Book Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Mass (2/5)

YA Fantasy (Though, let’s be honest – this is about as YA as Game of Thrones.)

Hope warms the coldest night.

Feyre, Rhys, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. 

Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated–scars that will have far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

Yes, you read that right. I, a huge fan of Sarah J. Maas, am giving this “novella” a 2 out of 5. Why? Because it was pointless. There was no plot. It read like a Hallmark Christmas movie where the drama lies around the mean sister coming home for the holiday.

This read like fan fiction. It read like Maas took out a bunch of stuff from the end of the last Court book and then reworded it fit into the “after” novella, and then threw it into the market.

This book is nothing but a glorified epilogue to the last Court book. It’s supposed to be a bridge to the next book in the series, but I expected MORE. I expected Mor accepting herself or meeting someone; I expected Nesta and Cassian to do something; I expected Lucien and Elain to speak to one another – but all of these things got a scene a piece. Literally, a scene showed Nesta’s depression; a scene gave us Lucien’s odd situation as an outcast; a scene gave Elain’s idea about Lucien being her mate; a scene gave us Mor’s internal picture. It repeated all of the things that I already knew. Honestly, this book could have just been incorporated into the next book or into another book. One with plot.

The rest of this book was Feyre and Rhys complaining that they haven’t had sex in a while; complaining that the city isn’t rebuilding fast enough; talking about the other characters whose problems are more interesting than them; talking about all the money they have; giving internal dialog about things had happened that I the reader don’t entirely remember; shopping trips and fretting over what to get who for Solstice; or giving us some super cheesy dialog.

Oh, let’s talk about the dialog. It’s cheesy to the extreme. And pointless. Everything about this book is pointless. There is no plot. There is no action. There is little to no character development for anyone.

The one chapter between Cassian and Nesta was the only drama that we get. One chapter.

Don’t get me wrong. I will read the next Court book when it hits in hopes that things actually happen.

On a humorous side note – anyone else think it’s funny that it takes Sarah J. Maas 229 pages to write an epilogue? That’s the size of a standard book. Also, this book doesn’t feel Young Adult at all. First, there’s way too much sex, talk about sex, and poorly veiled innuendos for this to be considered YA. This is NA, all the way.

And, because of all of the above, A Court of Frost and Starlight gets a measly 2 out of 5, because while I love the characters, it broke Vonnegut’s #1 rule – it wasted the reader’s time. And because of this line: “He traced the seam of my backside with a long, lazy stroke.” Ew.