Book Review | A Court of Wings and Ruin

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court with Tamlin as a spy, while the rest of the Night Court prepare for war against Hybern.

Whoa. I just… I need a minute.

Like, my heart was not ready for the amount of feels that came in those final chapters.

I really enjoyed parts of this book (and there were a lot of good parts), but not all of it, and I’ll get into why below.
WARNING – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

What I liked:

So when we left the second book, Feyre was back in Tamlin’s clutches (and I say clutches because that guy has some serious obsession issues), but she was all ninja-secret-spy, which I loved. It’s been quite the trip, to see Feyre’s character develop over the past two books, from the little human she was to the badass High Fae she is now.

I loved seeing more of Nesta and Elain, and seeing them deal with their new realities.
I loved all of the plot twists. They just blew me away.
I loved seeing the High Lords squabble with each other too. I could feel the tension rolling off their shoulders. Honestly, it was like watching a reality show go down, and I was more than happy to just sit back and let them spill that tea. A+ for character development.
The entire Part Three was just amazing.

What I disliked:

I disliked the Suriel’s death, because let’s be honest that was sad AF.

In the middle of this book, I got disinterested in reading it. I felt like there was all this talk of the meeting with the High Lords, and it was nothing but talk. I was sitting there reading, and waiting for something to happen. I stopped reading it for about a month, while I went and read about three other books, before coming back to it— only because I was too far into the series not to finish it at this point, But it made me kind of disappointed, because I really struggled to get through the first book and it felt like reading that all over again to a degree. And ACOWAR is a long book to get through if you become disengaged.

Character thoughts:

Time for some juicy gossip!

Feyre – Can we get a round of applause, please? Feyre was amazing, as always, in this book.

Nesta – Nesta is one of my favorite characters, and I feel like she really changed in this book. Well, maybe not changed, but she became kinder, and more open, which was the last thing I was expecting after what she went through with the Cauldon. Props to her.

Elain – Kind, sweet Elain… boy, did she annoy me in this book. Hey, I think she handled the aftermath of the Cauldron really well, and it was very true to character, but she spent the majority of the book moping and being kind of useless when it was so obvious that she could have been helpful with her visions and all.

Feyre’s Father – I was not expecting this guy to make a comeback at all. I mean, I was wondering about him the entire book, and what had happened to him, and how he’d react when he found out about his daughters, but I wasn’t expecting him to sail in with a freaking army. His death hurt me so much, because he was trying to redeem himself and ugh— just feels.

Tamlin – Tamlin… *sigh*. I have a lot of thoughts about Tamlin. We’ve seen his good side, and his bad side. And I kind of get it, because Feyre left him for Rhys, and then screwed up his entire Court. But there is no need to be an asshole, and call out such intimate, personal things— especially while on the brink of a war, you dummy! Still, when he saved Feyre from Hybern, I had a flicker of hope for his soul. And then, when he gives Rhys that piece of life, the same way he begged for Feyre’s life… I felt things man. That can’t have been easy for him to do, because he’d been in that exact same position for Feyre, and she was begging him do to it for another man. I know Tamlin has done a lot of bad things, but can we just take a moment to sympathize with him?

Lucien – So remember how I said that back in book one, Lucien was my favourite character? Well, for one, I’m still disappointed. I felt like he went from a character who was witty and somewhat interesting, to a character who basically whined and grovelled for Elain’s attention. And by the end, I was definitely shipping Azriel with Elain more than I was shipping Lucien. In fact, I kind of lost any and all respect for Lucien. I just feel like he was really insensitive to what Elain needed and wanted, and assumed that everything would fall into place and that she could only need him because of the mating bond.

Rhysand – I liked how we got to see more of Rhysand’s character in this book. His true self, and his true feelings.

Armen, Mor, Cassian and Azriel – AGAIN, I’m not trying to pair them all together. I feel like all of these characters were more fleshed out in this book. I liked seeing Mor’s relationship with her friend, and learning about her romantic interests. I loved seeing Cassian and Nesta’s relationship develop. I loved seeing Azriel’s relationship with Elain, and furthermore, I feel like I understood his character much better in this book. And finally, Armen— I swear, I had a heart attack when she pulled that stunt with the Cauldron. I thought ‘oh no, it’s Red Queen all over again— she’s betraying us all’, and prepared to go sob in a corner and have a lot more feels. But she didn’t betray anyone, and she was beautiful.

Jurian – THIS GUY. Holy hecken, I flipped when he revealed his true intentions. What a plot twist!

Final Thoughts:

10/10 would recommend to anyone, ever. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought it was quite well-written, despite the part in the middle where I lost interest for a while.