Feyre is the one who stepped up. Her father was attacked, had his leg crushed by debtors, and now spends his days sitting in a chair carving wooden figurines that he tries to sell. Nesta, her older sister, spends her days hating her father for not trying to find work to take care of them. Elain tries to keep everyone together, but she’s too kind to be able to hunt as Feyre can. So it is up to 19-year-old Feyre to keep her family fed and alive during the dangerously cold winter months that threaten frostbite and starvation. She’s been doing this for years, ever since her family lost their fortune. When she comes across a giant wolf in the woods, she doesn’t hesitate to kill it. That pelt will bring her family money to keep them fed for several weeks, and hopefully allow Feyre to buy a few new paints. What she doesn’t expect is for a giant beast to demand that she come and live with him, as penance for killing his Fae friend. Feyre is swept across the wall that separates the Fae lands from human lands and is thrown into the Fae world that is full of opulence and danger.
I read this book back in 2017 as an ebook, and loved it so much that I immediately bought A Court of Mist and Fury. Now, I decided to buy the physical copy so I could reread this book in preparation for A Court of Silver Flames. I got a vastly different experience reading this book Physically than I did reading the ebook, which is why I decided to redo my reviews for this series.
I honestly forgot that this series started as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The series deviates from this original point so much that I had completely forgotten, but it was glaringly obvious in this book. All the members of the court being under a witch’s spell, forced to look “ugly” with their masks forced onto their faces, Feyre being stolen from her widowed father and sisters, etc. Everything is basically exactly like Beauty and the Beast, except for all the magical creatures. Things truly start to diverge when Feyre goes Under The Mountain, which is when I really see her start to come to her full potential.
When I originally read this book, I thought that Tamlin and Feyre were one of the best couples I had ever read. I thought they had so much chemistry and loved every scene where they started to admit their feelings for one another. During this reread, I noticed quite a few more red flags from Tamlin. The scene that made me cringe the most was the scene from the festival where Tamlin was going to turn into a “monster” and have sex with some random Fae woman. That scene, even when he ran into Feyre in the hall, was supposed to be somewhat sexy? But I just found it to be creepy this second time around.
I didn’t fully remember how close Feyre and Lucien got between this book and ACOMAF. I wish that their friendship had been expanded upon more as the series went on, but as I’ve already finished ACOSF, I feel like his character has been pretty forgotten. Which is sad as he had one of the more interesting backstories. He watched his beloved be murdered by his father, had horrible siblings, and even lost his friend to Feyre’s misinformed murder. He was mean to Feyre at the start, but he still warmed up to her rather quickly.
I also loved Feyre’s relationship with the servants of the Spring Court, even though she was terrified of the court originally. She always treated them with respect, and her relationship with Alis was simply wonderful. I always thought that they eventually formed a somewhat mother-daughter relationship or healthy sister relationship that Feyre had never previously had.
I noticed a whole LOT of red flags from Rhysand. Holy cow, I forgot a lot of the things he had done while Under The Mountain while Amarantha was putting Feyre through her tests. Reading the next two books in the series truly allowed me to forget most of what had happened in this original first book, but rereading this even allowed me to realize that their original relationship was also quite toxic.
Overall, rereading this was definitely an experience. It was interesting to hear about these characters before they go through their drastic series changes, as well as read about the limited world of the Fae from the view of the Spring Court again. I am glad to have started here for my reread of the series, and hope to have my reviews for the rest of the books up shortly.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
