Rate it as many stars there are falling on Starfall⭐️

To the people who look at the stars and wish,
To the stars who listen and the dreams that are answered

This is my first review of A Court of Mist and Fury, since I did not write a review for it the first time and I do not think my own review would accurately describe how emotional this book is and how much it means to me.

What comes after happily ever after?
Not many authors explore the happy endings their characters attain but Sarah J Maas does that and goes beyond it.

Feyre is deeply in love with Tamlin and lived through a horrific nightmare for months to free the one she loves and find her happiness with him. But... at what cost?

• Feyre becoming a newly forged High Fae with hidden unexplored powers and thrust into world as foreign as her new body.

• Escaping Under the Mountain and Amarantha only for the shadows to haunt her even amongst sunlight and spring. It doesn't matter she is now hailed as Prythian's savior, by saving everyone she broke herself.

• Tamlin enjoying his undeserved happily ever after although similar shadows haunt him still, yet he leaves Feyre some in a cocoon of guilt, misery, and despair.

Feyre loved Tamlin for who he is and all he is, but could Tamlin love Feyre for who she was and what she is yet to become? I think all these answers are found in the book which Sarah brilliantly showcases.

Could great change easily unsettle a love that is supposedly true and powerful? Is love that weak of a force to cause such misery and unhappiness?

ACOMAF is as impactful and emotional as I have read it the first time, Feyre is a character I relate to on a very high level. Her journey throughout the book is heart-wrenching, her feelings were so raw; I felt the weight of her guilt, felt how her despair extinguished the light in her heart, felt how her self-loath just kept gnawing at whatever scraps of goodness she had, and I especially felt how drowned she is in her own sorrow, as if she was being pulled into oblivion, away from all that she loves. That is what it means to suffer from Depression and trauma. We see to what degree Feyre struggles with it; the endless nightmares, the reminders of blood found in anything in red, the fear from being lost in the darkness, and trying to hopelessly escape with no way out especially if all those doors were shut by the one you loved.

In a Court of conniving faes and a neglectful High Lord? A Court that was a sanctuary for a human huntress who once fell in love with its gilded lord. A mere human whom came from a poor family and who wished for nothing more than a simple life where there was food and paint.

But where does Feyre Cursebreaker belong?

A dreamer herself, Feyre was destined to be a part of The Court of Dreams, a Court born of dreamers willing to cherish and sacrifice for those they love and hold dear.

”The people who knew there was a price, and one worth paying, for that dream. The bastard-born warriors, the Illyrian half-breed, the monster trapped in a beautiful body, the dreamer born into a court of nightmares . . . And the huntress with an artist’s soul.”.

When two souls haunted by a blood-drenched past and hopelessness find a way to each other, find the balm to heal their wounds through their love, that is the story of Feyre and Rhysand, the ruthless High Lord of The Night Court and the most powerful High Lord in the history of Prythian.

Does this love offer A Happily Ever After? It’s not a story of attaining happy endings, it’s about healing through love and accepting the guilt, sorrow and pain. Those feelings are imminent because there was one way to have survived what they have gone through in the past; and that was through spilling blood, innocent or not. Sarah does not simply brush over those acts, for either Rhysand and Feyre, they will live through the guilt of it for the rest of their lives. Those nightmares and haunting past does not put a stop to their love.

What makes ACOMAF a delightful read is meeting the members of Rhys’s Inner Circle and Court of Dreams— his family: Morrigan, Amren, Cassian and Azriel. Wonderful characters with deep backstories that you can’t help but feel an immediate connection with them. I could never get bored of their interactions and dialogue, I don’t think for a second I ever did.

The World-building in ACOMAF just leaves me in awe of all the beauty that I explore throughout the book. I don’t think there’s a fictional world that I would want to live in as much as I want to when it comes to Velaris, the City of Starlight, a hidden gem in the Night Court. The descriptions are so vivid and beautifully written, I truly feel deeply immersed into their world. What would it cost me to have a Townhouse near the Rainbow, Feyre’s Starfall gown and an endless bank credit so I can live in immortal harmony?

Like many readers, I agree that ACOTAR as a series makes for an enjoyable read more than once, probably even a hundred times and you would feel the same experience, the same emotions over and over. ACOMAF especially is an inspiring book full of important messages and experiences. I mentioned once that I was lucky to have found and read these books during a time I was struggling with depression, because they have truly pulled me up from the pit I fell in.

By all means, this book is not perfect but I don’t have it in me to point out the flaws, I just love it for what it is and it’s such a healing to me. Such a memorable read, I’ll always appreciate this book and hold it close to my heart ❤️