A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas / Review

The novella of one of my favorite series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, is out! A Court of Frost and Starlight is the bridge to the new series coming from Sarah J. Maas. I was really surprised that Maas announced this novella to be in Feyre's POV, as A Court of Wings and Ruin wrapped up her story. I thought ACOWAR ended just a bit abrupt for me, so I was definitely excited to read in Feyre's POV one last time. In addition to Feyre, we get chapters from Rhys, Mor and Cassian. I won't be too detailed into the book but will give the most interesting and important ones that I believe will be necessary to know for the next novel in the ACOTAR world.

Spoilers below! I tried to make this as short but there is a lot!

The Inner Circle has moved on and are helping their court and Prythian rebuild after the war with Hybern. Feyre has taken to becoming the High Lady and is helping Rhys with the messy politics that it involves and helping Velaris repair itself. We meet a new character named Ressina who has painting sessions in her studio and invites Feyre to help not heal just Velaris, but herself as well. I enjoyed reading Feyre going back to painting and towards the end of the novella, she helps Ressina set up classes for the children who are traumatized after the war as therapy. I think it comes full circle for Feyre as painting was a healing outlet for her when she was younger. For Feyre's present, Rhys gifts her with a riverfront estate. He tells Feyre to build them a home and to build a nursery. That's right, the High Lord and Lady of the Night Court have decided to start a family of their very own. After Feyre hears the story of a Velaris weaver whose husband was killed, Feyre decides she doesn't want to wait and regret not trying with Rhys, not having a piece of him and herself. I know some fans weren't too happy with this decision but I think it's right in line with their views. After lots of suffering of both parts and wanting a proper family, I think it's great that Feyre and Rhys want to start their own. It is important to note that it's rare for Fae children to be born, so I think it might take awhile to see a Feysand baby.

Rhys is still very much feeling the mating bond frenzy with Feyre. I thought it was kind of funny how he cannot stop thinking about her! There is a wall scene but I wasn't too into it unfortunately. We learn that after the war, the Illyrians took a major hit with their armies and have lost many of its people. Tensions are even higher as Devlon has refused to train the female Illyrians at the camp named Windhaven. Because of his reluctance, Rhys has accompanied Cassian into drilling Devlon to train the girls. Because of the heavy loss of their own after the war, the Illyrians are hating the Commander and High Lord more than ever. They believe that it was out of revenge for the way Cassian, Azriel and Rhys were treated in their youth, that their families were obliterated during the war. The ominous quote from Rhys, "We can't kill our way out of this one" reveals that this tension will arise to a rebellion within their own court. With the Illyrians resentment growing towards their Commander, Cassian has been trying to keep the peace but also keep his mind from wandering towards Nesta. In one of Cassian's chapters, he goes to a store to purchase clothes for the camp and meets the shop owner named Emerie, a female Illyrian whose wings were clipped making her unable to fly. It's interesting to note how much Cassian is reminded of Nesta in Emerie. When the Illyrian shop owner shows her unfazed posture towards him he notes, "He'd seen Nesta in that particular pose too. He called it her I Will Slay My Enemies pose." And he has a dozen other poses named after Nesta and says his particular favorite is "I Don't Want Cassian to Know I'm Reading Smut." Which I think is a lot of us readers have that pose too!

It's revealed that Nesta has moved out of the Inner Circle's town home and moved to a crummy apartment in the slums of Velaris. I was very surprised, and Feyre as well, that Velaris has slums. Nesta has not only shunned Cassian and Feyre, but also beginning to distance herself from Elain. Nesta has become reclusive and has started to starve herself, drink a lot and in what many of the ACOTAR fans have surprised to read, sleeping with random men. Nesta, who in the previous books seemed that she was conservative in that sense and voiced her discontent of Feyre's sexual relationship with Thomas Hale when she was human, has been a frequent visitor of 'pleasure halls' and has taken a new male each time. Feyre has been enabling Nesta by giving her money and paying off Nesta's bar bills and rent. Feyre, still feeling at fault for her sisters being turned Fae, bribes Nesta to coming to the Solstice party by saying that she will pay Nesta's rent if she does. Nesta, like Feyre in ACOMAF, has been self destructing. Her sisters and the Inner Circle are unsure of how to help her out. Her only ally at this time is Amren and likes Nesta because she is misunderstood as she tells Feyre that she needs time and space to heal, time that as an immortal, she has.

Nesta does come to the Solstice party much to the surprise of everyone. She only brings Elain a gift and Elain in turn gives her a set of books. Nesta promptly leaves the party as she feels out of place and running after her is Cassian. He wants to walk her home and talk to her of how her behavior is not only hurting herself but her sisters as well. Cassian tries to give Nesta his Solstice gift that it took months for him to find but Nesta doesn't want it. After insulting words and a solemn "Go home Cassian," he throws the present into the river, never revealing of what was in the box.

Nesta makes it back to her apartment and knows that Cassian has been flying over her, seeing that she gets back safely. "He'd followed. She'd known it in her bones, her blood." It is apparent that Nesta is in a deep depression after the war. She repeats that she feels nothing. She does not feel shame for taking money from Feyre nor remember her days or months since turning to drinking and sleeping with Fae males. She decided to move out to not have anyone pestering her about her whereabouts or behavior, especially from Cassian. It's interesting to note that she also doesn't light a fire in her freezing apartment because it reminds her of bones breaking. Nesta is not able to move on or use a healthy coping mechanism, like her younger and beloved sister.

Elain has been living in the townhouse and has taken up baking as a mechanism to cope. It is shown that she and Lucien, although mates, have not spoken to each other and Elain seems to not be interested in having a relationship, as she is still in love with Grayson and devastated that he doesn't want anything to do with her now as a Fae. Also, Elain has been visiting her their father's grave and continues to grieve for him. Feyre tries to tell Elain that it'd be good for her to at least talk to Lucien but Elain is not having it, which Feyre then stops forcing. It looks like Elucien shippers suffered in the novella but if you're all for Elriel then ACOFAS is for you. At the Inner Circle's Solstice/Feyre's birthday party, Elain gave Azriel medicine to help with his headaches as she noticed that he keeps rubbing his temples. The Shadowsinger laughs and thanks Elain for her gift and thoughtfulness.

Two characters that make a surprise appearance are Lucien and Tamlin. Rhys makes a visit to the Spring Court and notes that Feyre has done a great job in spinning the lies about Tamlin that there is no one but Tamlin in his estate. So much so, that there is no one to guard the borders between Prythian and the human lands now that there is no wall. Tamlin is a broken being and Rhys relishes in the fact that Tamlin got what he felt he deserves.

Lucien brings Elain and Feyre a gift but Elain is avoiding him as she is unsure of the mating bond. Lucien says that he, Vassa and Jurian call themselves The Band of Exiles and is trying to deal with the human lands and the human queens. He tells her that after what she did in the Spring Court, he doesn't have a home in Spring as he once used to. He tells her that Tamlin is worse than before and advises her that she and Rhys might need Tamlin as an ally. At Lucien's warning, Rhys makes one last visit to Tamlin and prepares something for him to eat. Tamlin asks if Feyre would ever forgive him and if Rhys would ever forgive him after the deaths of his mother and sister. Rhys says that it wasn't kindness or forgiveness but more of a gift for Tamlin for Solstice, for Feyre, for his visit to Tamlin. I think it is very ominous of the warning Lucien gave them regarding Tamlin.

Funny moments that I loved were when we see that Inner Circle says that Mor is terrible at giving gifts! Cassian and Azriel complain that they simply store their gifts away from Mor. The three brothers have an annual snowball fight and Azriel has been reigning champion for almost 200 times. They then relax in a sauna and Feyre, being the naughty mate that she is, get Rhys kicked out! Amren looks like an angry snowball when she wears a coat to protect her from the warmth and confesses to the Inner Circle that she had no idea how to use the bathroom. Being another worldly creature before being turned human in ACOWAR, she is very much annoyed that she has to relieve herself to which they all laugh at her, inlcuding myself! Poor Amren.

Mor's chapters indicate her immense resentment, and fear, of her father and of her time when she was tortured by Eris's brothers. To heighten that fear, we see that Keir and Eris are conspiring and it immediately makes Mor relive her torture. We read that Mor has her own estate outside of the the townhouse that she bought 300 hundred years ago named Athelwood. No one of the Inner Circle knows of her other home and I believe she won't ever tell considering how Keir and the Court of Nightmares will be allowed into Velaris now. An interesting note from Mor's chapter is that she felt something watching her as she was riding her horse. Instead of finding out what it was, Mor decides to leave. I think that this might have been Bryaxis and hope to read more about the library monster in the next series.

In the teaser for the next book, we get Nesta's and Cassian's POV chapters. Nesta describes what happened when she was forced into the Cauldron in ACOMAF. I was really happy to read what exactly she was feeling and it does not disappoint. We read before that she took something from the Cauldron and Maas writes, "The dark eternity around her shuddered. Bucked. Thrashed. She laughed as it tried to recoil...laughed at the fistfuls of eternity she shoved into her heart, into her veins." If this isn't meant to be mean that Nesta is a powerful made Fae, I don't know what does.

It is sometime after the Solstice party and Nesta has been spiraling out of control. She continues to drown herself in alcohol and Fae men. Cassian knocks at Nesta's door, and notes the four locks that she has, and wakes her up very early in the morning and finds her in another's man shirt. He asks her to get ready as Feyre needs to see her and he will be escorting her to Feyre's new home. Cassian goes off to buy her some tea while she kicks out her one time lover and she starts to get ready. Nesta has been able to get over fear of bathtubs, little by little, as she reveals that for the past year, she has been forcing herself to submerge in water.

Cassian takes Nesta to Feyre where she, Amren and Rhys stage an intervention, and a horrible one at that. Feyre blames herself for Nesta's downward spiral and it seems that Nesta caused a scene at a summer party, that she has not been invited to any of the Inner Circle's gatherings. So much so, that Amren, who was the only person who was a 'friend,' has stopped talking to Nesta. In order for Nesta to change, Feyre kicks her out of Velaris. Nesta cannot help but feel the hurt and instead of showing it she asks where she is to go. A serious Cassian ends our teaser with "You're coming with me to the Illyrian mountains."

My rating 4/5

I really enjoyed ACOFAS and liked how it gives background into what the next novel will entail. There is no big action so I understand why many other readers weren't so into it. But again it is a novella, a bridge for the next book. The next book will be centered around Nesta and Cassian, who are two of my favorite characters. Hints are made of the possible mating bond between them, so I truly hope it becomes reality or that they are a couple. I especially hope to read about Nesta's redemption and recovery, her own version of A Court of Mist and Fury. Just how Rhys helped Feyre, I hope Cassian will do the same for Nesta. There are already lots of theories how this will play out but will reserve my own until we are closer to the release of the book.

What I didn't like about ACOFAS is Rhys's behavior in this novella. It is a reminder that he is not perfect and is also a flawed character. From his treatment to Nesta (he blames her but not Elain for Feyre being the provider in the family) and his treatment towards Tamlin (although somewhat justified in a sense), it shows that Rhys also has some letting go to do. Also, Feyre did annoy me a bit with her meddling in her sister's lives. She tries to push Elain towards Lucien. Also, she tries to get Amren to divulge what Nesta has said to her. I understand that she feels at fault but there is a time to step back.

Also, it's interesting to note that Azriel didn't have a chapter so I wonder if there are plans for him in the next series.

I think this story would've been better received if ACOWAR was broken down into two books and this story was added into the second book. There are still unanswered questions and problems that ACOWAR didn't resolve and it was not answered in this book either. I have high hopes for the next book and series so in the meantime, will be reading lots of fanfiction!

Let me know what you like, or didn't, about A Court of Frost and Starlight!

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Until the next one,
D.