Hey ForeverBookers,
How are you all today? I hope you’re well!
I’ve just finished my intense reread of A Court of Wings and Ruin or ACOWAR by Sarah J Maas, and I’m in LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN. I believe that when I read this book the first time I only gave it 3/3.5 stars. Well, it’s going up to 5 STARS now!!! It’s not quite the same level as A Court of Mist and Fury or ACOMAF for me, because you all know HOW I ADORE my romance and that is fantasy romance to a TEE but ACOWAR this time, had so much more to it for me than the last time I read it!
I read ACOWAR for one readathon this month:
Reading Rivalry - A BookTok Book - A believe that ACOWAR (and every book in this series) is a very popular book everywhere!!!
ACOWAR is basically a story of training to become someone better than what you are currently, I feel. Feyre, our main female character needs to train lots with her comrades to become this better person, to succeed in battle. The battle at the end is a lot of fighting and not much else but it’s still SOOOOO good, if a little lacking in length!!! Sarah J Maas just has it, what more can I say? She just has the power to wield words and create a story that captures you (or me) in every way!
SPOILERS BELOW
“I picked my way through the corpses to another Illyrian.
Then another. And another.
Some I knew. Some I didn’t. Still the killing field stretched onward under the sky.
Mile after mile. A kingdom of the rotting dead.
And still I looked.”
We start ACOWAR by seeing through Rhys’s eyes as he is in a past battle. He needs to find his comrades, Cassian and Azriel. He has clearly been affected by this past war and it’s not even the main point of this novel, it’s just the start…
I found it interesting reading from Rhys’s perspective. He was the villain in book 1, ACOTAR, I feel and then the hero in book 2, ACOMAF. Will he continue to play the hero in ACOWAR? You’ll need to read for yourself…What Rhys is to me is a misunderstood character in lots of ways. Yes, he’s got his problems. What character doesn’t? But along with those issues he’s just a cinnamon roll of a guy to me, who will do WHATEVER it takes to protect those he loves most, which is my sort of man.
Feyre is stuck at the Spring Court at the beginning of ACOWAR. At the end of ACOMAF she was taken back by Tamlin, her jealous ex. When she tries to escape, she needs to defeat two horrible characters, Brannagh and Dagdan, two of the King of Hybern’s underlings. They try to hurt her. Lucien, Tamlin’s right-hand man helps her escape too. Lucien, although I hated him in ACOMAF, and I still don’t particularly like him in ACOWAR, I definitely prefer him here in the third novel. He tries to help Feyre and Rhys. Does he succeed in everything he tries to do? You’ll need to read to find out.
Feyre is the perspective that most of ACOWAR is told through. I love her as a character so much! She is me, I feel. We have the same hang ups and I feel we’d agree on lots if she was real. She’s definitely the Sarah J Maas heroine I relate to the most. In ACOTAR and ACOMAF she goes through a heck ton of trauma and suffering, but in ACOWAR she becomes the woman she’s meant to be, I feel. She becomes Lady of the Night Court. I WISH we’d have had a wedding between Feyre and Rhys to solidify their positions in terms of the Court and to each other because they’re clearly, 100% in love with each other, so much so we get various sex scenes throughout ACOWAR. It just would have been nice to see them confess how they felt to each other in a proper ceremony, as Rhys basically asks her to marry him in ACOMAF!
Feyre needs to learn how to fly with her new Illyrian wings in ACOWAR, before the battle with the King of Hybern comes to pass. This takes practice a few times over. We see in the book, her try with both Cassian and Azriel. She prefers Azriel’s technique of teaching over Cassian’s.
“It was very hard for me to learn how to fly,” he said. I didn’t dare respond. “Most Illyrians learn as toddlers. But . . . I assume Rhysand told you the particulars of my early childhood.”
I nodded. He finished the one hand and started on the other. “Because I was so old, I had a fear of flying—and did not trust my instincts. It was an . . . embarrassment to be taught so late. Not just to me, but to all in the war-camp once I arrived. But I learned, often going off by myself. Cassian, of course, found me first. Mocked me, beat me to hell, then offered to train me. Rhys was there the next day. They taught me to fly.”
When Feyre hears Azriel’s tale of how he learnt to fly so late in life she’s given new hope that she’ll be able to do it after she hurts herself in trying the first time with him. Will she? You’ll have to read to find out for yourself! This is significant to everyday life as well as the plot of ACOWAR in general. If you don’t keep trying, you won’t succeed is what it says to me, be that in battle, as in this book, or in daily life. I felt that the main character going through this was significant because people in everyday life should KEEP trying to achieve their goals.
The Bone Carver plays a role in ACOWAR, as well as the Weaver. They’re characters in ACOMAF but they play a bigger, more significant role in this 3rd novel! The Bone Carver sends Feyre on a quest to find the Ouroboros, a mirror, a significant object to show that Feyre has resilience.
“You are afraid to claim the mirror.” The Bone Carver angled his head. “Why?”
“You are not afraid of it?”
“No.” A little smile. He leaned to the side. “Are you frightened of it, too, Rhysand?”
My mate didn’t bother to answer from the hall, though he did come to lean against the threshold, crossing his arms. The Carver sighed at the sight of him—the dirt and blood and wrinkled clothes, and said, “Oh, I much prefer you bloodied up.”
“Pick something else,” I replied. And not a fool’s errand this time.
“What would you give me? Riches do me no good down here. Power holds no sway over the stone.” He chuckled. “What about your firstborn?” A secret smile as he gestured with that small boy’s hand to himself.
Rhys’s attention slid to me, surprise—surprise and something deeper, more tender—flickering on his face. Not just any boy, then.
My cheeks heated. No, not just any boy.
“It is rude, Majesties, to speak when no one can hear you.”
I sliced a glare toward the Carver. “There is nothing else, then.” Nothing else that won’t break me if I so much as look upon it.
“Bring me the Ouroboros, and I am yours. You have my word.”
I weighed the beatific expression on the Carver’s face before I strode out.”
Rhys didn’t know at this time, that Feyre didn’t want to get the mirror as it scared her. When the Bone Carver asks for something else, their firstborn, she was indeed seeing their son, who I believe becomes a character in A Court of Silver Flames. I thought this was very sweet and it again shows Rhys’s growth from ACOTAR, where he was a selfish man to now, where he’s a caring/loving man. It also shows that Rhys worries too.
There’s an awful lot of politics in ACOWAR between the courts, as they try to decide the best way to defeat the king of Hybern. They meet at the summer court, which is neutral ground. Kallias, High Lord of the Winter Court, and Viviane, his love play a part here. They’re the easier of the delegates to get on side. Here, also, Feyre gets to know Helion, the High Lord of the Day Court. He’s also Lucien’s father, it’s revealed.
“I said quietly, “You saved her. You found her, didn’t you?”
A coronet of light seemed to flicker over that thick black hair. “I did.”
There was enough weight, anger, and something else in those two words that I studied the High Lord of Day.
“What happened?”
Helion didn’t break my stare. “I tore the beasts apart with my bare hands.”
A chill slid down my spine. “Why?”
He could have ended it a thousand other ways. Easier ways. Cleaner ways.
Rhys’s bloody hands after the Ravens’ attack flashed through my mind.”
This is Helion describing how he saved Lucien’s mother, the Lady of the Autumn Court from beasts that killed her sisters. It’s after this point that Feyre works out WHO Helion is in relation to Lucien. This also made me like Lucien a little more. I HATE Beron, who he knows as his father. Rhys saved Feyre from getting hurt by vicious Ravens at the library in the Night Court. This event reminds her of that.
Nesta and Elain, Feyre’s sisters who became Fae at the end of ACOMAF need to get used to their new selves/lives. Nesta does this through reading and secluding herself from everyone, until Cassian comes into her life. When Cassian gets hurt in the final battle, Nesta admits to herself I think that there’s a spark between them and I am now SOOOOO excited to read A Court of Silver Flames at some point. I won’t read it until the next book is announced in the series! The only character that I thought maybe could have had a little more development was Elain, the middle Archeron sister. I really want her and Azriel to end up together. Then we’ll have three Archerons with the three batboys as I call them: Rhys, Cassian and Azriel. It just makes the most sense to me.
Lastly, the final battle between Hybern and Feyre wasn’t that epic. It was good, but I expected a bigger more drawn out battle sequence because the book had been building up to THIS battle, but it just fell a little flat for me. But because of the rest of the novel being so full of everything I love, I could forgive it being a little lack lustre at the end. That’s why I’m still giving ACOWAR 5 Stars!!!!!
Do you agree with my thoughts and feelings of ACOWAR? Is there anything you disagree about? Let me know in the comments below! I’m going to read some manga next, which I don’t generally review in great depth so if you don’t hear from me for a few months again that’s why!
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