A Court of Wings and Ruin

Sarah J. Maas

In the last installment of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, the final battle for freedom has come. Feyre has returned to the Spring Court after the confrontation with Hybern and is slowly bringing down the court from the inside. Tamlin has revealed himself as an enemy to the humans and to Feyre and the rest of Prythian. 

When Hybern royals are sent to inspect the holes in the Wall, Feyre finds this is her time to strike and turn the Spring Court against Tamlin. But on her way out, she bumps into Ianthe and Lucien. Feyre rescues Lucien from the claws of Ianthe and they make their escape, now making both of them enemies and traitors to Tamlin. 

Feyre and Lucien are now traveling through Prythian trying to get back to the Night Court and into her mates arms, but the journey is rough and tests both of their strengths. After running into and escaping Lucien’s evil brothers in the Autumn Court, they meet them again on a frozen lake in the Winter Court. In the midst of outrunning and battling the brothers, Mor, Cassian, and Azriel save the two and winnow back to the Night Court, where Feyre’s two sisters and Amren are waiting. While discussing their journey, Rhysand appears and he and Feyre reconnect and share a tender, heartwarming moment. 

Now that the Court of Dreams, the name for the Night Court inner circle, have been reunited, it’s time to get to work and find the spell to save the Wall and take down Hybern for good. While Amren and Nesta work to find the spell needed, Feyre, Rhysand, and the others try to get the other courts to meet and make a plan to fight Hybern if needed. This is the most challenging part. By the time the courts do come together, it’s too late. Hybern has now taken down the wall and is starting his march through the courts. Feyre and the inner circle now have to fight for their lives with some help from their friends.

Wow. These books have sent me on a whirlwind of emotions. This book in particular was the most difficult to get through. Not only because it was 700 pages long, but because there was so much information and so many emotions on every page. We started in the Spring Court and ended with a battle that was crazy in itself. As I was reading and there would be call backs and references from what happened in the beginning of the book, I would have no idea what book it was actually from. There were so many pivotal and important points in the story, it was an information overload. And it was serious. There weren’t as many scenes between Feyre and Rhysand which I was bummed about because they are so cute and I want to date Rhys so I have to live vicariously through Feyre. But I did like seeing the other characters start to form their relationships, like Cassian and Nesta (love them so much) and Elain and Azriel and Lucien (very excited to see how Maas writes this love triangle). 

The deaths in and leading up the battle were very unexpected and very upsetting. I, of course, won’t name who, but I was in tears multiple times in the last hundred pages.  So my final rating of A Court of Wings and Ruin is 4/5 stars because the story did drag at some points, and I felt like there was too much information at times. And a major plot twist in Lucien’s story was never fully developed in my opinion and I feel that should’ve been discussed more. Maybe this is something Maas will write about later, and I hope she does because I would love love love to read about it and the after effects. Still, an amazing piece of work and will be a classic in my opinion.