Sarah J. Maas is a master at world building. There, I said it. This is a fairytale retelling loosely based on Beauty and the Beast, heavy on the beauty. The lush descriptions of everything draw you in from the very beginning and you feel like you can see, taste and smell everything Sarah describes in such a fantastically vivid way.
The first two thirds of the book do move at a slower pace, but it helps with the slow burn of the relationship development between our heroine, Feyre, and our beast character, Tamlin. And once it develops, holy moly. The love scenes are pretty darn steamy. We also have the development of the friendship between Feyre and Tamlin's emissary, Lucien. Lucien is a wonderfully sassy character and provides humor and at all the right moments. The friendship he develops with Feyre takes it's time as well, which is nice. There is no kind of insta-love to be found in this entire book.
The final third of the book is action packed and more than makes up for the first part moving slowly. We get tons of intrigue, fairy politics, violence and emotion in such a short burst that you will not be able to put the book down. We also get a pretty dreamy anti-hero with the High Lord of the Night Court, Rhysand. Look out future love triangle since both of these High Lords are completely shippable. If you're a fan of the Vampire Diaries, I'd compare Tamlin and Rhysand to Stefan and Damon. You have the good guy with a dark side and also the bad guy with a heart of gold. You really can't go wrong either way.
I highly recommend this book as one of the best fairytale retellings out there as it is creative and turns the story on it's head just enough that you don't know where the next book will take it. I for one can't wait to find out!
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