Book Review – A Court of Wings and Ruin

Welcome back for another review, this time of the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. You can find the review for book one A Court of Thorns and Roses here, and book two A Court of Mist and Fury here if you’d like to hear my thoughts on those before jumping into this one. Equally, if you haven’t read the series yet, but are debating it, I recommend reading all three posts in order, the same as you would with the books. Naturally again, because this is a sequal, there is a spoiler warning possibility.

Back at the Spring Court to keep her friends alive, Feyre is putting her every effort into maintaining a persona of having been damaged by the Night Court, letting Tamlin think he has rescued her, while below the surface she boils with the rage of what has been done. Painting roses and wearing floaty dresses, only Lucien seems suspicious. Ianthe is in the midst of pushing for her own power, and Feyre knows that to tackle Hybern, she needs to tackle Tamlin.

It’s no spoiler to say that Feyre returns to the Night Court, now High Lady, crowned to sit alongside Rhysand as his equal. Not the pretty little consort that Tamlin had pictured, no longer terrified of the crown she thought she would wear at the Spring Court, but Rhysand’s High Lady. Another High Lord says to Rhys at one point that he did always like to spit on tradition. Rhys just laughs.

The gears of war are spinning, and, aware of their reputation as a court, the weight lands on Rhys and Feyre to assemble the forces against Hybern, both in the mortal and immortal realms. Coordinating High Lords, it soon turns out, is harder than herding cats, but Feyre, Rhys and their circle will not back down on this, not when they have seen how much is at stake.

Unsurprisingly, this was another five star read. The power of the previous two books has built up to this book and what it contains, and wow – this has been worth waiting for. It’s at times brutal, painful, beautiful and wonderous. Full of hope and despair and love. It is the best of the books in the series so far, in my humble opinion, and my love for this particular book rivals perhaps even that I have for Crescent City that I have praised so endlessly.

The relationship dynamics are utterly superb, both in the perfect ones and those… not so much. The character development, not just from book one to three, but from page to page, is brilliance in itself, combined with an incredible storyline. While no book can be perfect entirely, this is the kind of book that you go back to read specific chapters when you have a free half hour because they are just so beautiful.

Book four, A Court of Frost and Starlight, is a lot shorter, referred to by some sites simply as book 3.1 rather than four as it is small bursts from multiple characters, but it does also give a preview of book five, A Court of Silver Flames, due for release in January 2021. I’ll review that at a later date, but book five will have to offer up something rather superb for it to knock A Court of Wings and Ruin off my favourite book of the series spot.