Book Club March 2016

By: Sarah J. Maas
Published Year: 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Pages: 416

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

This month’s book club pick was made by Meghan and she picked A Court of Thorns and Roses. I have heard a lot of hype about this book and I do like the cover, but I was never drawn to the story. While I love Beauty and the Beast, I don’t tend to like fantasy stories with fairies.

                                                              What I thought

I think I enjoyed this book just as much as I thought I would. Unfortunately, this book had the happenstance of being the first book I read after re-reading the first Harry Potter, so I think it was at a bit of a disadvantage. I was still under a bit of a Harry Potter hangover when I started this, so I think it may have colored my opinion a little bit.

A Court of Thorns and Roses follows Ferye (pronounced fay-ruh) after she kills a fairie who was disguised as a wolf. The world is divided into two parts by a magic wall. One part is the world of the fairies, and the other part is the world of the humans as a result of a treaty from a war over 500 years ago. Feyre’s family is poor and while she was out on a hunt, she spotted the fairie and killed him unprovoked. Little did she know, this broke a rule of the treaty and caused another fairie to find Feyre. He tells Feyre that he can either kill her now in repayment or she can come to live with him forever in the land of the fairies. Her family encourages/begs her to live with him so off she goes.

I feel a little on the fence about this book. While I did enjoy a lot of aspects of it, it never quite captured my attention. Like I said, I read this right after re-reading Harry Potter, so I think that worked against the story. Even though it was my 6th or 7th re-read, I still found myself drawn into the world completely and unable to put it down. I never quite felt that way with this story. I was definitely more interested in it than I thought I would be, but it took me until about 75-80% through the book before I felt like I couldn’t put it down and needed to know how it ended.

I really enjoyed the characters. I think that Ferye is a nice strong female character and I really liked Tamlin and Lucien. Each character is unique and brings something special to the story. Sometimes it feels like there are too many characters, but it’s the first book in a series so there is a lot of world building that has to happen.

I did see some of the parallels between this story and Beauty and the Beast at the beginning of the story, but I think it becomes something completely independent by the end. I am definitely curious enough and interested enough that I want to read the next book, but I didn’t love it. I know a lot of people who have raved about it, but I think this genre isn’t my cup of tea. If you love fantasy, I think you will love this book.

                                                  What Book Club Thought


Everyone that read it really enjoyed it. There were some minor issues that we had but overall everyone liked it and is excited about the next book. I think during the discussion, I was probably the one who liked it the least. There wasn't a lot of deep discussion with this book, so I don't have a lot to report on from book club. The only big thing we all agreed on was that her family was absolutely horrible and we wondered how necessary they were to the story. I also brought up the fact that the way she takes her promise to her dead mother so seriously irritated me and everyone agreed.

Book Club for April
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry By: Fredrik Backman
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Book Club Date: April 10th