A review by pelicanfreak
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

3.0

We get a lot of Nesta in this installment and I find it warranted based on her appearances and evolution in the books leading up to this one. She may seem like an a-hole, but Girlfriend has ISSUES from all the nonsense she’s been through and had done to her so it’s understandable. I realized I had been hoping to see her sort of work her stuff out and find her place in her newfound world so I’m good with this installment focusing on her. This one is much steamier than all of its predecessors. While I’d categorize all the others as YA or NA Fantasy, I’d probably call this one something more akin to fantasy romance. The romance does seem to be pretty central to the plot, so people who dislike romance may not love this one.

There is a LOT of sex in this book. A lot as in, if they were to remove the detailed sex scenes, I think this book would be about half of its length. I’ve nothing against the sex, and in many cases it serves to advance the plot but … in this case there were some scenes that seemed just there for the sake of sex, also so it got a bit redundant. Also, while I think Maas is an incredibly brilliant writer, I did find some of the sex scenes to cross over into ‘cheesy’ at times. Some were fine too but overall, it felt like she was trying too hard and should maybe stick to world-building more. In the earlier books in this series, I definitely felt real feels; this one didn’t have that going on for me.

Still, I will absolutely read more from this author. There’s no denying her worlds are superior to many, well-planned and epic.

3 stars
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️


Note:
I listened to the audiobook; the narrator’s voice is good, even sped up. Coming from me this is high praise, as I cannot listen to most people read. A 5-star performance.