The Glittering Court

By Richelle Mead

2.5/5

This book really disappointed me. I expected forbidden romance, danger, temptation, betrayal and I got none of this. There was no excitement to this book; the characters lacked depth, the plot was boring and overall, this book just fell really flat. This is really upsetting to me as I am a big fan of Richelle Mead; her Vampire Academy series was the first YA series I had ever read and I still adore it to this day because of its fast-paced plotline, relatable characters and gorgeous romance. This is what I expected The Glittering Court to be like but sadly, this is not the case.

I like the idea of The Glittering Court, a finishing school for working-class ladies, and I like the Elizabethan era in which the book is set. Although religion appeared to play a huge part in the book, it didn’t actually have any real impact. As a reader, we didn’t even get to learn too much about the characters but I understand that The Glittering Court is set to be a trilogy with each book from a different girls perspective (so book two and three will be from Mira and Tamsin’s perspective) so Richelle couldn’t go into too much detail about the minor characters history and reasoning.

Unfortunately, I don’t see myself going out to buy the remainder of the trilogy when it is released but I am not giving up on Richelle Mead as an author. Although I wouldn’t recommend this book, I highly recommend Vampire Academy and its sequel series.

A Court of Mist and Fury

By Sarah J Maas

5/5

I absolutely adored A Court of Thorns and Roses and somehow, I adored this book even more. All of my opinions towards characters changed and I am now firmly Team Rhysand. This book was everything I hoped it would be and more and I loved it from start to finish. The plotline was fast-paced and tense and so many details were revealed that I could barely keep up. I thoroughly enjoyed Feyre’s character development as she familiarised herself with her change to High Fae and discovered the powers she possessed. My knees went weak at how supportive Rhysand was of her whilst also giving her independence, letting her make her own choices and mistakes. My high opinion of Tamlin and Lucien was completely shattered which is disappointing because I was a huge fan of Lucien’s character in the first book but maybe my opinion of him will change in the last.

As I mentioned in my review of A Court of Thorns and Roses, one of things I like most about Fantasy novels is that the author can really explore the world they create as we readers have nothing to compare it to. Sarah J Maas created a world I would love to live in with her description of the Night Court, especially Velaris. I also liked how a place could really enhance a characters development and them as a character.

As I also said in my ACOTAR review, I find it really difficult to write 5/5 reviews so I’m just going to highly recommend this book to everyone. If you’ve read ACOTAR and didn’t really like it or are unsure whether to continue with the series, I insist that you do as ACOMAF is absolutely incredible and I am highly anticipating the third and final book in this trilogy.