A Court of Thorns and Roses ★★★☆☆

I just finished with the audiobook version of this. It was fine. I read a review just now complaining about some of the non-consensual sexuality contained in it, and while accurate, it's not like I wasn't expecting that in a book that I knew going into was a romance fantasy. It's a fictional book. The rules are different when you're reading a book, especially one meant primarily for women, where you can be completely safe while you read about fictional characters. However, as a woman who is attracted to women, this very straight romance was not terribly interesting to me for the most part. It's weird to hear faerie creatures talking in very heterosexually normative ways. As Prince Andhera says in "A Court of Fey and Flowers," I assume most faerie characters are all kind of pan, but I guess that's not the case in "A Court of Thorns and Roses." 

The writing quality in the book was mediocre. At many points I laughed out loud at the awkwardness, but it takes more than the occasional or even frequent corny phrasing to deter me from a book. I did get into the story, and I was invested in the ending, even though I pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen. I didn't know going into the book that this was originally meant to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but I picked up on it quickly. The protagonist, Feyre, is the most annoying character because she is so oblivious and stupid, missing all the obvious plot points. And the other characters are annoying because they warn her not to do things, but don't explain why not, then get mad when she disobeys them, which is something they should expect because she does it over and over again. The antagonist too, is kind of stupid and makes several deals that give huge loopholes to be exploited. The whole plot feels super contrived, so I had to just accept that that's how it was going to be, and I just had to follow it to the end. 

Anyway, I'm not sure that I want to read the rest of the series. I should probably read other books that are more worth my time. But I'm stupidly curious about what will happen next. 3 out of 5 stars, I'm not sorry that I read it, but there was probably a much better use of my time.