A loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast, A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES is set in a land where humans and faeries have been at odds for centuries. After years of barely scraping by with her family, Feyre finds herself taken captive by High Lord Tamlin, and in order to free herself she is forced to explore the dark secrets of the faerie world while trying not to fall in love with her captor.

I feel like every review of Maas' books starts something like "I know this isn't fancy literary fiction" or whatever and I have to say WHO CARES? This book is great! It's been awhile since I've read any high fantasy and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be to lose yourself in a world. Prythian is fully populated but not too complex for casual reading. Amarantha is a great, excellently hateable villain. And the riddles and trials are clever and exciting.