Sarah J Maas: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Published in 2015, A Court of Thorns and Roses started a short lived trend of “A Blank of Blank and Blank” that proliferated amongst the writing community on social media to refer to a relatively generic sounding book title. I was one of those participants. Quite honestly, I figured the writing would be pretty mediocre and decided I would never waste my time on it. This was also the season of editor’s burnout for me where everyone’s writing looked terrible. That has improved since reigning back on doing client work as hard and frequently.

So, I was stuck up at family’s house over a weekend with an absolutely terrible internet connection and no ability to get my phone to let me read my kindle books. In desperation, I popped down to the local grocer where the book shelf had A Court of Thorns and Roses on it, decided it was better than every Amish love story that was listed next to it, dropped the cash and took it back to the house.

Other than in the second sentence where the word parameter is used instead of perimeter – still not sure if that was on purpose, the editing was clean. So clean. Beautifully done.

It was nice, because I could just fall into a story and enjoy it. There were a couple points I wanted more fleshed out, and the ending felt rushed. Some of the logic points of the trial and what certain characters did needed more pages dedicated. I appreciated the commitment to the last trial – that the author didn’t just magically fix that one but had the character go through a full moral quandary AND THEN act on it. Often those types of scenes get a swooping in of some random hero who disrupts the moral quandary and then everything is rainbows and daffodils. This era’s authors are exploring further into these grey zones.

The spice…I was kinda meh on. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good spice scene. These ones just needed a bit more…ambience? mood? world build? setting? I’m not particularly sure, but the heat build up wasn’t quite there for me. Honestly, I figured with the writing style the way it was that the author was going to just go into a fade to black and it wouldn’t have felt off for doing so. It has rave reviews though with regard to the spice, so it’s somebody’s flavor.

I’m debating on if I’m going to read the rest. I sort of want to, but it’s not ‘drop my money on it right now’ reading. I keep flipping through Libby to see if it’s available, but it has a two month wait list through my library and I don’t live in a house where I can comfortably listen to the audiobook knowing the style of spicy scenes in it. I guess I could, but I hate dealing with turning off and on the earbuds. I like the idea of having the completed set on my shelf – but at the same time as a practicing minimalist, I would be just as happy just donating the physical book and renting the rest on Libby. Hard to read those at family’s though, as I learned the hard way.

It did feel like a beauty and the beast retelling. So if you’re looking for that kind of fantasy theme, this would fit pretty well.

Would I suggest it?

Yeah, sure. I think a lot of fantasy genre women would enjoy it. There might be a handful of men, as seen on TikTok, but for the most part, it is written for the adult female gaze – if you want to know who the market is.

What part did you enjoy of the book?