I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe! Today’s book review is the third book in the ACOTAR(A Court of Thorns and Roses) series by Sarah J. Maas: A Court of Wings and Ruin! As always I will separate my review into the usual sections: Initial Thoughts, Favorite Elements, Overall Thoughts. I will also leave a link to the synopsis if you haven’t read it yet as well as a link to purchase the book.
Ok let’s get into the review!
Initial Thoughts
After reading ACOMAF(A Court of Mist and Fury), I had pretty high expectations for this book. Thankfully I was able to go in with limited spoilers and experience the characters, plot, etc with a neutral view. The pacing in this book was much quicker than ACOMAF which took me around 50 pages to really get into. Once I started this book I found it difficult to put down and finished it in around 3 days, whilst it took me a little over a week to finish ACOMAF and 3 weeks to finish ACOTAR. This novel was action packed, with most of the action happening in the last few chapters(this is typical with Maas’s writing style I have found). The characters were just as lovable as they were in the previous books(except for a certain faerie I won’t mention due to this review being spoiler free).
Favorite Elements
- Chosen Family Trope(I think I might make a separate post on why I love this trope so much in novels, but the inner circle that has became Feyre’s family is again present which I throughly enjoyed)
- Plot> Romance( Maas’s novels are hyped up on social media for the romance between her characters, but I actually prefer the plot over the romance. If you are like me and enjoy the story being heavier than the romantic elements, I think you might even prefer this over the previous novels in the series like myself.
- Azriel and Cassian(no spoilers, but these two quickly became my favorite characters)
- Amren’s development as a character: I didn’t pay too much attention to Amren in the previous novels, but she definitely plays a larger role in ACOWAR and I actually respected her more for what she did for the other characters.
- Feyre and her sisters: I didn’t care for Feyre’s sisters but I loved how Maas strengthened their relationship in this novel. I am interested to see how this progresses in the next two books in the series, but overall was surprised by how their characters connected.
My Rating
Overall Thoughts
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, but I am unsure if I will continue the series. I know there is a novella after ACOWAR and then ACOSAF which came out a month ago, but I’ve heard both are focused on romance which isn’t exactly my cup of tea for a fantasy novel. Like I mentioned in my favorite elements, I like romance but not when it’s the plot of a story. I would much rather read a fantasy that is plot driven. Time will tell if I end up adding these books to my TBR. Leave a comment below if you’ve read the ACOTAR series, and let me know if it’s worth continuing. If you do decide to comment make sure to refrain from posting spoilers for the sake of other readers.
I hope you all enjoyed this review! Stay tuned for more book reviews and episode 2 of The Books & Matcha Podcast! It should be uploaded within the next couple of days. I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day and I will see you soon with more bookish content.
With Love & Magic,
She's Well Read 
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