A court of silver flames book review - by Sarah J Maas *Spoliers

 Hey guys,

I am so excited because the book i've been waiting literally a year for has finally been released. Yup we even survived Bloomsbury pushing back the publication date by a whole month. Suffice to say, the rebels would have gotten extremely restless if they pushed it back further.

Ok So ACOSF was released, everyone scrambled for their copy, and it feels like there has been a lull in Bookstagram while people are happily reading it. I mean she thicc. At nearly 770 pages, this bad boy will keep any reader occupied for quite a few days. Me included.

ACOSF was a very different book from the other 3.5 in the series (Yes i say 3.5 because ACOFAS is a novella rather than a full blown book), because it followed Nesta and Cassian's POV. Nesta is the hateful, closed minded older sister of Feyre and Cassian is the illyrian warrior apart of the inner circle. There was so so much in this book to talk about, and instead of waffling on (which i already feel like i am doing) i think i should just jump into the meat and potatoes of this book. 

What i loved - the off the charts chemistry between Cassian and Nesta. I just loved her borderline inappropriate comments and Cassian's witty  replies. 

- The sex scenes. PHEWWWW SJM OMG. GIRLLL please please please keep those coming. I am super excited that she said she wants to move more into adult fantasy, cause ummm your world building, exemplary character construction and just all round how you write is wasted in YA fantasy when you can write scenes like that.  ( Yes a few of the scenes were a bit unrealistic - but its 1. fiction and 2. fantasy, meaning that absolutely anything can fricken happen within reason of course, because last time i check there was no illyrian warriors floating the sky to be able to reference if this 'really does happen'). It also made me love the scenes so much more. 

- Nesta and Cassian together. I really loved watching their love bloom and blossom. I loved watching Nesta come into her own, making her own friends. But most of all i loved how SJM incorporated people that were broken and through the power of friendship managed to fix eachother. I thought that was a super important lesson. 

- I loved the fact that Nesta and Cassian are mates, i just wished the bond was more pronounced like it was with the other characters. I also love that the inner circle are finding their mates. As a hopeless romantic i love it when people can find the other half of their soul. It really speaks to me. 

But with the good there is always some bad, and there was a few things i didnt like namely WHY DID YOU TURN RYHSAND INTO THIS GIANT TURD BALL THAT I LITERALLY WANTED TO PUNCH IN THE FACE?!?! I totally get this book was taken from Nesta's POV, so i get he wasnt going to be the nicest to her. But why was he such an ass to CASSIAN? his brother and best friend? And Amren? LIKE WTF since when has the inner circle been about world domination? From her previous books in the series the inner circle has only cared about Velaris and protecting Velaris, so why is Amren trying to convince Rhy's to use his powers and become high king?

- There was a lot of 'learning to fight scenes' and Nesta attempting to climb up and down the 10,000 steps outside, which after a while got a bit monotonous. I get it was a metaphor for her mental strength but it just got a bit repetitive. 

- I took great issue with SJM having Nesta give back her power to the cauldron. She has spent so much of her time creating such strong female characters. Why does she weaken them in childbirth and then turn them powerless. I get the whole point of 'it was Nesta showing her growth by an act of selflessness' but i just thought she could have done it differently with Nesta having to become less extra-ordinary. Like for example why couldnt Feyre give birth in her illyrian form? or why couldnt the couldron say you are doing my biding, keep the powers ? 

- My last gripe, i know SJM has made no secret she wrote this book while being at the lowest point and she often talks alot about putting that into Nesta and her own battles with what is happening to her. The problem, Nesta's issues felt sort of ...basic when compared with Emery and Gwyn. Again i dont mean this in a mean way, but If i was in that group of friends, and the others were telling me their story i feel like i would look a them and say 'Wow i am sorry for bringing it up'.  I also dont mean to make it  like 'yes i was raped' 'omg me too',  kind of way, but i just felt i could never really connect with Nesta's struggles other than she was completely ostracised from the inner circle. I connected with that a lot and again i say WHY DID YOU MAKE CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THE INNER CIRCLE SUCH SELF SERVING ANNOYANCES. But otherwise, comparing that to her own struggles i felt she was slightly spoiled and self serving in the beginning but she really came out of her shell.  I mean when you look at Emery - her father clipped her wings, she lives in constant pain, her family keep trying to take the one thing from her - her shop, away giving her nothing. Gwyn- she was attacked, her sister killed in front of her because she was protecting the hidden children from Hyburns soldiers, then she was gang raped by them before Az saved her. Like these were heavy things to read about, and they were also gave empathy for their characters, i didnt really feel empathy for Nesta. As a reader who goes through mental health battles i felt this kind of missed the mark for me. Nesta's issues while i understand why they left a mark, i didnt think compared to these other two, was that traumatic. She was miserable before she went into the cauldron. She was an asshole when she came out. Her father died long after that. She cant just use her father dying in front of her as an excuse as to why she was such an abrasive withdrawn person. 

But anyway. Even though i did have some parts i found strange, i still really loved this book. Once i finished reading it, i said to myself. I need to 1. reread the whole series and 2. reread this book. It was phenomenal in all ways SJM is great at writing, i am super excited for Az's new book. Now the countdown is on the for the next Crescent city  book.

Oh before i go i forgot to give my rating. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ i still give it 5 stars because it was so so good. Even though there were parts i was like whaaaaaa. I really did love this book. 

💖 Self confessed book eater