I wish I could give this more than five stars. I was just in a reading slump that lasted for several weeks. It was awful! Luckily, I had a secret weapon...Sarah J. Maas. Any book this woman writes instantly sucks me in and I cannot put it down. Sure enough, I started reading it and as soon as I turned the first page my reading slump was history.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sarah J. Maas is a master at world building. The images she creates are so vivid that I felt like I was right there next to Feyre in the Night Court and Velaris. She also writes such heartbreaking scenes that I found myself sobbing at several points in the book. It's a rare person who can write emotion in such a raw and vulnerable way.
This is a story I feel is empowering for young women too. All too often in stories centered around romance, you get the hero like Tamlin, who is the strong, stereotypically masculine character who tells the woman he will take care of everything and she can just sit around looking pretty for him. I appreciate the fact that Feyre, who has always been the strong one for her family, was not ok with sitting around being kept in the dark and locked up like a possession. I am so happy that her relationship with Rhys was painted to show a healthy and trusting friendship first. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was so refreshing to see that Feyre felt comfortable and safe enough with him that she could disagree with him and they would work things out together. Unlike her relationship with Tamlin, where every time she disagreed with him he was growling or breaking things. In particular, the argument with Tamlin in the study was very disturbing to read because he became so violent that had Feyre not been able to protect herself, she could have been hurt. He followed up his violent outburst by physically blocking her from leaving the house while he went off on another of his unexplained errands. Once she was freed from the spelled house by Rhys and his cousin, Mor, we got to witness her long and slow healing process. She took a long time to begin to trust Rhys, not only because of the false image he created of himself, but also because she was so badly treated by Tamlin. The patience, understanding and kindness she was shown slowly healed her and we got to see her learn what a healthy relationship really was. Rhys treated Feyre like a person and not a possession. He understood that she would not always agree with him, that she could make up her own mind, form her own opinions and make her own decisions. He encouraged her at all times and supported her decisions. I love that Sarah wrote such flawed and scarred characters who were healing and dealing with their trauma in their own way, but also showing what real and healthy love has the power to do for a person's soul.
In addition to the romance, we also saw Feyre learning to trust Rhys's friends and growing to love them as her own family. One of my favorite scenes in the entire book was when she was training with Cassian and he got her to finally open up. When she finally started to cry and let out all her bottled emotion she accidentally burned through the padding on his hands and burned him, but he could see she had more to get out so he told her she could keep going. He was willing to take it just to help her get it out. I was in tears reading this because even her own family never treated her kindly or showed her that no matter what she could lean on them too. She had touching moments of friendship with Mor, Azriel, and Amren as well. It was so nice to read about not only the romantic relationship, but also Feyre developing real friendships too. The jury is still out on how I feel about Lucien at this point, but I hope he can redeem himself in the next book because he did try to be a good friend to Feyre, he just fell a little short due to his loyalty to Tamlin.
Overall, this book was amazing for so many reasons and if Sarah J. Maas is not on your auto-buy list, she should be. I don't know how I'm going to wait another year for the third book. Good thing I have Queen of Shadows sitting in my TBR pile. I have a feeling I'm going to need it to get over the hangover this book is giving me. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it.
