THE MAASVERSE DESK · REVIEW

A Court of Thorns and Roses

AURA retrospective · The beginning of my Maasverse journey—and the book that very nearly ended it.

I need the record to show that A Court of Thorns and Roses almost lost me. I finished it, but I was not immediately joining a court, buying bat wings, or rearranging my personality around Prythian.

Feyre’s entry into the fae world gave me enough intrigue to continue, but this was a slow-burn investment for me in the most literal sense: I actually stepped away from the series for months.

What makes this book fascinating in hindsight is how different it feels once you know what the series becomes. It is the doorway, not the destination. The seeds are there—the courts, the bargains, the danger, the sense that Feyre’s understanding of this world is incomplete—but I did not yet know how emotionally attached I was about to become.

So this review comes without a retroactively invented star rating. I can tell you exactly what mattered: I nearly DNF’d the journey here, and I am very glad I didn’t.

Back to the Maasverse →