I REALLY thought I was going to love this one.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Yes. I think the second half of the book is redeeming enough to make it worth the listen.

Any additional comments?
The first half of the book was a boring 2 stars. The remaining story was a much better 4-5 stars, so I'll settle with a rating of 3.The writing, as mentioned by most readers, is really good. Except for a few things that irked my Inner Nazi. Like the fact that people breathe words throughout the whole book:

"Please," I breathed.

Or the repeated use of strange expressions:

My insides turned watery.

Or lines that make you want to gag and roll your eyes:

"You look lovely," Tamlin murmured, and something in his soft tone made me want to purr.

And that everybody likes to constantly respond with nonchalant shrugs.

Anyways, on to the story...

The beginning started out great, with a kick-butt Katniss--I mean, Feyre, hunting and providing sustenance for her useless father and sisters. She skewers a wolf for its pelt and then a fae beast-man comes to take her to the world of the faeries as payment for it. And then the story goes downhill. Except it rolls down a rather flat hill, and it doesn't pick up until past the midway point.

I don't know if this is intentional or not, but the romance between Tamlin and Feyre takes center stage, leaving the dark, interesting and mysterious fae world doom and gloom curse as a meager subplot. I wouldn't have minded the romance as the main plot if it hadn't been so stale. There was zero chemistry between Tamlin and Feyre. Zilch. Nada. And I think that is partly due to Tamlin's blahness. He is a handsomely-masked dude with the hair and build of a model. And he's a beast. A vapid beast, who is oh-so-kind-and-courteous; nothing but a gracious host to our feisty heroine who hates his guts for a few pages. It was really hard to swoon over Tamlin when all he made me think about was Aslan the lion from Narnia.

I was totally robbed of an awesome, bitter Beast who could have warmed up to conflicting feelings of love. But nah. All we get is a Mr. Niceguy who has a temper that only applies to the villains of the story. So yeah, the whole romance thing with these two was a drag to get through. I also didn't like the subtle signs of insta-love from Tamlin, who grits his teeth when he asks Feyre if she is in love with anyone (on her first day at his manor).

Once we get past the lovey-dovey, falling in love phase, things finally start to get interesting. We finally find out what is really going on and the truth of the curse, and things get serious for Feyre as she takes matters into her own hands to save Tamlin and his world of butterflies. This 40 or 30% of the story was SO GOOD! I was hooked all the way to the end. Another great thing about this latter half of the story: We are introduced to Rhysand. Holy Mother of The Cauldron. Now THAT is a character I can swoon over. Here's to hoping Feyre dumps Tamlin's boring tush for this saucy chap in book 2.

217 people found this helpful

Not Original or Interesting

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This could have been improved if the author did not insist on using every overused cliche available. An unappreciated teen who is saved by a gorgeous and wealthy man, who she inevitably falls in love with thanks to some Stockholm Syndrome. It was trite and the characters had the emotional depth of a shallow puddle.

What could Sarah J. Maas have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Have some original ideas, make her characters relatable, and generally not support the idea that some beautiful man will come and save sad/lonely girls and make them beautiful too.

What about Jennifer Ikeda’s performance did you like?

She honestly did a good job. Not amazing, but she did her best to make the characters interesting which was actually quite a feat.

What character would you cut from A Court of Thorns and Roses?

The main character. She can't listen to basic and reasonable directions because she is too busy being a stupid cliche. She was like some whitewashed version of Katniss Everdeen, but her ability to stand up for herself was almost nonexistent. She had no depth and was just generally not interesting.

105 people found this helpful

Bad ending and Immaturity

I would like to say that while I realize that I'm not the target audience for this book, I'm male and not a teen, I truly enjoyed the first ten hours of this book. The opening was well written and thought out and set up a character I could sympathize with and understand and cheer for. It was interesting with a different set up than usual. I was already thinking of ways to afford the rest of the series a third of the way in, shifting my purchasing plans around to make room for more. Mean finally a main female lead that isn't drowned in her emotions, is practical and mature, and I don't have to read Ilona Andrews hurrah!

Then the rest of the book happened.

The last four hours of the book was a chore to get through. Our fierce, practical, strong, observant, hardened and smart heroine, became a dithering, weepy, witless child! I'm sorry this is one of my pet peeves, someone who has gone through the losses, the poverty, and hardships that the main heroine had, someone that has had to take care of a family that neglects and hates her in the face of sheer poverty; wouldn't break under the comparatively tiny difficulties she faced in the end. Once more, there was far too much virtue signaling in the end, if I had heard the paraphrase of "oh what have I done" before the last hour trudge I wouldn't have been able to finish the book. Honestly the heroine is someone whose used to having to do what you have to do to survive, putting your emotions aside and paying the cost and moving on; not dickering and self tormenting simply to seem virtuous and likable. Mean, I know women that have been through poverty, abuse and so on, they wouldn't even blink over the 'hardships' the main had to face in the last four hours; nor would they sit around and wait for someone to save them without trying everything they could to fix it themselves. Another star gone.
Not to mention forty minutes on dickering on a choice that really wasn't a choice and should have been handled in ten.
Beyond that the male characters are the typical meat puppet stand ins that exist to make the main character have plenty of love interests, to save her when she gets in over her head or does something stupid and make her seem more valuable than she would be in reality. Really it's good there were only three males, because all of them were blah and stereotypical. Honestly Tomalin is basically Beast from Beauty and the Beast, Lucian guy with a razor tongue that's really a nice guy and Reese is your atypical bad boy that isn't that bad. They have no personality, desires, dreams, triggers or depth of any sort. Since this also a put of a peeve for me that's another star gone.

As for the narrator she did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life and she is a large part of the reason why I enjoyed the first 10 hours and was able to make it through the last four.

Honestly, if not for the strength of the first five hours, I would have given this book a 2 or even 1 star. Still, if you can handle another, how this character that goes from strong to weak, smart and resourceful to weepy and stupid, a plot twist you could see a mile away, a lover interest based solely on the male's hotness and being a decent person since he as no personality, a riddle that given a certain emotions popularity was simple to solve; than you might like this book. As for me I'm getting a refund and nixing my plans to buy the rest of the series.

89 people found this helpful

This book is CORNY

I can get behind a cheesy fantasy novel; I’ll even read a cheesy romance novel. But this story is closer to a 15 year old’s half-furry fantasy of what True Love should be. Most fantasy (or romance) requires some suspension of disbelief. You will need to check your reality at the door, along with notions of what makes for a healthy two person partnership. Even at my most goth sappy teenage girl years, this book would be too much.

72 people found this helpful

Entertaining!

Great adult fairy story. Wonderful twists and new ways to present an often done, overly familiar trope. I was surprised and delighted many times. Not your typical YA story. I'd actually enjoy a sequel to this story. Which is not something I say often. :)

68 people found this helpful

Possibly the most nauseating thing I have ever read

In a nutshell, this is essentially Katniss Everdeen put in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, right down to the gold gown and the library the Beast gives her, except this time it's an art gallery. The main character, I'm assuming, was meant to strong willed and hardheaded, but instead she's nothing more than a petulant child.
Spoilers
If there's a single feminist bone in your body, don't read this. She is forced to live in the house where the beast is and can't leave and then falls in love with him, and then is forced to leave, and she goes along with it. Towards the end, she willingly becomes a slave and is painted so that no one but her owner can touch her. She is forced to drink something that makes her not remember what she does with this owner, and then after a couple 'poor me' lines, she feels bad for him. But it's all okay! Because love was the answer to everything! It's all very cliche. Not a single thing was unexpected or surprising. An entire race is about to be enslaved, but all she cares about is her beast--who isn't even going to die. It physically hurt to roll my eyes so much. I sped it up and requested an exchange. Overall, it felt like the worst Mary Sue fanfiction I've ever had the displeasure to experience (from being in a car for 42 hours without wifi on a road trip. It's the ONLY thing that could have gotten me to finish.).

58 people found this helpful

just awful

it starts of slow... the. gets real weird... then jusy real awful. if you like books with lots of talk about sex and your not bothered by whether or not its consenual this is the book for you but if you dont like that dont look here.

46 people found this helpful

Loved the story, not the narrator (sorry!)

I really liked the story (it pales next to the throne of glass series to be honest) but it still was very original and the character development was wonderful.
I just couldn't get on board with this narrator. I kept looking at other reviews and no one mentions it at all so it's probably just me.

41 people found this helpful

Wonderful

A great reimagining of Beauty and the Beast. It's by far my favorite retelling. A well earned romance, great world building, and a plot that keeps you guessing.
I believe this is the first book in a series (cannot wait for the sequel!) but I appreciate how this book is a complete story on its own. Too many books end on cliff hangers nowadays, A Court of Thorns and Roses is a breath of fresh air.

32 people found this helpful

LOVED IT!!!

Which character – as performed by Jennifer Ikeda – was your favorite?

I thought narrator did a great job with the story. The voices of Feyre and Tamlin were good, my only complaint is that sometimes the narrator struggled to fully differentiate the voices of the secondary characters like Lucien and Alis.

Any additional comments?

This was such a great, complete story. I was completely drawn in right from the beginning. The book has slow and fast paced parts, but hardly any parts that are boring. I found this book by chance and I am so glad that I did! This book has no insta-love between the characters, thank goodness. It can hard to find books with somewhat believable relationships between the characters. The secondary characters are interesting and have depth.

The world that the story takes place in is interesting and lays the possibility for an overall good series.

My only complaint with the story concerns my confusion for why Feyre, the main character, ignored the warnings of others multiple times and did some silly things that would cause her to have to be rescued. I also felt that maybe the reader was not always being informed about the full extent of some of her thoughts and feelings in some parts of the book. But these things are small, and can be attributed to human imperfection.

Overall the book is great and I enjoyed that it was new adult rather than YA, I haven't really had the opportunity to read a new adult book since its a smaller genre. Being 20 years old, I appreciated that the main character was close in age to myself and didn't have the immaturity found in a lot of YA books. The content was somewhat similar to YA, but a little more mature.

32 people found this helpful