review: a court of mist and fury

I literally just finished this at 4am and i'm worried i won't be able to do justice in this review because ACOMAF just blew me away and all the feels make it hard for me to find the right words. A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book to A Court of Thorns and Roses(click here to read my review for that one), and it is just so, so much better than that one. To be honest, i only enjoyed ACOTAR in the moment and wasn't really all too excited to read ACOMAF. I ended up buying a copy and reading it because friends were all saying it's amazing and i couldn't resist. No regrets, at all. I enjoyed ACOMAF SO much, i'm rating it 4.8 out of 5! Almost everything i've ever wanted in a high fantasy novel had been right here in this book. As soon as i finished (actually, even halfway through reading), i already felt like rereading the book.

Warning; This book and the first one is not recommended for younger readers, as it has very mature content (very detailed and explicit sex, vulgar language, brutality).

Plot
Fantastic. So much happened in the book, and the pace was just perfect. I didn't get to feel bored at all. Some things had been predictable, while other things had come as a complete shock. It started of pretty great, unlike the first book, which had been torturous to get through the first half. From a great start, things just got better and better. The last 100 pages was just SO good and SO intense i just had keep turning the pages up till the final one.

Writing
Spectacular. Truly, Sarah J Maas really went to a whole new level in her writing. Firstly, her world-building was absolutely stunning. Her detailed description of the Night Court and the Summer Court and Velaris (especially Velaris) took my breath away, and i wanted nothing more than to craw into the book and live in that fictional world myself. I tabbed quite a few pages from the book, marking the thoughts and dialogue i found to be very beautiful and sometimes relatable. I love how SJM let me feel so many emotions throughout this book. I legit CRIED, ok. It wasn't even because of a death! She made a lot of things so meaningful and beautiful and my heart just couldn't take it. The romance in this book was just beautiful.

Characters
There are so many wonderful characters in this one. I fell in love with everyone from Rhys's Inner Circle, especially Mor. Oh my god, Rhysand. Rhys. I love him. I love him so much. His character had so much depth, so much history and so much development. I fell in love with Rhys from the first moment he appeared in ACOMAF (seriously, that was SUCH a great entrance), up to the very last page. I love uncovering more and more about Rhys's character, and falling more in love with him every time. My favourite part of the entire book would have to be Rhysand's story.

Feyre was surprisingly really likeable in this one. I kinda hated her in the first book because OHMYGOD she was so annoying. But i loved her in ACOMAF. Her character developed so much and so well. She faced a lot of inner struggles (some that i could relate to), and i appreciated that it took quite a while for her to get past it. By the end of the book, she became one of my favourite fictional female characters.

Mor, Amren, Azriel and Cassian were such a wonderful addition to the story. I loved how SJM had introduced the readers to them, painting their background and history early on and letting us love them when we see more of their personality and loyalty.

**SPOILER SECTION***
Tamlin gets a really full personality turn in the second book, and i've heard of some readers not appreciating the way SJM changes her characters like that just to make the tables turn. To be honest, i knew it was coming and before i started the book i was really worried i wasn't gonna like it. Thankfully, SJM pulled it off. I was thoroughly convinced of the change in Tamlin's personality, and had no guilt whatsoever for wanting Feyre to just be with Rhys already. I pity Tamlin, and i understand why he turned out that way. But he was just no longer right for Feyre, and perhaps he never was. The part when Rhys pointed out that in ACOMAF, when Tamlin had the chance to help Feyre escape and had decided instead to get intimate with her made me realise that maybe that part of Tamlin had always been that way, and it isn't at all attractive. He just doesn't understand Feyre, and didn't show any effort to try.

My favourite part of the story is the part when Rhysand told Feyre about his story, and how he had started suspecting that she was his mate. The story was just so touching and i just love him so much and i'm just so so so so so happy everything he did had paid off. Rhys and Feyre's romance had started from them understanding one another, and that's why it was different from the romance between Tamlin and Feyre.

I really have to talk about the sex scenes. It was quite shocking to have such explicit scenes so early in the book (chapter 2), and because i already didn't like Tamlin it was really irritating for me to read. I personally prefer for these kinds of scenes to be minimally described, and i definitely wasn't minimal. Sarah J Maas definitely went all out in this aspect too. But when Rhys and Feyre finally make love, it didn't seem as cringe-worthy as the Tamlin scene. I actually quite liked it, because it showed the depth and beauty of the mating bond and i was just so happy it finally happened. Of course, it totally could have been great without so much description as well.

The whole Rhysand and Feyre being mates thing totally caught me off guard. I absolutely loved it. And at the end, when i thought the bond had been snatched away by the King of Hybern, i cried. I CRIED. Those last two chapters saved my heart. I hate and love Sarah for playing with my heart like that.

***END OF SPOILERS***

In conclusion, if you've read ACOTAR and you didn't really enjoy it and you're contemplating on whether or not you should continue on with the series, the answer is simple: YES. YES, YOU SHOULD. Because ACOMAF is a hundred times better, because Feyre is far less annoying, because the romance is damn good, and because the world-building was amazing.