Review: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Title: A Court of Mist and Fury
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #2
Genre: Fantasy/Fae/Romance
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2016
Edition: Hardcover, 624 pages
Source: Purchased
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Synopsis:

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world torn apart.

So, here is another book that took me far longer to finish than I wanted. It's been a while since I read the first book in the series, but this book is leagues better. Feyre has some really great development through this book. And I really like that she doesn't recover quickly from what happened Under the Mountain. She has PTSD over it, and it makes so much sense too. If the book had started with her more or less okay, it would have kind of pissed me off. 

I like how she develops, she starts once again as a shell of a person. But this time hardly better than a prisoner in a what she used to think of as a home. Her once savior and lover her jailer. And it really shows how awful Tamlin really was in the first book. Back then she was more terrified to leave, but there were also more threats lurking about because of Amarantha. But she was still hardly better than a prisoner at that time as well. Tamlin hiding his true self in a mask of forced kindness. The mask cracks when Tamlin realizes that she is now more than his equal, but doesn't want to let up any control. It makes him the worst kind of person.

But then Rhysand shows up, I have to admit, I don't remember much about his character from book one. That aforementioned "while" since I read the first book. But I really grew to love his character. And the banter between him and Feyre, how angry she gets at him for teaching her how to read and write, it was comical. She was treating it like the largest of insults. 

Then there's the romance, I felt it developed more realistically than the one between her and Tamlin had. Granted, we have a whole other book where they interacted to build on. (Even though I barely remember much of anything in book one). While some of the intimate scenes were more detailed than I prefer, I was a little more prepared from skimming spoiler-free reviews of the book so it wasn't too bad.

Feyre discovering her new powers was also something I'm glad was covered, side-effects of all 7 High Fea Lords giving them a piece of them to bring her back to life should be something mentioned and covered. 

While I did really enjoy this book, parts of it dragged a little. Some of the faffing about was needed to cover different plot points later on, but some of it did just feel like them faffing about, dragging the story out to fill more pages just for the sake of page count. We've all done that at some point though, so it's not the biggest of deals. None of it was unneeded, it just spent too much time on it, or took too long to explain.

I already have book three and have already started it, I can't wait to read how this first half of the series ends. I hope everybody gets what's coming to them.