I 1-clicked this book after a recommendation by Angie of Angie’s Dreamy Reads and OMG! It was awesome! I don’t regret hitting the 1-click button for this baby at all. I’ve even pre-ordered the next book…because… Pure Awesomeness!
This is a fantasy novel. It’s also a romance. We have, first of all, a strong female character, like, really strong, admirable, dependable, honorable, fair, and resourceful. Feyre is a young girl whose family lost it’s fortune and has been reduced to painful poverty. Deprived of the upper-class life and the education both her sisters received, she has no pretensions of being a lady, and truthfully, she can’t afford them. She promised her mother on her deathbed that she would take care of her sisters and father, and she does just that, hunting in the woods close to their village, just to keep food on their table and clothes on their backs.
On one such hunt, she kills a wolf, a big beautiful animal that she suspects is one of the Fae, the powerful mythical creatures who live separate from humans, their territories demarcated from human territories by a magical wall. She has no qualms about killing the animal, especially since there is no love lost between Humans and Fae, who, in the human world, are rumored to be deadly and evil creatures.
However, the death of the Fae wolf cannot go unpunished. The next day, while Feyre and her family are enjoying the proceeds from the sale of the wolf’s pelt, retribution comes in the form of a beast who demands only one thing, Feyre, in return for the slain wolf. Her only choice, other than death, is to go with the beast. He takes her over the wall to the lands of the Fae, and that’s where the story really begins.
The beast is Tamlin, and unknown to Fae, he’s the high lord of the Spring Court, which makes him powerful and deadly. But even as Feyre remains his unwilling guest, she has a lot more than him to fear. There are other creatures in the Fae lands, evil and more deadly, who will not hesitate to harm her.
The longer Feyre remains in Tamlin’s court, the more she begins to see that there’s a lot more to Tamlin than what she expects of a high Fae. He too, finds her to be so much more than what he expected a human to be. Their mutual disdain slowly progresses to something like friendship, respect and also, love.
But, the lands of the Fae are not safe, and there are things that even a high Lord like Tamlin fears and cannot protect Fae from. There is the ‘blight,’ stealing his powers slowly. The mysterious ‘she’ that he fears, evil creatures like the Attor, and the high Lord of the Night Court, Rhysand, who is beautiful, powerful, enigmatic and strangely interested in Feyre.
Just as Tamlin and Feyre seem to find some sort of idyll, things fall apart, and Feyre will have to fight for the man she loves, facing the kind of dangers that should be unimaginable to a human girl.
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So… I am officially a fangirl of Sarah J. Maas. Her worldbuilding is perfect and the imagery is so deliciously on point. Feyre is a lovely character. Tamlin is easy to love once you get to know him. Lucien, Tamlin’s emissary, tries to be a bad boy, but I just want to smother him with kisses, and Rhysand… Hmmm. What can I say about Rhysand? Just, you know, read the book.
Note: I found it hard to decide what fairy tale or myth to say this story was based on. The story of Psyche and Cupid maybe, based on the masks, or Beauty and the Beast. It even has similarities with the story of Hades and Persephone. The rich tapestry of foreshadowing and myth has me still linking threads in my head.
********* MILD SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT.********
What did Rhysand see in Feyre’s face at the end? I’m willing to bet that he saw that Feyre was his mate. If they share a mating bond, wouldn’t that be a delightful complication? *Licks lips.*
Buy This Book Now.
Questions.
– Why did Lucien hesitate when he heard Feyre’s scream the day she went to trap the Suriel?
– Do you think Tamlin fell in love with Feyre? he only needed for HER to fall in love with him for the curse to be broken.
– Do you think Nesta has a larger part to play in the sequels?
– Why do you think Rhysand is so interested in Feyre?
– What do you think Rhysand saw in Feyre’s eyes at the end that made him draw back and almost stumble?
