HOW GOOD WAS IT?

3.5/10

BASICALLY…

A Court of Mist and Fury is the sequel to A Court of Thorn and Roses. The story picks up after Tamlin, Feyre, and the whole faerie land have been freed from Amarantha’s dictatorship.
Feyre, now a High Fae, is no longer the same and dealing with intense psychological damages due to the events of the last book: evil villain, flesh-eating worms, getting an ugly tattoo she didn’t really want — so you know, it’s a lot to deal with.

Tamlin (Feyre’s fiance) is becoming increasingly protective and doesn’t seem to understand what she’s going through. Or he does understand, but the way he chooses to deal with it worsens her situation. To cap it all, Feyre also has a bargain she couldn’t get out of with Rhysand — the High Lord of the Nigh Court, aka guy with wings who drew on her arm with a permanent marker.

You can say that this is a story about how a broken girl who’s been through a brutal war finds her way back to normal life; and from that perspective, it’s not bad.

Next — it’s kind of difficult to review the rest of this book without spoilers since romance is pretty much the center of the story, and you can’t discuss the romance without actually naming the people who are involved in the romance. So here we go…

SPOILER REVIEW 

So apparently, Tamlin and Feyre’s relationship is abusive? Let me start by saying that I’m absolutely not defending Tamlin — the guy is wrong to not let Feyre talk, to exclude her opinion from his court, and to finally lock her up in a room. And when you look back at Book 1, little hints of his abusive nature have already been built into his character. Except that back then, it was a simple story so his “character” wasn’t explored as much as it is now. That being said, Tamlin has not been explored enough to make his abusive behavior toward Feyre believable.

What I see instead is two people who don’t communicate properly, and the story doesn’t give them that chance.

Tamlin continuously ignores Feyre’s pleas to go outside, he suddenly becomes that hateful dude no one is a fan of, he refuses to listen to Lucien — his best friend — every single time. Yes, war can change people; and Tamlin is also suffering from PTSD, but this side of Tamlin is brought about too abruptly and they seem to be there only to highlight Rhysand’s goodness that comes into light later on.

In the end, it felt like I was being forced to hate Tamlin. So I ended up… not hating Tamlin.
He is now a character with flaws, with weaknesses to overcome; and I can’t help wondering if this would have been a more interesting story if it was about Tamlin and Feyre finding their way back together after what they went through.

But assuming that their relationship is abusive, then Feyre’s development is fairly well done. She starts out by denying that Tamlin is a controlling jerk, she keeps reminding herself of the nice things he did for her, and she fails to leave him for good. It’s only after she’s literally rescued from a locked room that she starts to question her choice. This is a pretty realistic take on why abuse victims usually talk themselves out of leaving their abuser right away.

Doesn’t mean it’s a good story to read about, but at least it’s not “wrong”.

However, Feyre really needs to stop comparing Tamlin and Rhys so frequently.
Tamlin doesn’t care about my feelings, Rhys does.
Tamlin locks me in a room, Rhys takes me flying.
Tamlin has claws, Rhys has wings

Yes, yes, none of those things are wrong. But the readers can make the comparisons themselves, Feyre.

Rhysand-Feyre is endgame now. Yayy… I guess? On one hand, Feyre and Rhysand have great chemistry and their relationship works better than Feyre and Tamlin’s in terms of realism. They have more time to learn about each other, they are friends first before they actually date, and the teasing back and forth between them is actually enjoyable.

But what this also does is it turns the interesting and enigmatic Rhysand of Book 1 into a saint. And that’s not a compliment.

As Feyre befriends the people of the Night Court, she learns that everything the world thinks about Rhysand is not true. He’s been playing the ruthless king all this time to protect his people. The poor thing is actually a hurt puppy in need of lots of hugs. He is on first-name terms with his people and there is no superior or inferior in his court, only friendship and trust.

Do I ship him with Feyre now? Absolutely, the guy’s perfect. He respects her, lets her make her own choices, reminds her once every two pages that he will always let her make her own choices, and runs the most progressive court in the whole faerie world. Plus, he has wings, so of course Tamlin lost this battle.

But do I find this Rhysand as interesting as the old Rhysand? Not so much. There isn’t a lot to discover about him as a character anymore.

All being said, I did appreciate the gradual development of Rhysand and Feyre’s relationship. Feyre becomes stronger, gains more confidence, and loves herself more because of Rhysand. Their romance is also free from silly misunderstandings and jealousy. Rhys and Feyre are definitely a good example of a healthy relationship even though the writing can be redundant at times and the whole feminism thing feels like it’s being shoved down your throat.

The one thing I find off-putting about this relationship is the mating concept — not only are Rhys and Feyre in love, they are also mated, aka destined to be — which seems too convenient and unnecessary.

Never mind, make that two things, because here’s the next thing I could have lived without: the smut.
Look, people, I’m not a prude about this. But by the point Rhys confesses his love for Feyre, I already bought into their relationship, the chemistry was already exploding; all the smut did nothing to enhance my interest. If anything, it felt as awkward as walking in on your friends who were doing it in your living room, and it just made me violate my no-skipping rule I always follow when I read a book.

And at the end of the day, those 20-something pages feel like a waste of time. There could have been more, I’m not sure, I started skimming whenever Feyre starts gushing about Rhys’ unmatched beauty during their stay in the cabin. Just leave the bedroom and show me something about the Bone Carver or Nesta and Cassian already.

Speaking of extremely weird and powerful creatures, the Suriel is pretty fun to read about. I know it’s supposed to be this horrifying beast whose appearance scares the bravest warriors. But honestly, it just comes across as a really funny troublemaker who loves to prank people with riddles. And I don’t believe the Suriel really hurt anyone in the course of these two books.

Mor, Cassian, Amren and Azriel are great, but Lucien is just more interesting. A bonus that comes with Tamlin’s abusive nature is that his whole Spring Court isn’t being governed really well. Yayyy… (whatever) Turns out — the guy has little passion for his job and has been taking advice from the wrong people. On the other hand, Rhysand’s Night Court is one big happy family and his brothers/sisters-in-arms are the most supportive people ever. While I’m happy for Feyre that she finds herself in such an environment, my attention happens to be directed more toward Lucien’s situation.

He’s having to deal with his friend who’s got a horrible temper; he has to juggle protecting Feyre and supporting Tamlin before Feyre leaves. Mor, Cassian, and Amren’s stories are great, but in the end, they’re only stories. Lucien’s struggle is happening right now and it would have made the story much more interesting if it had been allowed more elaboration

Also, I think I kind of get the Beauty and the Beast theme now, because it wasn’t delivered that well in the first book. Rhysand behaved like a cruel Beast at first (in Book 1), but as Feyre gets to know him, she learns the reason behind his actions and that he’s really a gentle soul within. Although it would really help the message to get across if Feyre would stop telling us all the time how impossibly hot this guy is. Or is this Hades and Persephone now? Hmm…

BOTTOM LINE

If you loved A Court of Thorns and Roses for its simplicity, maybe you should stop there and not move on to A Court of Mist and Fury. But if the ending of Book 1 didn’t satisfy you, and you want to see some development in Feyre and already suspect something about Rhysand, then go ahead and give this book a try.

Also, there’s not much of a plot going on besides the romance, so if you ARE going to read it, keep in mind that the events concerning the upcoming war and all the politics in this book are meant to set up for the next book.