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I was so hesitant to read this because I wasn't a fan of Throne of Glass (though I'm planning to give it a second chance), but I'm so glad I did! This was a fantastic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It's even great as a standalone! It's dark, definitely, yet hilarious at times, emotional at others, and the romance was to die for. (view spoiler)[Literally. Lol. (hide spoiler)]

Worldbuilding was great. There's a pretty good history of Prythian, the Treaty and War between mortals and Fae, dealings with Hybern etc. and it was revealed gradually, not in an info-dump which is good and bad because I got a bit confused with 50 years vs 500 years (I suck at mentally holding numbers oops). Lovely map as well. Would definitely like to see the continent feature in subsequent books!

Awesome!! Characters!! ESPECIALLY LUCIEN HE IS MY BABY and PLEASE CAN WE STOP HURTING HIM??

I was ambivalent towards Feyre initially as she didn't seem all that compelling tbh, but omg if I wasn't 100% stanning her by the time she had to (view spoiler)[hunt that big-ass Worm!! EPIC (hide spoiler)]. Also really warmed to Nesta, who showed herself to be an absolute, loyal af BAMF. All hail the Queen of Savagery. My heart just melted when (view spoiler)[it was revealed that she actually went to the Wall to save Feyre!! ACK right in the feels (hide spoiler)]. I liked Tamlin pretty much the whole time, but omg I LOVED LUCIEN. He's so funny, loyal, and brave and I just???? Legit cared more about him than the rest put together lmao, the most agonising parts of the book for me were when I was concerned for his safety. If I were a faerie/mortal living in the world of ACOTAR:

The Romance. This was good. Relatively slow burn, believable development, and I. SHIP. IT. Rhysand can piss off. (Lmao I was anticipating completely the wrong ship because of piecemeal info I get from just seeing fandom merch etc.) I was surprised at the SexyTimes� (because I actually haven't read many sex scenes in YA books), but they're well-written and actually a pretty natural progression of their relationship! I am rooting for them so hard that I'm dreading reading the next books, knowing that FxR is endgame (I think?).

Ugh that brings me to Rhysand. Ew. He pisses me off. First because he's a dick, and secondly because I don't really understand his motives. (view spoiler)[If he wanted Amarantha defeated so badly, why act so extremely dickishly in the Spring Court? Forced mind reading is so nasty. And Amarantha can't even see him there. (hide spoiler)] Like I get he needs to rile Tamlin up, but (view spoiler)[surely afterwards he would let Feyre out of her contract to spend a week every month in his Court? If the whole bargain thingy was to piss Tamlin off enough to make him go supernova at Amarantha (hide spoiler)]? Also him going from nasty ass-wipe to noble, wanting-to-make-a-difference hero, wasn't very well developed. (view spoiler)[It also annoyed me that the only reason he didn't take Feyre to bed and "enjoy" her was that he wanted his land back. Nothing to do with respecting a woman who doesn't want to have sex with you. Ugh. (hide spoiler)] He better go through a heck of a character arc, because...Blegh.

Twisty Plot and Villain. The plot had a good few turns, the best ones concentrated in the latter quarter or so, and holy moly Amarantha is a shithead. I hated her so much. She does know how to wreak a good revenge though, I'll give her that. One scary lady. (view spoiler)[Though the riddle was pretty easy to guess lol. (hide spoiler)]

All in all, definitely enjoyed this one, got emotionally invested for sure! Even with the occasional typos and inconsistencies, I don't think they impacted my enjoyment all that much. I will read the sequels after I steel my Feyre x Tamlin ship for its inevitable demise...