2024 Reread:

Rating: 5/5 stars.

There really aren’t words for just how much I love this one. It’s calm and it’s sweet and it’s quiet and it’s beautiful. It’s a warm hug and the perfect love letter to incredible characters and coda for the first part of the series. Absolute perfection.

Rating: 5 stars

A holiday novella, <I>A Court of Frost and Starlight</I> follows Feyre’s first Winter Solstice as

High Lady of the Night Court

.

This one is a bit controversial, but here’s my hot take. Anyone who says this isn’t a required read is WRONG and I will die on this hill. For me, it reads like an extended epilogue to ACOWAR, in the absolute best way, including a ton of set-up for events to come in <I>A Court of Silver Flames</I>. Plus, who doesn’t love a fluffy holiday romance?

CW: Grief, eating disorder, mental illness, alcoholism

This is such a cute winter special kind of story. A little bit to show how the Night Court fambam is doing. How the Archeron sisters (Elain and Nesta) are coping and adjusting to the new life. Swoon-worthy scenes between Rhys and Feyre. Especially when Rhys finally revealed where he gets her dresses from! I’m sure I’ll miss them a lot since the next book is a Nesta POV. Speaking of, it’s also a cute sneak-peek of Nesta x Cassian tandem. 

I’m happy to use my Audible credit for this dramatized adaptation. I can’t find a physical copy of this book anywhere in PH so I opted to just listen on audiobook. Taking a break from this series and might read the next one on February. 

Continuing my ACOTAR journey with the fourth story (though more of a hopeful interlude than additional installment), a Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas. This book was a sweet depiction of the winter solstice and preparing for it. I loved getting the perspectives from characters other than Feyre, and seeing the way they all prepared to celebrate the solstice together. This was a very lighthearted read compared to the last three books, and was certainly a nice little break from the plot to see our characters in happier moments after the events of ACOWAR. This being much shorter than the other books, it was certainly a fast read, despite not having much of a driving plot. I liked the way this sets up the next book where we return to the primary story, but doesn’t go overboard in that setup. It really focuses on such a contained moment, but one I am certain will come up again during the course of the next book of the series. I’m looking forward to jumping in to A Court of Silver Flames as soon as possible, even though this doesn’t have the same kind of cliffhanger some of the other books in the series have had. 

Originally, I hadn’t planned to read this book; I had heard that it was a fluffy little filler story between ACOWAR and ACOSF, so I figured it was more of a side novella (it’s actually novel-length, but compared to SJM’s other books, it’s practically a novella, lol). However, fortunately someone set me straight: it does provide a necessary set-up for ACOSF. So I added it back into my TBR, but I did decide to just do audio.

I’m happy to report that while this IS a pretty fluffy in-between story, it doesn’t feel like a waste of time. I enjoyed it, and I was definitely glad to have read it when I got to ACOSF. Also, it was a lot of fun to get POV chapters from the entire cast of characters. Finally, I was surprised by just how much of a Christmas story it is, so I’m glad I happened to pick it up in December (recommend!). TLDR; don’t skip it if you’re doing the ACOTAR thing; it won’t take you long and you’ll have fun.

This novella is a description of what happened after the war in A Court of Wings and Ruin. The characters face the repercussions of all that happened,

the Cauldron being destroyed, Rhys' death, and Nesta killing the King of Hybern

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A Court of Frost and Starlight is almost slice-of-life in nature; there is no true "plot" other than following the characters as they adapt to what happened and future challenges, and setting up the plot between Nesta and Cassian in A Court of Silver Flame.

And the big thing that happened between Rhys and Feyre? While it was very clear that Sarah J. Maas was setting up the fact

that Rhys and Feyre were having a child

in previous books, I can't help finding myself dissatisfied that

Feyre wanted to try to have a child

so soon. She mentioned that she wanted to live life, and I can't help feeling that Feyre is far too young (in Fae terms) especially compared to Rhysand. It just felt a little bit rushed is all.

Overall, though, I enjoyed seeing the "mundane" aspects of life in Velaris among the group.