Right off the
bat, I have to admit that I went into reading A Court of Frost and Starlight with fairly low expectations, mainly
because I found A Court of Wings and Ruin to be rather frustrating and disappointing in a lot of ways; and
yet I was ultimately still incredibly disappointed by this book.
When it comes
to books that I either have mixed feelings about, or books that I simply don’t
like, I usually try my best to keep my reviews balanced and fair when it comes
to discussing what I like about the book, and what I don’t like about it.
Unfortunately, Sarah J. Maas didn’t really give me very much to work with when
it comes to having positive things to say about A Court of Frost and Starlight. After all, you can’t build a big,
extravagant sandcastle with just one cup of sand that somebody peed in. That
being said, the biggest problem that I have with A Court of Frost and Starlight is the fact that the book honestly
doesn’t really have a solid plot to it. Much like Seinfeld has always been described as being, “A show about
nothing,” I would describe A Court of
Frost and Starlight as being a book about nothing; because this book
doesn’t really have much of a solid, concrete plot.
Prior to A Court of Frost and Starlight’s
release, the information that was given about the book led me to believe that
this book was basically meant to be an interlude and bridge the gap between the
events that took place in A Court of
Wings and Ruin, and set things up for the upcoming full-length novels in
the series; which will focus on characters other than Feyre and Rhysand.
However, there’s pretty much nothing that happens in A Court of Frost and Starlight that sets things up for the upcoming
full-length novels in the A Court of
Thorns and Roses series; aside from the fact that there’s an excerpt from
the next book in the series at the end of the book, which I’ll briefly comment
on at the end of this review. The fact that there’s nothing that happens in A Court of Frost and Starlight itself that
appears to set anything up for future full-length novels in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series makes
me feel like this book doesn’t even need to exist. As far as I’m concerned,
this book is nothing more than an unnecessary, cash grab since the excerpt from
the next full-length book in the series is honestly the only thing in this book
that sets things up for future books in the series. I suppose I could end up
being proven wrong once I read the next book in the series when it’s released;
but for now, I just feel like this book fails to serve as genuine setup for
upcoming books in the series. That really made reading this book feel like an
unnecessary waste of time, as far as I’m concerned.
Honestly, I
think that a much more fitting title for this book would be A Court of Eye Rolling and Vomiting,
because there are so many things about this book that were absolutely
frustrating and annoying, that I just couldn’t help but constantly roll my eyes
at and frequently groan in frustration. Plus, the numerous romantic scenes
between Feyre and Rhysand were more nauseating and gross than they were steamy
and romantic. In addition to the incredibly ridiculous Feyre and Rhysand sex
scene in chapter two where they had sex as they were flying over the city of
Velaris, I also found the fact that Rhysand immediately had an orgasm when
Feyre used the telepathic bond between them to project the mental image of
their future child into his mind when they were once again having sex later on
in the book beyond gross and disturbing. That’s not romantic or sexy. It’s just
so messed up and disturbing in so many ways. I really wish that I had had a
bucket handy to throw up in when I got to that particular part of the book.
The closest
thing that this book has to a plot would be that throughout the book, Feyre,
Rhysand, and all of the other characters are getting ready to celebrate the
Winter solstice, which is basically the series’ equivalent of Christmas, and
the Winter solstice also happens to be Feyre’s birthday. The fact that this
book revolved around the characters getting ready to celebrate the Winter
solstice really made this book feel like the A Court of Thorns and Roses equivalent of a Christmas special, and
a rather crappy Christmas special at that; so I definitely think that it’s
pretty odd that this book was released at the beginning of May. Maybe A Court of Frost and Starlight was
released in May because the publisher wanted to stick with the pattern of
having one of Sarah J. Maas’ books being released in May, but regardless, I
still think it’s rather odd that this book was released in May when it’s
basically a Christmas special.
I also found it
incredibly frustrating that none of the characters really undergo any character
development throughout the course of A
Court of Frost and Starlight. The closest thing that Feyre has to a
character arc in this book is the fact that it’s established at the beginning of
the book that Feyre hadn’t done any painting since the war ended in A Court of Wings and Ruin. By the end of
the book, Feyre is not only inspired to start painting again, she also opens an
art school for children. Other than that, I felt like Feyre spent most of A Court of Frost and Starlight acting as
if she were a member of the cast of The
Real Housewives of Prythian, which really frustrated me because she was
acting pretty much exactly like the kind of person she had been terrified of
becoming if she married Tamlin in ***A
Court of Mist and Fury***; and yet she didn’t seem to be all that upset
about the fact that Rhysand was basically treating her like a housewife that he
could have sex with whenever he wanted. Feyre even jokes that she’s “High Lady
of the Desk” at one point in the book, which I admittedly thought was kind of
amusing, but I also thought that it was kind of sad that she called herself
that, too.
Seeing the way
Feyre acted in this book really left me thinking now more than ever before that
Feyre developing cold feet about marrying Tamlin in A Court of Mist and Fury, and Tamlin becoming incredibly unlikable
in that book was all simply Maas’ way of trying to prop Rhysand up as a love
interest for Feyre, and to get readers to root for Feyre and Rhysand to become
a couple in A Court of Mist and Fury.
As far as I’m concerned, if Maas wanted to have Feyre and Tamlin break up, and
for Feyre and Rhysand to be become a couple in A Court of Mist and Fury, that’s fine. I still think that Maas
could have handled the disintegration of Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship, and
Feyre and Rhysand getting together in A
Court of Mist and Fury in a much more organic way. It just really
frustrates me that Maas pretty much seemed to rely entirely on ruining Tamlin
as a character, and having Feyre get cold feet about marrying Tamlin in order to
make Feyre and Rhysand getting together “work” from a storytelling standpoint.
When it comes
Feyre basically acting like she’s a cast member on The Real Housewives of Prythian, I thought it was really annoying
that Feyre constantly refers to herself as “High Lady of the Night Court”
throughout this book. Plus, I thought it was incredibly annoying how both she
and Rhysand frequently mention how they have a lot of money throughout this
book. It especially bugged me that Feyre expressed a lot of guilt over how much
money she and Rhysand have, when there are so many people out there in the
world that are a lot less fortunate than they are; and yet the way she, and Rhysand
to a certain extent, do use their money to help other people, is basically the equivalent
of Feyre volunteering at a homeless shelter. It’s also mentioned that because
Rhysand is so powerful, he apparently needs to periodically offload some of his
power, otherwise he becomes overloaded with power. If that’s actually the case,
why don’t she and Rhysand use some of Rhysand’s power to magically conjure up
some houses for homeless people? (Groans in frustration)
One recurring
thought that I had about this book as I was reading it was that a big part of
why I found the fact that A Court of
Frost and Starlight lacked a solid plot so frustrating and disappointing is
due to the fact that the Christmas and Halloween episodes of Power Rangers have a more solid plot to them
than this book does, and the last six Christmas and Halloween episodes of Power Rangers have all been clip shows. That’s
just…sad.
Aside from the
fact that I found A Court of Wings and
Ruin rather frustrating in a variety of ways, one of the reasons why I went
into reading A Court of Frost and
Starlight with pretty low expectations is because while I know a lot of
people absolutely love Feyre and Rhysand as a couple, I personally am not all
that big of a fan of their relationship at this point. For the record, I did
think that the budding romance between Feyre and Rhysand was definitely one of
the best things about A Court of Mist and
Fury. However, I found the writing for Feyre and Rhysand’s relationship
rather frustrating and shallow in A Court
of Wings and Ruin to the point where I had a very difficult time rooting
for them as a couple; and I felt like the writing for their relationship was
even worse in this book. Plus, I honestly didn’t like Rhysand very much at all
in this book either. Rhysand is supposed to be 500 years old, and yet he
constantly acts like a teenage boy who’s deep in the heart of the puberty.
I feel like Rhysand
acted especially immature in the flashback scene that was featured in chapter
two where he was thinking about a time when he and Feyre had been flying over
the city of Velaris, and he was apparently so excited to have sex with Feyre,
that instead of waiting until they got home to have sex with her, he decided to
just have sex with her as they were flying over the city. This scene is quite possibly
the most ridiculous sex scene that I’ve ever encountered on a TV show, in a
movie, or in this case, a book. I have to admit that the part of me that has
the tendency to fixate on the stupidest things has definitely spent way too
much time thinking about how ridiculously bad this particular scene in the book
is. In the interest of being fair to Sarah J. Maas, I’ll give her credit for at
least having Rhysand acknowledge that having sex with Feyre while they were
flying over the city of Velaris required a lot of planning and thought on his
part. That being said, the snarky part of me can’t help but wonder how Feyre
and Rhysand were able to have sex while they were flying in the air without
getting so swept up in what they’re doing that they got distracted, causing
them to fall to the ground, and crash through the sunroof of somebody’s mansion;
since Velaris is apparently a city that a lot of wealthy people live in.
Aside from that
incredibly ridiculous sex scene, there are quite a few other dry heave inducing
romantic scenes between Feyre and Rhysand throughout the book; which honestly
made me hate them as a couple more and more as the book progressed. For
example, at one point in the book, Feyre uses her telepathic bond with Rhysand
to give him a sexual mental image of the two of them while he’s hanging out
with the other male characters in a steam room; which causes him to get sexually
aroused, prompting the other guys to kick him out of the steam room. That’s
just really shallow and immature writing for Feyre and Rhysand, in terms of the
two of them as individual characters, as well as their relationship with each
other. Personally, I really wish that Maas wouldn’t just use the telepathic
bond between Feyre and Rhysand as a way for them to constantly flirt with each
other. It would be great to see Maas have Feyre and Rhysand use their
telepathic bond with each other to help save the other when one of them is in
danger, instead of just using it for the romance aspect of the series.
While I
definitely enjoyed the writing for Feyre and Rhysand’s relationship in A Court of Mist and Fury, I admittedly
thought that the writing for their relationship in A Court of Wings and Ruin was very annoying to the point that I
honestly started to kind of hate them as a couple, and I hated them as a couple
even more in this book. As far as I’m concerned, it’s definitely a pretty sad
day whenever I come across a fictional romantic pairing that I find even more
annoying than Gideon and Eva from Sylvia Day’s Crossfire series. Congratulations, Sarah J. Maas! You actually
managed to make me like Gideon and Eva as a couple more Feyre and Rhysand! I’ll
be sure to get your prize of an Amazon gift card in the mail ASAP! Honestly,
prior to reading this book, pretty much the only fictional couple that I liked
less than Gideon and Eva were Ana Steele and Christian Grey from the Fifty Shades trilogy. However, after
reading this book, I definitely like Feyre and Rhysand as a couple less than I
like Eva and Gideon as a couple; but I still like Feyre and Rhysand more than I
like Ana and Christian as a couple. That’s pretty much only because of how
abusive and toxic Ana and Christian’s relationship is, though.
On a more
positive note, I’m so glad that the overall plot of A Court of Frost and Starlight didn’t involve Feyre getting
pregnant and giving birth by the end of the book. Prior to the release of A Court of Frost and Starlight, I was half
expecting a big part of the book’s plot to involve Feyre getting pregnant, and
then giving birth under rather eventful circumstances towards the end of the
book. Personally, I really didn’t want that to happen in this book; especially
since Feyre and Rhysand had said in A
Court of Wings and Ruin that they were going to wait a while before they
had kids. That’s why I’m honestly really frustrated by the fact that Feyre
decided that her Winter Solstice gift to Rhysand was going to be a baby; and it
was somewhat implied at the end of the book that Feyre was pregnant, even
though it had been mentioned at one point in the book that it might take a
while for Feyre to get pregnant. I get that people’s circumstances in life
change, which can cause people to have a change of heart about a decision that
they had previously made; but it still frustrated me that Feyre and Rhysand
decided to not take a few years to just enjoy life as a couple after the war
ended before they started trying to have a baby like they had originally been
planning to do.
Tamlin was only
featured in two scenes in the book, and I found both of those scenes incredibly
frustrating for a variety of reasons. First off, by portraying Tamlin as being
incredibly despondent in this book, I feel like this book kind of tarnished the
moment of redemption that he had in A
Court of Wings and Ruin, where he gives up a portion of his power in order
to help bring Rhysand back to life; and he simply tells Feyre to be happy when
she was thinking that he might make her go with him in exchange for helping to
bring Rhysand back to life. Don’t get me wrong, even though Tamlin pretty much
only has himself to blame for driving Feyre away with his controlling and
possessive behavior in A Court of Mist
and Fury, I still think that Tamlin is entitled to feel sad about Feyre
leaving him. That being said, the main problem that I ultimately have with Tamlin’s
scenes is that Maas’ writing for Tamlin in this book really feels like a major
regression from the way she left things with Tamlin in A Court of Wings and Ruin.
The other
problem that I have with those scenes is the way Rhysand treats Tamlin in this
book. While I understand that Rhysand feels a great deal of hatred and anger towards
Tamlin due to the role that Tamlin played in his mother’s death, I still
thought that it was pretty messed up that Rhysand went to Tamlin’s home simply
to kick Tamlin while he’s down by gloating about how he has everything he wants
(Namely Feyre), while Tamlin has basically lost everything. Plus, considering
the fact that Tamlin did help bring Rhysand back to life in A Court of Wings and Ruin, I do think
that he does at least owe Tamlin some gratitude for that. I’m glad that Rhysand
eventually realized that he was wrong to kick Tamlin while he’s down towards
the end of the book; but I thought that the way he “helped” Tamlin when he went
back to Tamlin’s home the second time was also pretty messed up and weird.
Ultimately, I just think Rhysand could have gone about helping Tamlin in a much
nicer and more sympathetic way than he did. The scenes between Rhysand and
Tamlin were definitely two of the numerous low points for Rhysand in this book,
as far as I’m concerned.
The biggest
saving grace of A Court of Frost and
Starlight for me personally was definitely the fact that the book isn’t
written entirely from Feyre and Rhysand’s point of view, because the chapters
that focused on the characters besides Feyre and Rhysand were honestly the most
interesting parts of the book. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the chapters that
focused on the other characters in the series, I thought that it was a rather
odd and bad writing decision on Sarah J. Maas’ part to write Feyre and
Rhysand’s chapters in first person point of view, and then write all of the other
characters’ chapters in third person point of view. By writing all of the other
characters’ chapters in third person point of view, it definitely made the
changes in point of view feel rather jarring, and it gave me the impression
that Maas didn’t know how to write the other characters’ chapters from first person
point of view and really get in their heads; which I think could have
potentially been really interesting.
Despite the
fact that I thought the way Maas handled the changes in point of view throughout
the book was rather odd, the chapters that focused on the characters other than
Feyre and Rhysand were definitely the parts of the book that I enjoyed the
most, and thought were the most interesting. I know that there are a lot of
people out there who don’t like Nesta as a character, but I actually really
like Nesta. It’s pretty obvious in this book that Nesta is having a really hard
time adjusting to being a fae; and I can’t blame her for being upset about it, and
lashing out at pretty much everyone around her since becoming a fae is
something that was thrust upon her against her will. Personally, I feel like
Feyre and pretty much all of the other characters in the book repeatedly
villainized Nesta to a certain extent; instead of making a truly genuine effort
to try and help her since she is pretty much suffering from PTSD, as far I can
tell.
While I
personally can’t stand Feyre and Rhysand as a couple at this point, especially
after reading this book, I actually really loved the parts of A Court of Frost and Starlight that
focused on Nesta and Cassian, and their relationship. Sure, I would say that
Nesta definitely treated Cassian rather horribly in this book, which definitely
makes their scenes together feel rather angst-ridden; but I ultimately still found
what was going on with them much more interesting than the dry heave inducing flirtatious
foreplay that Feyre and Rhysand constantly engaged in throughout the book.
The
interactions between Elain and Azriel in this book were also very enjoyable, in
my opinion. I especially love the part where Elain gives Azriel the vile of powder,
which can be used to relieve headaches, for a winter solstice present; because
she had apparently figured out that Azriel frequently gets headaches. That was
definitely a really cute moment between them, and it really left me wishing
that there had been more moments between Elain and Azriel in this book.
Personally, I
was rather frustrated by the way Maas handled the writing for Mor, and her portraying
Mor as suffering from PTSD in this book didn’t feel all that consistent with
the way that Mor had always acted very tough and strong in the first three
books in the series. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily have a problem
with Maas portraying Mor as suffering from PTSD as the characters all deal with
the aftermath of the war. I just think that Maas could have executed her
portrayal of Mor, or any of the other characters for that matter, as suffering
from PTSD a lot better than she did.
Plus, I feel
like the way that Maas mentions the fact that Mor was brutalized by a man at
one point in the past, while also referencing the fact that she’s romantically
interested in women kind of gives the implication that Mor is into women
because she was assaulted by a man. Plus, there were also times throughout the
book where I felt like the writing for Mor kind of plays into angry lesbian
stereotypes. As someone who’s bisexual, it really bothers me that Maas portrayed
Mor’s sexuality the way that she did in this book; because I feel like her
portrayal of Mor’s sexual orientation doesn’t exactly paint the LGBT community
in a very positive light. I was also really frustrated by the way Maas handled
the part of book where Feyre asks Mor if she has a girlfriend; because I feel
like that scene serves absolutely no purpose in the book as a whole, other than
to remind the reader that Mor is romantically interested in women.
In addition to
the many other rather bizarre writing decisions that Sarah J. Maas made with
this book, her frequent use of the word “male” throughout the book when it
would have made a lot more sense to use the word “men” instead really baffled
me. Maas even frequently uses the word “gentlemale” instead of “gentleman”
throughout the book. I’m honestly surprised that whoever was in charge of
editing A Court of Frost and Starlight
didn’t insist that Maas change that aspect of the writing for the book; but
then again I feel like there are quite a few things that could have been done
in the editing process of writing and publishing this book to make it at least
a little bit better than it turned out.
Another one of
the many aspects of the book that I thought Maas handled in a rather odd way
was the way she described the world that the A Court of Thorns and Roses series is set in. At times, Maas describes
various aspects of the world in such a way that makes the world that the series
takes place in come across as being very old-fashioned, and similar to what
life was like several hundred years ago; with the characters traveling via horse
driven carriages, but at other times throughout the book, Maas mentions more
modern things like roads and intersections. Plus, Feyre also talks about grants
and funding for charities at one point in the book.
Inconsistencies
like that throughout the book ultimately really made Maas’ execution of the world
building in this book come across as being a huge mess, as far I’m concerned. The
bizarre modernization of certain things that are mentioned throughout the book,
such as the fact that Maas describes the shoes that Feyre is wearing at one
point in the book in such a way that basically made it sound like she was
wearing uggs really added to the messiness of the world building in the book
and the series in general. All of the messiness regarding the world building,
combined with the fact that this book is the characters basically just hanging
out and celebrating the Winter Solstice, having snowball fights (off-screen),
leaves me feeling very surprised that Maas didn’t have Feyre, Rhysand, and the
other characters hanging out at Starbucks, drinking Vanilla Bean Crème Frappuccinos,
or whatever their favorite beverage at Starbucks might be, at least one point
in the book. (Sighs heavily in exasperation) For the record, I don’t think that
Maas’ inconsistent world building is a problem that’s limited to just this book
alone. I would definitely say that, in retrospect, Maas’ execution of the world
building for the A Court of Thorns and
Roses series has been rather inconsistent throughout the entire series so
far. The inconsistencies in Maas’ execution of the world building for the
series were simply a lot more noticeable to me in this book than they were in
the first three books in the series.
As for my
thoughts on the excerpt from the next full-length novel in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series
that’s included at the end of the book, it looks like the next book in the
series is going to be about Nesta and Cassian, and I personally loved it. It
didn’t say what the title of the next full-length novel in the series is going
to be, but the excerpt from the next book definitely made me want to read it
when it’s released. After I read A Court
of Wings and Ruin the first time, I was definitely really on the fence
about whether or not I wanted to continue on with the series. However, Sarah J.
Maas somehow managed to reel me back in, and got me feeling very curious about
what the future held for the A Court of
Thorns and Roses series when the release of this book was announced. I read
this book because everything I heard about A
Court of Frost and Starlight prior to its release led me to believe that
this novella was meant to serve as a bridge between the first three books in
the series, and set things up for the upcoming full-length novels in the
series. That’s why I’m ultimately really frustrated by the fact that as far as
I can tell, there’s nothing that happens in A
Court of Frost and Starlight itself that appears to serve as setup for the
upcoming full-length novels in the series. The excerpt from the next
full-length novel that’s included at the end of the book is the only “setup”
for the future of the series that’s featured in this book.
That’s
ultimately why I think A Court of Frost
and Starlight comes across as being a completely unnecessary book in the
series, that’s nothing more than a cash grab for Sarah J. Maas, as far as I’m
concerned. Despite the fact that A Court
of Frost and Starlight itself feels absolutely pointless, and the A Court of Thorns and Roses series
continues to really frustrate me in a variety of ways, Maas has definitely managed
to once again get me interested in continuing to read the A Court of Thorns and Roses series thanks to the excerpt from the
next full-length novel; because I’m very interested in finding out what’s going
to happen next with Nesta and Cassian. I’m just hoping that Feyre and Rhysand
will move more into the background as the series continues; because in case I
haven’t already made it blatantly obvious in this review, I really can’t stand
them anymore at this point; both as a couple, and as individual characters.
All in all,
despite the fact that I went into reading A
Court of Frost and Starlight with really low expectations, this book still
managed to disappoint me in numerous ways. The main reason why I found this
book so disappointing is the fact that it doesn’t really have a solid and
compelling plot. The writing for Feyre and Rhysand’s relationship in this book
is truly terrible, and is oftentimes dry heave inducing; rather than being sexy,
romantic, or fun in any way. The main saving grace of this book is definitely
the chapters that focus on the characters besides Feyre and Rhysand. However,
the fact that Sarah J. Maas went from writing Feyre and Rhysand’s chapters in
first person point of view, to writing all of the other characters’ chapters in
third person point of view really made the writing for this book come across as
being rather lazy, and an incredibly odd writing choice on her part. I also
think that it’s rather sad that the best part of this book isn’t A Court of Frost and Starlight itself; it’s
the excerpt from the next full-length novel in the series that’s featured at
the end of the book. I definitely enjoyed the excerpt from the next book in the
series a lot more than I enjoyed A Court
of Frost and Starlight. The excerpt from the next book in the series is
honestly the main reason why I didn’t give this book an even lower score than I
did.
That being said,
my final score for A Court of Frost and
Starlight is 4 out of 10.
