Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3.1)
By Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: The war with Hybern may be over, but Feyre and Rhys’s work to rebuild their court has only just begun. There’s also growing concern over discontent among the Illyrians, who fought alongside Feyre, Rhys, and their friends, as well as unease about the border between the human and Fae lands being unguarded. The Winter Solstice is approaching, though, and with it the opportunity for everyone to join in the celebrations and take a much-needed break from their worries.

Review: With A Court of Wings and Ruin supposedly concluding Feyre and Rhys’s arc, I was very intrigued to see what awaited in A Court of Frost and Starlight. I was particularly curious about which characters would be the main focus and where the future books might be headed.

Well, this novella didn’t quite turn out to be what I’d anticipated. Feyre and Rhys still feature very prominently here, and I really feel that their story ended with A Court of Wings and Ruin. While we get third person POVs in A Court of Frost and Starlight from Cassian and Mor, this is still very much Feyre and Rhys’s show, and, I don’t know . . . it’s time for them to take a backseat to other characters at this point?

The Feyre of A Court of Frost and Starlight spends her days shopping, painting, and pushing paperwork around. I have to say, the shopping killed me. Not just Feyre plunking down serious cash for everyone’s Winter Solstice gifts, but the details of other characters’ purchases, too. I really started to miss the days when Hybern could launch an attack at any moment and Feyre and co. were ready to kick some Hybern ass.

If you’re looking for action in this novella, you’re not going to find it. The closest A Court of Frost and Starlight gets to battle is some disgruntled Illyrians and Nesta death glares. There’s really not much of a plot here, either. I realize this is a bridge novella between the two halves of the series, but I still expected some kind of anchoring story line. Instead this reads more like a series of vignettes until you reach the sneak peek of the next full-length novel, which for an excerpt, felt more cohesive.

I never imagined myself saying this, but I think I’m officially tired of Feysand. There are so many times when all they can think about is how hot they are for each other, and ughhhh—the number of times they refer to each other as “my mate.” Although I noticed this in the previous books as well, it was a lot more pronounced and annoying here because with fewer pages than a regular novel, there are a lot of instances of “mate” crammed into the 200-plus pages of this novella.

It pains me to mention all these issues I had with A Court of Frost and Starlight when I enjoyed the first three books so much, but this was definitely not on the same level as the novels. As much as I was still invested in characters like Cassian, Azriel, Mor, and Amren, the Feyre/Rhys saturation was too much. I’m a bit wary about reading the next novel when it’s released, although I must say that the excerpt was quite interesting.

All in All: I’d seen some pretty savage reviews of A Court of Frost and Starlight prior to reading it, and sadly, they do make some valid points. This novella just didn’t add anything to the series, at least for me, and I would have been fine with the series just picking up again with the next full-length novel.