Book Review - A Court of Thorns and Roses

First things first, this cover is awful. The font is fine, the tagline is fine, but something about that practically glow-in-the-dark red and that cover illustration really really sit the wrong way with me. Plus, I had to look at the cover twice to work out where all the words fitted. Court A Of Thorns Roses And? It is a mystery. This is definitely not a book I would have picked up if I'd only seen the cover; as it was I picked it up because I loved Throne of Glass and I am an absolute and complete sucker for anything about fey, bonus points if the subplot is about Intriguing and Mysterious Court Politics. 

This book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in a not-quite high fantasy world. There's a running plot of a past war between humankind and faekind, which as it relates to the book is very important as it sets our protagonists and most of the mortal characters in the book up to really hate fae. The actual plot is simple; girl takes something she shouldn't have, is whisked away to faerie palace by a possibly ugly masked man (or, as it really is, not a man) in order to fulfil a bargain. Chaos ensues. 

I'll start by talking about the writing itself. Sarah J. Maas is really good at world-building; I understood what was going on, I felt like I was in Prythian, I really wanted to know more about all of these Fae courts and their histories and the bloody and confusing ties that kept them all bound together. Her writing was never really clunky; I didn't feel like I was reading a book. Sure, occasionally it was a very slow read and there were pages without any plot advancement, but this usually served for the better. The calm before the storm, if you will. It's not the kind of book that's going to have you howling in frustration because really can't the writer find any other words to describe the love interest's dazzling beauty? (PSA right now that there is quite a lot of that in A Court of Thorns and Roses).

Character-wise, I have a problem. They're all very solid characters; Feyre makes choices that tie in with her personality, she has a very readable and definitive tone all the way through the book. You get to know her. I just didn't connect with her, and I found myself getting angry at her a lot. Why couldn't she just listen and obey. I felt much the same way about Tamlin, although I really did like Lucien and Rhysand. Also, I feel it should probably be addressed that the relationship between Tamlin and Feyre veers occasionally into borderline-abuse, especially one scene about halfway through, so if that's going to upset you I would skip this one over.

I loved the plot. Let me put this on the table; I didn't care too much about the main protagonists, the writing was competent if never stunning, but I loved this book because I loved the plot. Like I've said before; court politics? Fey? Cute boys? Fairytale retellings? All of this is entirely up my alley. A few twists and turns in the plot were very predictable (especially the ending!) but it's worth it just to see how they get there. I'm already upset that the next one doesn't come out for a year.

My final thoughts are thus; this is a good book. It's probably not going to be the best book you've ever read, but it's definitely a fun way to pass a few hours. It's a solid four out of five, for me.

- Nat

Book Review: My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend

So, I said before that I attempted to have a book review blog once. It crashed and burned most spectacularly, as so many of my ideas do. I wrote maybe six or seven reviews and then continued to read books, but lost all motivation to write about them. Not this time! Generally, this is probably going to be only updated because I absolutely loved something, or I hated it (usually, if I hate something, especially a Young Adult book, it's because it deeply offends my feminist principles. See Twilight and Hush, Hush for more details on this.)

I'm going to write about this one for the first reason, thankfully. Let me try and get you to stop now if you've read my other posts and expect me to only read things that are intellectually stimulating because I talk about Wilde and Waugh, because this is definitely not going to be the kind of post you'll enjoy reading.

So I get most book review blogs put neat and tidy little pictures of the book's cover here and talk about taglines and blurbs and authors and probably put cute little ratings, but I am not an organized blogger and these kind of things are entirely beyond me. Let me tell you that this book is by Eleanor Wood and concerns a quirky music blogger who finds out that the commenter on her blog using the name of one of her favourite music stars may actually be said star, and is very interested in getting to know her better.

Let me tell you that I would not have bothered writing a review if I hadn't totally fallen in platonic love with Tuesday Cooper, the main character. She wears ugly clothes from charity shops and is passionate about blogging and makes references to Tavi Gevinson and wears too much eyeliner and possibly I just saw myself reflected in her too much to not love her. And can we please get a shoutout for having a chubby character whose main narrative isn't about losing weight? (Especially rare in teen romances, more's the pity). Hell yes! Tuesday is totally relatable; she worries about her boyfriend not liking her as much as he should, she worries about her exams, desperately wishes she could be more rebellious and every so often does something totally out of the ordinary. I want to be her best friend and we can go charity shopping together.

Some other things I loved about this book included her friends, especially Nishi and Anna, a lesbian couple. Dropped in right at the beginning with no fuss, and they had their own narrative that wasn't about them being lesbians and was in fact just about an ordinary problem plenty of people have pop up in their relationships. I love.

On top of that, obviously, there's the matter of the love story between Tuesday and the rockstar of the title, troubled Jackson Griffiths. It's cute, it's funny, and you honestly really do want them to be happy together. Tuesday comes across as pretty young and naive, and there is a 5 year age gap between them, so I was worried that it might all come across as a bit skeevy - but it really, really doesn't. You can see exactly why they like each other and exactly why they would work (and Tuesday even makes a reference to it, about being the world's most rubbish Lolita). Also, it helps that everything that they do together and all the interactions they have are pretty adorable.

Okay, guy, I'm not going to tell you that this book will change your life, because it won't. It's fun and fluffy and light and cute and will probably take you less than two hours to read, but it's totally worth it because it's a good book. And good books are absolutely always worth it.*

*Also, if you're like me, you can play along and count the references to music you know and music you don't. And compile a list so you can further your knowledge.

- Nat