A Court of Wings and Ruin Review

As many of you know, Sarah J. Maas is one of my favorite authors. This is the review for A Court of Wings and Ruin, the third book in A Court of Thorns and Roses, so there will definitely be some spoilers for the previous books. If you haven't read those, GET OUT NOW!

Summary: Feyre is separated from her mate and undercover in the Spring Court. Her goal? To destabilize Tamlin and his lands. At the same time, the King of Hybern is getting closer and closer to destroying Prythian and war is imminent. Feyre and her companions have to navigate who to trust and make alliances in an attempt to make it through alive.

In my opinion, Sarah is able to create some of the greatest characters. She does really well with character development where I grow to love or hate certain characters. There are some that I dislike, but I can also understand. She makes them feel real and not simply one dimensional. This is one of the reasons why Sarah J. Maas has become one of my favorite authors. Character development is one of my favorite parts about books and the character arcs in this book are amazing.

However there's a downside to this, I had an issue with it here and in Empire of Storms as well. She creates too many good characters and then it can become difficult to give enough time to all of them. I want to learn about all of their thoughts and where they'll go next, but it can become a little too crowded. One character in ACoWaR, who I won't name, disappeared at a very important time and was no longer addressed.

Thankfully, Sarah is continuing the story of some of the side characters from Prythian in further books. Feyre and Rhys won't be the focus for those and I'm super excited for it because I still have so many questions!

Okay back to addressing this book... The PTSD and trauma addressed is wonderful. She's not afraid to get dark in this area. War is awful and not always perfectly heroic with knights in shining armor. The characters are changed when they have to fight bloody battles and witness people's horrible actions. However, while I think she did great with this in the middle....

SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD

The ending was way too happy. The whole book was about how this war was going to be bloody and not everybody will survive. While I think Sarah did a great job in the middle of addressing this, she kind of failed at pulling it through to the end.

While I loved all of the characters and didn't truly want any of them to die, I also thought it was unrealistic for them to all survive. The ending honestly reminded me of a cliche action movie ending where it all looks hopeless until the last moment but everybody still manages to live happily ever after.

I was a little disappointed because it felt very overdone. If everybody was going to survive I at least wanted something better than what I've seen hundreds of time before.

However, I'm also glad it was a happy ending because they all deserved it. I was just creatively disappointed.

END OF SPOILERS

Overall, I loved the beginning and middle but was slightly disappointed in the end. I truly cannot wait to read Prythian's story continued and see where Sarah goes with it. Perhaps the issues I had with the end of ACoWaR will be addressed. I can see so many ways it can go and she could honestly keep going with addressing all of the characters and their own stories because I would read them all.

Despite issues I have, Sarah is still one of my favorite authors. It's been so amazing seeing how her writing develops. The second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, is still my favorite I think though.

I've also come to enjoy this series more than Throne of Glass. Heir of Fire is still one of my all time favorite books, but ACoTaR is overall a better series I think. Perhaps it's because Sarah was able to give it the maturity level she wanted.

While I'd probably give it 4.5 stars, I'm rounding up to 5 out of 5 stars!