Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just want to start this by saying the first three ACOTAR books are probably my very favorite in the romance/adventure genre. Like when I say I LOVE those books.. I truly mean it. This book, unfortunately, fell flat for me. I know a lot of people didn’t like Nesta as a character, and while she wouldn’t have been my first choice to read a stand-alone book about, I didn’t ever hate her and was interested to see things from her perspective. However, her journey from a broken being to someone emotionally more whole felt cheap and lacking. As I was reading the book I got the distinct impression the author was borrowing from personal mental health healing experiences and applying them (somewhat sloppily) to Nesta. As someone that works with sexual assault survivors as my job, the “mental health” parts of the book felt shallow and not well researched. I would have liked to see more than just surface level approaches to mental health healing like “physical exercise can help you heal”. Sure, it can, but mental healing is much more nuanced than that and i feel this aspect needed much more research. Part of the appeal of Cassian as a character was his backstory. We knew a little bit of it from the first three books, but I picked up this book thinking it would be greatly expounded upon and we would get to see some of the experiences he went through to become the character we know and love. While I would say Nesta was pretty well developed as a character, throughout the book it seemed like Cassian was just inserted for a steamy scene when the plot was limping along so badly it needed a little spicing up. Even the “enemies to lovers” trope we knew was coming didn’t even last very long and it almost seemed like when they finally did admit their feelings for each other it was diluted by the pages and pages of explicit sex they had already had. Also, I just have a hard time believing Cassian was really able to leave for a whole week after realizing they were mated?? That goes against everything we have already learned about this fictional world and I definitely feel like it was an oversight. I mean, possibly it could have been used as a plot device later but it wasn’t and it just wasn’t believable. Finally, this book lacked the adventure and cleverness and twists I’ve come to expect from a Maas book. The first three books constantly had me second guessing and on my toes so to speak. This book was predictable and boring. I knew from the first few chapters where it was headed and it really didn’t deviate much from there. The scene in the bog definitely felt like I was reading a Sarah J Maas book, and if the whole book would have continued with that level of storytelling I think it would have been wonderful. Unfortunately it did not and while the story may have been fine for someone not used to reading Sarah J Maas, it was a total disappointment in terms of the work she usually produces. I’ve always admired her ability to juggle different characters and make you interested in them, but in this book it felt like she didn’t even try. Mor was conveniently “away on business” most of the time and the others it felt like she gave you enough of just in case you weren’t reading this for Nesta and only reading for the other characters, and I feel this did all of the characters a disservice. Ultimately the book just felt like a holding place for greater plot development later and an attempt to get Nesta and Cassian’s story out of the way. That all said, I didn’t absolutely hate the book. I loved the character of the house and that plot development that followed. Despite the lacking external story (the Valkyrie plot, Cassian + Nestas relationship, finding the Trove) I feel like the character development of Nesta was written well and mostly believable (aside from the lacking mental health advice not so cleverly disguised throughout the book), and I definitely would say in my eyes she was redeemed. I feel like it was a cheap shot to remove the bulk of her power in the end and it seems like Maas has a problem with this. Just like with Amren - if a character is too powerful she can’t just let them live with it. It has to end in some way, presumably so Rhys and Feyre keep the power between themselves. This was a fine read if you’re not expecting a Sarah J Maas level plot and storytelling. However, if you came here thinking it was going to be the same caliber of book as the first three ACOTAR books, you’ll likely be disappointed. It’s a fine story, but for this series it feels more like a fanfic than something Sarah J Maas wrote.