#acosf review
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whatsvivireading · 2 years ago
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🧡🖤A Court of Silver Flames Review 🖤🧡
3.75/5🧡
I finally picked up A Court of Silver Flames because I've Kind of been on a Sarah J Maas binge recently, I’m just so obsessed with the worlds she builds, and also because I’ve been SO scared of accidentally stumbling upon spoilers online. I would be sad to have finally caught up on the ACOTAR series, but I have SO many more Sarah J Maas books to read!
This book is primarily about Nesta’s healing journey, and is supposed to be an emotional, character driven story. It’s a lot of training and learning how to deal with difficult emotions, and coping. I’m not sure what others would call it, but it gave me montage vibes. Along the way Nesta does learn to trust people and let her family in, but she also makes new friends, her own found family that she never really experienced before. In the background of this emotional journey, the immortal queen is stirring up trouble, and they need Nesta’s help to take her down.
Nesta is primarily the main character, but it is Cassian who is tasked with training her and monitoring her progress. Nesta has been at rock bottom for some time now, and she isn’t willing to let anyone help her. And Cassian has this need to help people who are hurting, so the pair works together perfectly. Well not really, because Nesta is fighting him basically the entire book, and he just wants to see her try again. But it makes for amazing sexual tension, and when things heat up…oh damn do they get extremely steamy. Nesta faces major (and much needed) character development which absolutely wouldn’t have happened without her family's involvement and Cassian's stubborn determination.
Coming to terms with every aspect of yourself, even the dark parts, and being able to forgive yourself, and finding the people who accept you are two major themes that show up throughout the novel. My favorite part of this book really highlights being able to forgive yourself.
Page 506:
“All the things I’ve done before—”
“Leave them in the past. Apologize to who you feel the need to, but leave those things behind.”
“Forgiveness is not that easy.”
“Forgiveness is something we also grant ourselves. And I can talk to you until these mountains crumble around us, but if you don’t wish to be forgiven, if you don’t want to stop feeling this way ��� it won’t happen.”
This part…really hit me hard. Something I’ve struggled with for a very long time has been letting go of the past and forgiving myself. It’s still hard to forgive myself, to find myself being worthy of forgiveness, but I will never move forward if I only hang onto the past. It was also probably from about this point where I stopped finding Nesta as annoying as I did in the beginning and started to understand why she’s like this.
I have always loved Sarah J Maas’ writing style. The way she crafts her world, the scenes that turn into a movie in my head, she never fails to completely whisk me away from reality and this book is no different. The tone she uses perfectly fits the disparity and uncertainty Nests feels in the beginning of the book, and changes very slowly to hopeful, strong, and willing. It is beautiful to see, and her writing style definitely is the reason I was able to finish this book so quickly! I devour all of her books in days though!!
So, what are my thoughts on this book?
I could not stand Nesta for the first 70% of the book or so. It bothered me so much that she was in such a mindset where she really truly believed no one else would ever understand what had happened to her, when she was surrounded by Fae who are hundreds of years old, her sister who was thrown in the cauldron with her, and her youngest sister who started hunting when she was 14 to keep them alive. I know how deep this book goes into her grief and I loved reading her journey, but Nests was insufferable for the majority of the book. In the end I like her more than I did in any other book, but I still don’t love her. I also think Cassian is way too good for her, but she also thinks that so I’m not really going to touch more on that. I should also mention here, I was an only child, and I have seen a lot of people mention “big sister trauma” hitting different, so maybe I’m just more disconnected from Nesta as a character. Her trauma is valid even if I can’t understand it completely, but that doesn’t forgive her for intentionally hurt those around her over and over again.
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pit-and-the-pen · 8 months ago
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500 follower fic recs
Holy shit. I just hit 500 followers and I could not be more thankful for all of y'all!
In honor of this I'm going to share some of the fics and blogs I'm loving right now!
Be Good by @nocasdatsgay - Pairing: Female Reader/Azriel/Eris (Smut +18) Absolutely amazing story and even better smut. Also HIGHLY recommend all the fics for this pairing. They're amazing.
Juice Stains by @thelov3lybookworm Dad! Eris and his adorable son. Just adorable. I love some good wholesome dad eris content
Untouchable by @serpentandlily Azriel x Rhys sister!reader Just tagged one part of the series but the whole series had me kicking and screaming. Just so so incredibly good.
A Bitter Farewell by @dee-writes-smut Eris x Reader. A good old fashion heart breaking angst fic.
Stomach Sleeping by @myromanempiree Eris x Reader drabble. Again I'm a sucker for dad Eris and this one is just so short and sweet!
The Fox and The Fawn by @utterlyotterlyx HighLord!Eris x Rhys!Sister!Reader x Azriel. One of my favorite ongoing series right now. Cannot recommend enough. The angst, the drama it's so so amazing
And last but certainly not least any of @daycourtofficial Eris X gingerfucker series but especially Starfall in Autumn. Starfall is one of my favorite canon events and this is such an amazing little twist on it.
Theres so many more that I could post on here and just wanted to say thank you again for everyone that followed me! <3 <3
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godsfavdarling · 6 months ago
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Here's my acosf review. If you enjoy sjm and acotar pls don't read.
Also, this isn't much of a review. I just had to get this out of me.
The review is: this shit stinks just like everybody's arousal in this fucking book. Imagine being able to smell everybody's sex stink all the time. Disgusting.
1. The book should be half as long.
2. It reads like a fanfic and as if it was written by a man at the same time, which is strange, but congrats Sarah! You must be the first to ever achieve that.
3. Nesta is the only thing I liked.
4. Why was this sooooo long?
5. Sarah, please, I'm begging you: stop writing smut and focus on writing a good story.
summary:
In this final (for now) continuation about our favourite group of friends, we get to follow Nesta, Feyre's sister, who's been a million times more interesting from the beginning. Nesta is in her spiraling crazy hoe bitch era and spends some of Rhysand's money, which he doesn't like even though he's the fairy version of Jeff Bezos. Nesta is told she can't be a little hoe anymore and is locked away in one of Rhysand's houses "for her own good."
You see, when Tamlin locked Feyre away in his mansion for her own good, he was a bad, bad fairy. But locking Nesta up is totally okay because they just love her. Thank God she has Cassian around, her pilates instructor, who makes sure she eats well and exercises every day before she goes to this huge af library to put books away. There, she meets some girls who've been through it and try to find peace in their work and community. But Nesta thinks they should start working out.
At last, Nesta has some friends who also love smut. Good for them. Nesta has to find some horcruxes or something to stop some people, something, something cauldron. Anyway, she meets some bad guy and pisses herself <3
Also, Feyre is pregnant, and Rhys is a piece of shit, but I guess he is our favorite book boyfriend, and he can do no wrong.
But who cares about the plot? Most of this book is Cassian's huge veiny schlong and balls hitting Nesta's bare skin. This is what we're here for. Good for them, I guess? I didn't need to know all that, but hey! There's 800 pages! So they had to fill those (just like Cassian fills Nesta every day) since the plot is just kind of there.
Nesta is the best character in these stupid books, and everybody else sucks. Maybe except Az or Elena or whatever her name is. I don't care about Cassian. But thank God he's there to eat our girl out and pound his waaaaaay too big (don't you dare forget how big his fairy dick is) schlong into her beautiful, dripping wet pussy.
At the end, three women who have been doing pilates classes for a few months win some Hunger Games against a bunch of men who have been preparing for this their entire lives. Some evil bitch gets killed in a second, and everybody lives happily ever after.
I am so tired.
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whosstella · 27 days ago
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Book Complains
Ok ik I usually talk abt obx on here but rn i want to comment on something else. WHY IN THE SEVEN HELLS is the 4th book of Acotar the way it is. Like it has cute scenes and stuff like that BUT WHY is Feyre like that?? I’ve been trying to get through this book for TWO YEARS!! Two years and every.single.time. I pick it up it puts me in a book slump. It’s the sole reason to why I have yet to finish the Acotar series (that I started like two years ago). Pls help
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tamlindudley · 11 months ago
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I’m unhinged. Help.
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romantasyreader28 · 7 months ago
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ACOTAR 💜🖤💙
My collage, pls don’t steal❤️
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lackablazeical · 9 months ago
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youtube
Not a fantastic video, but it was fun to make and I want to make more in the future :] enjoyyyy
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lia-land · 10 months ago
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A Court of Silver Flames
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3/5 stars
Spoilers for A Court of Silver Flames*
How this book made it past an editor is beyond me.
I read a review where someone said that this book felt like reading smut about a cousin and I couldn’t agree more. I can’t connect with Nesta. She will always just be Feyre’s sister to me and not a main character as she was supposed to be in this book. I feel like we were set up to dislike her in the earlier books and that dislike was set in stone for me.
This was kind of like a long fan fiction and had the same vibe as A Court of Frost anf Starlight because there wasn’t a strong plot and it read like A Court of Nesta and Friends. What little plot exists was mainly there to set up for the sex scenes and Nesta’s redemption arc. When a book is over 600 pages, I expect a strong plot, not for things to conveniently happen solely for the purpose of Nesta and Cassian having sex and for her and Rhys to salvage their relationship. The pregnancy plot came across as nothing more than an excuse for Nesta to come in and save the day so that she can redeem herself. I also think we should have seen the pregnancy through Feyre and Rhys, rather than having it happen in a book where they are side characters. Especially since it involved the death pact backfiring. I have many issues with the death pact regardless and it was a plot point that was set up for failure, especially since it was thrown into the end of ACOWAR. In fairness, we did get a bonus chapter of them finding out she’s pregnant, but after three books of their relationship developing, this seemed like a big thing to leave out. Perhaps we’ll get a novella of it one day. Although, it doesn’t seem like Feyre was getting up to much in this book while she was pregnant, so maybe it would have been somewhat uneventful to read about her pregnancy from her POV. Then again, this book is over 600 pages of nothing particularly eventful, so it wouldn’t be out of the question.
As many other reviews have said, it makes little sense that Cassian’s guts were falling out in ACOWAR and he lived, but C-sections do not exist. As I said before, a lot of things were just too convenient for the ‘plot’ so that Rhys and Nesta could have an excuse to mend the relationship. And the whole thing at the end where Nesta quickly throws in that she changed her hips as well so that she can bear a winged baby?? That’s not the sort of execution I’d expect from an author who has published multiple series and has been writing for years. 
The stairs specifically don’t make sense because if Nesta is so tired from going down them, how does she make it back up the stairs every time? Surely going up is more effort than going down. This is a huge plot hole and I don’t understand how not one person picked up on it before the book was published. It’s stated that she is completely drained and doesn’t stop until the can’t take another step down, so it’s not like she’s strategically conserving enough energy to go back up. There’s one occasion where she goes down more than halfway, and then gets too tired so she goes back. Like… would it not have been easier to go down when you’re already halfway there… This bothered me the most out of everything else. The House of Wind in general is a plot hole because as far as I can recall, it’s never stated that there is another way to get in other than flying. So my question is why and how would they use it for their ‘official’ meetings and parties? Do Rhys and co go back and forth to fly all these people in? Especially during those weekly meetings Rhys and Feyre do with the citizens that was mentioned in ACOFAS, because I doubt everyone would be willing or able to go up those 10,000 steps while dressed for a party or meeting.
Also, how did Rhys and Feyre build the River House so quick? Hasn't it only been like 8 months or so since Rhys gifted her the land in ACOFAS? Has the rest of Velaris been rebuilt with this same speed since the Hybern attack? Are there still Velaris citizens living on the outskirts with their houses lying in rubble while their High Lord and High Lady built their fourth house (on the biggest plot in the city, I should add)? Let’s not forget Rhys only purchased the land because the house previously on it was ruined in the attack and the owner didn't want to rebuild. The timing is just in poor taste.
Then there’s the Valkyrie. How do Gywn and Emerie win the Rite after being dragged into it unprepared with a few months of training when we’ve been told multiple times that it is nearly impossible? Even for Illyrians who have trained their whole lives. I could maybe justify it by how it was implied that the Valkyrie had specific training methods and skills, but were those skills really that much more advanced than those of the Illyrian males? So much so that Gywn and Emerie won with only a few months of training? If so, this should have been made more clear, but I’d still find it unrealistic that said skills are so advanced that one could win the Rite with only a few months of training. If Nesta alone had won, I could maybe justify it and think about how her powers made her an exception.
It also didn’t fully sit right with me that Feyre essentially locked Nesta up in the House of Wind after what Tamlin did to her. I know it’s not the exact same situation, but it felt close enough. Even if it was truly and completely the last resort, which it seemed like it was, Feyre didn’t seem very bothered by the decision. I say this specifically because of the scene after the first meeting with Nesta, when Rhys has sent all the servants away so him and Feyre can have sex. Read the room. I get that they were both extra horny from the pregnancy, but I don’t think that scene was necessary. It felt more like SJM just being like 'don't worry! Your favorite couple from the original trilogy are still having lots of sex!' Although, I forget this is the same couple that got it on to ‘the distant cries of the injured and dying' in ACOWAR, so what do I know? At least their characters are consistent in that sense. Is there a situation they won’t fuck in? Now I’m curious about what the limit is for them to say ‘no, it’s inappropriate for us to fuck right now.’
The original trilogy made me want to read slower because I did not want the pages to end and I could read about that story forever. With this book, I ended up listening to the audiobook for 2/3 because I wanted to get it over with because I’d like to know what happens to the characters. I really only got through it because I wanted to read about Feyre and Rhys, but even they were out of character and not enjoyable. Feyre often seemed like she’d aged 30 years in the way she spoke and acted. Being High Lady and the things she went through would undoubtedly have made her more mature, but it’s only been like a year. It would have made far more sense if this book was set 50 or 100 years after the events of the last book. This didn’t feel at all like the badass and sometimes reckless Feyre who escaped the weaver, had water wolves, killed the Attor, and turned the Spring Court on each other—all of which happened approximately under two years before this book.
I would happily pretend that this book does not exist if SJM one day asked for it to be ignored so that certain plot lines could be rewritten. I didn’t like the direction of any character in this and it has not left me excited for the upcoming books in this series. In this case, I think the characters would have benefitted from having their story end in ACOWAR.
I did enjoy the dance scene between Eris and Nesta and I’m excited to read more about Eris and his side of the story. I don’t care much for Mor, though I wish Lucien made more appearances in this book.
Azriel Bonus chapter: Angry Rhys and the whole “My office. Now” is hot, but he was far too harsh with Azriel. He literally told him to go to a brothel if he’s that desperate for sex. I can see where Rhys was coming from, but he straight up threatened Azriel. Not sure how I feel about that, but maybe some justification from Rhy’s POV will help in the future. It's okay for Rhys to almost cause a war over Feyre, but Cauldron forbid Azriel even entertains the idea.
I find the Evil Rhys theory entertaining and this book made me happy in that regard, but nothing else.
The only thing this book somewhat attempted to do well is set up for another book in a different SJM series, which I will not delve into due to spoilers, but iykyk.
2.5 stars, really, but 3 because Azriel called Cassian out for the dining room. In saying all of this, I will absolutely be reading any upcoming books in this series because I love the characters and I’m invested in their stories, but this book was frustrating and slow.
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inthe-afterglows · 9 months ago
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A Court of Thorns and Roses Review
A Court of Thorns and Roses - 3 stars -Was boring and repetitive for the first twenty chapters, second half redeemed it but overall I didn't really get the hype. Tamlin lovers ... I will never understand you. Feyre was in that place for three months and Tamlin only attempted to see/speak to her alone once and they didn't even talk. They just made out after she'd been traumatised for months. How about some words of encouragement? How about trying to get her out? How about sending someone to heal her after Lucien was injured? Rhys played the villain to help her and you know what? It worked. She's only alive because of Rhys.
A Court of Mist and Fury - 5 stars -Was actually really good! Romance was 10/10, fantasy and action was 10/10. Chapter 55 really did live up to the hype and I loved Rhys and Feyre's banter and tension leading up to it -- they had so many good moments in this book and Rhys gatecrashing Feyre and Tamlin's wedding will forever be iconic. The last 100 or so pages had me so hooked with every plot twist gagging me. Also why is Tamlin pretending to sleep whilst Feyre is vomiting her guts up every night due to PTSD so funny and yet so sad? The ending of this one really cements him as a piece of shit. TBF he is not THE villain but he is Feyre's villain and I hope she makes him pay.
A Court of Wings and Ruin - 4.5 stars -Was really good, Feyre really delivered on her threats to Tamlin and I lived for it. Rhys and Feyre were both in top notch form in their final novel and all the action was great. And again to Tamlin lovers who say Feyre went to far in destroying his Court, let's not forget that when given the chance to be civil to Feyre, he double downed and basically called her a slut in front of all the High Lords in Prythian after thinking of her as property he could bargain for. I personally lived for Feyre taking down the Spring Court, it really showed how far she'd come since the last time she'd been (trapped) there and shows how worthy she is of being High Lady of the Night Court. Just remember, Rhys built her up whilst Tamlin tore her down. Again, he's not THE villain but he is the villain in Feyre's story.
A Court of Frost and Starlight - 3 stars -I liked the insight into their 'quieter' lives after the war but this was essentially a Christmas special. Nothing actually happens in this book plot wise and I actually really begin to loathe Nesta in this one. Kinda sad in this one that Rhys and Feyre weren't having their own little adventure like they talked of in acowar. I would've enjoyed it more plotwise if they had taken a week off to hunt Bryaxis or something (low stakes but still action-y) and they could have cute moments/convos whilst camping on the hunt.
A Court of Silver Flames - 3 stars -It made me understand Nesta more but I still don't really like her as a person. I think there was a bit where someone said she didn't fail Feyre and I wholeheartedly disagree. Elain and Nesta BOTH failed Feyre as older sisters when they were living in that cottage. They were both happy to sit at home and spend the money Feyre earned whilst Feyre was the one who went into the dangerous woods and kept them fed and clothed. I also didn't love the romance in this one because it wasn't a romance. Nesta and Cassian fucked and were friends but there was hardly any romance. Another issue I have with this one was the lack of anything really happening. This was more a mental health journey than a fantasy action / adventure romance which isn't really what I was looking for from a series like this. I think this one might've been improved with a Rhys or Feyre POV or even a Mor POV so we could have at least seen more of the politics going on in the NC at the time and with Nesta's mental health journey / training being contained to the first 30-50% of the novel instead of the whole thing. I would have liked to see her being involved more in missions and making amends more because her hating on her sisters and Rhys for over 80% of the book was really getting old and she really did not have a leg to stand on so it was infuriating to read. At one point I was really only reading for the Feyre x Rhys crumbs.
Overall: As a series this is really average for me. Out of 5 books I only really liked 2 which is less than 50% so I really didn't understand the hype for this series which was really sad because I really wanted to like it. I will say the world building was fantastic. I think the world SJM created was done so well but unfortunately the plot or lack thereof in a few of these novels really bumps it down for me and the pacing novel to novel really sucks. I also would have been more invested if the books following the first four still had Feyre and Rhys as main characters. As it stands, I feel SJM has mostly sidelined them from a storyline perspective for future books. I would have enjoyed seeing more of their adventures that they spoke of at the end of ACOWAR before they started having kids.
As for the Fourth Wing vs ACOTAR debate .... FOURTH WING all the way! I am convinced that people only like acotar more because it came first. To me Fourth Wing has the better romance and overall books (it certainly had the better first novel). This could change as more books from Fourth Wing come out but as it stands, in my opinion, Fourth Wing has given us 2/2 really good books (rated 4+ stars) so far, and acotar 2/5 so y'all do the math lol.
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margielalalove · 3 months ago
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“Never again.
Never again would she be weak.
Never again would she be at someone’s mercy.
Never again would she fail.
Never again, never again, never again.”
Sarah J. Maas, A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #5)
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secretelia · 11 months ago
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HOFAS REVIEW (SPOILERRRRS)
I wanted to do a HOFAS Review bc i've seen so many opinions of this book... Beware spoilers!
Okey, first of all, my rating for this book: 4.5 ⭐️ I LOVED IT!
Sorry to everyone who hated it, i just couldn't. I loved it! Even tho i do have some things to say. Let's start on the story itself (plot, writing style...):
The plot to me was good, even tho at some points a lil bit too dense. But I really enjoyed seeing how the whole story that started in book one ended. I really liked how everything was tied up and how all those things that appeared in book one actually made sense now in book three. Again, at some points it became difficult to follow, but in the end everything made sense.
Bryce and Hunt's romantic story. I love them! Bryce was a little annoying at some point, but i totally get what she was trying to say/do. It's unfair to say that she doesn't care for Hunt bc she looked past his trauma. She didn't! She was dealing with a lot of stuff and maybe her first reaction wasn't good, but she realized her mistake and just asked him to finish what he started! Plus, all of you saying they don't have a connection... Be fucking for real. Their love is so pure and so mature! They're adults navigating difficult times and it SHOWS.
Ruhn and Lidia uggggggh absolutely love them! To me, Lidia was THE character on this book. Love her development, her relationship with Ruhn and overall her character. I wished we would have had a lil bit more of Ruhn pov, tho.
Tharion i love u idc what everyone says you're my fav fish<3
I really liked that it wasn't a different pov each chapter and that it was mostly bryce's and hunt's pov. But sometimes it got weird the pov changing in the middle of the chapter, it was like "wait what?" kinda situation. But overall I enjoyed it.
The ACOTAR crossover!!!! Loved it! Love to see that Nesta and Azriel became good friends and I looooooooove to see Nesta as a warrior. So powerful! She's my baby and I'm so excited bc it looks like we're getting another acotar book for her, can't fucking wait. I would have liked a little bit more of Feyre and also I was expecting for them to go help Bryce and have an epic final battle scene with the ACOTAR characters, but i'm not mad that didn't happen.
Now, for the things i didn't like:
Ithan's pov. Sorry, it was just boring! Let it go already omg... So annoying. Plus i didn't get the whole sigrid situation. It just felt like Sarah didn't remeber she existed in CC2 and didn't know what to do with her in CC3. All that "new fendyr heir" talk over and over again just to have her killed? Don' get it! It seemed like she would be Ithan's love interest and suddenly we have another character out of the blue named perry that's being set up with him... Weird.
Ariadne? What happened to her? She left the vyper queen and poof, gone. She appears at the end to tell tharion that going back to the meat market is a stupid decision and then disappears again... Ok. It was weird.
Sathia! What happened to her? Again, it seemed like the character was bothering Sarah and she didn't know what to do with her... So she set up the whole ex situation and byebye. And Flynn didn't even think to ask where the fuck his sister was? It was just so random.
This is just a curiosity, but i realized that Bryce said Rhys looked exactly like Ruhn, but then Ember didn't say anything about it when she first met Rhys... Sarah just probs forgot but i found it weird.
That bonus chapter with nesta and ember... OMG a lot of thoughts on that. I love Nesta, but I'm mad about Rhys tearing her apart, like he just knows that feyre would have done exactly the same thing as nesta, cmon😭 Also i love Cas, even though i'm a lil mad that he always sides with rhys so boldly and i would love for nesta to address that on the next acotar book.
Overall, it was a good book and i really enjoyed it!
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vanebookrecs · 5 months ago
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curieincali · 1 year ago
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Me reading ACOTAR/MAF/WAR: This is great, sure there are some problematic elements, but it doesn't meet my problem-threshold while I'm thriving in fairy smut silliness :)
ACOSF: I need to fight the author in a parking lot. x
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su4vz · 1 year ago
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So,I finished the acotar series,
And let’s just say it was another amazing romantasy series.
The first 3 books were probably my favorites,after that it was like,okay-ish.
Maybe it’s because I personally preferred reading from Feyre’s pov,but whatever (acofas doesn’t count here, considering it’s a novella)
Acofas was nothing special. (but it was fine tho)
while acosf was ehh- it was good but it just wasn’t my favorite (I honestly loved Nesta’s character development and Nessian is just adorable)
I felt bad for Eris at the end. I love him ( I can change him) 🤎🤍
Other than that I’d rate this series a 3.5/5 (that’s a good score btw)
I’m planning on starting iron flame tomorrow (AHHH IM SO EXCITED) so I’ll keep you mortals updated 🤍🤎
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kbookblurbs · 1 year ago
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A Court of Silver Flames - Sarah J. Maas
2/5 - Don't read if you're not willing to re-write in your head as you go or if you actually like well-written fantasy
I'll be honest, this was my second time through this book. Upon the reread, I had already erased so much of the plot from my memory that it was as if I was reading for the first time. Anyways ...
All the usual Maas problems are here. Weirdly written gay relationships (if there are any), oversexualization of bisexual people, transphobic undertones, retconning characters to being PoC (lucien) a la JK Rowling (or no PoC characters at all), misogyny, CRAZY levels of toxic masculinity, plot holes, etc.
This book is mostly sex and characterization retcons. I really enjoyed Nesta's character arc, the Valkyries, and sometimes Cassian and Azriel, but everything to do with Feyre left a bad taste in my mouth. Favorite scene, no question, was Nesta's dance with Eris in the Night Court. That was the first scene where I felt they actually gave Nesta skills and a personality beyond bitter alcoholism.
That said, the cons of this book far outweigh the pros. As always, Maas' writing is a breeze to get through just because it's not particularly difficult prose, but her insistence (in this novel and in other books) on using Female/Male and weird gender essentialism is at best irritating and at worst actively detracting from the novel. The entire pregnancy plotline could (and arguably should) be removed from this book. It doesn't add anything to Nesta's journey, paints Rhysand and Feyre in a really bad light, and is frankly an incredibly stupid plot choice. You have magic, can shapeshift, and have indoor plumbing but C-sections haven't been invented yet? Really? The whole scenario is incredibly contrived and I actively skipped scenes dealing with it if I could. The entire Inner Circle acts immature, judgemental, and unforgiving, despite their own insistence to the contrary. Elain also still has no personality. I was also confused by the whole "Maybe Rhysand should be High King of Prythian" subplot like ... huh?? Where did that even come from??
The book tops itself off by using one of my least favorite tropes in fantasy, which is when women, usually main characters, have to give up all their power at the end of the story. Maas is very fond of this plotline. She does the same thing with Aelin in the Throne of Glass series. Personally, I find this trope to be misogynistic and often evidence of poor writing to neatly wrap up the end of a story, regardless of whether the choices post-power-loss are in character.
The version of this story that I was re-writing in my head, which cuts the weird bitterness between Cassian and Nesta and Feyre's pregnancy entirely (she's 19????) while expanding on her powers and letting her keep them, is much more interesting. But alas, that is NOT the version on page. Unless you (like me) had it downloaded on your Kindle and an 8-hr plane ride to kill, I wouldn't bother if you're seriously interested in reading fantasy.
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alphabet-soup-108 · 8 months ago
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Hey! I’m sage! I just started this blog to put my writing projects into one place that’s not cluttered with other stuff.
I love writing all kinds of stuff but I’ve never posted it or shared it before. I also might post book reviews here.
I read and write all different genres, including fantasy, realistic fiction, horror, literally anything that catches my fancy.
My current project is a sapphic ACOTAR fanfic about Elaine Archeron and my OC Líaden, who is Greysen’s twin sister! Don’t worry, I’m still letting Elain end up with Lucien or Azriel in the end, but I decided she needed some fun ;)
If ACOTAR isn’t your jam, I’m also gonna post my poetry and songs here too, as well as future writing projects!!
I’m 18 and some of my writing includes mature themes, so I’d say if you are not comfy with the stuff in the ACOTAR books then this is not the blog for you.
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