A Court of Frost and Starlight (Mini Rant) Review: A Boring Fluffball Lacking Plot

Feyre, Rhys, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. 

Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated–scars that will have far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

 

“Stars flickered around us, sweet darkness sweeping in. As if we were the only souls in a galaxy.”

Honestly, everybody’s probably said it all but I’m just going to jump on the bandwagon and review this book too. Three months too late, but hey, that’s because I’ve been waiting THREE MONTHS for my library’s one copy of the book to pass through seven other people and finally get to me despite putting it on hold back in April…

Let me just disclose the fact that I LOVE the trilogy. I gave all the books 4 or 4.5 stars. Really, I do. I’m not a Sarah J Maas hater, I’m just not here for this “novella.”

So what’s in a spoiler anyways, because there’s pretty much nothing to spoil about this book. I mean, usually there’s some tension, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out, scary ahhh coming for the end, but this was literally 229 pages of absolute fluff, so I’ll talk about stuff that happens in the middle/end of this book, but I wouldn’t really consider it a spoiler… Now, I’ve read a couple of reviews saying things like oh, it’s just a novella, it’s supposed to be fluffy and doesn’t need a plot! But I’d just like to take a moment to appreciate the fact that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is shorter than this book. And that book had an incredible plot in 223 pages sooooooo

The book is told through the alternate points of view of Feyre, Rhys, and a few other people like, I think, Mor, Cassian, and Nesta. Buuuut for some reason, Feyre and Rhys got 1st person POV, and everyone else got 3rd person, and it actually bugged the crap out of me. I mean, why? Why? I guess the next three books will probably be third person, but still, why? Just keep it consistent pls and thank you.

Anyways, I’m gonna be real, the only person whose POV I was interested in was Cassian. Cassian was great and I was so down for him and Nesta to have some little romantic spark! (But of course we don’t get that because Nesta is being a grade A b*tch and I lowkey started shipping Cassian with this random girl from one chapter in a shop whose name I don’t even remember). I don’t know when that happened because at the end of ACOWAR I literally loved Feyre and Rhys, but now I’m just tired of them. Yes, they’re perfect together and there’s absolutely no conflict so please stop beating us over the head with how great they are.

I mean, let’s just talk about Rhys for a second. Why is it that all he can do is think of having sex with Feyre?? At this point, does he even like Feyre for anything beyond her sex appeal? (yes i know he obviously does as we see in ACOMAF and ACOWAR but you wouldn’t know it from reading this book).

But Feyre was far worse. First of all, she’s all about being that High Lady and whoo hoo woman’s rights feminism!! eXCEPT… “High Lady of the desk.” Why is it that Rhys is all out negotiating making treaties and doing stuff, and Feyre is sitting at home doing paperwork, painting, and shopping?

AND ENOUGH WITH THE SHOPPING!!! I literally don’t care about you going shopping. I swear, this book could have been cut in half if we cut out all the unnecessary shopping, talking about “oh no, what am I going to get him???” talking about “ooh I have just the idea for what to get him!!” and all the other baggage that comes with shopping, aPPARENTLY. Also, I’m so sick and tired of Feyre beating us over the head with how wealthy they are, but at the same time being like “oh no, I don’t feel right spending so much money!!!” STAWP. Once is enough–you don’t need to remind us of it every 20 pages.

ANDDDD… (I guess this is kind of a spoiler but not really so read on at your own risk) I was extremely pissed when Feyre was like ooh ooh ah I want to have a baby!!! In the past she was all about living with her and Rhys for a while, being independent, and not needing to have a baby for a long time, and then here she was just like ah whatever I’m an immortal I’ll live forever as evidenced by my friends who are 500+ years old but I still need to have a baby when I’m 21 and settle down being a docile housewife making my house and bringing my husband food on a tray when he comes back from a long day where I was shopping like a Bella Swan wannabee.

(end sort of spoiler)

So one of the most irritating things in this book was with regards to Tamlin. Now, you might already know that I don’t hate Tamlin as much as most and feel like SJM deliberately wrecked his character in ACOMAF (I thought he was flawed, bad, but not this completely horrible monster!), and you can read my full blog post in partial defense of him, but I thought the treatment of him here was just horrible. To beat a man while he was already down. Rhys comes and pretty much rubs in his face how he has everything Tamlin ever wanted while Tamlin is already destroyed. It’s pretty much the equivalent of someone beating someone up in a fight and then coming back to kick them again while there’s nothing they can do about it. It was just low and diminished my like of Rhys.

Also SJM please cool it with the mate and male stuff. I am really not here for gentlemales. Also, why are girls still girls but women have to be females??

At this point it basically seems like I hated the book but alas, that was not the case. It was very problematic and also nothing happened but it was still a bit of a feel good piece of fluff. (The snowball fight in particular was super adorable!!!) It’s a really quick read–I think I finished it in two hours or so–and will help if you’re craving more of the inner circle!

★★ /  5