A ​Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ | Plot: 📚📚📚📚📚| Overall: ⭐️⭐️
Length: 788 pages | Genre: New Adult Fantasy | POV: Third
Dates Read: 03.18.24 – 03.29.24


✴✴✴ TW: Subst*nce Ab*se; Mental Illness; Grief; Talk of Childhood Ab*se, R@pe, and M*rder ✴✴✴


🕊️ ➞ Tropes:

⚔️💀 Touch Her, You Die 💀⚔️
☠️ Morally Grey MMC ☠️
😍He Falls First 😍
😒👫Forced Proximity👫😒
⚔️❤️‍🔥Enemies to Lovers❤️‍🔥⚔️
🗡️💃🏻Deadly FMC💃🏻🗡️
🙄🙎🏼‍♀️Strong / Sassy FMC 🙎🏼‍♀️🙄
🧿Chosen One 🧿
👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 Mates 👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻
🧞‍♀️🧚💕Romantasy 💕🧚🧞‍♀️
🧝🏼‍♂️🧝🏻‍♀️Fae 🧝🏻‍♀️🧝🏼‍♂️
🧙🧝🏼‍♂High Fantasy 🧝🏼‍♂️🧙🏻‍♀️


🕊️ ➞ Synopsis:

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.

The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.

Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance – and healing – in each other’s arms.



🕊️ ➞ Progress Notes & Initial Thoughts:


Pg. 59:
I’m here for Cassian. Nesta can pound rocks. Loathe her 🙃

Pg. 168:
Not me wishing I lived in the House of Wind. Feeds her, runs her baths, picks out books for her (knows her taste too), and makes chocolate appear out of thin air. Earth just isn’t doing it for me anymore. Our world needs to step tf up.

I need to run away to Faerie. 😫😫

Pg. 183:



And that’s on sexual tension 🥵🥵


Pg. 219:



Here we go with the ✨ S P I C E ✨




Pg. 233:
Aww yay Feysand 😍🥰

Pg. 248:


Cassian makes me ✨ F E R A L ✨But he did Nesta dirty by leaving like that. Tsk tsk.

Pg. 256:
So this little daydream about Cas and Az? Yeah, that sh!t needs to be a scene. Not me already deep-diving into fan art 👀



Pg. 268:
Finally 🥰🥰 Love this for Gwyn. 😍😍



Pg. 288:
This man can spit in my mouth and I’d say thank you. Enormous? Beautiful? Mans got me like:



Pg. 611:
I have been on a deep dive & the only reason I’ve come up for air is my 9-5…

But MY GODS that was an intense chapter ?? Am I delusional, or insane, or was that the mating bond? Hmm…

Pg. 616:
LOVE THESE LADIES UGHHH

Pg. 692-698:

SOBBING. This trio is my Roman empire

Pg. 726

OH SHIT



Pg. 735:

Why Tf did I do my makeup today? Jfc.



Pg. 788:

It’s over…



How am I going to recover from this?



The hangover is real.

I gotta lay down…





🕊️ ➞ My Thoughts::

The majority of A Court of Silver Flames focused on Nesta’s healing journey as she came to terms with her new immortality as well as the death of her father.

When Nesta was forced into the Cauldron, she took something from it… something it wanted back. She gained an immense power that no one seemed to know its origin. After spending a fortune of Rhysand’s money at a tavern, Feyre banished Nesta to the House of Wind with Cassian and Azriel in an effort to keep her sober. Of course, this infuriated Nesta.

At the House of Wind, Nesta began working at the library with the surviving priestesses who held refuge. She befriended a fellow librarian, Gwyneth Berdara, who was one of the traumatized priestesses. This was MAJOR for Nesta as she hated everyone, including herself.

In defiance, Nesta began the trek down the thousand-plus steps to the city of Velaris and out of the House of Wind. Eventually, it became a personal goal of hers on her path to strength and resilience. Feyre had also insisted that Nesta begin training, which was met with reluctance and refusal at first. Soon, Cassian began training Nesta, Gwyneth, and Emerie, – a shopowner in town and a female Illyrian whose wings were clipped – for the Blood Rite. Nesta’s time in the library wasn’t entirely useless as she learned about the existence of female warriors known as Valkyries; she soon showed Cassian her findings and he began to formally train them in the ways of the Valkyries.

Throughout this story, I went back and forth on my feelings for Nesta. I understood her sadness and her anger, I just didn’t understand her cruelty sometimes. Watching her character develop was one of the most rewarding things about A Court of Silver Flames, especially the way she built back her physical and mental strength and health, the way she opened her heart to Gwyneth and Emeries, and the way she saved Feyre and Nyx. It was just a beautiful thing to read.

There wasn’t much action in this book besides the training, the Blood Rite, and the confrontation with Queen Briallyn. There sure was a helluva lot of smut though. 👀👀But who’s complaining?



I’m going to take a second and talk about our girl trio because it is my Roman Empire.



Nesta, Gwyneth, and Emerie all had tragic backstories that left them all feeling broken in different ways, and the scene where they all shared their traumas and held one another had me sobbing. The strength they found in themselves and one another was truly beautiful.



Maas wrote that friendship out so beautifully. To the point that if one of them dies in the future… so help me God…



Kidding, of course! I’ll just send her the bill for my additional therapy appointments that week.





🕊️ ➞ Characters & Their Backgrounds:

🐦‍⬛ ↳ Nesta Archeron:



Nesta was the eldest of the three Archeron sisters and was by far the cruelest. She favored her middle sister over her younger one and despised her father as she blamed him for their financial losses. Nesta was groomed to be a lady by their mother who was apparently worse than Nesta herself when it came to being an ice queen. When King Hybern forced her and her sister, Elaine, into the Cauldron to make them High Fae, Nesta used all her strength to take more and more from the Cauldron. Way past the point of its “generosity.” This resulted in Nesta gaining an ancient power that allowed her to possess multiple Made objects without dying. Unheard of, apparently.

🐦‍⬛ ↳ Emerie:



Emerie was the daughter of a wealthy, and abusive, Illyrian man who owned a clothing store. Having lived a life where she was both exposed to and endured abuse, Emerie’s father began to brutally beat her after he beat her mother to death and no longer had her as a punching bag. Then as a part of some archaic and misogynistic tradition, her father clipped her wings to keep her from flying. His abuse extended to his need to control every aspect of her life, and it remained that way until he died in the war against Hybern. Emerie was ecstatic about the news of her freedom and took over his clothing store.



🐦‍⬛ ↳ Gwyneth Berdara:



Half High Fae and half Nymph, Gwyn and her twin sister Cabrin were raised by priestesses in a temple before becoming ones themselves. They were twenty-six when Hybern and his men invaded the temple. Gwyn hid the children as the soldiers began rounding up the women. Wanting to know where the children were, one of Hybern’s generals began murdering priestesses right in front of Gwyn in a ploy to get the information from her. When she remained insubordinate, the general beheaded Catrin and then r@ped Gwyn before giving his men a turn. It took loads of courage and strength for Gwyn to sign up for lessons with Cassian, it was truly a joyous moment to read about. Fictional, or not.


🐦‍⬛ ↳ The Valkyries:



Again, my Roman Empire. 😍😍



🕊️ ➞ My Favorite Quotes:

“I am the rock against which the surf crashes. Nothing can break me.”

– Nesta Archeron

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