"A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas

There has been a lot of hype around this book series, so when I saw the first book in one of Istanbul's bookshops, I bought it as I wanted to give it a try.

It took me 3 days to read it - I would read it faster but I also wanted to explore Istanbul, so I needed to get out of the hotel, without a book, obviously.

There are things that I really liked about the book, but there is also something that I didn't. Let's start with the positives.

!SPOILER ALERT!

Language. Sarah J. Maas is a really good writer, when she describes something, be it a hunt, a love scene or someone's appearance, it is a really good description: not too short, not too long, just right! And it shows a clear picture of what is going on in the scene.

Wholeness. Although the book is the first in the series, it is a finished story, so after reading it, the reader doesn't have to quickly start another book to learn what will happen, because the final scene was unfinished. I really hate when authors do that, so I appreciate Ms. Maas didn't. :)

Captivating plot. The author made up a good story, which is full of suspence and while reading I was genuinely interested what will happen next.

Love line. I liked both the main characters, Feyre and Tamlin, a human huntress and a High Lord fae, who at first were considered enemies being the representatives of races hating each other, but eventually falling in love. Honestly, I expected that too happen, perhaps I just read too many books where such things happened, but as the characters were not dull, and so was their love story - I was curious to see how it developed.

Interesting supporting characters. Some of the characters were not described to the fullest in the book, but certainly deserved more attention, which is a slight drawback of the book but the fact that those characters were present is certainly a plus.

Rhysland, another High Lord Fae, is definitely one of them. On the one hand, he is a self-centered jack**s, who seems to be only interested in his own games, on the other, the reader can clearly see that he cares. That, to my mind, makes him very interesting, and I am sure that there is more to this character than it was described in the book, so I hope in its sequels Rhys is given more attention.

Lucien, Tamlin's emissary, is another character deserving more detailed description. He seems like a decent guy, who becomes a good friend to Feyre, he has a good sense of humor, we also learn about his tragic love story, but nothing else, and I would love to learn more.

And now the thing that I didn't like about the book, which made me rate it 4, instead of 5.

The villain. The evil in the book was represented by Amarantha, a high Fae who was greedy, proud and very cruel and wanted all the power to herself. I mean, come on, there are so many books where this happens. I would have been alright with some blight or sickness, which was mentioned at the beginning of the book, or something else, but another Fae, who became a dictator, seemed too ordinary, I really expected a more sophisticated villain.

On the whole, it is a decent read, and I will certainly read the sequels.