Right off the
bat, I have to say that while I thought that A Court of Mist and Fury was a bit of
chore to get through, and I ultimately didn’t like it very much, I thought
that A Court of Wings and Ruin was definitely an improvement
upon that book. However, even though I liked A Court of Wings and Ruin a
little bit more than I liked A Court of Mist and Fury, there are
still a lot of things about this book that I don’t like, and that I definitely
found this book rather frustrating and disappointing in a lot of ways.
When I finished
reading A Court of Mist and Fury, I have to admit that I wasn’t too
crazy about the fact that the book ended with Feyre returning to the Spring
Court in order to spy on Tamlin and the others, with the intention of bringing
the Spring Court down. However, I ended up really enjoying how that storyline
ultimately played out in A Court of Wings and Ruin. I’m really glad
that Sarah J. Maas didn’t make it easy for Feyre to carry out her plan, and
that she actually ran into some problems along the way, because I think that it
would have felt incredibly contrived if Feyre had been able to carry out her
plans without a hitch. I also love that Feyre ended up having to work with
Lucien in order to carry out her plan, because I feel like that added a very
interesting dynamic to that particular part of the book.
While the blossoming
romance between Feyre and Rhysand in A Court of Mist and Fury was
definitely one of the bright spots of the book for me, I thought that the
writing for their relationship in this book was for the most part more
frustrating and annoying than anything else. The way Feyre and Rhysand’s
relationship was written in A Court of Mist and Fury made
their relationship a relationship that I really enjoyed reading about and could
root for, especially considering the way Rhysand really encouraged Feyre to
better herself and gave her a greater sense of freedom; unlike Tamlin who
really seemed to try to shelter Feyre. Sadly, the way Feyre and Rhysand’s
relationship was written in this book really made their relationship come
across as being incredibly shallow and primarily about sex and constantly
flirting with each other.
Personally, I
really hated the fact that there’s some kind of telepathic bond between Feyre
and Rhysand. I didn’t keep count of how many times the phrase “down the bond”
was used throughout the book when it came to Feyre and Rhysand flirting with
each other, or just communicating with each other in general through the use of
their telepathic bond; but I’m pretty sure that if people made a drinking game
out of how often the phrase “down the bond” was used throughout the book, they
would probably die of alcohol poisoning before they had even read a third of
the book. If Sarah J. Maas had actually used that bond between Feyre and
Rhysand for reasons besides it being a way for them to constantly flirt with
each other, I might not have necessarily minded there being a telepathic bond
between them. Maybe it could have been used to help progress the plot more
often than it was; but the fact that Feyre and Rhysand’s telepathic bond for
the most part really seemed to serve no other purpose aside from it being a way
for them to flirt with each other, really annoyed me quite a bit throughout the
book.
