Feyre and the fey wolf. Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is a fabulous fantasy tale of personal discovery, growth, and becoming. Feyre reminds me of myself, willing to work herself to the bone to provide for her family, while usually putting her needs last. As often happens in unhealthy family units, her sacrifices are taken for granted.

Accidentally killing a wolf who is fey, she finds herself bound and forced into a world of magic, terror, and beauty unlike anything she has ever experienced. She falls in love with her gift of painting that has never before had the chance to blossom. She begins to see herself as capable of much more than she ever thought possible. And she even falls in love.

Little does she know that every step she takes toward her new life brings her closer to death.

I was terribly disappointed in so many of the characters in this story who did nothing to protect Feyre. Sarah J. Maas is the master of making us dislike characters before letting them redeem themselves. I hope future books give me something to like about some of them because at the end of this book, I was not impressed with anyone but Feyre. Ok, maybe I see some hope for one of the males, but I don’t want to spoil the surprises for anyone who hasn’t read the books yet.

Mass, Sarah J. A Court of Thorns and Roses. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.