From struggling to get by to having her whole life changed at the drop of a pin, in A Court of Thorns and Roses, Feyre Archeron, who was just trying to survive, has her life turned upside down by a mistake while hunting. This intense fantasy novel brings you through her journey of falling in love and breaking down her walls.
Early in the book we meet Feyre and her family which consists of her father and her two sisters, Nesta and Elain, and we learn that her mother died previously and they had lost their wealth due to an incident with debt collectors. Feyre always had been the one who gathered food, since she was the most capable of hunting, on another routine hunt she saw a wolf and decided it was a miracle for her family to at least get some money in their pockets. Later on a ‘monster’ breaks down their door revealing that both he and the wolf she killed were faeries and according to the treaty between the human and the fae, it would cost her life. They agree to take her to his estate for the rest of her human life to live with the ‘monster’.
We next find out how Prythian works and how it’s divided into 7 courts and each is ruled by a High Lord. The monster then reveals himself in a more human-like form and reveals his name is Tamiln and he is the High Lord of the Spring Court. We then meet his right-hand man Lucien, who is the son of the High Lord of the Autumn Court, and the servant who would be helping her, Alis.
During this whole time, Feyre is trying to find a way to get home and she has a feeling Lucien can help her. Both Tamlin and Lucien keep eluding to an infamous ‘she’ that everyone seems to be terrified of. Then, she learned of the suriel, a creature who will answer your questions if you capture it, a creature that also has a reputation of being nearly impossible to capture, let alone catching it by yourself. Feyre manages to capture it and asks it questions and she learns about a king with a throne and castle made of bones.
Tamlin learns about Feyre’s love for painting and tells her about an unused gallery that she could use once he gets it cleaned up. After she gets gifted the gallery, an annual tradition on Summer Solstice, Calanmai, takes place. This tradition is in place to find Tamlin his mate in order to free him from a curse that got placed on him by the infamous ‘she’. Feyre then realizes that she has feelings for Tamlin after Calanmai. They spend time together in an ‘enchanted glen’ and Tamlin lifts the glamour that he had on Feyre, so now she can see the rest of the Fae in the Court that she didn’t know were there before.
Tamlin decides to send her home for her own safety because people will want to hurt her just for how much she means to him and they admit their love for each other. When Feyre arrives back at her house she sees that Tamlin made sure her family was well cared for and that they had pretty much regained their wealth. Her sister, Nesta, tells her that she isn’t needed anymore and she shouldn’t come back to live with them and so Feyre leaves back for the Spring Court.
When Feyre arrives at the court it’s as if a fight broke out, the manor is destroyed and nobody seems to be home. We learn the story of Amarantha (the infamous she), the way she wanted to be with Tamlin, and how when he said no, she cursed him. When he was cursed she gave him 49 years to find a human girl who despised faeries and make her fall in love with him and marry him before she came to claim him as her own.
Feyre goes under the mountain where, Amarantha rules, and ends up being found by the Attor who then brings her to the throne room where Amrantha sits. She admits that she has come to claim her love and Amrantha tells her that she must complete three trials of her own choice, and only then will the curse on Tamlin be broken. Each trial was set to happen on the full moon at the end of every month. Amarantha has her beaten and then locked up. The next morning, Lucien sneaks into the dungeon and heals her injuries using his magic.
For her first task, Feyre is to kill a monstrous worm, when she succeeds, Amarantha reveals everyone under the mountain bet on her not passing the test except for one person. Feyre then realizes that she is severely injured from a bone shard in her arm. Once back in her cell, Rhysand comes to see her and states he made a lot of money from her, insinuating he was the person who bet she would win the trial. Rhysand also realizes her injury and makes a bet with her that after she gets out, in order for him to heal her, she must agree to go to his estate for two weeks a month out of the year to work for him. They end up settling on one week a month instead and Rhysand heals her arm. When Feyre wakes up she sees a tattoo fully covering her arm signifying the deal she made in order to save her life.
The second trial approaches, she is lowered into a pit where she sees Lucien and she has to answer questions by pulling the correct levers. A spiked platform in slowly lowering to Lucien as she tries to solve the question. She realizes she can’t read the answers on the levers and as she goes to guess instead, her hand hurts. She realizes then that Rhysand is helping her. With his help, she pulls the right lever and passes the trial.
Feyre then on the dawn of her third and final trial in asked for any final words and she states to Tamlin that she loves him. Amarantha then brings in three anonymous creatures with a dagger on a pillow in front of them. She is instructed to stab all three in the heart, and then she wins. She successfully kills the first two and as she in uncovering the face of the third one, she sees Tamlin. She realizes the Tamlin that was with Amarantha wasn’t actually him. She remembers something Alis had hinted at earlier and stabs Tamlin remembering his heart of stone.
Amarantha doesn’t free everyone and then tells Feyre that she in going to kill her. Rhysand attacks Amarantha in attempt to kill her and Feyre realizes through the bet they made, she and Rhysand now have a special kind of bond where she can see through him. As Tamlin begs for Feyre to be spared, she figures out the answer to the riddle and states the answer right before Amarantha snaps and breaks her spine. Tamlin kills Amarantha. Feyre, seeing through Rhysand’s eyes realizes she is dead and watches as all of the high lords from the courts come together and put their magic into her to bring her back as high fae. When she wakes up she processes what happened and she and Tamlin return to the spring court as a couple.
This book drags you through so many different emotions and there is never a dull moment. I find it very special how the characters develop throughout the story and that you learn the background information at points in the book where you wouldn’t usually expect that kind of information to be. It’s also very magical to see the way an author visualizes the love between characters and how you can tell the dynamic fairly easily. Sarah J Maas did an absolutely wonderful job with this book as well as the rest of the series and I hope to be able to read so many more of her books in the future because of this one.
