A Court of Silver Flames Book REview

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In this A Court of Silver Flames book review I’m sharing my thoughts on the 5th book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas. As per usual I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum, however there may be a few small spoilers in this review.

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

Sarah J Maas, A Court of Silver Flames

The A Court of Thorns and Roses series is an Adult Fantasy series. After reading the first three books and the novella Sarah J Maas released this book which gives us a different perspective and follows different characters from Feyre and Rhysand.

Trigger Warnings

Since we don’t always get trigger warnings on books I like to give trigger warnings in my reviews. This can help people avoid certain triggers that could hurt their mental well being.

Possible Triggers in this book are:

• Alcoholism
• Assault
• Attempted Rape
• Blood
• Bones
• Death
• Decapitation
• Depression
• Eating Disorder
• Gore
• Kidnapping
• Misogyny
• Murder
• Profanity
• PTSD
• Rape
• Sexism
• Sexual Abuse
• Sexual Assault
• Sexually Explicit Scenes
• Skeletons
• Slut Shaming
• Suicide
• Violence

For a list of the triggers I look for you can check out this link here. This may or may not be a complete list of triggers for this book, I do my best to make sure I mark anything that could be a potential trigger but I may accidentally miss triggers.

Synopsis and Author

A Court of Silver Flames follows Nesta Archeron, the eldest sister of the High Lady of the Night Court, Feyre. After the war Nesta is trying to deal with the horrors in her own head, but she’s not dealing with them in the healthiest of ways. As a last-ditch effort to help her, Feyre and the inner circle of the Night Court make an extremely tough decision and one that Nesta will not like.

Cassian is the general of the Night Courts forces and he’s about to get a promotion, but he’s also about to face his toughest battle yet in Nesta. Can he help her through the horrors in her mind and get her back from the hell she is living through?

Sarah J Maas takes us on a journey of trauma healing in A Court of Silver Flames. We get action, a lot of spicy romance, and we see the journey of a woman as she learns how to heal from her past.

A Court of Silver Flames Reading Experience

In this book we are mainly at the House of Wind in Valaris with a few other locations in Prythian. As per usual, Sarah J Maas does an excellent job of world building as we finally get to see Ramiel, more of the middle, and even a bit more in Spring Court.

Our main characters are Nesta and Cassian and we get both of them in our point of views. I liked this switch of point of views because it was nice to get more from one of my favorite bat boys. While at first I wasn’t so sure about Nesta, her story was one of growth and healing that was cathartic for me.

The main plot to this story is centered around trauma healing, while we get a few action sequences the majority of the plot is not as fast paced as previous books. While I felt that A Court of Silver Flames moved at a steady pace it was because I enjoyed reading about the healing process Nesta was going through.

Writing Style

This book has little over 750 pages with 80 chapters of healing, sex, and a little bit of action. The writing style in this book changed up slightly in regards to the sex scenes. It was a lot more graphic than previous books. The spice ranking in this book is absolutely a 4 out of 5. 

However, the world building and character development were still the same as to be expected from previous books in the series. We get great descriptions without it being long winded, the books were fairly easy to read, and we got exactly what we needed without a lot of fluff writing.

I personally enjoyed the hell out of this book. While there weren’t as many twists as in previous books I enjoyed seeing a more mental health focused book that actually dives into what people deal with in trauma. Additionally, I love me some spicy scenes and this book had plenty. 

A Court of Silver Flames Book Review

I did not care for Nesta at first because she came off as bitchy and spoiled. However, as we dove deeper into the story I could see what was happening with her. She’s dealt with a lot in her life and built up these walls. Her journey through healing was beautiful and beautifully written.

We all know that I love the bat boys in this series. However, seeing the hardened general Cassian being sweet, caring, funny, and sexy as hell was amazing. I don’t care what anyone says, Cassian has bi wife energy.

Emerie and Gwyn were amazing additions that I immediately fell in love with. They didn’t know Nesta and everything that she was and had been, but even when they found out they didn’t flinch or run away. The friendship between these three women is just beautiful. 

Feyre still makes the top of my list of favorite characters even though we don’t see a lot of her in this book. She still sees the good in Nesta when almost no one else does and still wants to fight for her, but she knows that she may have to step back and let someone else do the fighting.

We don’t see a lot of Rhysand and while I wasn’t pleased with his character through some of this book he does redeem himself and I understand why he is the way he is.

While Azriel is all shadows and mystery I really feel that the Archeron sisters are the only ones who can see through those shadows. This book showed a little bit of a softer side to Azriel and I really hope we get an Azriel based book soon.

Queen Briallyn is horrible, vain, and vindictive. I absolutely hate her for what she pulls in this book.

Bellius is a typical misogynistic douche canoe and I hate his guts too. He’s just horrible.

I loved everything about this book, I wasn’t expecting a book about trauma healing and it was beautiful. I personally couldn’t put this book down both the first and second time I read it. I enjoyed the spicy aspects of this book, but the story is what actually won me. 

There are a lot of triggers in this book so please be aware of those and if you can’t stand to read about things involving the triggers it might be best to avoid this or take it slow with additional self care. However, if you like books about finding strength and healing from trauma. This is a fantastic book.

Star Rating

Before I rate this book I want to give you a bit of background about what my rankings mean. I typically read books that I check out through the Libby app with my local library or through Kindle Unlimited. 

I rarely buy ebooks unless they are cheaply priced or on sale. I also very rarely buy physical copies of books. I’m a bit of a minimalist so I have to absolutely adore a book to buy a physical copy that will be proudly displayed in my home.

So my ranking system is as follows:

• 5 Stars equals I am buying a physical copy of this book. I will read this book at least 10 more times, it is the best ever.
• 4 stars equals a great book. I might buy an ebook version when it’s on sale so that I can re-read it at least one more time.
• 3 stars equals a good book. I likely won’t read again but I appreciate the story.
• 2 stars equals “Meh.” I will not read this book again, it had a lot of problems and I did not care for it.
• 1 star equals a bad book. I barely finished this book and I will never recommend anyone waste valuable book reading time on this book.
• 0 stars is a did not finish book. I will never finish that book and it is banished.

A Court of Silver Flames gets 5 stars from me. This book was a refreshing break from the non-stop action of the rest of the ACOTAR series. It was a book about healing from trauma, finding friendships, and learning to forgive yourself for your own past. It was beautiful and shared something we don’t always get to see in the Fantasy book world.

Likes:

• The process of healing from trauma was realistic to what it’s actually like.
• The training process and learning to quiet your mind with different techniques.
• The spicy scenes were fantastic.

Dislikes:

• I did feel that the last action scene was a bit short and there could have been more to it.
• Some of the medical parts of this book really didn’t add up or make sense.

Final Thoughts on A Court of Silver Flames

Like I previously mentioned, this book is not like the action packed previous books. This book is centered around trauma healing while touching on some of what’s happening around Prythian. I personally loved this book for that and I feel like those of us who have healed from our own traumas appreciate what was done in this book.

This is why there are so conflicted ratings for this book. I think it was well done and a refreshing story to tell within this series. Sarah J Maas did an excellent job in sharing the story of Nesta and I look forward to seeing more from our other favorite characters.

Additional Book Review in this Series

• A Court of Thorns and Roses
• A Court of Mist and Fury
• A Court of Wings and Ruin
• A Court of Frost and Starlight

Have you read A Court of Silver Flames? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite book boards.

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