A Court of Frost and Starlight Book Review

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas

From Waterstones: From the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Throne of Glass novels comes a brand new story in the Court of Thorns and Roses series.

Taking place in the embers of the epic events of Sarah J Maas’s thrilling third novel in the Court of Thorns and Roses series, A Court of Wings and Ruin, this companion tale bridges the story so far with the upcoming novels in the series.

Months after the battle, Feyre, Rhys and their companions are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it a hard-earned reprieve.

Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated – scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.

This review will be spoiler-free because obviously this is one of the biggest releases of the year for YA and I’d hate to be the one to ruin the book for anyone 😀

Like most people, I’ve been anticipating this book for quite a while now. Despite the looming pile of uni work, I shoved everything aside this week so I could read ACOFAS as soon as I had it in my hands. It has a beautiful cover, and for a while I was just standing looking a bit mesmerized by the pretty illustration and the foiling. The colours work well, and even better, I bought the Waterstones edition, so it came with pretty artwork inside too.

It’s a very short book, only 225 pages, but that kinda worked in its favour. It does switch POV a lot, and since I didn’t bother to re-read ACOWAR beforehand, I was a little confused every now and then by the appearance of a particular character or relationship etc. But it was still pretty easy to keep up. The descriptions are breath-taking, and I’ve been itching to write ever since I opened this book, because it really does just motivate you to try and capture something similar. I loved getting another glimpse of Velaris and the Night Court, and seeing all my favourites bicker and erm… do other stuff together. There’s lots of wine drinking too, which made me smile. I can totally see this being a regular thing.

Basically, it reads like a very good fanfiction. I couldn’t help but liken it to ones I’d read from Once Upon a Time fans [I used to watch it and ship Rumbelle] who did a sort of Secret Santa thing where they would write fluff about cute romantic Christmases spent together. ACOMAF is essentially that, it covers the Winter Solstice festival, which sounds very much like Christmas, and all the cute and fluffy stuff the characters get up to during it. Obviously, it does tackle some of the trauma and issues left behind from ACOWAR, and I’m glad it does, but it is, by and large, a bit of a filler book, where most of the characters get to chill and have fun. Nothing much happens plot-wise, which I’m sure will frustrate some people, but it does serve as a neat bridge between the ACOTAR series and Maas’ upcoming novels set in the same world and character group. Which is cool. I don’t necessarily mind that it was so fanfiction-y, because it was short and cute, but it does definitely seem a bit like giving the fans what they wanted… more Rhys and Feyre and more Night Court peeps. It was sweet and romantic, and there were some sexy times in there to spice it up, but overall it didn’t really go anywhere or do anything other than give us another sweet glimpse at Maas’ marvellous world and the characters we love. For some people, this will be more than enough, and it is so sweet that I squealed a good few times in joy, but some people will probably come away from it wondering what the point of it was. I’d recommend reading it if you’re a fan of the trilogy and Maas’ writing, but if you’re not certain, or feel a bit bogged down by her writing style [it happens to some people] this is a book that you can just skip.

I’m giving A Court of Frost and Starlight an 8.5/10. It was cute and fluffy. I loved seeing more of everything she gave us, and I didn’t mind at all that it was fanfiction-y. But since there wasn’t much of a plot and I was a bit confused by the many POV changes, I’m knocking a few points off.

You can buy copies of it from Waterstones here, Amazon UK here, and Book Depository here.