With this series, it takes the faery world and makes it a dark, modern tale. I have read a lot of faerie stories and there is always a little spin to each and every one. One is the whole concept of the world Melissa Marr creates. This is one of my favourite series for a lot of reasons. Genre: Young Adult, Faeries, Romance, Fantasy

I wouldn’t go so far as to say “love her” seeing how you feel about her now, but I know you’ll see things differently when it comes to her character (and it’s not because what happens at the end).# of Books: 5 (Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, Fragile Eternity, Radiant Shadows, Darkest Mercy)

I hope one day you give ACOSF and read it with an open mind. The mental health representation with this one is strong and deep–it’s not brushed aside, but keeps getting deeper and deeper. It was the first time I could relate to a character 100%. All of Nesta’s fears, struggles, weaknesses, traumas (way more traumas than you know from the OG series), they are all my own. It wasn’t until ACOSF that I truly loved her because I realized that I’m Nesta. Personally, in ACOFAS, I learned to like her because I saw a lot of myself in her. I loved just Rhys was there to help, but never being overbearing or thinking he knew best for her, something I appreciated. Like you said, yes, it’s smutty (I love smut), but it was way more than that.

I ended up liking ACOTAR a bit more, which was the push I needed to keep reading. Then in 2019, I decided to give it a shot once again. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a fan of the first book of this series the first time around, which is why I never continued with the series when I read it in 2016. It gives the impression that it’s alright for someone to be abusive if they’re doing it for a “good reason.” This is hands down the number one reason I will never recommend this series – even if I did enjoy one book out of five. What completely baffled me was how we were just supposed to move on from the fact that he sexually and emotionally abused her for an extended period of time! Yes, I get that he “isn’t really a bad guy” but it still didn’t give him a single right to treat Feyre in that way – no matter how important his cover was. He rescues Feyre from her abusive relationship and helps her work through PTSD and severe anxiety due to what she encountered in the first book. However, Rhysand was apparently faking his jackass/playboy lifestyle and he’s actually a “decent person.” (There’s a reason for those quotations). It’s confirmed that Tamlin really is horrible in every way, shape, and form.

Rather than finding myself angry with Feyre and even more frustrated with Tamlin and Rhysand, we got some serious character development in this book.

Wicked lovely book