Review--A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

 

This BN Exclusive Edition will include a bonus scene featuring Feyre and Rhys.
Sarah J. Maas's sexy, richly imagined series continues with the journey of Feyre's fiery sister, Nesta.

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she's struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can't seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.

The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre's Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta's orbit. But her temper isn't the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.

Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance-and healing-in each other's arms.

 

Well it took me over a year later but I finally read Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Silver Flames! The book that continues the adventures of Prythian and all the fae citizens within, but instead of following the youngest Archeron sister, we move to Nesta, the eldest and the most volatile sister of them all. Though I've been eager for Elain's story since she was the "quiet" sister, I was also eager to know more about Nesta and the girl behind the mask and we finally get to see just what kind of woman she is in this story.

I feel like writing a Maas review is one of those pointless things in life. I mean, at this stage of life, you either read Maas or not. There's never a point in reading one of the reviews because honestly, what more can be said? But yet, we all have our reasons for writing a review. I myself, have just gotten into that habit of you read a book, you review it. Even if it's by Queen Maas herself! So this will honestly just be a stream of my opinions on the story, which really, is what all my reviews are!

Nesta has always been the "cold" sister. She's always seemed harsh, uncaring, and unkind. She has a protective streak when it came to her sisters, but more so Elain than Feyre for whatever reason. Being Made into a High Fae was never on her wishlist and instead of trying to make the best of a bad situation, she just milks it for all its worth. After the battle with the King of Hybern, whom she efficiently killed and helped to put an end the tyranny in the fae world, Nesta has taken on a life of debauchery. She eats up allowances from being the sister of the High Fae Queen. Until the day she pushes her sister and brother-in-law too far. She spends more than she should at a bar and ends up being forced to move back into house her sister had initially offered to her and is being made to train with Cassian every morning, before going off to the library to work. And Nesta is not having any of this.

Nesta fights Cassian at every turn, but since the only way out of castle/prison is to descend 10,000 stairs, she has no choice but to stay and go where she's told, but she rarely does what she should at first. The castle she is living in though is somewhat sentient and she sort of befriends the castle over a love of books. Really, in this castle, if you ever have a need for something the magic will provide for you, but it acts differently with Nesta and the two almost become something like friends.

Nesta continues to butt heads with Cassian over pretty much everything, but soon starts accepting him as something of a companion. So much so that she basically agrees to a mutual physical relationship, where they have sex, but it never mean anything beyond the physical act. Cassian, whose point of view we do get, as this book is told through multiple third person point of view this time around, still craves Nesta. He knows they are meant to be mates, but Nesta refuses to acknowledge such a relationship, but he'd rather have some of her than nothing at all, so he agrees to this physical relationship only. And it's at this point we realize why Maas decided to have this marketed as adult vs the upper YA or precarious NA reading level that we readers tended towards. This book in its' near 800 pages is filled with a lot of sex. A lot of mindless f***ing around, because yes, it's referred to as such many, many, many times. I mean honestly, was it really all the necessary? I don't think so. I guess if you're a romance reader you might eat all this up, for me though I could've done with about half or even less than half of the amount of sex that is described though the pages. It just seemed over the top. Like let's see just how much we can do in this one book. The bonus scene in the B&N edition with Feyre and Rhys just adds to the mix. It's not that I'm against sex in books, I just don't like it to be mindless and have no purpose to the story other than a heat factor and this was definitely repeated multiple times for nothing more than a heat factor.

One thing I did enjoy about this story though was Nesta finding her own found family, much as her sister did. She bonds with two other women in the castle/castle township or whatever it was called as I didn't take strong notation on that part. Gwyn, is a sort of rescued acolyte in the castle library where she works. She has a broken, terrifying past that we learn at the very end. She and Nesta form a tentative bond over books and such when they work together. Nesta then meets Emerie at a clothing shop in the township and she too has a broken past. For women in this society are still not treated in the best of respect despite Rhys trying to change all that. The three women here though form an intense bond as they all begin to train with Nesta in self defense, which soon turns into the art of becoming a Valkyrie. I'm not positive if it's the same Valkyries we know from Norse mythology, but it's a close thing if not.

Honestly, the length of this book was so over the top, it's hard pinpointing what plot points were important and what were just fodder. There is trouble brewing in the background of the story. Bruallyn, one of the human queens who was turned immortal, but that of the Crone is plotting her revenge for Nesta taking all the power for herself. She's working with other powers enemies to find object of great magical power so she can find the Cauldron, reclaim her youth and gain ultimate power once more. Cassian and Nesta get wrapped up in trying to find the objects first since Nesta has scrying abilities that can lead her to the objects.

Nesta goes through a great deal of growth in this story. She starts off as the cold and uncaring creature we saw from the original trilogy, but we get more backstory on why she was that way. You begin to see her as a person and why she acted the way she did all those times, all those years. By the end, she's better for it, which isn't so much of a spoiler. She's a happier person even, and I was all for her character growth and story arc! 

What I am curious about is what is next from this world. I remember hearing Maas plans to write more, possibly from more character point of views. I'm eager to know more about Elain, as she continues to be a puzzling character. I also positively adored meeting Gwyn and Emerie and would never say no to seeing more growth from them as well. There is definitely more story to tell, for there were things left unsaid by the end of this one. There's uncertainty in the future and I...along with many other readers presumably, am eager to see what other stories Maas will tell from this world.

Overall Rating 4/5 stars