Hi ForeverBookers,
How have you all been since the beginning of 2024? I haven’t checked in much, I know, but I’ve still been reading!
Last night, I finished “A Court of Silver Flames” (“ACOSF”), by Sarah J Maas, which I ABSOLUTELY ADORED! It was so, so, so, so, SOOOOO good!!!
It tells the story of Nesta, rather than Feyre, the character which the other “ACOTAR” books have all focused on. I honestly didn’t think I would like it much because I’m a total Feyre and the man she ends up with fangirl and I REALLY didn’t like Nesta in the other books or what there was of her, anyway, but OMG was I WRONG! Never judge a book, until you’ve read it, is all I’ll say…“ACOSF” is told from 3rd person POV which I thought I’d hate, because I like being inside the main female character’s head and seeing and feeling exactly what she is. Nesta, while told from 3rd person POV though, has a huge breakthrough with the reader, I believe. She was a very hateful character in the first books, told from Feyre’s POV, but Feyre didn’t like her in the first books.
Nesta is the older sister of Feyre, who becomes Fae in a previous book in the series. She doesn’t like how she’s been turned Fae. It wasn’t her choice, like it was for Feyre. Can she learn to accept who she is now, and work towards a better future or will she remain depressed and not living her life to the fullest, always getting drunk and sleeping around, which is how she is at the beginning of “A Court of Silver Flames?” You’ll have to read to find out for yourself!
Also in “ACOSF,” Feyre gets pregnant. Now, I love this trope in books. It wasn’t the main focus of the story at all but I appreciated having it there. The romance REALLY was what stole my heart, though. I think my favourite Illyrian or batboy has changed, too. It was Rhys, Feyre’s mate. However, it’s now Cassian. Does he become Nesta’s mate, and if he does how does he? What trials and tribulations does he have to go through to be HERS and what trials and tribulations does she have to go through to be HIS? You’ll have to read to find out.
I was always on the edge of my seat, as I didn’t know what would happen from one chapter to the next. Nesta is pulled up at the beginning of the book, and made to go to training with Cassian, which she refuses to take part in at first. I thought this was funny! Always seeing her sitting on the sidelines, not wanting to get involved. When you learn why she doesn’t want to get involved you start to see below the surface of her character, I believe, and understand why she’s the way she is. That’s what I enjoyed the most I think, seeing beneath each layer of her character, and learning the complexity of her as a character too. I can’t wait to learn and see how/why Elain, the middle sister is the way she is…as well as seeing more of Nesta’s development!
“ACOSF” is very much an ADULT novel, as there are very passionate sex scenes throughout. I loved reading them though, because we again see Nesta’s vulnerabilities through them and how her maybe mate helps get her through them.
Readathons
I read “A Court of Silver Flames” for one few readathon.
Reading Rivalry - I didn’t finish it in March so I read it for page length. I read most of it in March, though I got through some in April too.
Spoilers below
“The black water nipping at her thrashing heels was freezing,
Not the bite of winter chill, or even the burn of solid ice, but something colder. Deeper.
The cold of the gaps between the stars, the cold of of world before light.
The cold of hell—true hell, she realized as she bucked against the strong hands trying to shove her into that Cauldron.
True hell, because that was Elain lying on the stone floor with the red-haired, one-eyed Fae male hovering over her. Because those were pointed ears poking through her sister’s sodden golden-brown hair, and an immortal glow radiating from Elain’s fair skin.
True hell—worse than the inky depths mere inches from her toes.
Put her under, the hard-faced Fae king ordered.
And the sound of that voice, of the male who had done this to Elain . . .
She knew she was going into the Cauldron. Knew she would lose this fight.”
These are the first lines of the book—the prelude. Nesta is recalling going into the Cauldron and becoming Fae, something she never wanted to be. She has watched her sister Elain become Fae and now she’s going to go through the process too. She can’t stop it, much as she wants to. The King of Hybern forces her to go through the metamorphosis. Nesta thinks being Fae is “true hell” but knows she has no choice but to go through it.
She hates the Fae she’s become with a vengeance. She, unlike Feyre, her youngest sister, didn’t have a choice. Elain is still a mysterious character who we’re not sure of so we don’t learn what she feels, really. When we come to her arc of books, I expect we’ll learn more about her and what she feels, like we do with Nesta in “ACOSF,” and the next couple of books hopefully!
“Maybe he’d get lucky and she’d be out—perhaps sleeping under the bar of whatever seedy tavern she’d frequented last night. Though that might be worse, since he’d need to track her down there instead.
Cassian lifted his fist again, the red of his Siphon flickering in the ancient faelights tucked into the ceiling.
Coward. Grow some damned balls.
Cassian knocked once. Twice.
Silence.
Cassian almost sighed his relief aloud. Thank the fucking Mother—
Clipped, precise footsteps sounded from the other side of the door. Each more pissed off than the last.
He tucked his wings in tight, squaring his shoulders as he braced his feet apart. A traditional fighting stance, beaten into him during his training years, now mere muscle memory. He didn’t dare consider why the sound of those footsteps sent his body falling into it.
The snap as she unlatched each of her four locks might as well have been the beating of a war-drum.”
Cassian, the main male character of “A Court of Silver Flames” is nervous to see Nesta, here. Why? He fancies her even here, when we’re only a page into the book. In the other books, from recollection, Cassian and Nesta didn’t get on straight away, like Feyre and Rhys seemed to. There was something between them, keeping them separate from each other. This might have been down to Nesta’s personality more than anything else. She’s the dominant one until a scene about midway through “ACOSF,” where she lets her walls down and Cassian in. I loved this scene sooooo much! I’ll go into details below.
Nesta is forced by Rhys and Feyre, the rulers of the Night Court, to go to lessons to become a better Fae person. These are in the form of warrior fitness classes. Cassian is her tutor. He’s not happy about this to begin with.
“Cassian felt as if he’d loosed an arrow at a sleeping firedrake. Nesta, bundled in that worn blue coat, with her stained shoes and her wrinkled gray dress, looked him over and demanded, “What?”
“As of this meeting,” Feyre clarified, “you’re moving into the House of Wind.” She nodded eastward, toward the palace carved into the mountains at the far end of the city. “Rhys and I have decided that each morning, you will train with Cassian in Windhaven, in the Illyrian Mountains. After lunch, for the rest of the afternoon, you will be assigned work in the library beneath the House of Wind. But the apartment, the seedy taverns—all of that is over, Nesta.”
Nesta’s fingers curled into fists in her lap. But she said nothing.”
Cassian was ordered by Rhys and Feyre to bring Nesta to their home so they could tell her in no uncertain terms that they’re sick of her attitude and they want her to change. Cassian as her tutor will watch over her and feedback to Rhys and Feyre of her progress. Feyre, as ruler, also tells Nesta that she’s moving to the House of Wind, too, as she feels her sister can’t be trusted to live in her apartment any longer. Nesta is of course, frustrated by this. She doesn’t want to be controlled or told what to do, especially by her little sister. She’s very much an arrogant character at first. Does this change? You’ll have to read to find out! She is also to have a job working in the library under the House of Wind. Here she meets a character who I didn’t like at first. However, Gwyn, the priestess Nesta meets and befriends grew on me throughout. Gwyn comes along to Cassian’s training lessons about half way through the book, and stays to learn how to defend herself. We learn some interesting things about Gwyn in the latter half of the book, like how she came to be a priestess and more significantly WHY she wants to learn to defend herself.
Nesta meets Gwyn at the library and Emerie, another fae woman, who owns a shop when she and Cassian go to Windhaven to practice fighting. Nesta doesn’t want to practice at Windhaven, however. Cassian wants to know why she doesn’t. But eventually learns that she’s scared she’ll be rejected for being terrible at the training. He tells her to not give up and that he’ll never give up on her! I thought this was very sweet and endearing! Cassian is a warrior with a heart. We learn just how much of a heart he has when on Solstice night he and Nesta make love sweetly and passionately.
Last year at Winter Solstice, the big celebration they have in the Night Court, “she wanted nothing to do with him. She’d said as much at Winter Solstice.
I’ve made my thoughts clear enough on what I want from you.
A whole lot of nothing.” Cassian felt unwanted last year. All he wants is Nesta. She’s being stubborn, though, one of her many flaws. Will she get over this flaw, of being so cold and indifferent to her feelings and everyone around her? You’ll need to read to find out.
“The backs of her legs hit the mattress, and he broke their kiss to attend to their clothes.
She expected tearing and rending. But he gently removed her dress, fingers trembling as they unhooked each button down the back of her gown. Her own trembled as she removed his shirt.
Then they were naked, and staring at each other with those unspoken words in their eyes, and she let him lay her upon the bed. Let him climb atop her.
There was nothing rough or wild about what followed.
She didn’t want his head between her legs. Didn’t even want his fingers. When he slid down the center of her, she let him feel that she was ready and then took his hand, interlacing their fingers as her other wrapped around his cock and guided him toward her.
He nudged at her entrance, and then halted. His eyes met hers.
And then Cassian kissed her deeply as he slid home.
She gasped. Not at the fullness of having him inside her—but at that thing in her chest. The thing that thundered and beat wildly as he looked at her again, slid out nearly to the tip, and thrust back in.
On that second thrust, the thing in her chest—her heart . . . On that second thrust, it yielded entirely to him.
On his third, he kissed her again.
On the fourth, Nesta twined her arms around his head and neck and held him there as she kissed and kissed and kissed him.
On the fifth, the walls of that inner fortress of ancient iron came down. Cassian pulled away, as if sensing it, and his eyes flared as they met her own.
But he kept moving inside her, making love to her thoroughly, unhurriedly. So Nesta let all that lay beyond those iron walls unspool toward him. Thread after thread of golden light flowed into him, and he met it with his own. Where those threads wove together, life glowed like starfire, and she had never seen anything more beautiful, felt anything more beautiful.”
At this point in the novel, Nesta and Cassian are in love, but they don’t admit how they feel to each other. I LOVED reading this part, because I’m a romance lover! If you didn’t know, then, Hi, how are you?!
Nesta is upset at the beginning of this scene because she loves Cassian but doesn’t know that he loves her sooooo much. This novel is really about miscommunication in terms of romance, which I normally despise. However, in “A Court of Silver Flames,” it works because we as the reader know how much Nesta and Cassian want each other, even if they don’t. I loved all of the intimate scenes because it was just them being them! Unlike with Feyre and Rhys, who I also love, Nesta and Cassian just have that spark for me! Feyre and Rhys had to work up to it, but with Nesta and Cassian it was just automatically there!
Now, the main plot of “ACOSF,” other than the romance, which I would say is a good part of it, is the Rite, which is the way the Illyrians prove themselves. All male Illyrians have to prove they’re warriors Cassian informs Nesta, in the way of the Rite, a challenge where Illyrians are killed until one stands supreme at the top of Ramiel, the fated mountain that’s part of the Night Court emblem. He informs her of this while training, not for a second thinking that SHE’LL be taken to be a part of the current Rite. Gwyn and Emerie are also recruited. Why? You’ll have to read for yourself!
Nesta wants to conquer the many steps to get up and down in the House of Wind. Of course, the Illyrians, Rhys, Cassian, Azriel and even Feyre now can fly up but Nesta doesn’t have wings—yet, anyway. Will she get them in the next novel? I don’t know. Feyre developed them, so it’s possible. Can she conquer the 10,000 steps? You’ll need to read for yourself. At first she wants to do it to escape, to go and find a bar and drink her troubles away, but by the end does she still want that?
Another part of the main plot is Briallyn, the queen that became the haggard crone in the previous books. And Koschei, who I’m pretty sure will come up in the other books, as he hasn’t been defeated yet. I’m not actually, 100% sure what his deal is, to be honest. I know that Briallyn wants to get power back that the queens took from her. She’s greedy.
“And as Nesta erupted, silver fire blasting outward, Rhys pounced.
He smothered her fire with his darkness, as if he’d dropped a blanket on it. Nesta screamed, and this time it was a sound of pain.” Cassian desperately wants to help her, but Rhys is there instead.
Nesta has a mysterious power. When she gets annoyed/agitated/scared she gets silver flames in her eyes. These are what is referred to in the title of the book. When this happens she can destroy anything. Does this skill help or hinder her? You’ll need to read to find out for yourself!
Also, another plot point is Nesta developing weapons. When Cassian takes her to a blacksmith, she gets the opportunity to create a dagger and a sword. What is in these weapons, good or bad? You’ll need to read to find out for yourself!
The final thing I’ll note is how Nesta has changed throughout “ACOSF.” At the beginning she doesn’t care about anyone or herself but at the end she has a lover in Cassian, whom she marries (not on page, unfortunately), friends in Gwyn and Emerie, a home in the House of Wind, that Rhys and Feyre GIVE Nesta and Cassian as one of MANY wedding gifts as payment for saving Feyre from death after childbirth. Yes, Nesta saves her sister, who don’t forget, she didn’t like before this novel. So she has sooooo much growth throughout. This is the perfect example of how to write the growth of a character. Also, Nesta changes Feyre’s body as well as her own and maybe Elain’s so they CAN have children without worrying about dying in the future. It’s said that a female human turned Fae doesn’t have the right body shape to give birth without complications. Feyre almost dies from these after giving birth to Nyx. I can’t WAIT to see Nesta as a mother in one of the next books, with Cassian as a father, something he has always wanted!
Well then, that’s all I’m going to write about “A Court Of Silver Flames.” There are a lot more points that I haven’t even brushed upon but this review would be verrrrry long if I went into everything. This novel will 100% be my number 1 or 2 of the year. Nesta is now one of my favourite heroines and Cassian is my #3 book boyfriend now, too! (Rhys is now my #4—I know, I’m shocked too). I just loved how human, kind and endearing Cassian was to Nesta. As well as hot and sexy too!
I bought the Waterstones exclusive version of “ACOSF,” so I got the bonus Feyre and Rhys chapter. I enjoyed it very much. I won’t say any more…
Stand by for my next review coming very soon…
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