Our main female character is Isobel, she is an artist, a painter!- needless to say I was sold at that point already- Every detail and description of Isobel's work was accurate and beautifully written.
She paints portraits for the fair folk, since they cannot. The fair folk cannot do anything considered craft- painting, cooking, dress making...
She is amazing at what she does and has managed to protect and support herself and her family through it. There is even a rather powerful protection spell in her house put there as payment by one of her most frequent patrons- Gadfly. He is charming and I really liked him. I figured out what he was up to about two thirds in the book and I think you will too. But that didn't make the story any less interesting.
One day our other main character pays Isobel a visit. Rook, the Autumn Prince. Faeries don't have emotions, or at least are not meant too. Love perhaps, but that is rare. But Isobel sees sorrow in his eyes and puts that into her painting. When the painting is revealed in the autumn court that causes Rook a lot of problems, it could even cost his life. Because you see, human emotions are considered a weakness for the fair folk and a prince cannot be weak. He drags Isobel from her home to face trial for her crime! And here our story begins...
Rook is Adorable! He is proud and a little self obsessed, but in a child like manner. I just giggled every time he said something self serving. He may be a prince -and like reminding Isobel of that all the time- but he is clueless to human emotions and behavior. Some of his comments and questions are just too freaking cute and funny. If you have a thing for precious sweet characters, you will like him. I usually like the bad boys, but every now and then I find a sweet one impossible not to love, he is one of them!
I loved how the relationship between Isobel and Rook progressed. At first I thought we would suffer from the 'insta-love' curse. Although it looked that way to start it righted itself as the story went on. I loved how impossible it was for him to hide his feelings and how blind she was to her own. It was cute.
The side characters were also great fun. Starting with Gadfly, who I already mentioned.
We also have a fun miss-behaved set of twins. A protective loving aunt. And a few fair folk from Gadfly's court that are just hilarious.
The only reason I am keeping that fraction of a point back when scoring the book is that is was a tab predictable. A lot remained a surprise till the end, but there were a few things that were obvious.
Beyond the review:
Here is something I do not understand: Why is this being compared to A Court of Thorns and Roses? Have people gone mad? Acotar is, to start, a New Adult Novel. No YA can be that 'explicit'. An Enchantment of Ravens is most certainly Young Adult. I understand that most of Sarah Maas fans are young adult lovers but you can just choose what genre to call a book because of your personal preferences. Can you imagine acotar in a school library in the teen and/or section? How many parents you think would go mad at that? plenty!
Second, Acotar is intense. It has a lot of depth and a rather complicated world. An Enchantment of Ravens is an easy read. It has an amazing world built into it but its not overly complicated. Not much more can be built from it either. And the kind of intensity found here is very different from acotar. It is fun and light hearted even at the most precarious scenes. Can you really call any of the intense scenes in acotar light hearted?
Sorry for the rant guys... I love acotar and I really enjoyed this book too, but the comparison is just wrong.
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