Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family. But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death …

Dragged away from her family for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding even more than his piercing green eyes suggest. As Feyre’s feelings for Tamlin turn from hostility to passion, she learns that the faerie lands are a far more dangerous place than she realized. And Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

So, I actually waited quite a long time to read this book. While I am a lover of Sarah J. Maas’s work, I know this series delves into ‘fairies’ and that genre has been a thorn in my side in the past.

This book was heavy! Not in word count, or descriptions but in a way that only fairy/fae books can be. This book did keep my interested and I did read it to the end without loosing the plot or encountering any difficulties. It did make my heart pump with adrenaline at times.

Freyre was a little like marmite for me. I can see the good aspects of her character, but if you skip to ‘the bad’ section of this review, you’ll see what I really thought. I regarded Tamlin with curiosity and distrust.

The beginning was great, Freyre hunting to save her family from starvation was beautifully written and really set the story up to be something interesting to read.

Look, this book was heavy in intensity and action. I knew it would be. I’ve never read a fairy/fae book that wasn’t ‘steamy’. Did I think that this book lived up to the hype that surrounds it? Not especially. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy reading the book, but I feel like I read the same base plot before. It was generic for me. I can still see myself reading the rest of the series, I would like to see where the story goes and where it finishes.

I also found Freyre to be a quickly shifting character. Her transition from hostility to passion moved a little too quickly for my liking. I’m more of a slow burning romantic.

It’s also not as dark as I was expecting it to be. There are nods here and there but nothing really lands properly. Honestly, I kept thinking about ‘Beauty and the Beast’ when I read this.

It’s a shame really, because I think Maas is a fantastic writer, but this just didn’t reach the mark.

I’m going to give the second book a go and see if it changes my opinion.

I give this book 🌟🌟🌟.5