Amanda Smith’s Reviews > A Court of Wings and Ruin > Status Update

So why do I continue to read? I am a invested. I want to know what happens. I know there will be a HEA, but at the same fucking time Sarah Maas's willingness to break the rules of romance, and throw Tamlin in the trash, means she might be willing to deliver interesting deviations from the normal romance structure. And the world building is interesting, and the friendships are interesting. Better than the romance.

Something else I realized that irritated me: a character's goodness depends entirely on whether they will be an ally or a romantic interest. Tamlin, our original love interest, who Sarah Maas wrote an entire romance book for? Well he's good while he's the love interest, but as soon as the author moves to someone more interesting he suddenly develops bad traits. Eres, one of Lucian's brothers? He was good all along!

One minor character is gay! Hurray!

Ugh, enough of this male/female nonsense. If the fae don't want to call themselves man or woman, because that's what the humans use, then they can call themselves fae.

"The most beautiful female he'd ever seen." 🙄 No, this is stupid.

Just say, "The most beautiful fae he'd ever seen."

I enjoy the world building in these books, and the political intrigue, and the Psyche-esque trials Freyre had to go through to be with Tamlin in the first book (though that turned out to be pointless...) and I even enjoyed the later romance with Rhysand, who is charming and interesting. But these books don't fulfill me the way a really good fantasy series with great world building and ideas does.

I'm not against soulmate romances, or 'true mates', but it does irritate me when a romance starts out that way. "You're my mate, I should be with you!" Blah, that's a shitty way to start a romance.

Yikes, it's hard to like Freyre when she's backstabbing Lucian. Honestly, I'm still kind of unhappy with how she's treating Tamlin, despite the Tamlin-is-bad-now elements introduced last book. IDK, this is starting to wear on me. Tempted to DNF, the only thing holding me back is how long I had to wait for this book at the library.

Alright, let's see if everyone can get a happily ever after. I could really use a HEA right now.