When Feyre kills a wolf while hunting to keep her family alive, she sets in motion a chain of events that leads to her living amongst the Faerie in order to protect her family. It doesn’t take long for Feyre to realized that there is something sinister lurking that may be a threat to the Faerie and humans alike, and she might hold the key to save them all from doom.
It took me a while to get into the story, in part because I didn’t really like any of the characters, Feyre especially. In fact, Feyre is probably one of my least favorite characters in the book. She frustrated me so much in the first half of the book. She gets better, but the fact that story is told from her point of view was definitely a hurdle. Some of the other characters did grow on me eventually (Lucien and Nesta especially), but it took a long time for me to be invested in the story. It wasn’t until Feyre went Under the Mountain, that I was really drawn into the story.
The romance was another thing that just didn’t do it for me. I was far more attracted to Lucien and later Rhysand than Tamlin. Tamlin was just a little too flat for me to really see the appeal of. What we see and learn about him is fine, but by the time the reader is actually getting to know him, I felt I already knew Lucien better; he’s snarky asshole, but I like that. There was also the moment when Tamlin bit Feyre and tells her not to disobey him. That was a big nope from me. Like maybe if Feyre was into that, but she pretty clearly wasn’t at that moment. It was also completely different than the way he’d acted before. I get that it could be the whole “under the influence of magic” thing, but it makes me wonder if that’s closer to his true nature. And the way he talks about wanting to keep Feyre tucked away safe and painting in the next chapter comes off as more creepy possessive to me after that rather than caring and protective. I don’t actually doubt that Tamlin has feelings for Feyre, but it really felt like Feyre’s feelings were more a matter of the circumstances than genuine love. I’m fairly certain that Feyre does care for Tamlin, but I’ll be honest there’s something there that feels off.
Okay (and this a total pedantic knitpick on my part; totally a me issue), it drove me crazy that this is so clearly a Beauty and the Beast inspired work (which is fine; I love folklore retellings), and the main love interest’s name is Tamlin. Tam Lin is a completely differently tale (it’s also one of my favorites), and has little to nothing to do with the story being told here. If I’m gracious, I can see a connection with the three tasks that Feyre has to perform and the general set up, but that is a stretch. That section feels more like it’s borrowing from East of the Sun, West of the Moon just with the villain from Tam Lin. Again, this is totally a me issue, but it really drove me crazy.
I know a lot of folks love this series, and if it works for them, great. But so far, it’s just not working for me. Which is a bit of a bummer sine there seems to be a lot here to like with the world building and the general concept. It really should be the sort of thing that is right up my alley, but I really struggled to get invested in it. We’ll see if the sequels sell me on it. It wouldn’t be the first series where book two was the one that sold me on the story. There seems to me some setup that could lead to really interesting developments, so I’m not giving up on the series yet. Two out of five stars.
