Life, Libraries and Lemon Trees

Okay. Are they gone? Has everyone here finished the book? Awesome. Let’s get started, shall we? (P.S: This is gonna be long) (And unorganized) (I apologize now) (I will put a Tl;Dr at the end, if you don’t want to read all of my unorganized rambling)

Did the book live up to the hype? I’m a little undecided, but as of right now I have to say...no. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but I think it was my least favorite of the books which honestly disappointed me a little. I went in with such high hopes, and maybe that was my mistake, but to be fair, the first two books were perfection. I had no reason to expect this book to be anything less. 

But...I had some issues. For one thing, something about the characters just felt a little...off, to me. Not always, but enough for me to notice. Take Feyre, for example. I was expecting to LOVE the beginning, to LOVE Feyre being a sneaky spy, taking down the king of Hyburn from inside the Spring Court. But when I was reading it? Well, for one thing it seemed too easy. I mean, I wanted her to succeed but like...the Spring Court basically rolled over and let her ruin them. 

But getting back to Feyre, I understand that this is supposed to be kick-ass High Lady of the Night Court Feyre, and she’s supposed to be super-cool and stuff, but she is still supposed to be Feyre. What I mean is that she’s still supposed to have her human heart, that’s what’s supposed to be special about her. She’s a high fae, with all the powers, but a human heart. In the beginning, I didn’t see too much of that. It was a lot of clever manipulations that always seemed to work out practically effortlessly. At one point in the book, Lucien says that she is a better friend to him than he is to her, but I’m not sure how true that is, considering that she used him in most of her manipulations. Need to make a point to Tamlin? Use Lucien. Need to make a point to Ianthe? Use Lucien. 

I didn’t hate all of their interactions, and I really loved the ones that felt genuine. But like, the scene where she put on a skimpy nightgown and pretended to have a nightmare just so Tamlin could find her with Lucien? What the hell was that? Like, kudoes to Lucien for trying to be a good friend but like, she didn’t need to do that. I get that she is still mad at Lucien for not helping her when he could have, for not standing up to Tamlin and for trying to bring her back.

 All I wanted when I went into this book was for Feyre and Lucien to bond again, be BFFS, have Lucien come over to the Night Court and for everyone to be happy. I love Lucien and I love their friendship. I wanted them to work out their issues. I didn’t sign on for all of this weird manipulation, because while I’m down for her fucking with the rest of the Spring Court, can she just not with Lucien. And sure, I might be playing favorites here, but Maas wrote Lucien to be such a conflicted, complex character, she made the readers love him, so to see him being used like this by the protagonist, just kinda sucks. 

Like I said before though, I did really enjoy the scenes where their friendship felt genuine. And I’m so SO glad that she risked messing up her escape plan to save him from Ianthe. And honestly, after all of that, I’m glad he questioned whether or not he knew who she was, because frankly Lucien, I wasn’t sure I knew who she was either.

I’m pretty sure Maas was trying to emphasize the changes in Feyre, portray her as a stronger character who is capable of making the hard calls, but there’s a balance, you know? And I’m not sure she managed it. 

It wasn’t just with Lucien. I mean, I care about Lucien the most because he’s one of my favorites, but what about that guard? The innocent one who was whipped for something Feyre manipulated him into doing. And she let it happen, for the sake of winning over the guards. That is a scene that I don’t completely disagree with, because THAT’S the kind of thing I think of when I think of having to make hard-calls in wartime situations, but just the way she thought about it. Feyre mentioned that she felt bad, but every other thought was something manipulative. Like how she went down to check on him. Maybe Feyre really was worried, maybe she really did do it because she cared, but in her mind she made  a point of mentioning that neither Tamlin nor Ianthe bothered to do so and it just so...manipulative. I expected to love the whole beginning, but I had a hard time loving it as much as I should have, because I tended to feel like I was reading about a different character. 

Something I LOVED was that Lucien came with her to the Night Court. Because that was something I wanted. And I love that he recognized the Night Court as the kind of court he thought the Spring Court was going to be, back when he first moved there. 

Also this book was funny. You might not think so, being as it’s about war, and maybe it isn’t AS funny as the other ones, but it has some good lines. Azriel, for example, was an absolute delight of sarcasm and dry wit. I loved any time any of the Night Court had to fly Lucien anywhere because they were always so stiff and uncomfortable, like men at the urinal in the public bathroom- Take care of business, look straight ahead. No eye contact, no conversation. 

I ADORED meeting the other courts. I would have loved to have seen Alis again, in the Summer Court, because I’m a little concerned about her sons in the attack. Also, Alis was just wonderful in the beginning, seeing through all of Feyre’s lies, and I just love her. Regardless, the other courts were wonderful. I’m thrilled that Tarquin no longer hates the Night Court, and Vivienne and Helion were both amazing. I love, love, LOVE that Helion has been trying to have a threesome with Azriel, Cassian and Mor. And I love that he’s Lucien’s real father because frankly, my poor little fox deserves better than Beron. 

Okay...now back to my issues. Can we talk about the sex? And how much there was, and just how unnecessary it felt? Maas got her start writing fanfiction, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, that’s what most of these sex scenes felt like. Fanfiction sex scenes that are just there to keep your readers interested while you move the plot along. There were maybe 2 that needed to be there. And sure, there were sex scenes in the previous two books, but they felt needed. They were there for character development, relationship development. But Feyre and Rhysand are already in the relationship, and even if they have sex all the damn time the book doesn’t necessarily need to show us. I appreciate the sex scene when they first got back, and the one right before the war. Those felt important. The rest just felt like fan service. 

I feel like Maas is good at initiating relationships, but not so good at maintaining them. There were times when they felt like their initial chemistry was lacking a bit. Not often, but there were times, and they were usually followed by sex, as if she was aware of the flaw and attempting to fix it. Like, look, the can’t keep their hands off each other. That fixes everything, right? 

Just a little piece about Feyre being out of character, she brought Lucien to the night court and then basically just...left him there? She said she would show him around and then never did. Ever since Feyre and Rhys reunited it was almost as if anything that wasn’t Rhys, her sisters, or the Night Court didn’t really matter, and frankly that’s just a little annoying. 

You know what I wanted to see? Feyre in Velaris again, interacting with her subjects. Talk to the shop keepers, like the lady who made the food at the restaurant in the last book. Go out for a night, just Feyre, Mor, and Amren. Little things like that. And I know there is a war coming, but they had time. And don’t say there wasn’t room in the book, because if you took out some of those sex scenes, there would have been room y’all. 

I don’t know how I feel about the side pairings in this book. Any of them: Cassian and Nesta, Lucien and Elain, Mor and Azriel. I don’t know. 

In regards to Cassian and Nesta, I guess I just...can’t figure it out? And I was excited for this one too, because I could feel it in the last book. Nesta was still bitchy, but she was a softer sort of bitch. Just a little. After being thrown into the cauldron she seemingly lost any softness and she was just a bitch. Like... Amren was grumpy in a lovable way. Nesta was just an asshole. I tried so hard to like her but I had a lot of trouble, and I couldn’t really understand why Cassian was so in love. I could see him being attracted, see him thinking she was hot, see him flirting and trying to get a rise, but I don’t understand the adoration. 

Lucien and Elain. I don’t quite understand what Maas is trying to do here. On the one hand, she set us up for this pairing. She made them mates. But then she gave us that conversation about how Azriel and Elain would be better together. Throughout the story, characters have talked about the mating bond, and how it’s flawed. In that respect, I can appreciate her giving us an actual example of a mating bond that isn’t between the best possible candidates. What I don’t understand is why she would do that with Lucien. Yes, I am biased. I fully admit to it, and if you haven’t figured out that I love Lucien to tiny tiny little bits, then I don’t know what you’ve been reading. But even putting my own feelings aside, from a narrative standpoint it just doesn’t make sense to me. 

Hear me out. I’m not the only person who loves Lucien. I’m on Tumblr a lot guy, I know he’s pretty popular. He’s supposed to be. She’s made us love him, made him a conflicted and sympathetic character, made us someone we can root for. She’s given him so much pain, that when the mating bond clicked into place, I though “Ok, Lucien is going to get something good.” From a feminist standpoint I’m forced to object, because that puts Elain as a prize to be given to Lucien in return for his suffering, and women should be more than that, but I feel that the implication is that they will be good for each other. I wanted to watch him help her accept her new fae self, to watch them slowly fall in love, and in the end they’re both happy. I don’t know how much I care about Elain being happy (I’ll get into that later) but that’s what I wanted. What I got was something completely different.

I like that Elain doesn’t care about him at first. That would have been unrealistic, and I wasn’t expecting her to. but I wanted them to bond. And it’s not strictly because they’re mates, but because I find it hard to believe that with the exponential amount of shit that Maas has heaped upon Lucien already, she would also give him a dysfunctional mating bond. Like I’m so glad that she wants to show one that doesn’t work, but she could have gone about it in so many ways. Cassian could have found his mate, for example, but maybe she is married and he’s in love (for some reason) with Nesta. Something. Anything. But from a literary standpoint, I just don’t think it’s a good move to make the readers love a character, and then never give him anything good. AND THEN, at the end. there’s Feyre nudging Elain and encouraging her to ask Lucien to stay in Valaris and like... is Feyre in support of this pairing now? Why? What changed fro the scene where she was questioning the mating bond, because Elain and Azriel seemed like such a good match? What is this? That’s an actual question, because I legitimately don’t understand. 

I am interested to see how HELION BEING HIS FATHER!!! plays out. I’m super interested in that, and I was hoping it would come into play later (Psst. It never does) (That’s also something we’re going to discuss later)

Anyway, let’s talk about Mor and Azriel, shall we? I love them each, and shipped them, and thought they were going to be a thing. And yeah, I couldn’t quite figure out why Mor was dragging her feet, but then she dropped that truth bomb and just...wow. I’ve gotta say, I didn’t see that coming. And you know what, I’m totally in support of it. One of the biggest criticisms I’ve heard about Maas is the lack of LGBTQ characters in her books, and I guess she heard it too because this book is full of them. There was one of the high lords (I don’t have my book in front of me, I can’t remember which one. Not the ice one, or Helion, or Beron, or Tamlin, or Tarquin, or Rhys. I think it was the High Lord of the Dawn Court?) with his male mate, and there was mention of a woman and her wife in a story someone was telling about past events (I feel like they’re important characters but I’ve binge-read this book exactly once, during finals week. I read th end at like, 2 AM. I don’t remember this bit) and then there is Mor. So yeah, its a step forward in regards to representation.

What I don’t appreciate is Mor leading Azriel on for 500 goddamn years. It was pretty late at night by the time I got to this portion of the book, and I need to re-read it, so I don’t quite remember her exact reasons for never telling everyone that she’s more into women, but she straight up said she knows that her friends wouldn’t care. And if that’s the case, if she told no one else, she should have at least told Azriel. He’s going to be hurt whatever happens (though he may potentially move on with Elain???) but if you love him at all, you don’t let him pine for 500 years. I still love Mor to bits and want her to find the lady of her dreams, but come on. That’s not being a good friend. Even if you don’t tell him the exact reason, at least be honest with him, and break it to him that it’s never going to happen. Just do something. 

Getting back to Nesta and Elain, however. I’m trying to bond to them, but I just can’t. Elain is perpetually made out to be this good, sweet person but like...she isn’t? Not really. Both Nesta and Elain treated Feyre like crap, and I don’t feel like that was something that was ever fully resolved. Like...yeah, they started to in ACOMAF, and I thought for sure that it was going to continue here. And it kind of did, with Nesta (a little), but Elain? Everyone just loves and protects her and it’s as if shenever did anything wrong. I love that her sisters are getting to be part of the night court, and I love that Feyre is loyal to them, but I just wish that someone would acknowledge that they never really made up for their behavior. Not in my opinion anyway. 

And while we’re on the subject of Feyre’s dad, what was even the point of him? I hated that whole little situation to be honest, where Lucien just goes off to find the Swan Queen (I can’t remember her name, and I lent my book to a friend) I guess because Maas got sick of writing him? I don’t know, that’s what it felt like. Anyway, I was expecting him to show up in the final hour with this awesome army, and his stupid family is forced to watch him be awesome. I just imagined that in my head and it was glorious. But that wasn’t what happened at all. Instead, the army shows up and Fey’re is like, “Lucien?” and is told “Oh him? No. I mean, he was there, he hurried us along. But the real credit goes to YOUR FATHER OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE!” Like, 1, why even give Lucien that task in the first place? I don’t mean Rhysand, but Maas, why do that? It just reads like an obvious red herring, something to throw us off the trail, only she didn’t need to do that because I don’t think anybody was on that trail. I certainly wasn’t anyway. If you’d ask me who was going to show up in the final battle, ‘Feyre’s deadbeat father” wasn’t even a contender. 

Nevertheless, when he did show up I was amazed. I was totally there for it guys. her father finally fucking did something, he’s helping. I was expecting there to be some big reunion. Some moment. Some PURPOSE. But like...there wasn’t. Lucien COULD have been the one to bring the Swan Queen (I wish I remembered her name) for all the difference it would have made, because her father didn’t do a damn thing. He was there for two seconds, got held hostage, and then died. I don’t think he ever even said anything. There was NO PURPOSE to him. If she wanted Elain to kill the king, she could have simply had him fighting Nesta, Nesta is overpowered somehow, and Elain steps in. Like...there was no point to their father, and what I’m pretty sure was meant to be a touching, emotional scene, just came off as a little gimmicky to me. 

AND WHILE I’M COMPLAINING (I swear to God, I really did like this book) What’s up with the deaths in this book? Let me explain.

I’ve never read to the end of a Sarah J Maas series before, so I didn’t know what kind of author she was. Was she the kind to kill off major characters? The kind that doesn’t kill off anyone? Well...she’s actually somewhere in the middle: She kills people, but never makes it matter. Which was...disappointing.

She killed the Suriel. She killed Rhysand. She killed Feyre’s father (What even was his name?) She kind-of-killed-but-didn’t-really- Amren. And ultimately, not one of those deaths mattered. In fact, only 2 of them stuck, and neither one needed to happen. Rhys came back to life. Amren became fae. Only the Suriel and Feyre’s father actually died, and I feel like their deaths were just in there to say someone died.

Just judging from what it feels like, I think Maas wanted to have the war be meaningful, and risky, and for the stakes to be high. Like in Game of Thrones, when anyone could die, so you’re perpetually worried about everyone you care about. Only she couldn’t bring herself to kill her darlings, so she killed characters she wasn’t as attached to, like the POOR SURIEL! 

I loved the Suriel. I lived for his friendship with Feyre. And here’s the thing: He didn’t need to die. It wasn’t really a motivator for anything. It was just sad, and I think it was Maas attempting to raise the stakes in this war. But she didn’t want to kill any of the Night Court. Except Rhys, but she brought him back and honestly that was so disappointing.

Not about Rhys. I love Rhys to tiny little pieces. I cried at his death, even as I failed to believe he was going to stay dead, because it was just so sad. No, what I’m disappointed in is how low the staks actually felt. My favorite series (Game of Thrones, The Farseer Trilogy, etc...) kill off beloved people all the time, so the danger feels more real. And it hurts, and I hate it, but I think the constant panic adds something to the reading experience. At no point during this book did I feel that, because I just didn’t believe she would kill off anyone beloved. And aside from my LOVE FOR THE SURIEL, she didn’t.  

That being said, while I feel like the Suriel’s dath wasn’t quite as traumatic for the main character as, say, one of her friends would have been, and it was a bit of a cop out, IT DEVASTATED me. I love the Suriel so so much! FyreXSuriel is my forever bro-TP and to have him die. To admit that she was spcial, and kind The Suriel was a dreamer..... He never needed to die, dammit!

Fuck, Amren wasn’t even dead. It would have been sad, because she would have forgotten her friends, but it felt right. It was an awesome scene, when she is set free to take her rightful form, she kicks Hyburn ass. I love Amren, but I didn’t want her to come back, because it was sad that she would forget them, but that also made it a more powerful scene. As happy as I am that she isn’t gone, I feel like the fact that she isn’t...cheapens it.

Also, wtf was with her relationship with Valdrin (IS that his name? Probably not. You know who I mean.) That was like....left field. Maas loves to hook up all of her character but they don’t all need to be hooked up. Amren seemed pretty content with just her friends, and I know there was that line about how he taught her something about love but like...there are more than one type of love. I’m not actually that bothred by it, it just didn’t seem like it needed to happen. 

Now Tamlin... What to say about Tamlin. I couldn’t never get a feel for him. He’s an asshole, but a decent guy, but an asshole, but a traitor, but not really? Idk. I was actually pretty happy with the portrayal of Tamlin, and he had every right to be mad at Feyre for destroying his court. Actually, in retrospect, why did she destroyed his court. Like...I know it was so he couldn’t team up with Hyburn, but that didn’t actually hurt Hyburn at all and backfired spectacularly. Couldn’t any of the centuries old warlords have maybe forseen this turn of events? Maybe?

Finally, all the loose threads. So many loose threads. What happens next? Who ends up with whom? What are all th new chracters going to do? Who is the mysterious magician in control of the curse on Swan Queen? What is the point of these characters. Aside from the obvious, defeating Hyburn thing, most issues wren’t resolved. And I know that this is because she is continuing the series, just following a different character, but I still find it irritating. Even if it isn’t the end of the series, it’s the end of the trilogy. I can’t even use the loose ends to determine who the continuation will be about because there are so many that at this point it could be about anyone. Thats probably just a personal issue, but I found that annoying. 

Tl;DR

I liked this book a lot. No, really, despit my PARAGRAPHS worth of issues, I really did enjoy it. I did. I just also had a lot of issues, mostly with characterization, the overload of unessecary sex scenes, some aspects of the plot that just did’t need to be there (Her dad) and all the loose threads at the end. Overall, I find that the whole thing feels a little rushed, which is crazy to say for a 700 (aprox) page book but...it did. I think she could have spread this out over 2 books and had more time for characterization and the like.

Overall though, I did enjoy this book. It was great to see the characters again, and even as I was complaining, I was hooked until the very end. 

Rereadability: 4/5