A Court of Thorns and Roses

Eight years ago, soon after 19-year-old Feyre’s mother died, her family lost its fortune. She, her father, and her two older sisters, Nesta and Elain, moved from their grand house into a small cottage. Feyre is the only one who works to support the family, mostly by hunting. Now, it’s winter, and her family will starve if she doesn’t bring an animal back from the woods. She finally spots a deer—and notices a giant wolf also stalking the dear. It’s possible the wolf is a faerie, as the faeries live a short journey north on the other side of the wall. Lately, they’ve been crossing into the mortal realm more often. Like most humans, Feyre hates faeries for how they once enslaved humans, so she shoots the wolf, reasoning that if it’s a faerie, it deserves to die.

The next day, after Feyre sells the wolf and deer skins in town, a faerie in the form of a wolf-like beast bursts into the cottage. He demands that Feyre either die or come with him to live in Prythian to pay a life-debt for killing the wolf, who was indeed a faerie named Andras. To save her family, Feyre agrees to go north.

Several days later, Feyre arrives in the Spring Court and gets to know her captor, Tamlin, and his friend and emissary, Lucien. Both are extremely handsome High Fae, meaning they look a lot like human men. Everyone in the Spring Court wears masks that are stuck to their faces—the result of a magical “blight” that began affecting Prythian 50 years ago. Feyre tries her best to avoid Tamlin, but she tries to get close to Lucien, believing that he’ll be able to convince Tamlin to send her home. He agrees to take her on hunts. The first day they go out, they encounter a dangerous creature, the Bogge, but emerge unscathed. Another nefarious faerie, a puca, tries to lure Feyre out of the house one night by assuming the form of her father. Tamlin rescues her before the puca can harm her, but Feyre is devastated: her family let her leave, and no one is coming for her.

Soon after, Tamlin ascertains that Feyre is functionally illiterate. She still requests one day that he show her to the study—secretly, she plans to somehow write a letter to her family, telling them she’s safe and warning them about the blight. But Tamlin catches Feyre and offers to write the letter for her, humiliating her. She declines and seeks out Lucien, who earlier mentioned that a faerie known as the Suriel will answer questions if one traps it. While Tamlin is out hunting the Bogge, Feyre follows Lucien’s instructions and manages to trap one. It reveals that Tamlin is the High Lord of the Spring Court himself and insists that things will be fine if she stays at Tamlin’s manor, near him, and doesn’t ask too many questions. Before he can tell Feyre about a King of Hybern and his significance, evil faeries known as the naga accost them. Feyre frees the Suriel, kills several naga, and is about to be killed herself when Tamlin rescues her.

Over the next several days, Tamlin persists in offering to write a letter to Feyre’s family. He understands that she’s motivated by love for them, and he ultimately reveals that they believe she’s caring for a dying aunt. In the meantime, they’re fed, safe, and know to leave at the first sign of danger.

One night, Tamlin rushes into the house with a screaming Summer Court faerie: a mysterious “she,” whom Feyre has heard mentioned fearfully before, ripped his wings off. Feyre holds the faerie’s hand as he dies, realizing he deserves compassion just like any human would in a similar situation. She apologizes for killing Andras, now regretting her earlier undeserved hatred for faeries. Feyre asks for supplies so she can paint—she’s always loved art, but she wasn’t able to pursue painting while her family lived in such dire poverty. Tamlin is happy to support her passion, showing her the manor’s art gallery and setting her up in a studio.

As time passes, Feyre and Tamlin get to know each other, and Feyre and Lucien form a friendship as well. They visit various beautiful spots in the Spring Court, which inspire Feyre’s paintings. Feyre also encounters nefarious beings that inspire other paintings, like the Attor. She overhears conversations between Tamlin, Lucien, and other fae regularly—including people scolding Tamlin for having a soft heart, despite having a “heart of stone.”

Soon, a faerie holiday called Calanmai, or Fire Night, arrives. Nobody will tell Feyre exactly what it entails, just that she’s not invited and that she must stay inside the manor for her own safety. However, Feyre slips out to see what’s going on. She encounters male High Fae who behave predatorily to her, though a frightening High Fae—Rhysand—saves her from sexual assault. When Lucien notices Feyre, he takes her back to the manor and explains what will happen. To replenish Prythian’s magic, Tamlin will ceremonially have sex with someone. Tamlin would likely choose Feyre, but due to the magical nature of the night, Feyre would have no choice in the matter. After the ceremony has occurred, Tamlin finds Feyre wandering the house and bites her. Feyre realizes she indeed has feelings for him, and their flirtations progress over the next several weeks.

Summer begins, and Feyre is allowed to attend the party commemorating the season change. The next day, though, Rhysand surprises Tamlin and Lucien, bursting in during a meal. Lucien and Tamlin try to hide Feyre, but they’re ultimately unsuccessful. Rhysand, Feyre learns, is from the Night Court, and he’s “Amarantha’s whore.” Amarantha is the mysterious “she” Feyre has heard people talk about. When Rhysand asks for Feyre’s name, Feyre lies and says it’s Clare Beddor—Clare is a girl from her village. Rhysand responds cryptically, announcing that it’s almost time.

Following this, Tamlin says he’s sending Feyre home. They spend the night together and Tamlin says he loves Feyre, but even though Feyre shares his feelings, she doesn’t say she loves him before she gets into the carriage that will take her home. She discovers that home is now a lavish manor, where, thanks to Tamlin, her father and sisters are living in luxury. Nesta is the only one who wasn’t affected by Tamlin’s glamour, and Feyre tells her everything. When Feyre discovers that somebody burned down the Beddors’ house, she realizes that Rhysand or Amarantha meant to kill her family. She must return to Prythian.

When Feyre makes it back to the Spring Court, it’s been ransacked and Feyre only finds Alis, a servant with whom Feyre developed a close relationship. Alis says Amarantha has taken everyone Under the Mountain, and she shares that the Spring Court has been under a curse. Had Feyre, a human who killed a faerie (Andras) hatefully, truthfully said “I love you” to Tamlin, the curse would’ve broken. Amarantha, and her curse, are the blight Tamlin spoke of. Alis grudgingly agrees to show Feyre how to get Under the Mountain, and Feyre sets off to save Tamlin, all of Prythian, and the mortal realm from Amarantha, whose ultimate aim is to invade the mortal realm and re-enslave humans.

Feyre soon finds the court and strikes a deal with Amarantha: she’ll take part in three dangerous tasks and, if she wins, Amarantha will lift the curse. Amarantha also agrees to lift the curse immediately should Feyre answer a riddle correctly, but Feyre can’t figure it out. For her first trial, Feyre battles a giant worm intent on eating her, tricking it into leaping into a deadly trap. She’s severely injured in the process, and Rhysand agrees to heal her—if she promises to spend a week out of every month with him after this is all over. Seeing no other options, Feyre agrees. He begins taking her to faerie parties each night, making her drink and dance embarrassingly. However, he’s the only reason she passes the second trial—it involves reading and solving a riddle before both she and Lucien are stabbed by spikes in the ceiling. Feyre, being illiterate, can’t read or solve the riddle. Rhysand, who can use mind control, directs her to the correct answer. She comes to see that Rhysand and Tamlin aren’t friends by any means, but Rhysand is not on Amarantha’s side. He wants Feyre—and Tamlin—to win, as that’s the only way he can help his court.

For the third trial, Feyre must murder three High Fae by stabbing them through the heart with ash daggers, which are lethal to faeries. She stabs the first two and then discovers the third faerie is none other than Tamlin. Feyre realizes that people have been taunting Tamlin about having a stone heart because his heart was turned to stone as part of the curse. She stabs him, but it doesn’t kill him, meaning Feyre has won. Amarantha, however, never intended to let Feyre win or go free. As she tortures Feyre, Feyre realizes—and says—that the answer to the riddle is “love.” As Amarantha promised to free the Spring Court and lift Tamlin’s curse immediately if Feyre solved the riddle, Tamlin is now free. Moments after Amarantha kills Feyre, Tamlin kills Amarantha. The newly freed High Lords of the various Prythian courts work together to turn Feyre into a High Fae, thus bringing her back to life.

Though Feyre still has a week each month that she must spend with Rhysand, and though she’s tormented by guilt for killing the two faeries, she and Tamlin return to the Spring Court, hopeful about the future.