Nesta's family and friends have had enough of her wallowing and give her an ultimatum: live in the House of Wind where she'll train with Cassian in the mornings and work in the Library for the rest of the day or return to the human lands where she'll essentially be an outcast. Nesta is angry but settles into her new routine finding friends and bonds in the least expected places. But old and new enemies lurk on the borders and threaten everything Nesta holds dear.

The temptation to summarize this as "How Nesta got her groove back" is high. Out of the whole ACOTAR series, this one is the best written (don't get me wrong, there were still some bits that had me sending snarky texts to my friend). Nesta is a complex character and watching her heal is compelling. I also was so pleased to finally see a female character with female friends and Maas writes that really well. There are enough plot threads dangling that if Maas writes another ACOTAR book, I'll probably pick it up because I like the characters enough. But I will NOT be diving into the rest of Maas' bibliography, because there's only so much hate reading one can do, lol. ( )

This one was definitely my favourite of the series. I don't know if I will read further books if they come out. This is not high art literature but it is immensely entertaining and fabulously erotic, if terribly hetronormative (don't get me started on the tokenistic queer characters). Lack of gender and sexuality diversity aside, Maas writes a bloody good sex scene. This particular novel's story really appealed to me because Nesta is such a spiky character. Her "journey" is a predictable one but I had a great time on the ride so I'm forgiving that. ( )

My favourite of all the ACOTAR books (thus far). A Court of Silver Flames centres on mostly Nesta, the eldest and coldest of the Archeron sisters, following her trauma from previous events which has caused her to shut herself away from the world, even more than before. Tall, dark and handsome (not to mention hilarious and flirtatious) Cassian brings her out of her shell by training her daily and unveiling more about his own dark past until eventually the two share a very strong bond. Nesta also meets priestess Gwyn and female Illyrian Emerie who have their own traumas that they are overcoming. War has returned, and Nesta decides to train the priestesses so they can defend themselves, as Valkyries reborn. Not only is this book about the power of friendship, love conquering all but there are deeper, touching aspects of self-awareness, forgiveness, redemption and healing.

Honourable mentions in this book have got to be firstly the ball when Nesta dances, need I say any more? And then when Cassian goes to visit Nesta to give her the Winter Solstice gift. I was screaming, giggling and kicking my feet reading it that I had to read that chapter again! Like um hello, a man customising a Symphonia with music that he knew you'd love, just for you to listen and dance to whenever you wish? I'd swoon - and marry that man! Cassian is the standard in men.

The interesting part of this is that so far the books have been written in first person, from Feyre's point of view. This one is the first of which to use third person, with insight into both Nesta and Cassian's point of view, which is something I prefer. It gave an interesting viewpoint of looking at the characters such as Rhysand without looking through Feyre's rose-tinted lenses and overall bias.

I was looking forward to this story the most because of Cassian (of course), though was skeptical about whether or not I would enjoy this because I have never been sure whether or not I could like Nesta. I could not have been more wrong. I have never resonated so much with a character in my life: her struggles, the depths of her despair, but her resilience to keep getting up and keep going, against all odds. This is THE best ACOTAR book. The only unbelievable thing (yes even in a fantasy book) is the wingspan and being able to go down 10,000 steps - and back up! ( )

This was definitely not as good as the first three. It focused more on Nesta and wasn’t my favorite ( )

If you’d asked me what character I’d like to do a deep dive on, Nesta wouldn’t have come up on my list. I really enjoyed her story regardless, even though Feyre is my favorite, she did deserve a break. I liked who Nesta made herself. I definitely had more questions about what’s next and I hope there will be more books (even if they won’t fit in my boxed set). ( )