A Court of Mist and Fury

Honestly, this book is much better than its predecessor. There is an actual sorta-plot here.

The world is more imaginative than in the first book, mostly because of the appearance of new locales. The characters travel around the world quite a bit so it feels a little bit more fleshed out. Nothing extraordinary but even a small amount is better than nothing.

Feyre is more pro-active in this book. She goes from being broken to wanting to change, to matter, to take part in the world's events. She's no longer just a doll on the sidelines.

The romance was much better. Rhysand is more developed than Tamlin as a character and thus more interesting. The love story was slower. You actually get to see Rhys and Feyre working together which is a nice change from the average YA novel.

The cast has more players and they are somewhat interesting despite being clichés.

Still, the book isn't without flaws.

- There is a particularly painful section of the book that involves our lead characters sitting at a table in a restaurant talking about their childhood. It is a succession of massive infodumps. Each character takes a turn explaining their entire back-story, the customs of their upbringing..blah blah blah. It's so painful, unnecessary, and amateurish that I skipped the whole thing.
I mean, when was the last time you sat with your friends and each had hour long monologues about growing up, why your family had pizza every Saturday morning, why you never saw your great aunt Jasmine after her split with Roger, why you always wanted a cat but never could get one? What's that? Never? That's right, real people don't do this. They share snippets of info over time, in appropriate context.

- There is nothing subtle in this writing. Everything is slammed into your face with a big meaty sledgehammer. Every twist is played straight. Again, not much thinking outside of the box in terms of events or plot.

- There is one chapter written in Rhysand's POV. I am not sure why it exists. The switch is so jarring. Everything revealed in that section could have been told to the audience by Feyre in her following chapter.

- The matebond/true love aspect. For me, this trope has always been a total romance kill. I thought the Rhysand/Feyre romance was good until this trope reared its ugly head. I know why it's so popular. Why wouldn't everyone love the idea that you are meant to be together forever, that your partner is never ever going to stop loving you or leave you or cheat on you. But it's so cheap precisely because it removes all the dangers of love, all the choices. After all, if you are fated to be with this person, then you have nothing to lose emotionally by loving them. One hundred percent risk free.

Real true love is beautiful, not because it's ordained by the fates/scrolls/rainbows/wise tiny unicorns, but because it's two people deciding each and every day that their partner is worth their love and that they themselves are worth love in return despite the fear of rejection, of heartbreak. Every day they decide to make that same commitment over again regardless of what life throws at them. The risks are what make love /being loved so amazing.

Also, this trope is a complete copout in terms of developing moral dilemmas. Cauldron forbid our Feyre has to actually struggle to make a decision, to be morally gray (should she dump Tamlin that has been so good to her family and herself when she needed it, he loves her, can she really break his heart even though she loves someone else?) Well, never fear. Her real true mate is Rhysand so it's totally ok. No more guilt! Let's casually sweep that Tamlin under the rug.

So very lazy and cheap.

- Author, please don't confuse sexual tension with romance. It's not the same. And the sex scenes? So awkward even the mountains trembled.

- As for the switching love interest, aside for the Wayfarer Redemption/Enchanter flashbacks I kept having shudders, it didn't bother me much. Tamlin was such a bland bore in book 1 that writing a new love interest was a gift from the author.

- And what's with pairing everyone up? Rhys/Feyre, Lucien/Elain, Cassian/Nesta, Azriel/Mor...not everyone needs a truemate bond.

Overall, better than book 1. Will probably pick up book 3 as long as it's not back to fake angst and stuck in Tamlin's mansion for the whole book.