Title: A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy, fantasy romance
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: 2016
Format: Audiobook
Length: 23 hours

Read if you like: Fated mates, enemies to lovers, found family, female empowerment, one bed, slow to trust relationship

Rating:

A Court of Mist and Fury might be my favourite book in the whole A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series. So many of the elements of ACOTAR that either didn’t sit well with me or I was unsure about are explained in this book, and once you start to see where Maas is heading, it becomes an unstoppable page-turner.

I also loved listening to this book in audio format. Getting to see Feyre process her trauma, build new relationships, and finally come into her own was so gratifyingly told in this format that I was constantly looking for things to do that would allow me to listen more.

It’s difficult to discuss this book without significant spoilers for the series, so please, proceed with caution. Suffice it to say though that this book was just as fun to read the second time, and my heart is still swelling from the absolutely perfect ending it had.

The Book: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury sends us back to the Spring Court in Prythian, where Feyre is recovering as the new fiancé to Tamlin. The entire Spring Court is rebuilding now that Amarantha’s reign has ended and Tamlin is attempting to assert his role as High Lord of the Spring Court in the ways that have traditionally been expected of him, but that couldn’t be performed while they had been prisoners.

Feyre is destroyed by the events under the mountain. She’s physically and emotionally distraught, finding a full night’s sleep impossible due to the excruciating nightmares she has where she relives Amarantha’s torture in new and profound ways. When she wakes, she finds she can barely stomach eating, and has conceded many of her decisions related to her upcoming wedding and her role in the court to a high priestess named Ianthe, who Tamlin trusts.

Tamlin too has experienced much trauma, but instead of manifesting in the devastating depression that Feyre feels, he feels crushing anxiety that Feyre will be taken from him again. His reaction to this anxiety is to keep Feyre on the estate’s grounds, surrounded by soldiers at all times, as he refuses to let her participate in any meaningful governing activities or plans. He tells her that she has suffered enough for his kingdom and her only role now is to rest and recover, but Feyre quickly becomes frustrated with this as the less she has to do, the more depressed she becomes. She wants to move past the events that happened under the mountain, and the only way she sees to do that is to move forward. Despite these wishes though, Tamlin continues to prevent Feyre from participating in anything meaningful, relegating her to party planning and activities with Ianthe, even as new and aggressive powers begin to emerge in her as a result of the power that was conceded when the High Lords returned her life to her.

As Feyre and Tamlin’s wedding approaches, Feyre falls into a deeper depression at Tamlin’s continual repression of her freedoms and refusal to listen to her and what she needs. By the time the day arrives, she’s so desperately unhappy and trapped that she can’t even make it down the aisle before a panic attack completely consumes her and her mind begs for someone to save her. In impeccable timing, Rhysand arrives at the wedding to cash in on his one-week-a-month bargain that provides him with the ability to take Feyre to the Night Court for a week of every month. Tamlin is beyond furious, but Feyre allows Rhysand to whisk her away.

When Feyre and Rhysand arrive, she’s immediately concerned with how she’ll be treated, but Rhysand provides her with a gorgeously appointed room, clothing to change into, and as much food as she desires. Despite her concerns, his only task for her when she’s at the Night Court is that he wants her to learn how to read. She concedes to this but quickly slips back into her depression. She does manage to eat more though, and by the time her week is through, she’s made much progress in her reading and has returned some of her health. She’s confused by Rhysand’s kindness and assumes it’s a ploy of some kind. When he returns her to the Spring Court, Tamlin and Lucien immediately demand to know all that she’s learned of the Night Court and Tamlin continues to keep Feyre boxed in, despite her demands. As a result, her health deteriorates once again, and their relationship becomes even more strained as Feyre refuses to continue with the proposed marriage at this time.

Eventually, Feyre and Tamlin reach a breaking point, as Tamlin grows angrier and angrier at Rhysand for taking Feyre away each month and more and more paranoid that she’ll be in danger if she’s given any modicum of freedom. When Tamlin locks Feyre into the estate and leaves for an undetermined period, Feyre explodes with magic and desperation and begs in her mind for Rhysand to take her away. Rhysand’s cousin Morrigan arrives to find Feyre collapsed under the weight of her exploding magic and takes Feyre away back to the Night Court alongside Rhysand.

Feyre arrives at the Night Court deep in the throws of depression and desperate not to be alone. When Rhysand tells her he must leave the Night Court to attend to his territory, Feyre begs to join him. He tells her that if she does, she can never share what she sees or learns with anyone else, for fear of his people being in mortal danger. She agrees to Rhysand’s terms and he brings her to what his crew refers to as the Court of Dreams, which is in the City of Velaris, a dreamy city unlike any other in all of Prythian.

Rhysand introduces Feyre to his chosen family, a group of two Illyrian warriors, Mor, and an ancient being that appears human but is far more dangerous, and he provides Feyre with the opportunity to join their cause to save Prythian from the might of the King of Hybern, who had been Amarantha’s superior. He shares that Hybern has been preparing for attack since Amarantha arrived and now it seems like they’re prepared to move. He offers Feyre a place in his court as the official Emissary to the human realm and a member of his inner circle. As Feyre gets to know Cassian, Azriel, Amren, and Mor, she comes to find that they seem to genuinely care for each other and their people. She agrees to join Rhysand and his friends in their quest, and she finally can contribute meaningfully to people who acknowledge she has value beyond that of a wife and breeder.

As Feyre learns more about Velaris and about Rhysand, she finds that his hard, terrifying reputation was a mask used to keep his people safe. He was brutal and violent to maintain his Court of Nightmares under the mountain and to keep Amarantha or any of her followers from learning of the people he cared about or his territory in Velaris. Everything Feyre thought she knew about Rhysand proves false, and she’s perplexed as to why he doesn’t let the world see him for the fiercely loyal and kind man that he is. In a world where power is the absolute ruler of everything though, Rhysand must maintain his masks if he is to maintain the safety of his people.

In their quest to prepare for an attack from Hybern, Rhysand seeks the aid of the queens of the mortal realm, and they use Feyre’s sister’s house as a meeting point in an attempt to establish relations and have the queens surrender half of a book that could help them to defeat the plans Hybern has in place. They also must infiltrate the Dawn Court in an attempt to steal the other half of the book that would see them succeed in their quest to overpower the King. This plot is unfolding at the same time that Feyre is beginning to fall for Rhysand, and as they continue on their quest to defeat the evils of the world, she must sort through the guilt she holds over leaving Tamlin and the feelings she has for Rhysand if she’s to ever be at peace with who she is and who she wishes to become.

The Review

This book always makes my heart break a little. Maas’ depiction of the depression that Feyre slips into as a result of the trauma she’s experienced is so painfully accurate that you feel Feyre’s pain. You feel her falling further and further into despair, and you’re so frustrated with the events surrounding her that continue to push her further down.

I never felt particularly good about Tamlin, and this book validates why that feeling persisted. I loved what Feyre was willing to do for love in the first book, and there’s no denying her valour or bravery, but Tamlin always felt off. You know he’s trying to protect her by refusing to see her or show her affection, but she’s in mortal danger, and it doesn’t feel right that he does not attempt whatsoever to save her. When she ended up with him at the end, it just felt off, like he hadn’t earned it, and that gets worse in this book as he refuses to acknowledge her as an equal, instead placing her on a pedestal and letting her rot in her cage. It’s clear why he does it, between his upbringing and his trauma, but it doesn’t change that he refuses to see what she needs, and when she escapes the wedding, I breathed more easily for her.

Rhysand is my favourite in the series, and he starts to shine in this book. I love that Rhysand is a secure enough man to be able to acknowledge and support the power in the women around him. He never underestimates them, never provides them anything but respect and support in whatever ways they need him to, and he never needs to be asked to do so. He can be powerful and violent and he’ll protect what he cares about, but he’s considerate of how what he does impacts others. He’s such a perfect compliment to Feyre, exactly what she needs so that when their fated bond unfolds, it’s like a puzzle piece snapping into place. I loved learning more about him and seeing their relationship evolve, slowly and at whatever pace she chose, as he patiently waited for her to decide for herself what she wanted.

The twist at the end is also one of my favourite twists of the whole series. It’s violent and stressful and so unbelievably perfect, even knowing exactly how it would unfold I was still anxious and stressed and excited. The audio version of this book is also superbly executed, I was so entranced with the narration that I could not stop listening.

A Court of Mist and Fury is where we start to see Feyre develop depth and own her power, and combining her story with Rhysand’s is just pure magic. By the end of this book, I was right in the depth of my love for the ACOTAR series all over again and I can’t wait to continue with A Court of Wings and Ruin, which I know will be just as excellent the second time around as it was the first.