Review may contain some minor-ish spoilers, read at your own risk.

Okay I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this book. Was it good? No, not really. Could I stop reading? Also no. This, to me, was like reality TV, where you know it’s trashy and doesn’t make a lot of sense but you just can’t look away. Let me break down why I didn’t find this as great as other people say.

Firstly, the writing style was not great at times. It started off really strong, the first two chapters I did enjoy and I thought were well-written and had a good atmosphere but then it dropped off once she made it to Prythian, which I think is where it should’ve gotten better. It kind of felt like a lot of effort was put into refining the first few chapters then the same effort was not put into the rest of it. There was a lot of repetition in the descriptions. For example, in chapter 36 the mud was referred to as “slick”… six times. And never described as anything but slick, even when slick wasn’t relevant in the context it was used. Tamlin was constantly described as “animal” or “more animal than human”, and it felt like it was trying really hard to convince us he was a “beast”. There were so many watery bowls, barking bones, growls and the wind in the Spring Court was always “rose-scented”. Also a curse lasting for 49 years being referred to as “seven by seven” years for literally no reason… just say 49 years.

The foreshadowing in this book was little to none. I could tell when she was TRYING to foreshadow something but it was either too obvious or just not done well at all. A lot was in dialogue and not portrayed through actions. The plot was also quite predictable and convenient for Feyre. There was a lot of info dumping to explain core points of the story, with a whole chapter of character dialogue to explain the curse. It should’ve been woven through the story and pieced together through actions or short dialogue rather than a whole chapter of info dumping.

The first 75% of the book had basically nothing happening. I couldn’t tell you much except Feyre got kidnapped and lived a luxurious life of good food and painting all day. There didn’t even feel like there was much development in the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin, they just suddenly went from captor/captive to in love? Where were their interactions to make me believe this isn’t just Stockholm syndrome? I felt like a lot of the filler scenes could’ve been removed in favour of AT LEAST some decent, lengthy interactions between Feyre and Tamlin. The last 25% was where all the action was and I think if this section had spanned 75% or so of the book, then it would’ve been a lot more interesting (even though I still didn’t find the last 25% particularly well written but at least things were happening).

This also lost a lot of the core values of the whole Beauty and the Beast storyline, and felt more inspired by the tale than a retelling. It was very much told not shown that Tamlin was supposed to be a “beast”.

The characters were also bland and didn’t have much depth. The only character I liked was Lucien, I felt like we saw the most backstory and development in him. Tamlin had the personality of a cardboard box, Feyre was annoying and the only personality trait she had was enjoying painting and Rhysand is the absolute worst. I don’t know how I’m supposed to like any of the love interests, they’re all boring and/or horrible. It kind of defeated the purpose of this being a fantasy romance when I didn’t care for the romance.

I feel like I don’t have a lot of good to say about this book but I did like the premise and think there was potential for a good story to come out of it. Despite being predictable, the non-romance storyline I didn’t mind, though I just didn’t care for the romance. I’m a trashy movie/TV show girlie so I don’t mind things that are not particularly well-written as long as they’re enjoyable, this just wasn’t enjoyable for about three quarters of the experience.

If you’re looking for a fantasy with good world building and a solid plot, I’d look somewhere else. Will I read the second book, though? Probably.