The book challenge – read some romance. The other book challenge – read something banned. All I knew about A Court of Thorns and Roses is that it is a romance, highly banned, and book snobs hate it. Presumably because of TikTok and sexism. All that is good enough for me.
Feyre is basically a hunter Cinderella for her hilariously awful family. But then she accidentally kills a faerie and another faerie, Tamlin, takes her to the faerie land to be given kisses and chocolate as punishment. Then it turns out almost none of this is true. The killing was a set up and the punishment of being spoiled and eaten out wasn’t actually a punishment, but some hyper specific plan to break a hyper specific evil curse and it fails. But then it succeeded because all the sexy faeries love Freyre and want to make out with her.
Some things in the story don’t hold up to scrutiny, but it’s not the kind of book to think too hard about. Don’t wonder about the curse, or motivation or cha or repercussions of Tamlin prioritizing his girlfriend over the people he’s responsible for (like I did). It’s indulgent melodramatic escapism and not much else.
“He was shirtless, with only the baldric across his muscled chest. The pommel of his sword glinted golden in the dying sunlight, and the feathered tops of arrows were stained red as they poked above his broad shoulder. I stared at him, and he watched me back. The warrior incarnate.”
Something written like this is clearly just for fun and mostly for ladies. Why that pisses so many people off is bewildering and obvious.