take my right hand. To examine the tattoos inked there. He kissed one of the whorls of near-black blue ink. His throat bobbed. “I missed you. Every second, every breath. Not just this,” he said, shifting his hips for emphasis and dragging a groan from deep in my throat, “but … talking to you.Laughing with you. I missed having you in my bed, but missed having you as my friend even more.” And the few romantic scenes we get with the couple are HOT. I'm not sure how this book can be classified as YA. Anyway, moving on... We do get to know Feyre's sisters better. Elaine and Nesta are now both Fae after being changed in the Cauldron. They each have their own story which appears to not be completed in this book. I loved the how these sisters worked together and stood by each other. I also loved how the Night Court Family united together. Azriel, Cassien, Mor and Amren all willingly sacrificed some part of themselves to help win the war against King Hybern. This family relationship played a big part in this book and really took this book to another level that I really appreciated. Rysand and Feyre attempt to unite the great Lords of Prythian because they know that it is only together that they can hope to defeat the King of Hybern. It was interesting to see these Courts coming together and sizing each other up. They don't really seem to trust each other and there were a few humorous moments when they met together. The fighting scenes were so graphic. They blew my mind. You will be on the edge of your seat. This was a very complex, well thought out story which laid out not just physical battle scenes with actual fighting with weapons and magic but also a battle of wills. And finally let me just say... Tamlin! Tamlin who I hated for keeping Feyre trapped. Tamlin who I hated for betraying Feyre and her sisters and selling them out to the King of Hybern... I just feel sad for him now because he truly did love Feyre and I have all the respect for him now. I won't say why to avoid spoilers. So I'm going to give this book 5 stars because it WAS amazing. I could not give it 6 stars like I gave ACOMAF because like I said before I feel the Feyre-Rhysand connection was just not as great in this book. And it may just be that I have been waiting so long for this book to be released and I had such greater expectations that it just did not get there for me. But make no mistake, this book was enchanting, captivating and I was on the edge of my seat. Highly recommended series! ["

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July 9, 2017 Verified Purchase