This post contains affiliate links.
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Sub-genre: Urban Fantasy
Where. to. start. First, I’m skipping the plot summary for this review because this book is 800 pages of STUFF. If you want a plot summary, I’m not your gal for this one because so. much. happened. I also want it stated for the record that A Court of Mist and Fury is one of my all-time favorite books and I love pretty much everything SJM has written. Until now. Let’s jump in.
Okay. So first and foremost, I did not know this was urban fantasy. I picked up this book thinking the world would be similar to her other books, and it’s not. That’s kind of on me for not looking too far into the book before buying it, but I don’t think the cover copy, title, or cover led me to think urban fantasy. Whatever. In the long run, it doesn’t really matter because I would have read it anyway, it just threw me off.
If this book had been by any other author, I don’t know that I would have made it past the first two hundred pages…I might not even have made it that far. The first half of this book is DENSE. The world building is overwhelming. There are so many details, so much backstory, so many characters, so many kinds of creatures. I read a lot. I read a lot of paranormal and fantasy. And this was tough for me to comprehend and follow. And this book is billed as a romance (from everything I’ve seen), but the main characters Bryce and Hunt don’t start to show interest in each other until about the halfway point. So the first half of this book left a lot to be desired. I was scared I was going to walk away from this book hating it, and given how much I love her other books, that would have made me sad.
All that to say, I didn’t hate it. While the first half of this book was a major miss me, the second half was fantastic. We really honed in on Bryce and Hunt and their journey together, and the last 200 or so pages were so well done I cried more than once.
So I’m left not really knowing how I feel about this one. In addition to the severely over-written first half, there were some plot points that felt weird and inconsistent. Bryce also faces A LOT of slut shaming that is never really dealt with or handled correctly, which is so strange because her other two series are (I think) very sex positive. And while I really liked a lot of the side characters, and liked Bryce by the end, I didn’t feel as connected to either Bryce or Hunt as I would have liked.
I get it. After creating the world’s most perfect book boyfriend in Rhys, it’s a tough act to follow, but Hunt definitely left a little to be desired in the hero department. And I think I didn’t connect with Bryce the way I would have wanted because of the third person POV (which is fine, and obviously very popular, but I wanted to be in her head a little more).
I think one of the major issues with this book is it suffers a little from George RR Martin/Diana Gabaldon syndrome. We all know the book is going to sell well. She has enough of a following at this point that her fans will buy an 800 page first book of a new series in a new genre. And I think that means editors/publishers tend to let things slide that they wouldn’t with other books. There was no reason for the first half of this book to be as long and detailed as it was. Easily 200 pages of world building could have been cut and the story would have had the same impact.
I really wanted to love this book and be so excited for this new series, and while I will definitely read the next one, it’s not going to be something I rush out to buy. If you’ve read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts! Drop me a comment or come tweet me @falonloveslife!
Comentarios