A Court of Thrones and Roses by Sarah Maas

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

My Thoughts:
I could not put this down. Like, I had to keep to reading to find out what happened even though it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling and I basically knew exactly what would happen in the end. But this version was so fresh. So different. It's all faeries and mythical creatures and politics and warfare and I was absolutely hooked.

I liked that nothing was over-explained. Hardly anything was explained at all in one big monologue moment; We learned things slowly, piece by piece until it all wrapped up in this nice little bow at the end to make perfect sense. I liked how Feyre's relationships evolved with those around her. It was a natural, progressional evolution where we met a character thinking one thing about them, then got to know them better and they became something else entirely.

This world was very imaginative and I loved how Maas built it. How real the people felt. How there were normal people and normal problems mixed in with the extraordinary and magical and crazy. It was a fun, inventive world even without being a completely original story.

The part with Feyre dressing all Princess Leia-like annoyed me mostly because it was pointless. It was just a way to get our main character scantily-clad and offer up some kind of sexual tension. But it was pointless.

Since this world was new and had different rules and that oh-so-familiar fantasy-medieval-feel, I was abruptly pulled from the story every time I came across a modern curse word. It really annoyed me. The faerie people had that one phrase where they'd curse "by the cauldron" but other than that, they'd all use regular-ol' modern day curse words. If you're going to build an entire freaking world and make up all these rules for it why not go ahead and create some kind of original language to go with it? Most fantasy authors do. Heck, many non-fantasy authors do this, too. That's all.

So basically: If you're into fairy tale retellings or medieval fantasy or magical creatures, you may very well like this book. It's well-written, it has a lot of interesting new elements that I wouldn't have thought to go with Beauty and the Beast and it sucks you in from the beginning. This is definitely New Adult and I do not recommend for teens just because there is some graphic sexual content and very adult themes. But, for realz. it's entertaining. 

Sexual Content: Heavy
Language: Moderate
Drugs/Alcohol: Moderate
Violence: Heavy