A Court of Thorns and Roses Series
As the days grow darker (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere), many of us search about for a good book series as we relax during the holiday season. For readers who appreciate a suspenseful fantasy interwoven with a good dose of romance, Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) and the four books that come after it will delight.
The first in this series, A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) establishes the divided world in which we find our heroine, Feyre Archeron. She is young and headstrong, but she is also starving and terrified that if she fails to bring home food from her hunt, her family will all die. I recognized tropes from The Hunger Games with world-building elements of Game of Thrones as readers meet teen Feyre out hunting with a bow—her family reliant upon her wit and skill for their collective survival—in the shadow of a wall that keeps the mortal realm safe from the faeries who dwell on its northern side. Yet, Maas’s skillful, fast-paced storytelling quickly reveals that all is not as it seems as layer upon layer of untruth or partial truth reveal themselves and Feyre comes of age as a liminal character; she is a mortal who finds herself at the center of conflict in the faerie world. A Court of Thorns and Roses also draws upon many parallels with the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, and readers savvy to this may be unsurprised by some of its plot twists. Ultimately, Feyre faces a series of trials through which she settles into her own ferocity, courage, and inner resolve.
Over the course of her adventures in ACOTAR, Feyre finds a lover, a friend, and an unlikely ally, among the High Fae who rule the faerie realm but her story is far from complete by the first book’s conclusion. The four books that follow A Court of Thorns and Roses continue to unravel the many layers of intrigue, magic, and romance in both the mortal and the faerie realms. Readers meet a diverse cast of characters, creatures, and monsters, as Feyre learns to appreciate the differences between various courts of the High Fae, as well as the importance of her own unique power. As the series continues, Maas draws on epic battle scene tropes a la Tolkien as Feyre continues to find herself at the heart of a conflict that threatens faerie and mortal alike.
The first three books: A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury (2016), and A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017) act as a trilogy with Feyre at its center. A Court of Frost and Starlight (2018) is a holiday novella also centering on Feyre and her mate. In her most recent addition, A Court of Silver Flames (2021) Maas shifts the reader’s gaze to Feyre’s eldest sister, Nesta. All of Maas’s books deal with themes of love, betrayal, trauma, depression, and the process of healing from within.
Readers should not assume the Young Adult (YA) sticker on their library copy means these books are PG. Rather, every reader should be ready for plenty of graphic details when it comes to romantic moments between couples. In fact, there have been changes made to the YA designation as the series continues due to the explicit sex included in all the books. With or without the sex scenes, these books are compulsively readable—I read all five over the course of a few weeks—but while their heroine is a teen (in the first book) they include plenty of mature sexuality that is likely inappropriate for young readers.
I thoroughly enjoyed the escapism of A Court of Thorns and Roses and the four books that follow it, and I am sure that anyone who loves fantasy blended with a hefty dose of romantic tension will eagerly consume these books too. If you are looking for a holiday read (or five) to fall into, look no further. I am eager to see where Maas takes Feyre and her many companions as the series continues in the future (the next book is speculated to come out in 2023).
Bibliography of Books in Order:
Maas, Sarah J. A Court of Thorns and Roses. Bloomsbury Publishing: 2015.
——— A Court of Mist and Fury. Bloomsbury Publishing: 2016.
——— A Court of Wings and Ruin. Bloomsbury Publishing: 2017.
———-A Court of Frost and Starlight. Bloomsbury Publishing: 2018.
——— A Court of Silver Flames. Bloomsbury Publishing: 2021.
