This book was SOOOOOO much better than the first one! So many great messages about what love really is: Encouraging someone to live their truth; Intuiting someone's emotional needs and responding respectfully and swiftly; Respecting choices; Owning mistakes; Allowing for time together or apart, and finding ways to keep each other in their thoughts or encourage one another's independence without being manipulative, jealous, micro-managing, or overbearing; Protecting someone by helping them to build their strength and confidence, not shielding them from every potential threat or activity... The book did a beautiful ballet through the seasons, the stages of grief, and the stages of recovery from trying to move on after a trauma/abusive relationship. The Dreamers definitely shined, I found myself craving to be a part of that found family, too.

... THAT SAID.... This book didn't suffer as much as the first one did from tonal whiplash, but it was still there. Stories about mass slaughter side by side with erotica. And, especially the first third of the book, suffered WAY too much from shoutouts and derivatives. Yup, I see you, Ariel's wedding dress, Jasmine's crop top and pants. Hello Alina, "like calls to like", so nice of Maas to pay "homage" to The Sun Saint by literally having her get f---ed. -______-;. I was not amused. At one point while reading I got a song stuck in my head, and then realized the exact lyrics of Misery by Maroon 5 had made it into Feyre's descriptions of life in The Spring Court. And the book was not short on tropes: Hello monologuing villain!

But eventually, the book finally managed to shine on its own merits, and Rhys and Feyre's enemies to friends to lovers burrowed right into my soul. I'm fully converted, I'm totally rooting for them... But the middle of the book was all about choices: Feyre's independence, Rhys's sacrifices, their found family... That it hurt A LOT when the THIRD part of the book was all about destiny and manipulations and no matter his good intentions, we're supposed to believe that Rhys chessmastered EVERYTHING, even before Feyre crossed over the wall! That he and Feyre aren't mates/equals because of the choices they made, the dream they share, the life they want to build... but because he entered her mind, planted images, got addicted to watching her like she was a reality TV show, and then intruded on her life and kept himself relevant for selfish reasons... I mean, they work so well together, you kind of want to brush off the fact that he was a besotted stalker, buuuuut.... it doesn't sit as well.

AND IN FACT, the whole book has kind of a squicky after taste. I just don't want to believe that THIS Tamlin is the same one who personally rescued a lower Fae, then performed his funeral, in the first book. I don't want to believe that THIS Rhys licked Feyre's face without consent, and his response is, "Sorry, you were spazzing, and I have a crush on you?" How does that make him any less entitled than Ianthe? It is hard to reconcile Book 1's Tamlin and Rhys with Book 2's. I just think the contrasts between the two were hyped up in this book to unbelievable levels, supervillain and superhero levels. They're not morally grey people who both love Feyre, but one is better for her. By the end of the book there is a very clear Tamlin is Evil and Rhys is Good line drawn that I did not care for, it did not gel with their introductions. I feel Tamlin was written to be unrealistically obtuse and hurtful. And while Rhys's chemistry with Feyre is a dream come true, he is a bit of a paragon.

A couple of times I got weird heteronormative vibes from the book? Like, are there no gay fated mates? Could Maas think of no better words for faerie genders than Male and Female, are there no gender neutral faeries? It's cool Rhys and Feyre talk honestly about not wanting babies right away, and being loving and encouraging whether it's in their future or not, buuuut.... there is still that assumption that life is better with sex, with marriage, with babies in your future... To the point that priestesses and fae of the Court of Nightmares are literally prized for the babies they can churn out. And on the subject of sex: It's nice that Feyre and Rhys get this cathartic collision after everything they've been through, but I was surprised that two people who had just gotten out of sexually abusive relationships wouldn't try being romantic first, taking sex slowly... I don't know, I still get uncomfortable vibes from this book series, that it only does the barest minimum for representation. I mean, a council of multiracial Queens shows up, but "the most beautiful" is STILL the blonde, white girl... And the brown-skinned race to the north are all savage gangs who don't respect women... Yeah... Some not great racial or LGBTQA messages.

But some great messages about becoming yourself, healing after trauma, and daring to both imagine and create a safe space in the world. <3 I definitely choked up several times, and am ready to rush right into the next book.