Feyre and Rhysand have finally accepted the mating bond, but have been split apart again. Feyre decided to infiltrate the Spring Court to find out more information about Hybern’s actions. Tamlin believes that Hybern was able to break the mating bond between Feyre and Rhysand, believing that Feyre never wanted that mating bond. The truth is that a mating bond cannot be broken that easily, and so Feyre can use the bond to send Hybern’s secrets to Rhysand while playing her role at the Spring Court. Feyre’s sisters have also been turned into High Fae by the Cauldron that Hybern brought back, so they are finding out what their roles are in the Fae kingdom. Feyre and Rhysand will have to call on all the alliances they can possibly make to have the chance to defeat Hybern’s Cauldron army, and they are determined to protect the Night Court and the other Prythian kingdoms.
SPOILERS BELOW
I read this book back in 2017, but I barely remember any of it. I must have accidentally sped read it out of excitement and not remembered any of the important parts of the story. Rereading it to prepare for A Court of Silver Flames was an entirely different experience.
It hurt to hear about Feyre tearing apart the Spring Court from the inside out. I had little sympathy for people like Ianthe or Tamlin, but I still felt bad for the innocents whose High Lord was too blinded by infatuation to do what was right by his kingdom. They had no control over who Tamlin decided to side with, and they basically got their community torn apart politically because of it. This would also hurt the Night Court’s relations with the Spring Court forever. The court wasn’t going to disappear, so I’m not really sure what Feyre was trying to achieve politically. At some point, the war was going to end, and they would need to be civil with all the courts as immortal beings.
This book again taught me how large the Fae kingdoms were. They have what I like to call the time of day courts, then the season courts, then even more courts on top of that. And that doesn’t even count the Human kingdoms. This world is simply too large to try to jam-pack into 3 books, but Maas definitely tries to show bits and pieces of each one. I think it would take a lot longer to truly delve into the intricacies of each individual court, but for now I am satisfied with this.
Feyre’s relationship with her now-Fae sisters was interesting to read about. Nesta never seemed like the protective type from how Feyre described her from the cabin in the woods. She was described as a sister who never cared enough to hunt or make money when their father was unable to do so, even though she was the oldest of the three. Nevertheless, in this book Nesta is fiercely protective of an incapacitated Elain. Elain has been deeply damaged by the cauldron, and Nesta is trying to bring her back before she withers away. Nesta also has her own issues to deal with, as she “took something” from the Cauldron and has powers because of it. It was interesting for Feyre to see her sisters eye-to-eye for the first time since she was taken by Tamlin, and I wanted her relationship with her sisters to improve.
The sister I was the most interested in originally was Elain as her relationship with Feyre always seemed to be better than Nesta’s relationship with Feyre. Nevertheless, she turned into a husk of her former self and stayed that way for the majority of the book. She even had a mate! I was under the assumption that the mating bond was just irresistible by Fae from how Rhysand and Feyre acted once they were around each other regularly. Lucien and Elain are around each other for the majority of this book, but they never once showed any real feelings. Lucien seemed excited to have a mate in ACOMAF, but that excitement doesn’t really show in this book at all. Elain just stays in her box, and Lucien stays in his.
My absolute favorite part of the story during this reread was the monsters and the worldbuilding around them. The giant unknown monster in the bottom of the library. The Bone Carver in The Prison. The Weaver of The Wood. Just beautiful, beautiful monsters who were horrifying in their own unique ways. I honestly wish that the series had focused more on this darker side of the world that had nothing to do with the new magical Fae. The Fae were driven by greed, lust, or revenge. These darker ancient beings were not driven by any of these things. They were simply driven by the fact that they WANTED to kill. They craved pain and destruction, and not for any particular gain of themselves. And then two of them just died! Died in this stupid, pointless war created by the greedy Fae. Honestly, seeing the Bone Carver and Weaver die made me sadder than seeing Feyre’s father die. Honestly, I didn’t care about the man at this point, but I wanted to know more about these “Old Gods.” I definitely need a series based on what the world used to look like before the Fae took over and centered themselves on the narrative.
Speaking of the final battle, I don’t think that Maas is that good at writing giant battle scenes. It was interesting to read, but overall felt mediocre compared to the smaller-scale parts of the story. I was more on the edge of my seat reading about Ianthe chasing Feyre through the woods than hearing about Nesta facing off against the King of Hybern. Not to mention that the way the King died was a bit….lackluster. All that work, just to get stabbed in the neck? You have all these powerful creatures, but all it took was a KNIFE to the NECK and he drops? Yeah, mediocre.
Overall, I would recommend this book (and trilogy!) to anyone looking for an adult fantasy series. The next 2 books in this series are….another story.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
