Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury

Title: A Court of Mist and Fury
Author: Sarah J Maas
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Magic, Fiction, Romantasy

What It’s About: Feyre has been living in Spring Court with Tamlin, her true love, and getting prepared for the wedding. It has been three months since Amarantha’s death, and two months since Tamlin proposed. Ianthe, the High Priestess, who is also Tamlin’s friend, helps Feyre pick out clothing for her events and in certain social situations, she talks on Feyre’s behalf. Feyre lets her, and when she asks Tamlin to take her out, and let her help their people rebuild, he refuses. The next day, Lucien takes her around the town and asks everyone he can if they need help–they all say no. Feyre wakes up from her nightmares–those based on what happened Under the Mountain in Amarantha’s court–often waking up and vomiting from them.

The day of the wedding arrives, and Feyre is dressed in a wedding gown that she does not care for, and as she walks down the aisle, she sees the red petals of roses, which reminds her of blood. As she reaches the dais, she panics and mentally starts screaming “no.” Ianthe calls her to come up, but Feyre is rooted in place, even as Tamlin reaches for her. She continues mentally screaming no, and to please help get her out. Rhysand appears and Ianthe disappears. Tamlin begs Rhys to at least let them get married, to which Rhys says that it seems like everyone thinks the wedding is over as everyone ran away at his appearance. He then takes Feyre to the Night Court, and drops them both on the terrace of a Palace that is fully exposed to the lements–the cold wintry air, but there is magic that keeps it feeling warm. Rhysand tells her where her room is and in her anger, she chucks one of her shoes at him, right into the back of his head. He turns around and catches the second shoe she chucks at him, only saying the word “interesting.”

The next day, Feyre demands to go home, but he tells her no, and explains that she thinks she may have a bit of magic from each of the High Lords and hopes that she will train it. He then has Feyre read a note he wrote, and she is indignant at what he wrote. He tells her that she’s at a far higher level than he expected, and that it is a matter of practice and repetition to read. He also teach her how to push him out of her mind, and gives her the assignment of writing lines while slamming her shields after each line, giving her an hour to practice. He returns after an hour and tests her mentally as well as checks her writing. He takes her up to a room with a map and tells her about the upcoming war with the King of Hubert and asks her if she would be willing to be the go-between for Tamlin and Rhysand to see if they can forge an alliance in the upcoming war. Feyre tells him that she will think on it. She also meets Morrigan–Mor–at breakfast that same day. For the rest of the week, Feyre is left alone with homework: writing and shielding. At the end of the week, Rhysand returns and Feyre overhears More talking about priestesses being killed in a city in the Night Court. She demands to be taken back to the Spring Court. He drops her outside of the manor and she walks in. Tamlin, who has been in conversation with Ianthe and Lucien, rushes to her and checks her over multiple times even though Feyre tells him that she is fine, to ensure that she is unharmed. She tells Tamlin that Rhysand had left her alone and he tells her that they will get her out of it. Feyre wants to go upstairs, but Tamlin wants her to talk==he wants to know everything about the Night Court, because no one who has ever been came back with their memory intact, and so Feyre tells him everything she can remember, though her memories of the mansion are sluggish. She even tells him about her potentially having some of the powers of the 7 High Lords, to which he tells her that he will not have her train as it sends a message and reveals her abilities, which may make her a target for the other High Lords to either kill or try to kidnap her as any heirs would be extremely powerful. As for the war, he dismisses it as it will never happen.

Weeks pass by and since Feyre has nothing to do, she reads and practices her mind shields. Tamlin does not want her to help or train, and when she talks to him, she tells him that he’s drowning her with all of the sentries and the protection. This is after the Tithe, where he tells a water wraith that she owes him and has three days to produce the Tithe or she will owe double the next time. The wraith had explained to him that there is no fish in the pond, and that they have nothing to eat. Feyre runs after her when Tamlin refuses to be lenient, and gives the wraith her own jewelry so that the Wraith can pay Tamlin, and buy food–no bargain at all. The wraith tells her she will never forget. That night, Tamlin and Feyre get into an argument over it–why not help the wraith replenish her pond? Just because his ancestors were so cruel does not mean he should do it that way, and Feyre asks him if he knows what it’s like to starve–because she does, not knowing where her next meal may come from, and she has sisters too. Suddenly, she sees everything from Lucien’s perspective and hears his thoughts before she finds herself back in her body. She decides to leave the table.

Later that evening, she goes to apologize to him, and he apologizes to her for it–that he was wrong. At this point, she tells him she feels like she is being drowned, and Tamlin’s magic explodes without warning, causing the paints that he had just gifted her to explode–it was a set of traveling paints that he had gifted her and that began the conversation about her feeling like she is drowning. She notices that she is unharmed, so Tamlin has protected her, but when Tamlin moves to her to apologize, he can’t get through to her–an invisible barrier is repelling him back. Once she lets go, he comes through and apologizes; they then spend the night together.

Things seem to get better, back to normal, and there are not as many sentries. Lucien tells her that he will try to convince Tamlin to let her train. Then, she wakes up one day and hears Tamlin and Rhysand, who proclaims that she hasn’t been eating at all. She gets changed into the outfit from the Night Court, and realizes that she has indeed lost weight. Tamlin tells Rhysand to let the deal go, but Feyre tells him to stop and leaves with Rhysand. When they arrive at Night Court, they talk and eventually she asks him how he manages to move them from one place to another like that–he calls the process winnowing, and explains how it works to her. She spends the rest of the week reading while Rhysand is out and they only talk the last day, where she chucks a book at him–he tells her the she can call for him any time, and he will come. He returns her to Spring Court, where Tamlin meets them at the oak tree.

This time around, he also questions her and she tells him what little she knows. Feyre also realizes that there is no chance that the sentries will be away–she will be guarded even more. One day, she begs Tamlin to take her with him–after hearing Lucien plead with Tamlin to train her, while Ianthe had advised not to because it would reveal Feyre’s abilities. She tells Tamlin that she’s going with him, but he tells her no, and when she heads out towards the door after him, she realizes that she can’t pass through. Lucien tells her that Tamlin put in a protective bubble so anyone but her can go in and out. Feyre freaks out and feels like she is in a prison–blackness surrounds her, her engagement ring melts off and she doesn’t know how long she’s like that until a female body takes her and Alis tells the person to take good care of her. Mor answers that she will, and walks out of the house with Feyre, then through a cave, and into a different place. More tells her that Rhysand broke the protection barrier. She releases Feyre to Rhysand saying that everything has ben done by the book. He takes her back to the Night Court, telling her that she scared the servants out of their minds, and all the lengths he had to go through in order to get her out without starting a war. He leaves her at the Court, and says he has to leave, when Feyre begs him to take her with him. Rhysand agrees once he makes her promise that she cannot tell anyone about what she is about to see no matter what. He winnows her into Velaris–the city of starlight–and directly into his home, where he tells her she is absolutely safe–no one but Mor and he can winnow into the house, and the only other people there are the twins. They are interrupted by Cassian and Azriel knocking at the door. He gives her the option to meet them or go to bed, and she chooses to be escorted by the twins to bed. Feyre is in shock that a whole city is in front of her, as Amarantha had supposedly laid waste to everything. The twins tell her that it is not their story to tell, and they aren’t ordered to tell her that, but rather they thing Rhysand would be the better person to tell her this, as he had given up the most in order to protect Velaris, a city that hasn’t been breached in over 5,000 years.

The next day, Rhysand takes her around Velaris and he shows her his second home–House of Wind. He shows her the city and she sees how the citizens of Velaris treat him–they know his name and do not treat him any different than any other Fae, though he is their High Lord. That night, he takes her to his second home, but they argue about him flying her up there. She agrees to let him fly her there, and they reveal some truths to each other about themselves. Feyre tells him that she’s not sure that the love she has for Tamlin is for her old self, and that maybe it is not for who she will become.

She meets Rhysand’s Inner Circle–his most trusted, which includes Amren, his second in command, Mor, his third in command, Azriel, a shadowslinger and spymaster, and Cassian, leader of Rhysand’s armies. They tell stories of how they met–Illyrians are backwards, and mutilate their women so that they cannot fly. HIs father had come to visit an Illyrian lord when he saw Rhys’s mom being dragged to get cut, and the mating bond had snapped into place for them. Cassian and Azriel are bastard children and Rhys met Cassian in a war cam that his mom took him to in order for him to. learn how to use his other powers. Cassian had to fend for himself and Rhys brought him home so that he wouldn’t be alone. Then Azriel came along, and Rhys’s mom knew Azriel’s mom so she took him in as well. When Rhys became a High Lord, he gave his father’s council the chance to come to terms with Cassian and Azriel being part of the Court. Some couldn’t deal with a half breed or the Illyrians , so they defected and were killed; others chose to stay but not be a part of the council and others still were given the Court Under the Mountain in the Night Court to rule over. Mor grew up in that court. Amren is different and Feyre wants to run from her, but Amren reveals that she was like Feyre–a mortal turned into something else. Feyre agrees to help Rhysand and his friends. Rhysand then tells them that the King of Hybern wants to bring back Jurian to help him with the war. The Attor has disappeared with Jurian’s eye and bone, and they wonder if the King can indeed bring Jurian back. Rhysand and Feyre have to go to the Prison to speak with the Bone Carver, who would be interested in Feyre because she’s been made.

Feyre and Rhysand go to see the Bone Carver, but Feyre is unable to go inside because it is underground and it reminds her of Under the Mountain. Amren gives Feyre a piece of jewelry, telling her that it got her out of the Prison, and that she has to give it back or else. Feyre and Rhys go a second time, and he gives the Bone Carver the bone that Feyre used to defeat the Middengard Wyrm. The Bone Carver appears as an 8 year old boy to her–while to Rhys, he appears as Jurian. He tells them that the Cauldron has been broken and now has been restored–its legs had been at the three cities that were ransacked, and it will mean that they will need the Book to destroy it. He tells them where to find the book, which has been split into two pieces. As they leave, he starts carving the bone that Rhysand gave him.

They tell this to their friends and Rhysand tells them that Because Feyre was made by all 7 High Lords, she has some magic from all of them, so she should be able to find something belonging to one of the Lords. They can test that theory by having her steal from the Weaver–an item that belongs to Rhysand. The next day, they go and Feyre manages to find the ring. As she steals it from the Weaver, the Weaver hears it and Feyre has to escape through her chimney, realizing that she can control her fear–another thing that Rhysand had wanted to teach her with this outing.

They fly to the border–Cassian, Azriel, Rhysand and Feyre–with Azriel carrying Feyre and they slip through the wards and make it to Nesta’s and Elaine’s house. Both girls are at home, while their father is overseas. They send the servants way and Nesta is wary of Feyre now that she is a Fae. Feyre also finds out that Elain is engaged to marry into a Fae-hating family. Feyre explains what they need–a meeting spot between them and the human Queens. Nesta is against it but with Elain’s pleas, she agrees to make their house a meeting spot for the queens and they prepare the letters to send them. The next day Rhysand leaves Feyre outside–at her request–to practice magic, when the Attor shows up. Rhysand gets to her in time, and then Azriel grabs the Attor, disappearing off with him. They send out the letters, and return back to Velaris. Rhysand later shows Feyre what they did to the Attor before dumping him. Feyre winnows in anger and punches Rhys.

An invite comes from Summer Court, and a decision is made for Rhys, Feyre and Amren to go. Tarquin, the High Lord of the Summer Court, takes an interest in Feyre, while one of his nephews shadows Amren. Feyre is shown to many of Tarquin’s riches and he does gift her jewelry that looks like the night for not laughing at him when he said he wants to get rid of Classism between the fae and the faeries. Cressedia, the Princes of Adriana, tells Feyre that the piece of jewelry suits her and that it is better belonging to her, the night that she wears it to dinner. Feyre takes a stab at Rhysand, telling him that she just might bed Tarquin to get the book. On one of their last days there, Feyre notices that there is a temple only seen during low tide, and she asks Tarquin about it, which makes him wary and he exchanges a glance with Cressedia. She goes into his mind and makes herself part of his essence in order to get past the mental shields he has, and comforts him that she’s a good, kind person. Rhys is impressed by her and what she did, because it takes a while to learn to even do something like this.

They make a plan and Amren and Feyre steal through the temple, getting to the book. Feyre convinces it that she is Tarquin, and they start to leave but the book tells her that she is a liar, and suddenly the area of the temple, which is underground, starts to flood. Amren and Feyre try to use their magic to no avail, but then something grabs them, and only when they are both deposited on land, does Feyre realize that it is a water wraith. The water wraith says that her sister’s debt has been repaid. Rhys shows up to ask what happened, and to explain that he has knocked out some guards, while Feyre explains what she did to help the water wraith, that in turn saved their lives. Amren laughs in surprise.

The three return to Velaris and Feyre opens the wards on the book. Amren recognizes the language–a very old one that she hasn’t seen in a long time. She takes the Book as she is the only one who can read it, and leaves to try to decipher it. A while later, Feyre finds a morose Rhys on the roof of the house, who tells her that he got a piece of jewelry with blood red diamonds, which is a message in fae customs that you are now enemies. Rhys had liked Tarquin for his ideas, so similar to his own, and wanted to be friends. Feyre tells him that they will fix things after, and manages to cheer him up, which Mor notes.

They continue to train–Cassian in hand-to-hand combat, and Rhys in magic. One night, Feyre wakes him up from a really bad dream, and another day, she visits Amren with blood–the only thing that Amren eats–and asks about decoding the book. She realizes that Amren has been gifted another piece of jewelry to soften the threat sent by Tarquin. Feyre admits a little to herself that she is disappointed when Rhys is not around to train her, but they send each other notes and she continues learning.

News finally arrives that the queens want to meet, so Feyre, Rhys, Cassian and Azriel, along with Mor head over to Nesta and Elaine’s home. The queens winnow in–a power that was granted to them under the treaty. They all talk, but the queens are not willing to part with the book without proof at all, and Feyre thinks that they could show them Velaris as proof of their good will. Rhys tells her that it is the only thing that they could share with the Queens, but she is worried that it isn’t going to be good. He tells her that they will only show the queens the city through a crystal ball owned by Mor’s family–she is the Morrigan, and is known by the queens for her truth. The problem? They will have to steal it from Mor’s family in the Court of Nightmares.

Rhys apologizes to Feyre and explains to her what they will have to do. She is happy to go along with it. En route to the Court of Nightmares, they are attacked with ash arrows. Rhys wants to leave Feyre to go after the attackers, but she convinces him to let her help track them. They do not find the culprits, so they go to the Court of Nightmares. Mor and Feyre go in first, and then Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel come in next, with Rhys making a show of it. He brings Feyre to the throne with him, and plays with her–touching her body sexually, making her seem like his plaything. Keir, Mor’s father and the Steward of Hewn City, gets summoned by Rhys and gives him updates about things in Hewn City. Rhys dismisses him to get something to drink for Feyre and Keir doesn’t bring it back, but just stares at her the whole time. Once Azriel confirms that he has the ball, and Mor goes around making sure that everyone remembers Azriel being there the whole time, Rhys lets Feyre go to Cassian. And then Keir calls her a whore, so softly as barely to be heard. Rhys explodes and breaks Keir’s fingers one by one, forbidding him from healing them with a healer, and Keir is forced to apologize.

Rhys takes Feyre away and they have a discussion, where he explains that he will kill anyone who tries to get her or hurt her, and they argue about Feyre comparing Rhys to Tamlin. He tells her that the things he loves have a tendency to be taken away from him, and asks her what she wants. When she does not answer him, he tells her that maybe she should try to figure it out to, and Feyre responds that at least she does not hide behind masks–because what if he let someone in, they saw everything and chose to still walk away? Who could blame them; who would want to bother with that sort of mess? Rhys flinches and Feyre knows she hit him too deeply.

Rhys ignores her for the next several days and avoids her. Feyre gets dressed for Starfall–a celebration only in the Night Court that happens on Nysa–where spirits that look like stars are the ones that race across the sky. She spends it next to Rhys, and watches as he is sad watching the stars racing across. She then follows him to the roof-top, to the sanctuary, and they talk before coming back down to spend some time with Cassian, Azriel and Mor. Amren has decided to sit this one out, but she had explained to Feyre that they are lucky to have Rhys as a High Lord–one who dreams. Feyre and Rhys talk on a quiet balcony before going down again–and he reveals that his friends do not know what Amarantha did to him on Starfall, and he doesn’t want to ruin their night. Then, they both get a star colliding with them, and laugh at themselves. They share a quiet moment, where he tells her that he is glad to have met her. They dance together until the sun rises.

They are then winnowed to an Illyrian war camp, where Lord Devlon greets them and tells them that the women have to do the chores before they can learn to fight. Cassian investigates and finds out that it has been a lot longer since the women had fought. Rhys begins to train Feyre far away from any potential casualties. They end up moving further away from the war camp and Rhys does not want to use his magic as it seems that someone has a lead on his powers, and may find them. As they finish training at one point, Lucien and two sentinels from Spring Court show up, and try to take Feyre. She avoids Lucien by winnowing herself when he goes after her and then changes her form to wings, stelling Lucien to leave her and never look for her again. Rhys, who had changed out of his Illyrian form to come to her, touches her wing. He basically returns her touch on his wing that she had given him a while back, and she learns just how sensitive that wing really is. They find a little inn, and Rhys has to be back in his Illyrian form so that they can blend in. They get the attack to themselves and have to share a bed for the night. Rhys brings Feyre to an orgasm with his fingers, telling her that the things that he wants to do to her, this is not a place for that. The next day, Feyre asks him why he made that deal with her under the mountain, and he tells her that he wanted to make a statement to Amarantha.

They do not talk about what happened the night before, though Feyre notices that he keeps opening and closing his mouth, as if he wanted to say something. They fly to another spot, and Rhys tells her that he has one more story for her, but suddenly he is in massive pain, and throws Feyre away from him, before he himself falls through the trees. Feyre slows her fall, gets off in the trees and uses her anger to help her winnow to where Rhys fell. Then she uses her tracking skills, finding and picking up the ash arrows tipped with poison along the way, and continues to follow the tracks where she scents Rhys’s scent intermingled with her own. This specifically helps her when there is a split in the groups that had dragged Rhys away. She finds a cave, and then kills all the guards who had lashed Rhys. Feyre does not feel sorry that their blood has been spilled, as they had spilled Rhysand’s blood. She gets him out of the chains, and winnows them to a cave she had seen earlier during training. There, she saws through the arrows in Rhys’s wings as she tells him about the time that she had gotten paints from Elain and painted things in their little house. Specifically, she had a dresser that she shared with her sisters, and for Nesta she painted fire, for Elain she painted flowers, and for herself, she painted the night sky, which was odd as she never was outside during the night, but she wonders if maybe a part of her knew that her future was here. Rhys stiffens at the mention of the painted night sky, and when she finishes pulling out he arrows, they go to sleep.

Feyre wakes up the next morning and Rhys still looks unwell–his wounds are oily and he is clammy. She bundles him up and takes her cloak, then sets a snare. A couple of hours go by and she catches the Suriel again, and asks questions to save Rhysand. The Suriel tells her that she can give him some of her blood–her healing properties will help him fight off the blood bane. Then the Suriel adds that Feyre can also get the pink flower by the water to save her mate. It takes a Feyre a moment to register what the Suriel had said, and then when she asks more questions, the Suriel reveals that Rhysand has known for some time that they’re mates, and that it makes sense–he is the strongest born Fae, and she is the strongest Made Fae, which is how the mate bond works, selecting two Faes who are equals.

Feyre returns to Rhysand, drops him the pink flower, gives him her blood and asks him questions about the mate bond. He tells her that he’s suspected for a while and knew for sure when Amarantha was killing her. Amren and Mor know, and Cassian and Azriel suspected it. Rhys tells her that he wanted to tell her and had hoped that she would see that it was more than a bargain for him when they were in bed, but she had wanted fun, not a mating bond with someone who is a mess. He tells her that he did not tell her because she was in love with Tamlin, and asks her if she thinks that he liked hearing all that she’s said about only having fund together; that it didn’t drive him crazy about whether or not he should tell her and accept whatever pieces she would offer, so much so that he got shot out of the sky because he was trying to figure this out and not watching for enemies. Feyre tells him that she does not want to hear him explain why and how he assumed it is the best thing to do–to keep the information from her; that he and his friend decided what’s best for her. She demands to be taken to the Illyrian war cam, and though he’s weakened, he does winnow them.

They show up right outside of the hut, and she leaves him in the freezing mud outside of the house as Cassian and Mor run out to see to him. Feyre asks Mor to take her away and Mor takes her to a mountain cabin that is spelled to do whatever she wants. Mor leaves her there alone, saying that she will check in three days from now. Feyre takes a bath and eats, thinking it all through. She comes to the realization that she would not have reacted well to the news of them being mates, and while that does not excuse Rhysand from not telling her these last few months when she’s been wanting him, she understands why he did it.

On her 2nd day at the Cabin, she starts painting and is only interrupted by Mor, who tells her that the paints were Amgen’s and that she should hear Rhys out because even though he’s an arrogant bastard, his instincts are usually spot on. Feyre denies the offer to listen him out. Mor comes back another time, brings more paint and stays the night. The next time there is a knock at the door, it is Rhysand on the threshold looking frozen. Feyre invites him in, and offers to reheat him some soup–something that surprises Rhysand as it is a symbolic gesture. He explains to Feyre that a female providing a food to a male means that she accepts the bond. Feyre tells him to tell her the story–the truth about how he realized she was his mate–and the unspoken words are that she will decide whether or not to serve him soup.

Rhys explains that he was captured by Amarantha during the war and was forced to watch as she killed his men in order to gain any information on the Night Court, not realizing that he was Illyrian and all she had to do was to rip his wings off. His father saved him after Rhys watched Amarantha kill Jurian, though he had wanted to kill her for how she killed his men. Years later, when Amarantha returned to Court in Prythian, he and Tamlin were no longer friends–each part taking in the murder of the other’s family. Amarantha had invited them to go to Court for a party, and Rhys, with vengeance in mind, went under the premise of working on the trade. He was alone, not bringing any of his friends, so no one could test his drink, but when he realized what was happening, he whipped the minds of the men he brought with him from the Court of Nightmares–the only ones he’d allowed to come with him. And then he used the last bits of power to strengthen the wards around Velaris, tying it to his friends, and communicating with them about what was happening. Tamlin became the only one who could break the curse because of what he’d said to Amarantha, and her fascination with him.

Rhysand explains that about three years ago, he started receiving images–fuzzy ones–of rabbits, hay, and finally a painter’s hands. He sent an image of the night sky that brought him so much calm throughout the years back towards the person from whom he was receiving these images. He was grateful for these images, and to the cauldron for showing him these as it meant that whoever this woman was, she was somewhat safe enough to paint. Then, he woke up one night with images of a woman slitting her throat, and he realized that this woman was in Prythian, exposed to his kind and that the earlier fuzziness must have been the wall. He tried to figure out who she was, to no avail, until he saw the image of Calanmai, and he knew where it was.

So he convinced Amarantha to let him go and check it out under the guise of looking for traitors–it was helpful that it was getting close to the date of the curse ending, and Amarantha was paranoid about Tamlin. So he went, then smelled her–so human–and being taken by those picts. Feyre remembers what he said that night that had the picts scurrying off, a reference to him looking for her which she had interpreted differently. He knew that he couldn’t linger, and after a last few words, he went after the picts, rearranged their memories and took them to Amarantha, who tortured them and he was glad because they had such horrendous thoughts of Feyre. He then visited Tamlin at his estate, and he had scented her, saw her once the glamour was down, and got so scared, that even the fact that she looked like she loved Tamlin horrified him. So he scared them, made Tamlin beg to show him how powerless he was to save her in hopes that Tamlin would send her back home. He went back to Tamlin’s estate with Amarantha to complete the ruse but also to check that she was gone, and was relieved to see she wasn’t there. He had assumed that she had given him a fake name, but when Amarantha had brought Clare Beddor and began torturing her, he helped the girl find peace, telling her when to scream, but taking the pain away. He could not stand to watch the tortures, so he mercifully snuffed her life out.

Rhysand was furtherly horrified when the Attor dragged her into that throne room and he had to watch her get beat up, not being able to do anything. He started to fall for her during her first trial, when she snapped those bones, and then threw one at Amarantha. He had wanted to laugh then because he could hear Cassian beside him saying that if he doesn’t marry her, Cassian will; that she was one of them, a person bold and unafraid. So he created that bargain to hide that connection between them, but also to give hope to those who knew where to look and to make it difficult for Amarantha to suspect was he was close to her, while at the same time riling Tamlin up. He was angry at Tamlin when after the 2nd trial, he had kissed her in the back room instead of getting her out, jeopardizing her, and he was jealous of them. Amarantha saw that, so she made him service her longer than usual–she had chosen him to be her sex slave because his father killed Tamlin’s father, who had been her friend. Rhysand decided to fight when Feyre came back to the Court, but when Amarantha started killing her during the 3rd trial, he snapped and tried going after her. He tugged on their bond as Feyre was dying, and convinced the High Lords to bring her back, because she was the only good, pure thing in his life. And then he let her go with Tamlin, tugging on their bond so that she would come to meet him at the top of the tower. It was then that the bond snapped into place for him–something about her now being fae heightened it, and when he arrived at the Court of Wind, his first words to Mor were that Feyre is his mate.

The day of her wedding to Tamlin, he tried to convince himself that she was happy and he had planned to go out drinking with Cassian, who did not know the reason, when he heard her calling to be saved. He had to winnow in, forgetting the role he had played of the bad guy, and had to call in the bargain to see if she was at least all right. He tells her that he would have killed Tamlin if he had been home that day that Tamlin locked her in, but that he broke some rules getting her out and Amren had stated at the time that Feyre accepting the mate bond might be the one thing that would help them, but Rhys could not force the bond–not after all that Feyre had gone through. He admits that he loves her, has loved her, and will continue to love her. Feyre tells him to eat up, and admits that she loves him too, and that he is worth being with. She adds that everything else, they will figure out together and fight together for themselves when the time comes.

They have sex in the cabin, strengthening their mate bond and they talk about kids because Feyre hasn’t been taking the tonic. She thought that she has to bear him children, but he tells her that she does not–children are previous, but she is not required to have them, and quite honestly, he is too scared with the oncoming war to consider it, since males have snapped at others after being newly mated, and his restraint is tenuous at best, and he would be worse if she was pregnant.

They return to the Illyrian war cam, where Cassian and Rhys go after each other, in order for Rhys to expend energy. Mor welcomes Feyre to the family. An hour later, the men are done and they winnow to Velaris, where Rhys and Feyre go to the Court of Wind and find their friends at a table. Mor, Cassian, Azriel and Amren all stand up and tell Feyre that they will live and protect her.

Feyre, Cassian, Azriel, Rhys and Mor go back to Feyre’s home, where they only meet with two Queens, the other four being too offended by Nesta last time. Mor shows them Velaris through the ball, but the Queens refuse to give them their half of the book. When the two queens winnow away, the group finds a box on the chair of the younger one. In it, she had left a note saying that she believes them and that the 6th queen was never ill, indicating that there may be something more going on in the Queen’s circle. The box also contains the other half of the Book of Breathings. They head back to Velaris and Amren takes the 3nd half and disappears to decipher it.

Not too long after, Feyre walks along the City’s streets with Cassian by her side after visiting Amren, when there is something off with the water. In the distance, they see things flying towards them–they look like the Attor, but are carrying soldiers. Cassian begs Feyre to go to the townhouse, and she heads out as he begins to fight with Azriel and Amren also fighting off the horde of invaders. Not wanting to see Rainbow Row destroyed, Feyre runs into the fight and gets water from the river that she then uses to chase after all the soldiers. When they fly off, her animals head after them, hitting them, and she uses her ice powers to destroy the animals and soldiers. She sees the actor flying away so she goes after it completely alone. The Queen that gave the group the second half of the Book of Breathings was killed and impaled on a post when she was dropped into Velaris during the fight. Rhys uses their bond to ask where Feyre is, and Feyre replies that she is exactly where she is needed. She winnows to the Attor, landing on top of him, and spears the poisonous ash arrows through his wings, before she slices through him with her dagger–one stab each for Rhys, Clare and herself. Then she jumps off of him as he splats across the cobblestone street.

They rebuild the city and make a plan to go destroy the cauldron undetected in Hybern, but they need Amren to figure out how to destroy it first. Amren says that she will stay behind and defend the city; she will be able to protect it as they will be more prepared when they leave for Hybern, and Rhys’s wards will be stronger than before. Feyre moves into Rhys’s room because he has the larger bed, and he gives her a box–in it is the ring that she stole from the Weaver. He tells her that it was his mother’s and she had given it to him while he was going through the war camps as a sign that she is always with him, but once he reached majority, she took it from him, and gave it to the Weaver for safekeeping–his sister wasn’t born yet and it normally is handed down through the female line. His mom told him that his wife or his mate has to be strong enough to get it back for him, otherwise the relationship will not work. He admits that while they did need to test Feyre’s ability to find where these objects were, he chose the item out of a purely selfish reason. Feyre asks him if anyone would know if they’re mated–he says yes, but only if they smell both of them. So she asks how it would look if she’s caught in the palace in Hybern with his ring. She decides to keep it off, and says that she wants to do it all with him, once the war is over. He asks what if he wants something more?

The next day, they follow the plan–Mor and Azriel winnow Cassian and Feyre (with the two halves of the book, which Amren wants should not be combined) and Rhys to Hybern. Cassian catches Feyre and they fly ahead to the castle, where they meet with Mor and Azriel. They make their way through the bottom of the palace, killing soldiers and they finally make it to the Cauldron. Feyre puts the 2 halves of the book together and tries to get the words out to destroy the cauldron, but nothing comes out. Azriel pulls her away, and Rhys appears, taking the book and hiding it under his jacket as Jurian comes down to tell them that he was sent to distract them while the King of Hybern weaves his spell. The King shows up, and shoots Azriel right in the chest with an arrow/ bolt full of blood bane, which the King claims that he can control. They have to follow him to the throne room, where Feyre realizes that Lucien and Tamlin are present. It turns out that Tamlin has made a deal with the King of Hybern to free Feyre of the bargain, in exchange for the King’s access through the Spring Court to the human lands. Tamlin orders her to come to him, and when she doesn’t, he lunges for her. She gets out of the King’s grip–he has blocked their access to magic, and Tamlin ends up getting punched in the face by Rhys. He’s half way through back to Lucien, when he realizes that Feyre is Rhys’s mate and demands to know what Rhys has done to her. Feyre threatens him–that he will destroy him if he separates her from Rhys. Tamlin tells her that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and the King of Hybern agrees.

Four of the Queens show up, along with guards who are dragging Elain and Nesta, who in turn looks like she has been fighting them. A ripple of power had come out that shredded Cassian’s wings, and Mor had gotten close enough to the King to throw a dagger at him, but then realizes that he was hurting Azriel, so she never threw it.

Tamlin and Lucien try to fight against the king when they realize that he is going to put both Elain and Nesta into the Cauldron to prove to the queens that he can remake them, and give them immortality. Ianthe had fed him all that information about Feyre’s sisters, as she had been trying to figure out who Feyre would like to have alongside her for eternity, and assured the King that they are strong-willed and will survive going into the Cauldron. It turns out that the King had sent Jurian to be his emissary to the human queens once the group had started searching for the Book, which he had been content to leave alone. And he helped the Queens shield against Azriel’s abilities, which is why they weren’t able to find a way into the courts.

Elain goes into the Cauldron first, and Lucien is freed to go help her get covered and get up. Nesta goes next, but she puts up a fight, even sticking her arm out of the cauldron and giving the King a vulgar gesture, which unnerves him. When Nesta comes out of the Cauldron, Feyre can tell that she is different as she did not stop fighting once she was in it, and may have taken more out of the Cauldron than Elaine. She runs to Elain and hugs her while Lucien looks at Elain earnestly and tells her that she’s his mate.

The King is making a bargain, and Rhys decides to make on of his own, but Feyre does not want that–she does not want him to make that sacrifice, so she concentrates on her power and sends out flashes of white–one that breaks all of the wards and spells in the palace, and then she runs towards Tamlin, pretending that she broke the spell that Tamlin thought Rhys had her under. She’s trying to communicate with Rhys mentally the whole time so that he takes her sisters and gets out, that she bought them time, but Rhys is not picking up on that. Rhys asks some questions and even Mor realizes what is happening, turns on him asking what did he do to Feyre. Feyre asks the king to break theyr bond, including the mate bond, and he does removing her tattoo of the bargain, which is painful. Mor takes the sisters, and they all disappear while Lucien demands that they get his mate. Jurian tells him that Rhys will destroy his mate and he won’t have one, but Feyre acts too calm about it all, which makes Lucien a bit suspicious. The King is surprised as to how Rhys and his group escaped and wonders how his wards were broken. He then gets angry when he realizes that Feyre does not have the book, and she tells him that it is his loss, before telling Tamlin to take her home.

Rhys arrives in his townhouse with Cassiand and Azriel, and Amren demands to know where Feyre is. Mor arrives a bit later, having hidden Nesta and Elain. As Amren and Mor heal Cassian, who had been reaching for Nesta during the whole ordeal, and Azriel, who had told the King to not touch Mor, Mor tells Amren the whole thing. They both tell Rhys to go get his mate, and he tells them no–that Mor wasn’t really listening to what Feyre was saying–she is going to destroy Tamlin’s Court from within. This is after he reveals that the night before, they had gone to a priestess and solidified the mate bond. He agrees with Amren that it is unbreakable, and caresses the bond hidden deeply within him, far below anything that the King had destroyed. He reveals to them that he had made Feyre the High Lady of the Night Court, and they will get ready in whatever way they can for War, while Feyre does what she has to do. Rhys is sad that Feyre did this because he believes that she did not think that she was worth anything.

Feyre lands in Spring Court with Tamlin and Lucien, and pretends that she still loves Tamlin, even though he feels wrong to her. She also pretends that she is glad to be back in Spring Court and “home,” while she caresses the bond with Rhys hidden deeply below the wasteland that was the bargain inside her. She also glamours the tattoo that shows her as the High Lady of the Night Court. As they head to the mansion, she notices that luckies is looking at her like he sees through her lies, but she decides to play with him too. And so, the Spring Court brings the High Lady of the Night Court into their midst.

My Thoughts: I loved Feyre’s and Rhys’s story–especially how Feyre found out the truth that he’s her mate, and the argument after, as well as the way that they made up in the Cabin. I love that there were these little hints throughout of her feelings changing for Rhys the more she got to know him, and realize that he is truly nothing like what she was lead to believe by Tamlin. All this time, I believed that Tamlin and Feyre did not have any spice or spark, and it’s because she really wasn’t meant to be with him. What I also did enjoy the book exploring is the idea of her feeling guilty and struggling with guilt because she falls in love why Rhys so quickly after being saved from Tamlin’s estate. This can happen in life–when someone passes and people move on too quickly or whatever the case may be, so it’s great that Sarah J. Maas explored that. But most importantly, the thing that really resonated with me was how Feyre reacted so emotionally to finding out the truth about her mate bond with Rhys, and then she takes time to process that alone, being very brutally honest with herself that she wouldn’t have reacted well to it, so she understands Rhys’s decision to avoid telling her anything. She is truly brave to face that and come out at the end, declaring her feelings for him. She’s also braver still for sacrificing herself so that Rhys does not have to carry another bargain on his shoulders. I cannot wait to see how they get reunited in the next book in the series, and how Elain and Lucien work out, and what the deal is with Cassian and Nesta-they’ve been a little nippy at each other’s heels that it makes me suspect that they too might be mates.