by Sarah Maas

This is my first Sarah Maas book and despite some challenging format on the ARC, it drew me right in, Fayre is one of three sisters who live in reduced circumstances after having known a comfortable life. Their mother is dead and their father is crippled and often in a world of his own, because it was some nasty creditors who crippled him in painful ways.

Fayre hunts for food, since the family is destitute. The forest is dangerous, full of hungry wolves as well as fae shapeshifters, and when she encounters a large wolf stalking the same deer she's hunting, she can't be sure which it is. The tension of her attempt to hunt food without becoming prey herself got the story off to a good start.

I wondered many times if this was meant to be a re-imagining of Beauty and the Beast, as there were a lot of similar elements. Fayre is a strong but fearful character, mistrusting the Fae effectively as monsters despite their physical beauty. These are not your fairytale Fae! She encounters some chilling creatures in the course of the story.

The first half kept me riveted, but then it started losing me. The standard gratuitous sex scene that seems to be a feature of New Adult books was better written than most, but still the same old actions. There was some inconsistency in characters and somebody needs to explain to the author that villages don't have 'blocks', an exclusively American term used by city dwellers.

There were also several occasions where the use of a word in a sentence would klunk, just not quite fitting. Despite that, the imaginative encounters with various supernatural characters and especially in the trials Feyre had to face were well done. The end was fairly predictable, but fit the story.

I don't think I'll be continuing the series, but overall I did enjoy the read.

Re-reading 

Sorry it has been a few weeks, I was off on a vacation and attending a wedding in Japan and was not able to find time to read, let alone write some reviews. Japan was amazing. the people, food, culture, weather all amazing in their own right and ways. Highly recommended as a place to visit. If you are thinking of going or already planning on going send me a message and I'll share with you some of the things i learned while I was over there. Now onto the real reason you're here a review :)

In the first of a series, Sarah J. Maas explores what happens when a human enters the world of the faerie:

Feyre is the sole provider of her family, she does the hunting, the meal preparations as well as preparing the hides for market, her two sisters and father rely on her. When she gets a chance to kill a wolf she makes sure not to miss, but this shot will change her life forever. This act leads her to be dragged into the magical kingdom on the Faerie and the land of Tamlin, who is everything that Feyre has been told to fear about the faeries. As Feyre grows closer to Tamlin dark forces emerge who want to keep them apart and Feyre soon learns that she may be the key to save them all from a cursed fate.

Alright, I will admit that I am slow to the party that are Maas' books. This is the first that I have read in any of her series, and overall I was really impressed with this book which had me hooked from the opening pages. From the character development to world building there is not one point that Maas seems to fail at in this book. All of the characters are interesting with their own flaws, the romance/relationship never seemed forced (although you know its going to lead to it) and the drama/darkness that Maas builds into the book is beautifully done. I will admit that did question what I had gotten into with the beginning of the book as the first half is very slow. However, the further you read in the book you realize that Maas did this on purpose as she needed to build the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin as it is a key aspect of the plot and everything else hinders upon it. Normally I would not be a fan of a book that is based upon a romance, but Maas really could not have written this book any other way with the same result.

Within the second half of the book the true plot begins to unfold, this is what the first half has been building up to the "fall" and trial of Feyre and Tamlin's relationship. This is where the book takes a turn towards the Darkness as Feyre is put to on trial and must face a series of tests as well as be humiliated and paraded around like some sort of prize to be won. Here is where we get to see what Feyre is made of and she has to determine who she can trust, who is manipulating her and who can she manipulate.

If I was going to nit pick (and you know I will, lol) I personally found the riddle easy to solve, so I was confused why Feyre was not able to do so maybe it is an age thing.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book I feel like

. So right now I'm not sure I will read the next book in this series, unless someone can tell me otherwise (and I really hope you can tell me differently).

Enjoy!!!

   

A list of things I am suppose to be doing instead of this:

1.) Laundry- Always laundry

2.) Potentially paying attention to my children- They have Legos and Play-Doh. They don't need me

3.) Finishing invoices and taking inventory after being at sales events all weekend

4.) Figuring out how badly all of these new f'n tax laws are going to screw me over- My accountant is probably going to kill me

Other things I will probably do instead of any of the above things:

1.) Make another pot of coffee- How am I suppose to do any of the other things without more coffee?

2.) Update all of my reading challenges

3.) Schedule Facebook posts for my business

4.) Take a look the spirit schedule for the week and figure out how to wear yoga pants to work for the next four days

Anyway. 

Let me start by saying this book is not anything I would normally pick for myself. It has all of the characteristics of a books I avoid. Some of those things include over-promotion on sites like Amazon and Goodreads (which makes sense because they are the same) or books classified as romance. I'm not a huge romance reader. I'm just not. 

So then why did I read this book? It was gifted to me two years ago in a secret Santa book swap. One of my reading goals this year is to read more of my unread books on my physical bookshelves. I'm plotting a trip to my favorite used bookstore in the near future. Worst case scenario, I don't like the book and I can trade it for something else on my trip. 

This wasn't a bad book. I have definitely read worse and I have most definitely read better. However, I made the mistake of reading reviews at about the halfway mark. I try really hard not to read too many reviews about a book I am currently reading. Occasionally when I am on the fence about if I want to finish a book, I will see if any friends have read the book and read their reviews. In this case a lot of friends have read this particular book. Most of them mentioned how this novel was a re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast story. After digesting this nugget of information, the story telling became predictable. I was hoping for at least one plot twist but it never came. I was hoping that with this book being part of a larger series, the end would not be one of those happy endings wrapped with a big bow. This bow was big and it glittered. 

Maybe at this point you are asking yourself "How did you give a book three and a half stars when it doesn't sound like you really liked it?" 

That's an excellent question. Here's my answer- The writing wasn't terrible. Once I was through the first 100 pages, things took off. The plot moved along quick enough to keep my interest. The heroine wasn't overly whiny but at the same time she wasn't really anything special. Although I found myself confused about why she would find herself attracted to Tam in the first place. In my defense, I wonder that every time my children watch Beauty and the Beast. Don't get me wrong, gifting me a library would probably get you something but not a life long-head over heels-leave my family- kind of commitment. At the end of the novel, I found myself wondering why this book hasn't been created in to a cheesy movie franchise. It certainly has all of the necessary requirements along with the potential for Hollywood to get it all wrong. 

At the end of the day what does all of this mean? Not much. Will I pick up the next book in the series? Maybe when the day comes that my oldest daughter wants to pick up this series. It seems like it could be an entertaining mother/daughter buddy read. For now, I'm returning to my regularly scheduled mystery and historical fiction reading channel. 

I'm guessing this will pick up at some point. 

Honestly, I don't have very high hopes going into this book. It's everything I tend to stay away from. However, it was a gift and I'm trying really hard to clear my physical bookshelves. The high school student who babysits my children has already claimed it if I don't like it.