Hi, guys! I've been missing in action for the past month because I have started working!! (FINALLY!!) Am no longer taking in calls because am a full-pledged IT now and am in the morning shift thus the blog absence. I've been learning SQL and other things so I have to put books aside. Anyway, I couldn't pass up the chance to review ACOTAR because S-J-MAAS, yo!! I was supposed to interview her but I didn't finish ACOTAR on time. Boooo, work! LOL! But here is my review for today's blog tour stop!
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #1
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Edition: Kindle
Publication: Bloomsbury Children's / May 5, 2015
Source: eARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley
Pages: 432
Genre: High Fantasy, Romance, Retelling
Trailer: Intro.
Synopsis:
A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.
Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!
ACOTAR is inspired by Beauty and the Beast but you can tell how Maas owned this story. She amazingly created a vast fae universe (my imagination led me to the world of Avatar with all that floating stones and blue people) and breathing became a struggle. It was beautiful beyond words. My brain couldn't even grasp how vivid Maas describe this world -- it vomits colors, magic, beauty. The journey was such incredible I want to go back right after I finished reading the acknowledgements.
However (how am beginning to hate this word), slow paced stories consistently push my buttons. That's how I easily get bored and irritated. Even though Maas' Throne of Glass series can be slow at times, the slowness didn't tickle my impatience. I have always loved how the slowness factored to the development of each book. But ACOTAR somehow poked that horrible part of me that halfway through it, I almost DNF-ed it. It felt dragging and I was almost out of hope that something important would happen within the first half of the book. As usual, the last several chapters turned the table upside down but it didn't impasse the doom of my boredom.
I wasn't utterly impressed with the plotline but I was flabbergasted by the execution! Maas described each emotion in heightened sense of its context and she wasn't afraid to embrace human's fragility and even use it in an advantage I didn't anticipate.
ACOTAR's characters are all equally compelling and I think I fell for all of them.
Feyruh who is human in the Fae world but developed so much more because of her drive to fend for her family; Tamlin (OH, I LOVE YOU SO) who is the cursed High Lord of the Summer Court, he is mightly and loving despite the mask he could never take off; Lucien who is Tamlin's Emmisary, he's full of sarcasm and wit. He doesn't sugarcoat things and his loyalty to Tamlin is unquestionable; Rhysand the High Lord of the Night Court who is handsome but full of deceipt. He's very clever; Amarantha, the Queen of Pythian, the evil one driven by hatred for humans. And then Alis the ever loving fae house help who captured my heart because of her kindness. I loved Tamlin more even after I learned everything about him, he loves truly and even if he's bounded to the curse, it didn't stop him from being the just Fae I am inlove with. Plus, Maas wasn't joking when she said this story was full of sexy times. DAMN, SEXY TIMES. It's so, so alluring.
A Court of Thorns and Roses is a story where magic is expounded in its different forms. Stunningly written and downright ravishing, ACOTAR is the go-to novel for all!
Thank you so much to Bloomsbury and Throne of Glass PH for the eARC!
"We need hope, or else we cannot endure."
"Don't feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy."
"What would be enough to make you happy?"
"Everything became a blur of color and sound, and he was the only object in it, tethering me to sanity, to my body, which glowed and burned in every place he touched. I was filled with sunshine. It was like I'd never experienced summer before, like I'd never known who was waiting to emerge from that forest of ice and snow. I'd didn't want it to end -- I never wanted to leave this hilltop."
"I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world."
"It was either a sunset or a sunrise. The sun filled the clouds with magenta and purple, and its orange-gold rays blended with my path to form a band of shimmering metal. I wanted to fade into it, wanted the light of that sun to burn me away, to fill me with such joy that I'd become a ray of sunshine myself. This wasn't music to dance to - it was music to worship, music to fill the gaps of my soul, to bring me to a place where there was no pain."
GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
GOOD LUCK!!
