A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

In “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” the first installment of her seductive new series, Sarah J. Maas weaves a lush tapestry of romance, adventure, and faerie lore that will leave readers breathless for more. When huntress Feyre kills a wolf to feed her starving family, she soon learns her prey was no ordinary beast, but a faerie in disguise. Dragged across the wall separating the mortal and faerie realms as retribution, Feyre discovers her captor is the shape-shifting High Lord Tamlin, an immortal with a face as beautiful as it is deadly. As she navigates the Spring Court’s world of dangerous magic and impossible choices, Feyre’s loathing for her jailer slowly melts into a searing passion that could save or doom them both. But an ancient evil is stirring that threatens to destroy the faerie lands forever — unless Feyre can stop it.

Tales as Old as Time:

Sarah Maas made her name with her bestselling “Throne of Glass” YA high fantasy series, which completed its six-book run in 2018. While the world of “A Court of Thorns and Roses” introduces fresh mythology and higher romantic stakes, fans will recognize the hallmarks of the author’s addictive storytelling in its spirited heroine, simmering sexual tension, and a propulsive plot packed with magical intrigue. But whereas “Throne of Glass” protagonist Celaena was an unparalleled assassin, Feyre is a more relatable everywoman who must rely on her wits and hunting prowess to survive in a world with the deck stacked against her kind.

In the vein of Robin McKinley’s “Beauty,” Alex Flinn’s “Beastly,” and the classic fairy tale that inspired them, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” draws on the archetypal power of the Beauty and the Beast story—a plucky beauty agrees to live with a tortured creature to save her family, only to fall in love as she discovers the man within the monster. But Maas injects these familiar beats with faerie lore and gothic atmosphere to create a story that feels at once comfortingly recognizable and thrillingly fresh. While the contours may be well-known, the specifics of this dark, sensuous world are all Maas’s own.

A Heroine Caught Between Worlds:

Feyre has the soul of an artist but the circumstances of a barbed-wire life. With a crippled father and two older sisters reluctant to pitch in, she’s become the sole breadwinner, foraging and hunting to keep them from starving. Maas paints Feyre’s human realm in shades of gray, a landscape leached of hope where misery is so commonplace that “It was the only way to survive…to tell yourself that it would all be okay, that so long as you could draw one more breath, then the next one would be easier.”

But when she kills a wolf in the woods, Feyre learns too late it was one of the High Fae on the other side of the wall that divides humans from the faerie realm of Prythian. The wolf’s death violates an ancient treaty, and now Feyre must pay the price—sshe can die at the hands of the massive beast who’s come to collect, or be dragged across the wall to live out her days in Prythian, never to return home.

With the curse having stripped everything from her, Feyre has little to lose. So she chooses life, even if it’s in an alien court with a captor whose fury seems barely leashed. But as Feyre explores the wonders and dangers of the Spring Court, she discovers her beastly keeper Tamlin is full of contradictions—vicious one moment, gentle the next, with a face to make angels weep.

Torn between fear, resentment, and a growing fascination, Feyre finds her strength and artist’s soul reawakening at the Spring Court. Though she escapes, a pull she can’t explain lures her back to Prythian and the faerie lord she can’t forget. But with an ancient threat rising, Feyre will have to risk more than her heart to save the land and male she’s grown to love.

Fifty Shades of Fae:

“A Court of Thorns and Roses” is both Maas’s first high fantasy for adult readers and her steamiest work to date. Tamlin and Feyre’s relationship evolves with simmering intensity before boiling over into steamy consummated passion. But this isn’t merely gratuitous fairy erotica. The book sensitively explores issues of trauma, consent, and healing through intimacy, as two emotionally wounded characters find solace in each other.

Maas paints their physical connection with a dreamy eroticism grounded in emotional need. Masked immortal Tamlin, blessed with beauty and cursed with claws, cannot believe any human woman could want him as a man. Feyre, an outcast among her own kind, can’t fathom that one of the High Fae could love a scrawny, desperate human girl like a “weed in his beautiful, cultured garden.” As Feyre brings the Spring Court back to life in a riot of flowery brushstrokes, Tamlin awakens her frozen heart to the possibility of joy and love in even the darkest places.

Magical Intrigue & Masked Danger:

Between the swoony romance and lush scenery, Maas keeps the plot humming with enough suspense and surprises to make you forget you already know the bones of this tale. The Spring Court’s ethereal, pastoral beauty only heightens the sense of danger lurking in its shadows, where the creatures are deadlier and the fae crueler than Feyre imagined.

A visit from the treacherous Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court, makes Tamlin realize Feyre is not safe in Prythian, and Feyre can sense a darkness creeping across the land. When she learns Tamlin is in the grips of a faerie queen’s curse, Feyre embarks on trials straight out of myth—battling monsters and solving riddles—to save her beloved and his world. Maas uses riddles as a sly way to hide clues in plain sight and keep readers guessing until the final page.

A Bewitching Start to a Promising Series:

“A Court of Thorns and Roses” casts a heady spell with its irresistible blend of sweet romance, sizzling passion, and high-stakes magical drama. By remixing a classic fairy tale with imaginative lore and complex characters, Maas breathes fresh life into the high fantasy romance genre. The book builds to a satisfying climax while paving the way for more adventures, with a transformed Feyre only beginning to test the limits of her power. Readers will be left ravenous for the next installment in this dazzling new series that blends beauty, beasts, and tantalizing darkness in a faerie land that feels both achingly real and wondrously new.