What is there to say about this book and series other than it's perfection? I got to met Sarah J. Maas years ago and I love that her books are so popular now, for good reason too. If you haven't read this series by now, you need to.

I mean, what's there not to love about Feyre and the luscious meat slabs courting her love? A Court of Thorns and Roses? I think you mean A COURT OF MAGIC MIKES, amirite? Feyre you lucky girl.

Oh. My. God. Does this woman get paid by the word? The book was fine. The story was fine. The characters were fine. If I didn't have a compulsive need to finish every book I ever start, I probably would not have finished this book. But, in the last 10 pages, BAM. Twist I should have seen coming and somehow didn't that set me up for needing to read part 2. But seriously, we could have cut out a good 150 pages from this and it would have been fine.

Incredibly late on this train but I absolutely love all of these books. The characters, the twists and turns, the world Sarah J. Maas has built is just wonderful. This isn't usually my type of book but I love it!

As much as this idea appealed to me, I'm not really into the alpha male thing, so this was a pass for me.

I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Feyre's life is pretty hard recently. Her family is poor - after they used to be on the other spectrum of the social status - and Feyre is the only one who is bringing in money or food into the house. And she did this because of the vow and promise she made to her mother when she was dying: Feyre will protect and take care of her father and two older sisters.

So Feyre learned how to hunt in the woods behind their hut to bring in food, and to hunt and get supplies from the market. Even though the woods are practically off limits because that is where the faeries are and could snatch her up at any minute. But Feyre has no choice in the matter - she must do what needs to be done so her family can be fed and warm.

When Feyre sees a doe that will bring a lot of meat and her coat would bring a lot of money, Feyre thinks she's hit the jackpot. That is, until she sees the giant wolf stalking the same doe. Feyre knows that the fae can shape shift into animals, but she can't tell if this is a faerie or just an abnormally large wolf, so she kills the wolf and the doe, and takes both skins and the doe carcus home, knowing that the wolf skin will bring them a lot of money.

But Feyre judged wrong, because the wolf that she killed was a fae, and now she has been taken as a life for a life because of her misjudgment into the fae land. Surprisingly, though, not as a victim, but rather to just live in Prythian for the rest of her life with her capturer Tamlin.

The longer that Feyre stays with Tamlin, though, the less she feels like a captive but more like a guest - a human guest who is getting some weird reactions from the faeries - but a guest none the less. And she is even allowed to go hunting with Tamlin's friend Lucien, even though she could easily try to escape.

Things are not as they seem in Prythian when dark, evil creatures keep trying to attack the mansion that Feyre is staying at. There is a long, dark history that has happened to the world of the fae, and even though Feyre doesn't realize it, she's smack dab in the middle of the mess. Only Feyre can save the entire fae population, but she's just a lowly, breakable human who is in way over her head when it comes to the faerie land. But because she has grown feelings for Tamlin, she needs to decide if this immortal world is worth everything she has - because it might just take her life.

Okay. So. I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK!!!!

And I read it because of a funny story:

In Jennifer L. Armentrout's new (unpublished as of today) book "If There's No Tomorrow", the main character is a book reader and is currently reading a book about a guy named Rhysand. I got so curious about this character, I decided to look him up and low and behold, it's Sarah J. Maas's series!! (I only looked it up because she was wanting to read the Paper Princess book by Erin Watt and I've already read that, so I knew it was a real book and assumed this one was too :) )

And I instantly went to find all 3 books in this series, because when JLA is having her characters read this book, I knew they had to be good!!

And it was amazing! I loved it! I loved the beginning, even though a lot of readers said it was too slow paced for them. For me, it was great because we really got a chance to get to know Feyre and her personality, her loyalty, her determination so by the time she got to Tamlin's house, we knew that she wasn't just going to meekly stand by and be a prisoner.

The little moments when you could tell that Feyre was starting to like Tamlin was so full of tension and I was just like, be with him already!!! But she is a very stubborn girl and took her sweet time.

When she was sent back home and saw how well Tamlin took care of her family, my heart was gone and given to Tamlin on a silver platter. For a High Fae to do that to a human family - a species so below the fae that they are like scum - was heartbreaking and so so sweet. And then when she went back for him?

Sigh, there are so many feels going on right now inside of me that I'm a gushing mess!! But I'm so excited that I was introduced to this series and I am extremely glad that I have the other two books to dive into, because I cannot wait to see what happens next with the unexepected way things ended for Feyre. Waiting for 2 years to be able to fly through this books is the reason that I torture myself for not starting the books until the series is finished :)

I am DEFINITELY going to recommend this series to my friends and patrons who want to read YA at my library because it is a great book that was written so well with so many twists and turns that I feel like others will love it just as much as I did :)

Thanks JLA for the recommendation and thank you Sarah J. Maas for writing this!!