Grace

This is the first book in a while that has me screaming into my pillow. I have known about it for a while, and have heard good things, but was skeptical. I really like the beginning of Throne of Glass, but the ending got a little too complicated and the relationships convoluted, and generally unenjoyable and I didn't want to go though that again. I'm glad I did though because this book is amazing. I really like how the characters are really diverse in their motivations and back stories. There are no cookie cutter characters, and even the background characters like Alis have fully flashed out stories. The story doesn't feel rushed, and I like learning the magic system from Feyre because she has a warped understanding because she is human, so learning it through her perspective is really interesting. The romance also doesn't feel overbearing, and is definably the B plot to the whole magic debacle and the blight/Amarantha.

Lucian is my favorite character because he is just so snarky but can still hold his own in a fight despite the fact that Tamlin is the all-powerful one. I also like the relationship that Feyre and Lucian develop because it feels very playful and brother sisterly, but he really does care about her. During the rite, and when Rhysand visits, he protects her from a danger that she may or may not even recognize herself. He truly cares about her past Tamlin being his bro and him tolerating her for his sake. I also like his tragic back story because it makes him relatable as a character and he may be this snarky and standoffish character, but he has walls built up because of the trauma, which is a very human thing, despite being fae. Also the fact that he can stick it back to his family by being Tamlin's ambassador and dealing with them is such a power move. And he has a whole development arc where he genuinely starts to like her and tells her that he would protect her even if Tamlin didn't insist on it because she risked her life to save him by giving up her name to Amarantha, even though he had been an asshole to her in the past. One of my favorite scenes in the whole book is when Lucian blows up at Feyre for making the deal with Rhysand to heal her because he would have healed her as soon as he was able to move after Amarantha made Tamlin punish him for helping Feyre in the first trial. They have a really good sibling relationship, and I'm excited to see that develop as the series goes on, especially since Lucian's bio family is full of assholes that tried to kill him, and Feyre made sure to give them some murderous stairs.

I originally wasn't a fan of Rhysand as a character because he was on the side of villainy for no apparent reason, which I suppose was the point because he is the high lord of the night court and is supposed to be all mysterious, so he did a good job of that. But as the book went on and he started to develop more of a relationship with Feyre, and told her about how Amarantha was actually punishing him for his father killing Tamlin's father and brother, who she liked because they also hated humans, I started to like him more. I think his fascination with Feyre, and his rivalry with Tamlin is super fun, and an interesting dynamic that puts Reece in a weird gray area between good and bad, which I think suits him perfectly. He definitely fits the type of tall dark and handsome, and I haven't really looked into the fandom for this series, but I have a feeling the Reece and Feyre is a popular ship, as opposed to Tamlin and Feyre which is the canon main ship going on right now. I would not be opposed to a love triangle, but I like that Tamlin and Reece's rivalry seems entirely separate from Feyre, and Reece is just kind of using her to get to Tamlin, but Feyre seems to understand this, and no real feelings seem to be developing, which is always good.

I really like Tamlin as a character, but on the whole, I was underwhelmed by him in particular. I thought he had a really interesting character, but since he had to keep a secret during the first half, and in the second half under the mountain he had to remain distant for Feyre's sake, I feel like he didn't get as much characterization as many of the other characters, making him a little underwhelming as opposed to Reece or Lucian or even Amarantha.

This book was pretty good. I had to read it for a journalism class, and it really provided me a different perspective as someone who has almost always lived in suburbia. The stories told are heart breaking because it's of a system d signed to fail people.

There are a lot of characters and things going on, which did make it harder to follow, especially when it would switch from situation to situation and it made reading the book more difficult trying to remember the details of different people and who knew who, ect.

Okay, here we gooooooo! This book, even though it did drag a little bit, was actually really good. I saw the plot twist of Steve being the murderer from the beginning, and the anticipation of waiting for exactly how it was going to be revealed, and then him almost murdering his own daughter! Like, he was trying and failing to be a good dad, and then he totally lost it when she was like, you did it, and he was like, no ... But it was him, and he was going to blame the whole thing on Reed and let his god son take the blame. And he was pissed about Ella and Reed dating because he was supposedly a murderer even though he knew that Reed wasn't because he was, and he murdered Brooke because he thought it was his wife!

And not only that, but because he is a bastard and a terrible person, he had an affair with Maria because he convinced her that Callum was cheating on her, because Steve was a cheating bastard, and convinced Maria that Callum was one too, even though he genuinely loved Maria and would never cheat on her. The guilt over cheating is one of the main reasons that she killed herself, and she wrote Steve a note explaining as so, and while Brooke had been staying in the apartment, she found the letter, and had actually hidden it in her room, which then became Ella's room, and Ella found the letter, and when she confronted Steve about it, he almost killed her, and she was like, you killed Brooke too, and he had a whole break down explaining how he was a terrible person, and Diana, the unexpected savior same in and SHOT Steve to prevent him from killing Ella. The ending of the book, like all the books in this series was a whorl wind.