A Court of Thorns and Roses

Let me get this out of the way:
- they weren't lying when they said this was a retelling of beauty and the beast... the curse, turning into a monster, having to marry/fall in love with a human, etc. it follows it a bit too closely for me at times
- the answer to the riddle was extremely obvious to me?? felt so corny.
- the romance between tamlin and feyre felt rushed, and i think the chemistry between lucien and feyre is SO SO MUCH stronger.
- too much of the major plot twists were revealed from pages and pages of monologue in boring settings. we learn most of ~the secrets~ through alis while she's grabbing spices and food from cupboards. I wanted some sort of action or stakes involved in it. Even in the scene I'm mentioning, neither characters are noticeably scared of being caught so it's literally just a convo between friends.
- yall hyped this up for being spicy asf and it was not. “It gets spicier in the second book”...this book is literally 400+ pages long.

All of that being said,
I've never read a fantasy novel that was so incredibly easy to sink my teeth into.

- I loved learning about Feyre's family dynamic and her responsibilities
- The plot was so engaging, an explicit sex scene might've been disruptive.
- The painting detail was really interesting especially when she self admittedly is not an expert. Her noticing the painting on the walls/learning to read was a cool detail too.
- It's gross and full of fucked up (both evil and morally grey) characters, which I love so much.
- if you're not a fan of series/sequels, I think this works well as a standalone read to be honest. It feels pretty resolved (obviously is not really)

Ultimately, I wished the romance and banter was stronger, but I also think it was important to detail the past and rules of this fantasy world before getting to that. Tamlin is a bit boring. And I hope we learn more about Feyre's family in the next books. Pretty solid. :)