A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book in the ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses) book series. I read the first book, A Court of Thorns and Roses, in 2023 while I was in Europe. I liked it, but not enough where I wanted to rush into reading the second book. I was contemplating whether I wanted to continue the series, and shortly thereafter, I received the box set of the series from my father-in-law. If you’re wondering why my father-in-law reads a smutty fae series, his response would be, “None of the Amazon reviews told me this series was going to be so pornographic”. My father-in-law is not on BookTok / the book side of TikTok, so he was out of the loop. Anyway, he gave me the box set of the series that he bought, and here we are. I read A Court of Mist and Fury, and I feel like this book redeemed the series for me.

Feyre is trying to rebuild after what she endured under Amarantha’s wrath. She’s fae now, and she’s trying to understand what weight that carries. Tamlin has been pushing Feyre to get married, and her wedding date quickly approaches. Right away, she recognizes differences between herself and Tamlin, and when she walks down the aisle, all she wants is out. Sure enough, Rhysand hears this through their bond and whisks Feyre away from her wedding. In those weeks, Rhysand teaches her to read, and Feyre can take a breather. Through Rhysand, Feyre realizes that Tamlin has hidden so much from her and that a war is on the horizon.

A Court of Mist and Fury blows ACOTAR out of the water. This book was much more interesting. I liked reading about the Night Court and Velaris, this secret city that Rhysand protected. I liked hearing about Rhysand’s court, including Mor, Azriel, Cassian, and Amren. I would ride or die for Mor. Give Mor her own series! I found myself reading hundreds of pages in one sitting and getting completely lost in this portion of Prythian.

I liked Feyre more in this book than in ACOTAR. She seems to have matured, and I liked how she wanted to pursue knowledge. She saw through Tamlin, putting her in a box as a wife, and that’s it. Towards the end of the book, she knows what she must do and how she will try to fight back to save Prythian. Feyre grows a lot as a character throughout the book.

I can’t talk about this book without talking about Feyre and Rhysand. I don’t think I am as obsessed with them as other fans are. I think Feyre has been through so much, and it would be good for her not to be matched with someone else so quickly. I felt that throughout the book, it took away from their romance. I don’t mind them together. I wish Feyre had had moments on her own, and they would have gotten together in the third book.

With all that said, there were a few things I noticed that irked me. Can Sarah J. Maas, please stop using females and males in this series? I had to change this in my head to either lady, woman, or something else. I get it, fae aren’t human, so maybe woman or man isn’t correct, but female, really? There’s one quote where a character is describing losing the love of his life, and the quote says, “losing the female I love”. Am I the only one who doesn’t like this? I must be because I don’t see this mentioned in any other review I have read. Another thing I noticed was the description of Feyre being so skinny. Yes, her trauma is causing her to lose weight, and that’s accurate, but it was described enough where I’m like, okay, that’s enough.

The last thing I wanted to mention is the amount of sexual violence that is in these books. I have talked about including sexual violence in media before, specifically regarding Alan Moore. I can’t ignore this in Sarah J. Maas’s books. There’s one character who, in her backstory, is beaten because she was no longer a virgin. It’s not just this character; Feyre experiences her own abuse in ACOTAR. On top of that, it’s hinted at that in fae society, females (again, not my choice of words) are seen as lesser than and are there to provide pleasure to males. It gets to a point where this book and series teeters on the line of where this is a bit much. I felt this towards the end of ACOTAR with all of Amarantha’s trials and what Feyre has to go through. There are plenty of ways to build hardship into the women in your story without it being sexual violence. It seems like Sarah J. Maas relies on this as a plot device. I will be fully transparent in that I am sensitive towards sexual violence. If it’s in a book series, I tend to avoid that series altogether. I wonder if this is something that’s in every Sarah J. Maas series, or is it specifically in this one?

With all that said, this book was a page-turner. I am curious to see how this series plays out, especially with that cliffhanger at the end. I rated A Court of Mist and Fury three stars on Goodreads.