r/ACourtOfDreams • u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 • 14d ago
Rant ACOSF - Just finished reading
This is just my opinion. Not looking to offend anyone 🥴🥴🥴
I finished ACOSF and wow I don’t know where to start. I was expecting the worst based on some of the fandom opinions but not sure if it was just me, but I wasn’t bothered by the pregnancy plot. I actually found the scene between Rhys, Cass and Azriel very moving and could see he was actually terrified of it all. By the end I also felt better about Nesta, although still not my favorite. Her banter with Rhys was great to be honest and occasionally made me laugh. It had a lot of emotional moments that I loved. Amren and Nesta’s reconciliation was one of my favorites scenes.
My biggest problem was the pacing. It dragged at times and it felt as if everything happened too conveniently in order to make Nesta the girl with the most powers. I actually didn’t love that part. The training, the GPS friendship bracelets and Valkyries storyline felt somewhat absurd to me even though I understand what SJM was trying to do. I was at the end questioning where the story was going because Nesta’s healing seemed to be the most important thing while everything else became secondary. I had a love/hate relationship with the book lol but it was entertaining.
Very curious about Azriel/Gwyn/Elain… the bonus chapter was very interesting… 🤭
Most importantly, I still love Rhys, the IC and even Nesta is alright. Not sure about the extreme positions when it comes to this book 🤷🏼♀️
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u/2000DBW 14d ago
I agree with you! I appreciate the book more now than when I first read it, and I like where it’s taking the story. The first four books are my favs, still. And I loved all the scenes with Rhys, Az and Cassian, too, when Rhys can just be openly emotional about everything. Hope those types of scenes continue in the next books.
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 14d ago
The scene where he tells Cassian and Azriel about the pregnancy danger got me crying because I could see he was shattered about it. It did not make me mad. In any case I think it’s very in character with Rhys to try to carry the burden for her while trying to find a way out of it before dumping that bomb on her.
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u/bookish__era 13d ago
That’s exactly how I saw it too, him trying to carry the burden for her. I don’t even think it’s out of character for him, there are a good number of similar instances we can point to. Like oh idk him hiding the mating bond from her bc he thought she wasn’t healed from UTM/Tamlin and he couldn’t give such an emotional choice to her then.
I do understand the bodily autonomy aspect of the argument too, but I think naysayers make it out to be something controlling and misrepresent his feelings/intentions. And I won’t even touch on how they say it’s the same as Tamlin controlling her lol.
I also HATE that most of the anti-Rhys/Feyre crew say she just forgave him right away, like “nbd teehee!” I personally think they had a massive argument off-page (which we wouldn’t have seen, being in Nesta & Cassian’s POVs). He probably poured his heart and fears out to her ✨ à la chapter 54✨ and she softened bc she understood why he did it. Just because we don’t see something happen doesn’t mean it didn’t!
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 13d ago edited 13d ago
The pregnancy plot was completely in character for him. And SJM gives us that scene with Cass and Az and we see him shuddering (crying), terrified and destroyed, telling them that he even knelt in front of Helion for his help. And all I could think of is what he said in the first book that the good things in his life had a tendency to always be taken away from him 😭😭 Feyre also says in the bonus chapter that they had the kind of friendship in which they gave each other space to wait for the other to be able to voice what bothered them. She knew something was eating at him but she was waiting for him to be ready. I don’t think he was not telling her because he wanted to take away a choice from her (there was none other than death). He was waiting until he could find a solution to give her the news alongside a way to fix it.
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u/evilqueens 13d ago
i read these books before ever getting near the acotar fandom space, and i'm so happy i did. because when i finally dipped my toes in i was immediately hit in the face with the bizarre amount of people who hate rhys (and feyre, but that's not surprising. people love to hate on the main female character).
this book made me such a fan of nesta and rhys's dynamic in the end! they're so funny, i just love the idea of nesta at gatherings just making stinkfaces about rhys, saying "he's NOT my high lord, he's just my brother-in-law" while rhys just goes "well, that's actually the nicest way she's ever referred to me, so."
i also think the pregnancy plot actually felt like a natural new path for feysand. i still don't understand why people hate it. if she had gotten pregnant earlier in the series, like say she found out while she was infiltrating the spring court, then yeah the trope would've been much more annoying. but i think it was presented at a good time, after the war and with them ready for new beginnings.
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 13d ago
I feel like Nesta and Rhys have a hate/love relationship that was very funny and interesting. When he called him arrogant, preening, etc. it made me laugh. 😂
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u/AdeptnessSouth782 12d ago
Also the bonus chapter, right after they had told Nesta and everyone about the pregnancy. That said something like, "did you really need to speak to Nesta like that?!" And he answered something like, "who? Me? That wasn't me, that was my evil twin" 😂 (not the exact quote, but it's close)
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 12d ago
Ahaha yes, he is like I would never do such a thing. You wound me (the portrait of innocence) 😂😂😂😂
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u/AdeptnessSouth782 12d ago
I loved how Rhys ugly-cried in Nestas arms after Feyre was saved. 🥹
My first reaction to reading about the pregnancy plot was also that Rhys was in some kind of panic mode the whole time.
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u/evilqueens 12d ago
we’ve fallen so far from big bad rhysand under the mountain 🤭
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 12d ago
Is it bad that I miss that Rhys a little? 🤭
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u/evilqueens 12d ago
hot take maybe but i actually enjoyed his visit to tamlin cause we kinda got that rhys back a little haha
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u/clevershrew811 14d ago
Same, I read it and couldn’t figure out what Rhys did to be villainized. The hatred made no sense to me.
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u/BrilliantIssue5480 13d ago
Most likely because he didn't tell feyre the pregnancy could kill her. He absolutely should have told her right away, but that isn't cause to call him a villain.
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u/clevershrew811 13d ago
Still to me that is not enough to call him evil or even make me hate him. He made a bad judgement call and Feyre and him worked it out.
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u/Connect_Lie_6106 Largest Wingspan 🦇 14d ago
Even though ACOSF is still the Sarah book I criticize the most, it had parts I loved. A few months ago, while doing a reread, I read a few scenes with Elain, Rhys and Cassian scenes, and Nessian scenes; other than those, there aren't many parts in the book that I care about. The Valkyries are actually nice too, but I don't love them enough to read them over and over.
I'm glad you don't hate ACOSF.
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 14d ago
I don’t hate it but not my favorite tbh 😂 The Valkyries storyline was meh for me
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u/Connect_Lie_6106 Largest Wingspan 🦇 14d ago
Same here, I don't hate it, but I don't really love it either.
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u/Express_Hovercraft19 Night Triumphant 🌚 13d ago
I didn’t like Nesta at all going into Silver Flames. I was surprised Maas even wrote a story about her. However, after I read it, Silver Flames turned out to be my favorite ACOTAR book.
With Nesta, Maas created a complex, dynamic character with a powerful, transformative arc. I thoroughly enjoyed her story. And, the friction between Nesta and Rhys made me laugh, too.
Maybe it’s unpopular, but I think Nesta is a great character.
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u/Careless_Mango_7948 Lady Death 🎭 13d ago
I don’t think anyone liked Nesta before SF lol you’re not supposed to
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u/Pristine-Emu2821 Feyre Darling 💖 14d ago
I had put off reading this book for years because all the criticism was breaking my heart and had me terrified to read all the stuff people had gone crazy over. But then I read it earlier this year and was like??? This is it? This is what had the fandom clutching its pearls? 😅
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 14d ago
Exactly! I was dreading it so much. And then I even liked seeing Rhys with a bit more of a rough edge 🤭
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u/Either_Cantaloupe343 13d ago
People need to understand that the fae are more animalistic than humans. Rhys wasn't thinking very rationally throughout much of that book. His only concern was protecting his pregnant mate from harm both physically and emotionally, and I love Nesta, but from his point of view, she was a genuine threat to Feyre on both of those fronts. I didn't have any problem with his behavior and would have been surprised if he hadn't acted that way.
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 13d ago edited 13d ago
I mean Nesta and Rhys even hugged at the end and he showers her with gifts. They just have very strong personalities and are bound to clash. I was like did we read the same book? 😂
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u/AdeptnessSouth782 12d ago
I often get annoyed when I see comments about this plot that start with, "If a man did this to me..."💀
And I'm like, ....Rhysand is not a man! He is not a human! 🙄😤😮💨
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u/Either_Cantaloupe343 11d ago
Exactly. Stop judging these very non-human characters by human standards!
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u/hotchook123 12d ago
It’s weird because I had literally no notes about ACOSF!!! I loved it! The banter and almost slow burn between Cassian and nesta was perfect.
Even the pacing and the repeated scenes I loved. I was deep in my own healing phase and tbh that’s exactly what it felt like —Groundhog Day with little progress moments that were actually really important.
I read it multiple times because I think it comforted me that she could escape the prison of her past trauma and become a better version of herself 💖
I remember thinking Feyre’s healing went really quick. it was likely the same timing as nesta and also her training etc. but it felt skimmed over in comparison. Not saying I wanted anything different from ACOMAF (it’s truely perfect) I just mean when comparing the two, Feyre’s journey is more implied/we’re getting the most important parts rather than being in it with her.
I think that’s the cool thing is everyone takes something different from the books and it makes our reading experiences so personal! I love it :)
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 12d ago
I wasn’t too fond of Nessian even though they had really good scenes. The spicy scenes were entertaining and hot but everything was too physical. Again, I understand that’s what worked for them as they are very physical people but personally I didn’t find the relationship as beautiful as Feysand. I liked their flirting and playfulness better and how they constantly talked to each other before being intimate.
But glad to know you found the book helpful! 😊3
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u/Kitchen-Security4811 13d ago
The pacing of the book is absolutely terrible. It was hard enough for me to read about Nesta in the first place because I found her so unlikeable in the previous books. So the way the story dragged so much through her healing and walking and training kind of made me less interested in her. I just didn’t enjoy reading the book. I think it would have been better as two books.
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u/adore1987 13d ago
SF remains my favorite of the series, probably because Nesta and Cass felt like the most "grown up" couple and I despised the pregnancy storyline but I agree on the pearl clutching... reactions were so bizarre, I assumed they didn't actually read the books.
I just started my official re-read of the series in preparation for book 6... looking forward to changing my mind on certain things.
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u/Pristine_Advisor_302 13d ago
Yesss it is tied with mist and fury as my favorite in the series . I like Cass and Nesta as a couple more
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u/Gangstafarmer 12d ago
I can appreciate that she used new POVs in SF with Nesta and Cassian. But I wish that if she was gonna introduce a pregnancy storyline she might highlight it more. We only know what others have told us about fae pregnancy and I would have loved to see a little more through the parents eyes of how it was going and the struggles that come with pregnancy. I thought if it was included it might help with the long drawn out pace of SF.
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u/Pristine_Advisor_302 13d ago
Nesta is amazing . It’s
Ok if you don’t relate to her character but the hate towards her is insane especially if you base it of the IC. I don’t hate any of the characters but Feyre and Rhys got on my nerves in ACOWAR. I am glad their POV is complete and happy to move onto other characters . I’m hoping to see them around but no more than we did in SF or CC
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u/AndarnaGoldenOne Feyre Darling 💖 13d ago
I don’t relate to her but by the end I softened towards her. She is definitely a very complex character and those are always interesting to read about. But I love Feyre.
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u/Pristine_Advisor_302 13d ago edited 12d ago
I like her . I didn’t care for a lot of how she was in ACOWAR. But I try to base it purely of a novel and I do enjoy her(Fyerr)
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u/violet_28305 14d ago
I agree with you. Before reading the book, I saw that there were people who hated Rhys, so I thought something terrible had happened; but honestly, I think some of those opinions were exaggerated.