The ACATOR series is one of those names that, as soon as you join Bookstagram or BookTok, you’ll start seeing it pop everywhere – especially a few years ago. A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book in the series and the one that I told took the series to another level after I found myself incredibly disappointed with the first.
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If you’ve not yet had a chance to read my thoughts on the first book in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, then it would probably give soem context to some of my thoughts on this review.
A Court of Mist and Fury picks up where we left off from A Court of Thorns and Roses with Feyre living with Tamriel and experiencing life as his life partner, when one day Rhysand comes and tells her that it’s his turn to live with her instead as part of a deal. And so begins her experience with a different man in this land instead.
A Court of Mist and Fury plot – 3.75/5
One of the weakest elements of the first book was the fact that the book spent 80% of its time not really doing anything other than having these two main characters converse with each about each other and the word around them. A Court of Mist and Fury does the exact same thing.
My realisation is that this is not a fantasy-first novel at all. It is a “romance” novel (though not particularly romantic) and so my expectation of cool battles, wars, politics and large grandiose fantastical moments was wrong as it was never really supposed to do that.
Instead, this is a book that focuses on the story of two people, Feyre and Rhysand, and their journey with one another and that’s about it. I was incredibly disappointed again with how people told me this second book was significantly better but it felt the same as the first – about 450 pages of them chatting about each other, the world around them and the history of the place.
It was such a huge disappointment from someone who was expecting a more poignant story that really brought to fore the interesting world Sarah J Mass is creating with all of these conversations.
I admire Sarah J Mass for building the world she started with the first book. Any good sequel is going to expand on the world from the first, introduce you to new characters and open up the reader up to more cultures. And A Court of Mist and Fury does do this.
A Court of Mist and Fury characters – 4/5
I would probably be mostly fine with the whole book focusing on these two characters if they were two people I even really cared about. For the first four hundred pages or so, Rhys is typical “romantasy” male character – brooding, aloof and always just smirking and throwing about sexual innuendos.
And Feyre was typical “romantasy” female – grumpy, rejects everything and everyone and can’t help but constantly comment on how physically attractive Rhysand is despite having an abrasive personality.
However, around four hundred pages or so in, I genuinely did start to enjoy them both. Once they got over the cringey interactions and actually started to have mature conversations, I started to actually really like them.
Many of the other characters I could take or leave and all either fell into the “over-serious” or “cringey” category for me unfortunately.
A Court of Mist and Fury final rating – 3.75/5
A Court of Mist and Fury is another disappointment for me in this series unfortunately. I was told that the second was significantly better than the first but I found it to just fall into the same issues as with the first: a very slow start and about 80% of no action until a fairly decent final act that just wasn’t enough to win me over. Its only saving grace was that the final act was genuinely interesting and I did grow to enjoy Feyre and Rhysand once the cringey dialogue and interactions ended. If you didn’t enjoy the A Court of Thorns and Roses, I can’t say you’ll enjoy A Court of Mist and Fury. I’ll read the final book as I feel it’s my duty as a book blogger and some have said that’s where the action is!
Buy a copy of A Court of Mist and Fury
Great review and useful to me in reminding me that I don’t really need to go out of my way to read SJM’s books.