A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #2
Published on May 3, 2016 by Bloomsbury USA Children

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

Last year I read and absolutely hated ACOTAR, but this being a series by Maas I knew that once ACOMAF was published there would be major fangirl screams of how this is THE ! BEST ! BOOK ! EVER ! and that I wouldn't resist because well, it IS a Sarah J. Maas book. Anyway, I waited for a few reviewers that also hated ACOTAR to confirm that this was an improvement and decided to finally try it, I'm so glad I did because I loved this one.

So, for those who are Tamlin fans and shipped Feyre and him pretty hardcore this book will probably be shit, specially the start will be hard to digest because the narrative seems set on making you hate him and their relationship and show how wrong these two are about each other, and it's really SHOUTING AT YOUR FACE this, it's plain obvious what is doing, not subtle at all and yeah, it can bother a lot of fans but I never particularly enjoyed Tamlin and his relationship with Feyre was super abusive since day 1 for me. I heard a lot of people saying that Tamlin changed a lot from the first book, only to suit the love triangle, I honestly can't say if that is true, I cared very little (to nothing) about him in ACOTAR and I basically erased that book from my memory, but if it wasn't explicit on book 1 that Tamlin is a controlling asshole than on this one it will be.

The other side of the love triangle (idk if I would call it a love triangle really, but anyway) is Rhysand and the reason I picked up this book in the first place - he was the only one that seemed to have an actual personality before and I was interested in seeing what was behind all those layers. At first, I wasn't all that sold on him as a love interest because well, he can be an asshole too, a sarcastic one sure but still asshole, but of course *things* happen that force Feyre to get to know him and I was totally won over by him. Now, I'm the first to admit that the romance on this one is basically wish-fulfillment (all of this book could be called), towards the end there was some sap as fuck shit but I didn't care one bit, I was 100% wanting this since the first book so it was like this was my wish-fulfillment dream come true.  Also, Feyre and Rhysand have banter and sarcastic come-backs like there was no yesterday and I'm all over this shit. I'm also really scared since Maas seems to not like to stick with a couple for very long (her record in the ToG series so far has been two books, that series has had 4 love interests for Celaena in 4 books + 1 prequel, seriously) and now ACOTAR is not a trilogy anymore but a 8 books series and this is only the second !!!!! I don't want to pass through another Celaena/Chaol heartbreak, one of those was enough, please spare me this time Sarah and keep Rhysand and Feyre save.

Now, the actual plot of the book (yes, this series does have more than the battle between ships, I know it seems so hard to believe) it was an improvement than the first one in my opinion, since ACOTAR was basically a romance, in this one we have a clear plot and the characters working to achieve that towards the entire story. There was some major LOL moments on the plot still, because things they needed would totally surge out of nowhere and everything would be fine but I didn't care, honestly I was so invested on the story that I enjoyed this monster of 600+ pages from start to finish. There is much more world building too, with the courts rebuilding themselves we get a glimpse at the Summer Court and a lot of the Night Court for obvious reasons, which was my favorite parts because of well, obvious reasons.

I do liked that Feyre has a lot of character arc through this one, I didn't care much for her on ACOTAR and she starts this one pretty fucked up after what happened to her, what she did to survive Under the Mountain, with some serious PTSD and plus her shitty relationship with Tamlin, she wasn't at her best at the start of the story, but along it she grows, in physical strength as well as emotional and I really like her now. It was really a story of finding herself now that she is a Fae, what she wants and needs, and I enjoyed the fact that this time around she didn't waited for anybody to get it from her.

One last thing, a lot of people seemed surprised by the graphic sex scenes on this one, but I think we had some on ACOTAR too so I don't know if people just forgot or idk, anyway I thought this was market as NA and not YA - at least for me, it fits that category better, since Feyre is 19 turning 20 (from what I remember), so she wouldn't "fit" the YA age for main character and the other faeries have like, 500 years so yeah.

In the end of the day I'm glad I give this series another shot and listened to the fangirls, I was super happy to turn myself into one of the shouting fangirls. I can see why a lot of people won't enjoy this one and I guess it's a matter of whether of how much you care about the ships and/or if you can let go of analyzing things too close and too through - this is the definition of a brain candy read for me, despite its size it was easy to read it and that ending left me wanting for the third book like crazy (I may or may not have started re-reading this one right after I finished it).