A Court of Wings and Ruin

3.75/5

Feyre is back in a place she had hoped to never return to… the Spring Court. While Tamlin thinks he has her forever, Feyre and Rhysand have other plans. Feyre acts as a spy, figuring out what Tamlin is doing and whether he’s working with Hybern. As war looms in the future, Feyre must be careful. Getting caught would not only destroy her chances at freedom, but destroy the rest of the world too. 

I think I binged this series too quickly because I fell into a slump midway through A Court of Wings and Ruin. I had fallen in love with A Court of Mist and Fury as many other readers have. I did not think any sequel could live up to it. For a while, I thought I was correct. ACOWAR started out pretty slow for me, and I considered taking a break from it. There was a lot of plot development and tension and this installment was definitely not as steamy as ACOMAF. Nevertheless, I powered through the plotting and scheming. 

The highlights of this book came in the climax of the story, but I did have to make it through a few hundred pages to reach it. The war was beautifully told and I loved reading it. The characters’ relationships were more raw than before as they approached each battle unsure if they would live to see each other again. There were a few moments that brought me to tears because SJM had me connect so much to the characters and I didn’t want any harm to come to them. It was this final 20% of the book that really saved it for me. 

I wary over whether I’d enjoy this novel and the later books of the series. I’ll be honest and say I struggled to read a solid portion of this book because it was getting slow for me. Despite this, the climax made the rest of the book worth it. I understand the slow build and character/plot developments. I’ve fallen in love with the series all over again.