Rating: 10/10 

Age: 16+

This book was the most riveting, brutal, and real YA I’ve come across in a while. I am actually shocked it’s not more popular! 

What makes a good YA are adult themes that truly express what teenagers are capable of feeling. And I’m not just talking about sexuality, but emotional depth.

This book tells the sordid tale of a young girl in another world where faeries exist. Feyre Archeron is forced to hunt because her family has no money or food, and her dad is disabled and desolate. Her sisters don’t help either. Unfortunately, she kills a grey wolf that turns out to be a faerie and as a result, this faerie High Lord demands Feyre as retribution as demanded by a treaty regarding human-faerie interaction. 

This is a very loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and by loose, I mean extremely loose. She obviously falls in love with him, but what she doesn’t know, is that everybody’s powers have been stripped in the faerie realm. The remaining faeries maintain a very loose hold on magic, whilst nightmares roam the forests, sent by the evil faerie intent on torturing everyone.

KINDA SPOILER ALERT* Read past the first book to find out why it’s not a Beauty and the Beast retelling. 😉

What makes this book jarring is the explicit brutality and real life parallelism drawn. That’s why the age is pretty high. I don’t want to go into details, because I HATE BOOK SPOILERS! But the journey this girl goes on IS INTENSE! The world created by this author is STUNNING! Not similar to anything I’ve encountered, and it was definitely a fresh take on the binary concept of good and evil, and it circumvented the concept by managing to create truly multi-dimensional characters. 

I recommend this book for both genders, there is a strong theme of romance, but a mature one that isn’t about appealing to teenage girls, even though it may seem like that at first. 

Without a doubt, if you read the first book, you’re going to read the second book!

I finished this series in 2 days because it was so amazing, I borrowed it from my library but it is also available on Amazon Kindle! 

***KINDLE HACK, YOU CAN RETURN BOOKS WITHIN 7 DAYS FOR A REFUND 

Book Series Order 

A Court of Thorns and Roses 

A Court of Mist and Fury 

A Court of Wings and Ruin 

A Court of Frost and Starlight