5 “My Heart is Happy” Stars
Well, that was a
fabulous reading week! First, I got to experience Renée Ahdieh’s new magical
series, then got lost in a great hate-to-love dynamic with a YA Contemporary
Romance, then revisited Beauty and the Beast with a refreshing retelling, now
this… this perfection that is this book and this series.
I debated rating it 4,5
or 5 stars, but that ending deserves that final full star. It does, because it’s
a happy ending. The happy ending I was so afraid I wouldn’t get, but thankfully
Sarah J Maas took pity on me and didn’t go all Leigh Bardugo on me.
What this author gave
me, instead, was a story filled with love, friendship and magic. Magic in more
than one sense. In fact, magic describes well everything this series is about.
Last year, ACOMAF
(ACOTAR #2) was one of the three books I rated five stars. It was perfection in
the way it dealt with Feyre’s pain. How it reduced her to ashes to bring her
back together. How it portrayed a love story that wasn’t about one being
stronger than the other, but about two souls coming together after they were strong
individually. How it introduced new characters and made me fall so madly in
love with them, I wanted nothing more than to enter their world and be their
friend.
This year, ACOWAR
(ACOTAR #3) is the second book I rate five stars. It is perfection in the way
it continues to portray a strong Feyre who now knows how strong she is. A Feyre
who is so different from the insecure girl we met in the beginning of this
journey. A Feyre who isn’t afraid to stand up to those she loves and faces her
enemies and fights them. A Feyre who doesn’t break when she’s shown the darkness
inside of her, but, instead, learns how to love the good and the bad.
“Only you can decide
what breaks you, Cursebreaker. Only you.”
“It's a rare person to
face who they are and not run from it - not be broken by it.”
ACOWAR is perfection in
the way it explores a healthy, beautiful and powerful love story between two people
who support each other every step of the way. Rhysand and Feyre’s relationship goes
beyond what I expected. It’s about mutual respect, about empowering your
partner and being there for them when they make tough choices instead of making
the choices for them. It’s about support and love and understanding. It’s
everything. It was why I loved Stefan and Elena on The Vampire Diaries. It’s
why I’ll always respect a man who respects the woman he loves. It’s OTP.
I’m so, so happy I got
to see them together for so much of this book. I’m so, so happy Sarah J Maas
didn’t try to break them apart again. Because in allowing them to fight side by
side, she also allowed us to be there with these two characters as their love
for each other grew and developed into the kind of relationship that makes me
believe in happy ever after. Feyre and Rhysand, thank you for existing.
ACOWAR is also
perfection in the way it explores friendship. We got to see so much of Cassian,
Nesta, Azriel, Mor, Lucien, Elain, and Amren. These are all characters I’ve
come to appreciate and love since the beginning of the series—or since they
were introduced. And what made me love them so fiercely was their love for each
other. Not only romantic love, though I ship Cassian and Nesta with a force
that I can barely hold inside me. Those two… Those two!!!!!
But the kind of love
that inspired me most was the love they have for each other as friends and
family. Family above all. The way Cassian, Rhys and Azriel interact and care
for one another as brothers. How they yell because they’re terrified of the
other getting hurt. How they refuse to leave the other’s side until they’re
fully healed. And then with Mor and Amren, it’s all about the bantering and the
laughing—or even the crying when they’re stupid and do things to protect, but
end up hurting the other. When they sacrifice. So much sacrifice.
And when they open their
arms, their homes and their city to welcome Feyre’s sisters, Nesta and Elain, and
her friend, Lucien. When they look at Feyre and say they’ll protect her with
their lives.
When Rhysand makes me
sob when he delivers the kind of speech that breaks all the walls around your
heart. If you’ve been following the series since the beginning, like I have, I dare
you not to freaking cry.
No crying gifs will ever
be enough to explain what I felt reading that scene. The perfection of it.
And, mostly, ACOWAR is
perfection in how it treats its characters and their arcs. Rhysand is beyond
words. HE. IS. PERFECTION. He’s friend, lover, hero, strength and vulnerability,
sadness and joy. He is Rhysand, and after everything he did for the people he
loved in this book, after how he sacrificed and sacrificed, after he stood
beside Feyre and supported her through every tough choice, after he opened his
arms and forgave people who had wronged him, after EVERYTHING, he was upgraded
to my book husband alongside the other love of my love, Jericho Barrons.
But Rhysand and Feyre
and the inner circle weren’t the only ones who got special treatment. Enemies
turned into friends. Villain’s motivations left that muddy territory ACOMAF
left them and came into the light, showing us that there was much more inside
them than we first thought. Tamlin hurt himself, hurt Feyre and hurt me, but in
the end came through. I know I shouldn’t, but I still feel for him. I feel for
the angry man trapped inside him, because ACOTAR showed me he was good, and
ACOWAR confirmed that we can still find that inside him. I didn’t want him to
get Feyre back (nothing can get between my love for Rhysand and Feyre as a
couple), but I also want him to find happiness. I want him to heal.
And finally, SPOILER
ALERT HERE:
ACOWAR was perfection in
how it wasn’t afraid of giving us a happy ending. Though there will be other
books set in this world, it looks like this was the end of the trilogy that
tells the story of Feyre. So I’m assuming she won’t be the narrator for the
next books coming. That meant Sarah J Maas had to give us some sort of ending—at
least an ending to that storyline, and she didn’t disappoint. Feyre fought a
battle that had my heart racing the entire time. She faced her enemies
alongside the people she loved. She went into that final battle convinced her
family (this includes the inner circle) wouldn’t come out of it alive. Maybe
she wouldn’t make it, either. And for the love of the Cauldron, I believed her.
I knew she wouldn’t die. Nor would Rhysand. But I feared for everyone else—mostly
Cassian and Nesta. Then I feared for Azriel. Then Mor. Then Amren. Then Lucian
and Elain, because that ship is also sailing and I’m going with it.
I thought Sarah J Maas
would take a page from Leigh Bardugo’s book and rip my heart out, but
thankfully, OMG, THANK YOU SO MUCH SARAH, my babies survived. All of them.
I can’t even describe
how happy that ending made me. I can’t even. I’m unable to even. I just… THANK
YOU. Thank you for writing this series. Thank you for making me so happy. Thank
you for once again making me stay up until four a.m. because I couldn’t stop
reading. And thank you for the pain of having to temporarily let go of these characters when the chapters ended, because this pain means that I found people
to love inside your pages. Sarah J Maas, thank you for writing a series I’ll always remember and love.
*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.
Posts
