A Court of Thorns and Roses

Not Original or Interesting

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This could have been improved if the author did not insist on using every overused cliche available. An unappreciated teen who is saved by a gorgeous and wealthy man, who she inevitably falls in love with thanks to some Stockholm Syndrome. It was trite and the characters had the emotional depth of a shallow puddle.

What could Sarah J. Maas have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Have some original ideas, make her characters relatable, and generally not support the idea that some beautiful man will come and save sad/lonely girls and make them beautiful too.

What about Jennifer Ikeda’s performance did you like?

She honestly did a good job. Not amazing, but she did her best to make the characters interesting which was actually quite a feat.

What character would you cut from A Court of Thorns and Roses?

The main character. She can't listen to basic and reasonable directions because she is too busy being a stupid cliche. She was like some whitewashed version of Katniss Everdeen, but her ability to stand up for herself was almost nonexistent. She had no depth and was just generally not interesting.

17 people found this helpful

Entertaining!

Great adult fairy story. Wonderful twists and new ways to present an often done, overly familiar trope. I was surprised and delighted many times. Not your typical YA story. I'd actually enjoy a sequel to this story. Which is not something I say often. :)

56 people found this helpful

I REALLY thought I was going to love this one.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Yes. I think the second half of the book is redeeming enough to make it worth the listen.

Any additional comments?
The first half of the book was a boring 2 stars. The remaining story was a much better 4-5 stars, so I'll settle with a rating of 3.The writing, as mentioned by most readers, is really good. Except for a few things that irked my Inner Nazi. Like the fact that people breathe words throughout the whole book:

"Please," I breathed.

Or the repeated use of strange expressions:

My insides turned watery.

Or lines that make you want to gag and roll your eyes:

"You look lovely," Tamlin murmured, and something in his soft tone made me want to purr.

And that everybody likes to constantly respond with nonchalant shrugs.

Anyways, on to the story...

The beginning started out great, with a kick-butt Katniss--I mean, Feyre, hunting and providing sustenance for her useless father and sisters. She skewers a wolf for its pelt and then a fae beast-man comes to take her to the world of the faeries as payment for it. And then the story goes downhill. Except it rolls down a rather flat hill, and it doesn't pick up until past the midway point.

I don't know if this is intentional or not, but the romance between Tamlin and Feyre takes center stage, leaving the dark, interesting and mysterious fae world doom and gloom curse as a meager subplot. I wouldn't have minded the romance as the main plot if it hadn't been so stale. There was zero chemistry between Tamlin and Feyre. Zilch. Nada. And I think that is partly due to Tamlin's blahness. He is a handsomely-masked dude with the hair and build of a model. And he's a beast. A vapid beast, who is oh-so-kind-and-courteous; nothing but a gracious host to our feisty heroine who hates his guts for a few pages. It was really hard to swoon over Tamlin when all he made me think about was Aslan the lion from Narnia.

I was totally robbed of an awesome, bitter Beast who could have warmed up to conflicting feelings of love. But nah. All we get is a Mr. Niceguy who has a temper that only applies to the villains of the story. So yeah, the whole romance thing with these two was a drag to get through. I also didn't like the subtle signs of insta-love from Tamlin, who grits his teeth when he asks Feyre if she is in love with anyone (on her first day at his manor).

Once we get past the lovey-dovey, falling in love phase, things finally start to get interesting. We finally find out what is really going on and the truth of the curse, and things get serious for Feyre as she takes matters into her own hands to save Tamlin and his world of butterflies. This 40 or 30% of the story was SO GOOD! I was hooked all the way to the end. Another great thing about this latter half of the story: We are introduced to Rhysand. Holy Mother of The Cauldron. Now THAT is a character I can swoon over. Here's to hoping Feyre dumps Tamlin's boring tush for this saucy chap in book 2.

186 people found this helpful

Hard to Finish

Would you try another book from Sarah J. Maas and/or Jennifer Ikeda?

Yes i enjoyed Sarah J. Maas's other work

What was most disappointing about Sarah J. Maas’s story?

I had high expectations when I started this book but was very disappointed. The main character was winy and I felt much of the beginning of the book was redundant and difficult to get through.

12 people found this helpful

Overwrought

I kept waiting for the story to improve, the characters to become more sympathetic, the action to become less overwritten- it didn't.

5 people found this helpful

Bad ending and Immaturity

I would like to say that while I realize that I'm not the target audience for this book, I'm male and not a teen, I truly enjoyed the first ten hours of this book. The opening was well written and thought out and set up a character I could sympathize with and understand and cheer for. It was interesting with a different set up than usual. I was already thinking of ways to afford the rest of the series a third of the way in, shifting my purchasing plans around to make room for more. Mean finally a main female lead that isn't drowned in her emotions, is practical and mature, and I don't have to read Ilona Andrews hurrah!

Then the rest of the book happened.

The last four hours of the book was a chore to get through. Our fierce, practical, strong, observant, hardened and smart heroine, became a dithering, weepy, witless child! I'm sorry this is one of my pet peeves, someone who has gone through the losses, the poverty, and hardships that the main heroine had, someone that has had to take care of a family that neglects and hates her in the face of sheer poverty; wouldn't break under the comparatively tiny difficulties she faced in the end. Once more, there was far too much virtue signaling in the end, if I had heard the paraphrase of "oh what have I done" before the last hour trudge I wouldn't have been able to finish the book. Honestly the heroine is someone whose used to having to do what you have to do to survive, putting your emotions aside and paying the cost and moving on; not dickering and self tormenting simply to seem virtuous and likable. Mean, I know women that have been through poverty, abuse and so on, they wouldn't even blink over the 'hardships' the main had to face in the last four hours; nor would they sit around and wait for someone to save them without trying everything they could to fix it themselves. Another star gone.
Not to mention forty minutes on dickering on a choice that really wasn't a choice and should have been handled in ten.
Beyond that the male characters are the typical meat puppet stand ins that exist to make the main character have plenty of love interests, to save her when she gets in over her head or does something stupid and make her seem more valuable than she would be in reality. Really it's good there were only three males, because all of them were blah and stereotypical. Honestly Tomalin is basically Beast from Beauty and the Beast, Lucian guy with a razor tongue that's really a nice guy and Reese is your atypical bad boy that isn't that bad. They have no personality, desires, dreams, triggers or depth of any sort. Since this also a put of a peeve for me that's another star gone.

As for the narrator she did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life and she is a large part of the reason why I enjoyed the first 10 hours and was able to make it through the last four.

Honestly, if not for the strength of the first five hours, I would have given this book a 2 or even 1 star. Still, if you can handle another, how this character that goes from strong to weak, smart and resourceful to weepy and stupid, a plot twist you could see a mile away, a lover interest based solely on the male's hotness and being a decent person since he as no personality, a riddle that given a certain emotions popularity was simple to solve; than you might like this book. As for me I'm getting a refund and nixing my plans to buy the rest of the series.

81 people found this helpful

just awful

it starts of slow... the. gets real weird... then jusy real awful. if you like books with lots of talk about sex and your not bothered by whether or not its consenual this is the book for you but if you dont like that dont look here.

4 people found this helpful

Terrible

This book is the plot of a million B movies gathering their narration and plots from other B movies based on Harlequin style retellings of watered down fairytales.

The characters are one dimensional and the story has been told.

3 people found this helpful

This book is CORNY

I can get behind a cheesy fantasy novel; I’ll even read a cheesy romance novel. But this story is closer to a 15 year old’s half-furry fantasy of what True Love should be. Most fantasy (or romance) requires some suspension of disbelief. You will need to check your reality at the door, along with notions of what makes for a healthy two person partnership. Even at my most goth sappy teenage girl years, this book would be too much.

3 people found this helpful

This book is horrible

A romantic novel disguised as ya fantasy novel. I was so hyped up for this book, this is so disappointing.

7 people found this helpful