a court of silver flames — Blog

Hi friends! It’s already the end of March, and may I say that it absolutely flew by. I hope you all had a lovely month, despite the ongoing disruptions to life all around the globe. I know Melbourne is doing well at the moment, but to all of you still stuck at home, we know how you feel and hopefully, it’ll be safe for you to all venture further than your immediate surroundings soon ❤️

I always love March, it’s the first month of Autumn so we always have a lovely combination of lingering warmth and crisp cool mornings. It’s my favourite month, and my favourite season and honestly, I’ve had a really great month (other than the fact that I got a cold 🙄). I turned 23 this month and got spoilt by my friends and my family beyond my wildest expectations, and I am so thankful for the people I have in my life! I also had a bunch of FaceTime calls with the wonderful new friends in my life Hannah and Erica, and it was hard to shut us up! The calls were such highlights of this month and I can’t wait for many more, including our party watch of the Lizzy McGuire movie that I’m so excited about since it’s the best movie.

Okay, I’ll get to the books now! I had such a great book reading month and I got through a few re-reads and a few super anticipated reads. You can find my full non-spoiler reviews of all these books on my blog which I’ll link to, but I’ll do a fun little rundown here. Unfortunately, I just haven’t been in the mood to write in my book journal much this month, and I think it’s important to not force yourself to do things you’re not vibing, especially if they’re things you’ve chosen to do for fun! There are no rules, so I’ll start back up once I feel like it. It’s hard to have unfinished entries or missed books, but ultimately, I’ll be okay 😂

This month I read a combo of physical books (all paperbacks), e-books, and audiobooks and it was so wonderful to have a range of ways to inhale words and stories! The first book I finished this month was my re-read of A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas which I started in February and read as an ebook. Honestly, I think ebooks are so underrated because it’s SO easy to highlight and make notes, versus working with sticky notes and pencils! I really like this conclusion to the main Feyre plot of this series, but it’ll never beat A Court of Mist and Fury from my top spot in this series! ★★★★☆.5

Next was my re-read of A Court of Frost and Starlight novella by Sarah J.Maas which was a physical book, and honestly, is such a wonderful way to end the Feyre/Rhys ARC and introduce the new focus of the next books. I also ADORE multiple POVs which makes me enjoy this more than I would if there was only one. ★★★★☆

That was it for my re-reads this month, because my next read was my paperback copy of A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas which I liked a lot more than I anticipated I would. Getting both Nesta and Cassian’s POV gave this book the depth that I continuously wish we got for the first three books (or at least books 2 and 3). The redemption ARC for Nesta was phenomenal, and I love both where this book went, and the new characters that were introduced!

My next read was a Historical Fiction novel which I have been dying to read since Erica posted her review to Moaninc (if you haven’t checked out her website/ Instagram/ YouTube, what have you been doing??) The Porpoise by Mark Haddon was definitely my favourite read of the month. This book went from 0 to 100 within the first ten pages, and then doesn’t let you go until the last line. Even after the book was done I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was honestly such a wonderful whirlwind and did a phenomenal job at intertwining the ancient story with the modern. I will continue to recommend this to literally everyone, forever.

The last book I finished this month was my audiobook of the month which was A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I just want to shout out audiobooks for a second here, because honestly, I am LOVING them! I was definitely hesitant when I initially started to listen to them, but now I am FULLY invested! I’m thinking of doing a post all about the pros have cons of physical books versus ebooks versus audiobooks. Let me know if that’s something you would be interested in reading! So, back to the book. Definitely not as good as the first one, and literally nothing happens in the first 60%. The last 40% is much more interesting and I finally got hooked on the plot and the new characters. Give me more Kieran in book three, please! Also, a shout out to the narrator, she does such a wonderful job and I would definitely recommend this audiobook!!

So that’s my wrap-up for March, it was a wonderful month reading-wise and just overall. I’m hoping that April brings more great reads, and some stunning colours in the trees 🍂 What was your favourite read for March? I’d love to know!!

★★★★☆

Hello friends and welcome back to another chaotic review (non-spoiler)! Although, as always, this will have spoilers for the previous books in the series!

Okay, so, I came into this book after rereading the rest of the series with medium expectations. I really like SJM’s writing style and the world she’s built but I was really unsure about Nesta. So far we have been mostly in the mind of Feyre, with a couple of jumps to Rhys and then we got a few different POVs in the novella (which I loved and want more of ASAP), so I think my trepidation for a book focussed on Nesta is because so far, her motivations were a mystery. She acted like a self-entitled brat, she was cold, rude and didn’t lift a finger to help Feyre when she was younger and kept the family alive, and didn’t get that much better even after she and Elain were turned into Fae. Although it seemed in ACOMAF that she was improving, it was obvious that the war and the death of her father caused a drastic decrease in her mental health.

This book really made me understand Nesta. It made me understand the choices she made when she was human, and her outlook on life. It was obvious in ACOFAS that she was struggling, but this book really showed how bad she got. This book was massive, both in physical size and what it covered with Nesta. She went through SO much in this book, and although she really bugged me in the beginning, she has become a character that I actually really like (which is a huge surprise).

“I cannot survive without reading.”
Sarah J Maas

This redemption arc is EVERYTHING that I hoped for, and that definitely has something to do with having Cassian as a main focus and a POV, and Nesta creating her own found family as Feyre did. I really enjoyed Cassian’s POV, it gave his character so much more depth, and he is such a sweet and honourable male and I think that this book was so wonderful in that it allowed us to get so much more of an insight on who he is, and his motivations and history. It was wonderful.

The new characters in this book, the priestesses, Emerie and Gwyn was so great. I loved having these three women, all who had gone through such hardships, find each other and allow themselves to grow and heal together. Like, YES. And the House! I have to say, the friendship between Nesta and the House was one of my favourite aspects of this book.

“The cold of the gaps between stars, the cold of a world before light.”
Sarah J Maas

One point I want to make, is the incorporation of ancient history elements and even legendary history. The Myrmidon mountains were one, and also it seemed like Maas used the rough legend of Arthur, Gwyn, and Lancelot at one point which I liked! There was definitely more, but I can’t remember!!!

The book was so long though, I docked a star off my rating for a few reasons, one, is how LONG it is. I feel like there could have been 100/150 words less and have been just as powerful. I feel like there was a bit of filler in there, but it probably could have been a bit shorter. There was also an issue with repetition, up until about the 120-page mark, I really felt like there was a lot of unnecessary repetition in the thoughts of Nesta + Cassian and it was super frustrating and made the beginning tedious. I also didn’t really vibe that much with the sex scenes, but the angst and tension it caused for the overall story was pretty brilliant. This aspect definitely got better though, as the book went on and the characters grew and healed and developed!

Anyway, I enjoyed this more than I thought! I thought the writing was as good as always, the world-building is always spot on, the characters were all well fleshed out and the events of this book were all new and unique and made me want to keep reading it! All in all, a wonderful read and I would recommend it to anyone who may be having doubts about a book from Nesta’s POV!!