‘The power did not belong to the High Lords. Not any longer. It belonged to me – as I belonged only to me, as my future was mine to decide, to forge.’

It’s taken me a few days to think of the right words to describe this book. This enthralling, exciting, enraging and unexpected book with wonderfully authentic character development.

Firstly, I just want to say that a Court of Mist and Fury is SO MUCH BETTER than it’s predecessor. Mostly because Feyre’s characterisation is so outstanding, but also because the story is no longer just about love.

This novel is about self-discovery. It is about Feyre discovering who she is and what she wants. It is about the intrinsic ability that your experiences and adventures have to heal your heart. Through her adventures, she learns to embrace past pain, and learns to become a new, stronger person. She is not the stagnant character that so many similar lovesick heroines are. This time around, her characterisation is stunningly crafted. It makes the first book pale in comparison – it is worth reading if only to get to this stunning sequel.

In a Court of Mist and Fury, Feyre becomes more of the feminist heroine that I love to read. She grows up and realises that she is becoming a different person. And how could she not? I am so happy that Maas stayed true to Feyre’s character. How could she have gone through the events of the previous book and not have changed? And more importantly, how could she ever had stayed in love with Tamlin after the way he treated her? She might have needed him in the first book, when she was indeed a much weaker character who craved any kind of protection he could offer her. But at the beginning of the story, whilst trying to deal with what transpired Under the Mountain, she is emotionally unstable. Rather than helping her to heal, Tamlin ignores her pain like she is a silly little girl who will get over it eventually.

I hated Tamlin almost immediately at the start, which is a surprise since I had liked him in the first book, although his flaws never enabled me to love him. He was too weak, too controlling, and too much of a damn coward all the way through a Court of Thorns and Roses. This only gets worse in the sequel – Tamlin suffocates Feyre. Worse, he ignores her emotional wellbeing like it is something she is just going to snap out of. After reading this, and getting to know Rhysand and all the intricacies of his character, it makes me feel slightly sick to think that I ever liked Tamlin’s character. His and Feyre’s relationship dynamic was extremely shallow, weak and reminded me way too much of Twilight.

I absolutely adore Rhysand’s character. Oh my God, he’s so starry and dark and GLORIOUS. He lets Feyre be who she is meant to be. He sees value in strong women. He never once tries to stifle Feyre’s strength. Rhysand does everything in his power to help her, to heal her, to be her equal, most of which she is oblivious to until close to the end of the book. He keeps the truth of his feelings from her purely so she would be free to make up her own mind; decide the fate of her own heart. Most importantly, Rhysand never ever dismisses Feyre’s emotions to be unimportant.

Can we all just take a minute to appreciate that he made her a High Lady of the Night Court? Equality. That is what I love about Feyre and Rhysand’s relationship. He makes her his equal. He doesn’t lock her away like a delicate doll.

I feel like this stark contrast between the two male characters, and the substantiality of Rhysand’s characterisation when compared to Tamlin’s, is very deliberate. Throughout the entire first book we are never given even a tiny bit as much character building and background to Tamlin as we are for Rhysand. Overall, he is written so much more carefully, solidly and truthfully. You get to know him almost as much as you know Feyre. You learn his fears, his loves, his pain, and you feel them too. In comparison, Tamlin is completely two-dimensional.

Yes Rhysand is out-of-this-world starry, dark, strong, fearless and dangerous, but he is also incredibly selfless, thoughtful and… soft. Not only towards Feyre, but towards everyone he cares for. He sacrifices his entire reputation for his court. He values LOVE above all else, which is intrinsically feminist in my mind.

The slow-building, flirtatious sex that oozes through the book is so much better than the attempted (but not quite there) lust of the first one. It makes your heart stop a beat, your stomach erupt into butterflies, and your mouth drop open. It is cleverly interlaced into the plot, and Maas has learnt to make it more subtle than the shallow and unbelievable desire of the first book.

The romance is perfect because the story no longer revolves purely around it. It is built up by the events that transpire, and develops authentically as Feyre and Rhysand struggle through their own battles, together. It adds an extra dynamic to the story, but overall, they fall in love around everything else that is going on. Perhaps due to everything that is going on. They are common ground. They are one another. There is beautiful, solid substance to their feelings for one another, and you believe it totally.

The new characters are also amazing. They add depth to the story in a way that I don’t feel Lucian, as a secondary character, ever did. They are all extremely memorable and Maas definitely didn’t scrounge on their personal histories, making sure they were extremely interesting in their own right.

Her world-building is another aspect of the story that had me going weak at the knees. As you see the world through Feyre’s eyes, as she discovers her own power, her own importance, and her own place in the world now that Tamlin is no longer locking her away. The imagery of the Night Court and the hidden city within it is so spectacular, and definitely my favourite out of all the Faerie realms. The story arc surrounding Rhysand’s deep love for the court and his desperation to keep it from Amarantha’s destruction is clever, and unexpected. The twist that reveals him as Feyre’s mate is even better, and I loved his retelling of the events of the first book so much that I’ve read them over and over again!

To summarise, I feel that a Court of Mist and Fury was fantastical, seductive, enthralling, beautiful, heart-wrenching and empowering. I devoured it in one sitting, and I can forgive Sarah J Maas for the weak, male-dominated story that made up the first book, if only because it enabled this!