Man, I had a hard time thinking of the right star rating for this book.

I’ve been sort of meaning to read this book for a year or so. It’s on a lot of “lists” of YA fantasy, and while I somewhat anticipated that it would be awful (sorry), it also did sound like the kind of dramatic Fantasy Romance that I might enjoy.

I found this novel at the thriftstore and started reading it pretty much immediately when I got home. It’s a page turner, I’ll say that.

But – is it good? I suppose that depends on your definition of “good”. There’s a lot of elements in this book that are clearly set-up for something that’s to come. It’s slightly clunky in this, I could always spot when Feyre mentioned some backstory that would later become relevant. Her family isn’t very well developed, but just enough to help us understand why she might be happy to be away from them. And, when Feyre mentions a promise she’d made to her dying mother to look after her father and sisters, you immediately know that this line is only in the book to explain why Feyre would ever even want to return to them when the Fey-world is much nicer.

There’s a lot of tiny things like this in A Court of Thorns And Roses. When reading a book, I don’t want to be thinking about the mechanics of the story. It pulls me right out. So, no. I wouldn’t say this book is “good” by that standard.

But what if you were to ask me: “could you put this book down?”. I would probably have to admit that I stayed up late reading a couple of times, and finished it in about four days.

A lot of this ACOTAR is vey cliché in a very unsubtle and slightly clunky way, but if I can’t put a book down, I kind of have to conclude that it is indeed good.

Will I be reading the sequels? No. Unless I find them at the thriftstore, maybe.