A Court of Wings and Ruin, Sarah J Maas, 2017
(Spoilers)
And now for the war!
In ACOTAR’s first installment, A Court of Thorns and Roses, we meet Feyre, her “Prince Adam,” Beauty and the Beast-style initial love Tamlin, her mate Rhysand, and we’re introduced to the burgeoning political turmoil between King Hybern and his offset hatred and desire to control the human lands outside of Prythian.
In ACOTAR’s second installment, A Court of Mist and Fury, we meet Rhysand’s inner circle and get to know Rhys for the cuddly teddy bear he is, despite his show of being the big bad wolf of the faerie lands, and we watch matters with Hybern and some messy alliances begin to bubble.
Now, in ACOTAR’s third installment, A Court of Wings and Ruin, the bubbles are evaporating and the War is imminent! We get to see our sexy bat boys go to battle!
The novel begins with Feyre again residing at the Spring Court (Tamlin territory), where she returned to at the end of ACOMAF after Tamlin and his Spring Court Priestess Ianthe allied with Hybern and traded Feyre’s sisters, Nesta and Elain, to the Cauldron for Feyre’s return (not sure I mentioned Ianthe in the last summary, but she’s a professional puppet master who sucks Tammy’s ass). Feyre submits to this awful situation in which she’s ripped from her home and throne at the Night Court so she can relay information about Tamlin’s alliance with Hybern to Rhysand through their mental bond. All along, she’s plotting a well-timed escape.
Hybern’s royal niece and nephew come to visit the Spring Court and Feyre accompanies them, along with Ianthe, and Lucien (Tamlin’s friend and advisor) on a trip to the human border to figure out what’s going on with the breaches in the wall. On this trip, Feyre catches Ianthe in the act of trying to sexually assault Lucien. She also finds that the royal twins have poisoned her and Lucien with an herb that dulls their powers. They go into a full on battle which ends with Feyre killing the royals, and badly injuring Ianthe. She lets Ianthe live to relay the lie that she killed the royals in self-defense and has escaped the corrupt Tamlin. Lucien, in a shocking twist of events, asks to follow her to the Night Court in order to be near her sister Elain, who was recently revealed to be his mate.
Lucien and Feyre journey to the Night Court by foot instead of flight, as their powers have been weakened by the royal twins, and they are approached by Lucien’s villain brothers from the Autumn Court—Eris, the most relevant—but are saved by, you guessed it, the Illyrians (when I tell you I CRIED)!! Azriel and Cassian arrive to bring Feyre and Lucien back to the Night Court.
Rhysand and the boys, during Feyre’s time away, have been preparing for war, and Nesta and Elain are responding very differently to their transitions as Fae—Nesta is infuriated and spiteful, and Elain is depressed and somewhat catatonic. Also, Lucien quickly realizes, on seeing Feyre with the Inner Circle, shit bro, you like, definitely weren’t captive here all that time, were you? And she’s like nah bro these are my peops. Lucien stays, sort of becoming a temporal part of their inner circle (I love this piece of it), but Elain shows no interest in him, despite him being her mate. The crew decides his presence around her isn’t feasible since she is very, very fragile (but…do we agree?). The Elain situation causes a further rift between Feyre and Nesta, who both want to protect Elain but, while Feyre trusts Lucien to respect Elain’s boundaries, Nesta wants him out.
Some time goes by where the characters continue their preparation for the war. Nesta receives schooling from Amren on how to fix the holes in the Wall; they suppose since Nesta was made from the Cauldron, she has the power to do so. And Feyre trains mind and body to hone her magic (which, they’re realizing, is a coagulation of all 7 High Lords), to fight, and to fly.
In order to build their army, Feyre goes on a journey to seek out the three creatures of death, the Weaver, the Bone Carver (both of which made appearances in ACOMAF), and Bryaxis, a cutie (deadly) monster who lives in the pit of the House of Wind’s library. In the end, they all do join her cause. The Bone Carver, after asking her to retrieve the Ouroboros Mirror from Hewn City (Rhysand’s Court of Nightmares); the Weaver, after she feeds it Ianthe (LOL) in a battle after Ianthe’s attempted retribution a little later; and Bryaxis, after requesting a freaking WINDOW in the library (no, literally, my buddy’s just looking for some light). Having the 3 literal monsters of death on their side will definitely help them in battle, but it may not be enough.
To sort everything out with the rest of Prythian (and after an attack on the Summer Court), the High Lords have a meeting to establish their alliances. To their surprise, Tamlin attends. The Spring Court, by the way, is in ruins after Feyre left Tamlin and used her daemati powers to tarnish his reputation with the rest of his court. Tamlin is also beginning to realize Feyre left him by choice, and he’s now lost Lucien, too, who has, for the meanwhile, left him for Elain. So, understandably, Tamlin throws hella shade throughout the meeting, giving off “high school emo kid” the whole time. He’s like, so down bad, which is one aspect of the novel that I most enjoyed because we begin to get his redemption arc. Other important things from this meeting are that Beron, Autumn Court’s High Lord, and Eris, the dude’s son, are both present, and Eris makes a secret pact with Rhysand promising he’ll make sure Beron allies as long as they support him in his eventual murder of his father. However much they dislike Eris—who was once arranged to marry Mor (Rhysand’s cousin in his inner circle) and then left her for dead—they agree to this lowkey allyship.
Suddenly, bam, Hybern uses the Cauldron to break down the Wall which separates Prythian from the human lands. So…war is now. Rhysand, Cassian, Azriel, and their Illyrian soldiers are like, super preoccupied fighting while Feyre goes to the Suriel for help (the Suriel has made appearances in books 1 and 2 as one of many creatures mythologized as something super feared but ends up being the goodest of good). This is when Ianthe comes and KILLS THE SWEET, SWEET SURIEL in literally the most heartbreaking scene of all the ACOTAR series as of yet; but girlie gets her comeuppance when Feyre feeds her to the Weaver and the Weaver gets on board with the fight.
In another part of this same battle, Hybern captures Elain, which really starts the action that ACOWAR is known for; there’s a full on battle of war in one section and Feyre and Nesta’s battle for Elain in another. Feyre ends up getting herself in some hot shit while saving her sister and it’s none other than TAMLIN who ends up saving Feyre (hence his redemption arc). Feyre sort of acknowledges his good nature and her gratefulness, but notes that it doesn’t change anything between them. Azriel is also a big part of saving Elain,, and Cassian too makes an appearance, almost killed in the process but defended by Nesta (a foreshadow of some spice later on in the series).
The humans (led by Jurian) also arrive to help, after having been allied with Lucien through the majority of the novel, and on a ship in the distance comes the girls’ father. This is a HUGE holy shit moment for them and for us. For the first time [ever], their father defends his daughters. He is killed by Hybern (in the second saddest scene of ACOTAR thus far), which gives Feyre and Nesta the ammunition they need to kill Hybern once and for all.
Other deaths are The Bone Carver and The Weaver, and Rhysand—whose death is somehow not as memorable to me—but is revived by the Court High Lords.
The Cauldron, which is now in their power since Hybern is defeated, is decided to be hidden in an island off of Prythian with Rhysand’s friend Drakon—necessary to keep so large a power out of the hands of the rest of the Courts since there’s still tension between them. But, overall, all is okay in the Night Court, they are recovering from battle, and, well, hella traumatized.
OKAY!
Truthfully I forget how much I love this one until I revisit it and remember it may be my favorite of the 5 there are so far…Eh, well, I don’t know, they each have their charms. ACOMAF is the best romance but I love how ACOWAR has war, the beginning of the Nesta/Cassian stuff, the Suriel’s pivotal scene, their father’s redemption, and Lucien/Tamlin drama.
So yes, let’s deliberate. Highlights of A Court of Wings and Ruin are the really, really touching moments that are sort of littered all throughout. See, since ACOMAF has a lot of heavy romance, the romance somehow has less magnitude there than here. I have no doubt this novel has gotten most of my tears. I was sobbing when the Suriel died. Sobbing. (I believe I have a quote listed below from this moment). And when their father made his appearance and finally proved his love for his daughters, I was so touched. We also really start to sympathize with Tamlin, who, truthfully, isn’t a bad guy. He is just heartbroken. He is really just heartbroken. This book also leaves us excited for future novels where it is clear Nesta and Cassian’s relationship will be explored.
In terms of weaknesses, I think the spark Feyre and Rhysand had in ACOMAF lacks here, though of course that’s just one of the prices to pay for continuing a romance series, since they’re no longer in the hot and steamy enemies-to-lovers phase; now they’re just figuring out how to survive together amidst the war. I’ll change that actually to not a “weakness,” since they do still have their romantic moments (they even f-ck while a battle is ensuing outside their tent!), so it’s really a matter of taste, I believe, for deciding if their romance is as strong in this novel as the last.
Another “weakness” if we call it that, or really, just a sort of plot hole that I’m a little sick of at this point, is the claim that all these monsters are deadly and horrifying—the thing which gives Prythian a reputation for being a horrifying place—meanwhile they are all good hearted and end up helping Feyre and Rhysand in the end. Literally every single thing—the Suriel, Bryaxis, the Bone Carver, the Weaver, even Rhysand—they’re all in legend as things no one can survive but Feyre ends up surviving them and making them soft?
Anyway, literally such a joy to read this. Such a joy.
I give it a 4 out of 5. I have no idea why; that’s just what I rated it on Goodreads when I finished, and I trust it. I think it’s only not a 5 because it’s missing the enemies to lovers trope which I love so much…so, yes, let that be known—my 4 out of 5 rating (which really I’ll say is a 4.5/5) is literally so subjective and means nothing. I just like a toxic boy to start, you know?
4.5/5. The next book in the series is a novella titled A Court of Frost and Starlight, and that one’s gonna be a lot more chill.
Content Warnings: SA, war, death
Quotes:
I’d always thought death would be some sort of peaceful homecoming—a sweet, sad lullaby to usher me into whatever waited afterward.
Lucien squeezed our linked arms as we rounded a hedge, the house rising up before us. “You are a better friend to me, Feyre,” he said quietly, “than I ever was to you.”
Elain had always been gentle and sweet—and I had considered it a different sort of strength. A better strength. To look at the hardness of the world and choose, over and over, to love, to be kind. She had always been so full of light.
Yes, devastating was a good word for how lovely she’d become.
If he was the sweet, terrifying darkness, I was the glittering light only his shadows could make clear.
I’d awoken to his wing still over me, his breath still tickling my ear. My throat had closed up as I’d studied his sleeping face, my chest tightening to the point of pain. I was well aware how wildly I loved him, but looking at him then…I felt it in every pore of my body, felt it as if it might crush me, consume me.
And as its chest rose and stopped altogether, as its breath escaped in one last sigh, I understood why the Suriel had come to help me, again and again. Not just for kindness…but because it was a dreamer.
Words had become as foreign and hard to reach as the stars.
And as I gazed at that decimated part of the plain, the ashes of the Illyrians still raining down…I wondered if the Carver had made it. To wherever he had been so curious about going. I sent up a quiet prayer for him—for all the soldiers who had been there and were now ash on the wind…sent up a prayer that they found it everything they hoped it would be.
