A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
SUMMARY
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.
MY REVIEW
After the dramatic events under the mountain, Tamlin and Feyre are back home at the Spring Court and unfortunately Feyre experiences severe symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.
Maybe I’d always been broken and dark inside.
She can't eat. She can't sleep. She does not want to meet people. She has nightmares. She withdraws from everything and everyone – unless Tamlin is around and he requires sex.
But Tamlin is hardly there.
After 50 years living under the despicable curse and the slavery, his Court needs to repair the damage, the boarders need to be secured , his people need to be certain that they will free and happy from now on. He also looks forward to his wedding with Feyre.
The only thing he does not want is Feyre
-roaming free in the forest,
-or training,
-or learning her new powers,
-or concerning about her future,
-or worrying about her safety.
He will look after everything for her. But he does not notice that she does not eat, she does not sleep, she is miserable and lonely and she keeps loosing weight.
Feyre starts having second thoughts about the wedding. And moreover Rhysand has not appeared yet asking for her side of their bargain from the previous book. Until one day he appears and he is determined to take her away for a week every month for the rest of her immortal life.
“Hello, Feyre darling,” he purred.
Feyre is confused.
Tamlin is furious.
Rhysand does not give them any alternative.
“You end her bargain right here, right now, and I’ll give you anything you want. Anything.”
My heart stopped dead. “Are you out of your mind?”
Tamlin didn’t so much as blink in my direction.
Rhysand merely raised a brow. “I already have everything I want.” He stepped around Tamlin as if he were a piece of furniture and took my hand.
Feyre will meet the Court of night for her first time. She will feel free and alive. She will start seeing things more clearly.
“I’m thinking that I was a lonely, hopeless person, and I might have fallen in love with the first thing that showed me a hint of kindness and safety. And I’m thinking maybe he knew that—maybe not actively, but maybe he wanted to be that person for someone.”
And she will start understanding Rhysand’s actions.
“I needed not to be dead when I agreed.”
“You needed not to be alone.”
Maybe in this fairytale the princess does not want to be a princess.
Maybe she does not want to be saved.
Maybe in this fairytale the princess wants to be a warrior.
Maybe she needs to be free.
“So I’m your huntress and thief?”
His hands slid down to cup the backs of my knees as he said with a roguish grin, “You are my salvation, Feyre.”
Maybe Rhysand wants to give her everything. And more than everything.
“Did you enjoy the sight of me kneeling before you?”
Until Feyre bounces back.
I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal.
I was a survivor, and I was strong.
I would not be weak, or helpless again. I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.
She will love the darkness in Court of the Night.
“There are different kinds of darkness,” Rhys said. I kept my eyes shut. “There is the darkness that frightens, the darkness that soothes, the darkness that is restful.” I pictured each. “There is the darkness of lovers, and the darkness of assassins. It becomes what the bearer wishes it to be, needs it to be. It is not wholly bad or good.”
She will fall in love with Rhysand.
I met his stare as I clinked my glass against his, the crystal ringing clear and bright over the crashing sea far below, and said, “To the people who look at the stars and wish, Rhys.”
He picked up his glass, his gaze so piercing that I wondered why I had bothered blushing at all for Tarquin.
Rhys clinked his glass against mine. “To the stars who listen—and the dreams that are answered.”
Because let's face it. Rhysand is larger than life.
And then Rhysand appeared.
He had released the damper on his power, on who he was. His power filled the throne room, the castle, the mountain. The world. It had no end and no beginning.
Feyre will never want to go back to where she was.
“When you spend so long trapped in darkness, Lucien, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.”
But she needs to be absolutely sure that is what she wants.
“I wonder if, even in my despair and hopelessness, I was never truly alone. I wonder if I was looking for this place—looking for you all.”
The fairies and the humans will not have time to relax. A bigger threat is palpable. And a new war is about to start.
This was my home. These were my people.
If I died defending them, defending that small place in the world where art thrived …
Then so be it.
And I became darkness, and shadow, and wind.
There will be epic battles, many deaths, treason and lies, secrets, much despair and tests, so many tests. The cascading events will result to a few breath-taking twists towards the end and an earthshattering cliff-hanger.
Two comments that I would like to add:
1. I did not particularly like the term “mate”. This is a term that it is almost exclusively used in shifters books and not in books with fairies. I wish a different term was used.
2. The dynamics in the relationship between Rhysand and Feyre reminded me the dynamics in the relationship between one of my favourite couples in PNR: Dragos and Pia from Elder Races by Thea Harrison. Rhysand could easily be a dragon like Dragos. He is also very possessive of his mate, but he also has so many adventures with her and they keep saving each other. Feyre on the other hand eventually can sparkle and her blood has healing power like Pia's.
