review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses (also known as ACOTAR) is the first book in a trilogy of the same name. It is a Beauty and the Beast retelling told from the point of view of Feyre, a young woman who gets kidnapped to Prythian - the land of Fae, because she killed a wolf who was actually a transformed Fae.

This was my third time reading this novel, and I was surprised that I'd enjoyed it more than the previous two times. Although I still cringed a bit when certain characters were speaking - because no matter the situation, they couldn't say one normal sentence, I actually enjoyed the writing a lot. Sarah J. Maas has a specific kind of prose that can be both epic and full of action and sweetly poetic at the same time, and her biggest talent is that you want to be in the book with the characters - which I absolutely ADORE. She always finds the right balance between negative and positive things.

What still didn't appeal to me, though, was the romance between Tamlin and Feyre: it was just too insta-lovey and unbelievable. I didn't really see WHY they'd fallen in love in the first place.

In conclusion, the good (the worldbuilding, the writing and the atmosphere) outweighed the bad (the annoying dialogue and the not-so-well written romance) and I'd say I liked the story. I cannot but compare it to the second and third book and I have to say, although a decent read, it is no match for them.