Steamy, epic en gewoon het beste boek van de serie!

(Recensie in het Engels omdat het origineel op mijn Engelstalige blog staat)

Wow, just wow. I live for this book and it took me so long to actually start reading it! Most of it had to do with my crazy hectic life for the past few months and the fact that this whopper is over 750 pages long(!). I figured that the perfect time for reading this book would be during my summer break. What I didn’t expect is that this would be such an easy read and a real pageturner, and my do I have THOUGHTS on this one.
First, the plot. Or is there even an actual plot? In comparison to the original trilogy about Nesta’s sister Feyre this book focuses more on the characters and their journeys than on an actual plotline. This is pure romance, and even though it’s considered high fantasy romance, there was more romance than fantasy. What this book definitely isn’t is a YA or even NA book, wow there are some dirty, naughty sexual scenes in this book! At some points it was almost necessary to take a break from reading (which was hilarious for my boyfriend who sometimes was in the room when I was reading the book, he couldn’t stop laughing whenever he saw me blush at some of the scenes xD). I think SJM poured everything she had previously been holding back into this book. I applaude her for it; she finally broke away from the YA/NA genre and she does it VERY well.
So this book isn’t a pageturner because of the exciting battle scenes, it’s a character driven romance story at its best and that push and pull between the two main characters is what kept me reading for hours at a time. Don’t expect the same epic scenes that made the original ACOTAR trilogy a real fantasy trilogy, or you might be disappointed.
Then the characters; Nesta SLAYS. Honestly, I like her so much better than her sister Feyre. I remember when reading ACOTAR, Feyre sometimes got on my last nerves and I didn’t really like her that much. It’s also why I like Celaena in the Throne of Glass series much more; I guess I’m really into headstrong, no bullshit, take-no-prisoners type of female characters and Feyre just wasn’t it for me. Nesta on the other hand, despite being a pain in the ass at times, is so much more interesting to read about. And the way she manages to wrap Cassian around her finger every single time is amazing. That dude must’ve had blue balls for the first couple of chapters, which was hilarious. But looking past the big muscles (and other big things for that matter), Cassian is just one big cinnamon roll and I love him so much. He can get right up there on Nesta’s level when it comes to insults and sarcasm, but deep down all he wants is cute, all-consuming, can’t-live-without-each other love (and I may or may not have quoted Sarah Jessica Parker’s SATC-character Carrie Bradshaw here).
I was happy to see the entire gang in this book; Feyre, Rhysand, Mor, Azriel, Amren, everyone’s there. They all have smaller roles, especially Feysand, but they’re important nonetheless. The whole Feysand side plot wasn’t really necessary in my opinion and it almost gave me Twilight: Breaking Dawn vibes, but oh well.
I think this is definitely my favorite book in the ACOTAR series so far. Yes, you read that correctly, so far. Apparently there are more books coming and I’m all for it! I only hope SJM will continue the series in the same fashion as this one. But with a little more fantasy, that would be perfect.