Review : A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Title : A Court of Wings and Ruin
Author : Sarah J. Maas
Series : A Court of Thorns and Roses #3
Genre : YA/NA fantasy
Release Date : May 2nd, 2017
Publisher : Bloomsbury UK

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Looming war threatens all Feyre holds dear in the third volume of the #1 New York Times bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit-and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords-and hunt for allies in unexpected places. 

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.

*This review has some minor spoilers, but the one below the line has some major spoilers.

Read reviews of the other books in this series, A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury

Given that ACOWAR is the last book of this series (not counting the spin-off or sequel series or prequel series or whatever), and given that I love the first 2 books, of course I have a pretty high expectations for it. Unfortunately, ACOWAR didn't manage to reach it. That doesn't mean I didn't love it, though. I still love it, and I still thought it was pretty epic, but compared to ACOMAF? Sorry to say, but it's kinda bland.

I'm sure by this time you've read countless reviews about ACOWAR and how amazing it is, so I'll just go straight to the point and tell you why I still much prefer ACOMAF than this. Honestly, the biggest problem I have with it is probably the writing. I don't know exactly why, but in here the writing is just kinda off. Maas often use sentences like 'x stuck out his/her tongue at y' and 'x snarl/growl at y' and I don't think it suit the supposedly-hundreds-years-old fae's personality. I mean, the last time I stuck out my tongue was when I'm in elementary school. It made me cringe whenever I heard that, and it was used in the book A LOT of times. Not to mention the sex scenes. It was awkward af. I even often skip it since I couldn't stop cringing.

Another thing that kept me from devouring ACOWAR in one day is how thick this book is, and how I think that it could be cut down a lot. The first half of this book is so slow, with a lot of scenes that's kinda unimportant in my opinion. I had to restraint myself from skimming it. The second half was epic though, with battles and all. Maas truly know how to write battle scenes. I even teared up a bit when I read it, and it's the only reason why I add another half-star (originally I was going to give it 3 stars).

As for the characters, there's several new characters being introduced in this book, and I have to say I like them all. Some of them are gray characters, which is my favorite personally (don't worry, I still love the inner circle). Unfortunately, I'm disappointed with the lack of tension between Feyre and Rhys. We got a lot of it in ACOMAF, but in here there's barely any of it. Mostly the tensions we got is from Cassian and Nesta, and while I love it, it's still different.

In conclusion, this review might sound I truly dislike ACOWAR, but I'm not. It's still great and worth the read, though I advice that you lower your expectation a bit. I probably would still read the next series since there's many unanswered questions, mostly regarding the characters.

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SPOILER!

(because i need to talk about it)

Don't read beyond this if you don't want to get spoiled!

• This might sounds like I didn't ship feysand (eventhough I do), but I kinda dislike their relationship in this book? I mean, I'm happy that they're together and such, but my main problem is whenever Feyre (or Rhys) does something wrong, Rhys (or Feyre) always defend and forgive her/him immediately, which resulted in them thinking what they do was a right thing to do. I'm no expert in relationship but I don't think it's a healthy one? Sure, it's okay to defend them in public, but at least tell them what they did was wrong in private. This is why I couldn't fully connected in their relationship as much as I did in ACOMAF.
• ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT POTENTIAL CHARACTERS IN THE NEXT SERIES? The way I see it, there are 2 choices. Either it'll be about Elain/Azriel/Lucien love triangle thingy (which means it'll about Cassian and Nesta too) OR it'll be about Vassa and hopefully possibly Jurian (because you did not just mention someone is cursed then leave it hanging 😌). As much as I want to know who Elain end up with and whether Cassian and Nesta made it or not, I like option two better.