A Court of Wings & Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

    May is becoming one of my favorite months! It holds the promise of a new ACOTAR book. September is a really close second *wink wink* I bet none of you can guess why?!?! LOL! Seriously though you guys, I spend all year waiting in strung out anticipation for May simply because I will be reunited with my ACOTAR friends & family… YES! I call them family because um hello I know some pretty deep, dark stuff about them… in my book that makes us family! The 2nd of this month was that magical day this year. Sarah J. Maas released the third installment of the ACOTAR series entitled A Court of Wings and Ruin. Without further adieu let’s dive in.
    I’m not going to waste time rehashing the events of the first two books… simply because I have been trying to do just that for the past week & I can’t. Either I’m too vague or too detail oriented & 5 pages later we FINALLY get to my summary of ACOWAR, that’s not even detailing my thoughts on the book!!! It’s been maddening. So here we are… ACOWAR!
    This book picks up where ACOMAF left off. Feyre has returned to the Spring Court after Tamlin double crossed everybody & joined forces with Hybern in the upcoming war. Her sisters were turned into High Fae by the King of Hybern using the Cauldron, a magical item that was fabled to have been apart of the making of the world. Now separated from everybody she loves, not knowing their fates, she devises a plan to escape, once more, from Tamlin & return to the Night Court. Oh & she is now the High Lady of the Night Court, a first in Prythian history.
    I kid you not you guys there is the first like chapter in a nutshell. I’m not going to go into more detail in this section simply because this is my spoiler free section, for those that haven’t read ACOWAR yet. SHAME ON YALL!!! GO READ IT NOW!!!!!!!
    All joking aside I LOVED this book! I mean I’ve heard some people say it wasn’t as good as ACOMAF, and in some regards I would have to agree with that. But in other aspects I think it surpassed ACOMAF. *I’ll go into further detail in my spoilery section below* This book had romance, fighting, politics, suspense, plot twists, death *cough cough*... pretty much anything & everything that a great book needs.
    If you haven’t read it… Please please PLEASE go do that IMMEDIATELY!!! You won’t regret it… & if you do… Something is seriously wrong with you & you should have that checked out by someone.

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------SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT-----​​

   In the past I have done character breakdowns as well as plot & summary breakdowns. I think that’s how I’m going to structure this review as well. Let’s start off with a summary breakdown.
    Feyre, the new High Lady of the Night Court is being held, for all intensive purposes, captive in the Spring Court, by a man that she at the moment pretty much hates… aka Tamlin… aka the former love of her life… aka ya… :-/ No one knows that she is the High Lady of the Night Court or that she is still bonded with Rhysand. ORRRRR that she is super, ultra powerful from when all the High Lords gave a drop of their power to her in ACOTAR to save her from death after Amarantha killed her. She has magical powers from ALL of the Courts. From the get go Feyre decides to take down the Spring Court from the inside out for 1) what they did to Prythian by siding with Hybern when war is on the horizon, 2) what Tamlin did to her after Under the Mountain (locking her up & not allowing her to live) & 3) that Tamlin’s deal with Hybern enabled Ianthe to pretty much sacrifice her sisters to the Hybern & the Cauldron as examples of it’s power.
I mean from that list alone I get why she wants them to burn for all eternity, but I also see another character’s point later in the book (*cough cough* Tamlin), that it probably wasn’t the wisest thing to destroy the Spring Court leaving NO resistance against Hybern making camp in Prythian. Thinking purely strategically… she has allowed them a foot in the door. They no longer have to waste time, energy or funds on transporting forces or goods between Hybern & Prythian. They have a stronghold now in the Spring Court… that Feyre made way for. They can come & go as they please, without having to cross any ocean to do so.
    I’m not nullifying Feyre’s need to punish Tamlin for all the @#$* he put her through after Under the Mountain & in getting her back from Rhysand, as well as what he enabled to have happen to her sisters. In fact I was pretty “all for it” at the end of ACOMAF. However she could have done it better I think… by better I mean smarter. Dang it felt really satisfying though when she turned everybody against each other though. & to be fair… THEY PLAYED RIGHT INTO HER HANDS!!! I mean Tamlin put Ianthe before his soldiers, before Lucien (I believe don’t quote me) even before Feyre. I mean who doesn’t LOVE being put before a bold-faced LIAR!?!?! REPEATEDLY!!!! *sigh* Ya Tamlin made it entirely too easy.
    Now that I’m on the Ianthe tangent I going to derail my train of thought to say YES!!! I absolutely LOVE what Feyre did to Ianthe… both in the Spring Court & with the Weaver… *maniacally giggles to herself as the darkness seeps towards her* Sorry I went to a dark place just then. Where was I?!? Oh Ianthe. Okay so this women is the epitome of evil women throughout storytelling history. I specifically say of evil women, not to be sexist (though I don’t know how that can be sexist when I myself am a women, but I really don’t know what “rules” society plays by now so… ya just to keep my bases covered NOT SEXIST!) because male villains play differently than female villains. I know this isn’t “politically correct” but if you ever attended public school you will know what I’m talking about. If you didn’t let me break it down into layman's terms for you. When guys have a problem (or are harboring villainous tendencies) they usually are very direct &/or physical. Take Tamlin in ACOMAF for instance he went to Hybern & struck a deal to steal Feyre back to the Spring Court. Pretty direct right? Need another example? How about this… Lex Luther. Now some of you might be going um hello he does a lot of scheming… but scheming is still direct, but involves planning out. Lex Luthor will direct how the pieces on his chessboard move, when & where. Take for instance Superman Returns (because it is the most recent one I’ve watched) Lex starts by stealing a piece of kryptonite, then by creating this kryptonite continent… every move he makes has an action & reaction.
    Female villains take a less direct route, usually. They play more of a mental, manipulative game. (Can I get an amen from all of you that went to public school on this?!! There were one or two of these kinds of villains in every school… it’s the premo cesspool for these kinds of creatures to grow and flourish.) It’s similar to how male villains plan things out but usually the female villains with take a back seat & manipulate others into doing their bidding… or just out & out plant the seeds of manipulation. More times then not once they set the wheels in motion they are content to sit back & watch things unfurl. That’s exactly what Ianthe, & ultimately Feyre, do in this book. Ianthe will set things into motion, like the theft of the temple key (I believe it was) then everything else just sort of falls into place. Feyre is more masterful in her manipulation, at least I think so but it might simply be because we get to see her set things into motion whereas with Ianthe we don’t. Feyre does a bunch of little things that add up very fast. (Like getting caught in scant little clothing in the middle of the night in Lucien’s room, while both are breathing heavy, as Tamlin walks in… or when she subtly takes the guards’ side when Tamlin is about to beat one… She does it time and time again throughout this book, especially the beginning.) She plays on characters’ strengths and weaknesses to get what she wants, which initially is the downfall of the Spring Court, particularly Tamlin.
Don’t get me wrong… that’s not the ONLY way that female villains play. Some aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty if push comes to shove. I mean Ianthe does it, the occasion that comes to my mind is with the Suriel. *Still can’t go too far into detail on that one because it pains me too much!* Feyre definitely isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s had to do it for the majority of her life. While this is how she’s handled things during her mortal life I think that she has grown a propensity for manipulation since becoming Fae. I hate to say it, but she’s gotten particularly skilled at it since joining the Night Court. I get it… that’s how they have to live to keep their people safe… but when you think about it… it’s kind of a crumby way to live. Especially if you live for centuries.
For this initial review, I will be doing a much better one when I reread the book soon, I’d like to talk about Tamlin. In ACOTAR everybody was swooning over him. I’m not going to lie… I had a few swoon moments myself. Then in ACOMAF everybody was ready to kill him. He was painted (pun intended) as this villainous thing that didn’t deserve to live that was lower than low. I kind of understood what people were thinking… I mean he did a lot of really bad things to get back someone who didn’t want to be with him anymore. However if you look back at my review of ACOMAF (one of them) I also discuss how I think in his own twisted way he THINKS he loves Feyre. But he never had a good role model for what love was suppose to look like so he doesn’t handle things very well or healthily. Instead of letting her cope & help rebuild after Amarantha he keeps her captive because the idea of losing her AGAIN drives him mad! I can 100% get that… I’d love if someone loved me that much. However, because he once again didn’t have a healthy role model for how to appropriately display love, he shuts her in. He does it to protect her, but he doesn’t give her any regard. He continues down this path in ACOWAR, with a few MINOR adjustments. I mean he doesn’t keep her locked up, but he also doesn’t really let her go anywhere alone. So she’s just caged up a different way. He also doesn’t take her serious. He chooses Ianthe over and over again over Feyre.
Then let’s dive into his behavior after Feyre leaves of her own free will, this time him realizing this. He is super hostile, he makes rude & vulgar comments to both her & Rhysand & is just wholly uncooperative. Plus he lies to all the Fae leaders, double crosses them & is just plain nasty. It was the first time that I was like Tamlin I’m beginning to agree with the rest of the world. You are a tool that deserves to die!! But then it happened…
Feyre & Azriel have snuck into the King’s camp & are just about to get caught when Tamlin saves their bacon… at the expense of his own life!! I mean he doesn’t die… but he very nearly does because he goes out of his way to save Feyre. In that brief moment I see the character that I loved from book 1. I mean it is brief & fleeting but it is there & that is all I needed for his character to be mostly redeemed. They always say actions speak louder that words… where that is the action that I’ve been waiting for since the beginning of ACOMAF. I’m just sorry it took that long for it to happen.
That actually brings me to my next topic. Jurien… WHAT. THE. HECK?!?!?!?!?! I did NOT see that coming!! Here he’s been a jerk since BEFORE book 1 & he’s playing the King?! I mean it makes sense… when you really think about it. But he’s suppose to be INSANE!! NOTHING HE DOES IS SUPPOSE TO MAKE SENSE!!!! I genuinely have no idea what I think about Jurien. Mostly because for 3 books I have thought 1 thing… he was a huge jerk that deserved to die. Then he pulls this & it’s like… WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!!
Seriously while I don’t necessarily think this book was at ACOMAF levels in certain areas of plot & development… in other areas I think it surpassed ACOMAF. This is one of those areas. This book had a lot of WHAT JUST HAPPENED moments. It was definitely a book that kept me guessing & a good majority of the time I was wrong! I love a book that can do that to me. Too often books are becoming boring because you can anticipate what’s going to happen & there’s no real mystery or anything new. That was NOT the case with ACOWAR! Loved it!