★★★★☆
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!!