Sadly, this third installment was somewhat of a letdown after the amazingness of ACOMAF. Overall, I do still love the series, but was disappointed with this one for a variety of reasons:

**SPOILERS BELOW:

- First off, I felt the pacing was off in several areas, and there were a handful of times where certain events/ideas were seemingly thrown in haphazardly. (For example, it made NO SENSE to me that Feyre would go off by herself to find the Suriel, IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE, to find the location of Hybern's main army?... I actually really enjoyed the inclusion of the Suriel storyline, but the timing of it didn't make ANY sense to me, and there really was no need to lie about it to the other characters & cause unnecessary tension/trust issues with them... It was just odd. And on that note, basically every time Feyre went off on her own to accomplish something, it was somewhat puzzling to me. I get that Maas was trying to establish that Feyre is now this badass, independent, strong woman that can take care of herself, but really, in most cases it just seemed like a dumb idea for her to leave her squad and/or lie about it, and it certainly felt like she was less effective without them most of the time). As for the pacing, there were parts of the story that seemed to drag & felt somewhat unnecessary, while others felt super rushed and unfinished. This was a HUGE difference from the first two books, both of which I literally couldn't put down, due to the pacing & crazy suspense/tension running throughout. By contrast, there were several parts in ACOWAR that felt like filler, or felt completely unnecessary & out of place?

-Another frustrating aspect were all of the undeveloped relationships. For example, there is virtually no change in the Cassian-Nesta and Lucien-Elain storylines throughout the story. Other than a few glimmers of actual emotions/feelings from Nesta, she remains extremely detached and distant the ENTIRE book, which made it difficult for me to root for her (to be fair, she did have that badass moment at the end with Cassian & Hybern, but then she seems to immediately retreat back to her same brooding, distant self?). I don't know, based on other reviews, I might be alone in my dislike of Nesta, but I just felt like Cassian was way too good for her, from the beginning to the end. And then there's Lucien's unrequited feelings for Elain that never advanced through the story at all, partly because Lucien was absent, and partly because Elain seems to have the disposition & personality of a mannequin. I mean, we get it... yes, we know Nesta and Elain are very upset about being immortal. But like, at some point shouldn't they have moved on? At least a little? It was almost like they were lobotomized in that cauldron, and they came out with no personality or emotion. Also, Azriel suddenly showing interest in Elain seemed completely out of character and odd? As for Mor - I'm totally okay with the direction Maas went with her, but I'm pretty pissed that it means she's been stringing Azriel along for literally HUNDREDS OF YEARS. WTH?... And while Mor's explanation for doing so is somewhat understandable, it still doesn't excuse the fact that she's been hiding the truth from him, when she's very aware he loves her.

-And then there's Feyre and Rhysand -- they were probably my favorite literary couple, as written in ACOMAF. Sadly, they were almost boring together in ACOWAR. Where did the intensity/passion/teamwork/banter between them go? It's like all of the exciting & good aspects of their relationship were watered down. And I feel like there was SO MUCH missed opportunity for them to be working together, being a powerful, magical, badass duo, but there was really very little of that. And as for their passion/intensity, it wasn't even close to the connection they had in ACOMAF. As many have mentioned, the sex scenes were somewhat graphic (though not any more graphic than those in ACOMAF), yet they were COMPLETELY lacking the emotion and intensity that was conveyed in ACOMAF. For the most part, there were just a lot of off-hand remarks and references to them not being able to keep their hands off each other, but the actual sex scenes were decidedly un-hot and just kind of unnecessary? My overall feeling about them together in this book can be summed up as MEH, which is such a bummer.

-There were some great aspects to the book, though. The highlights for me were: AMREN (she was awesome in this), the Suriel, the Library, meeting the High Lords, warrior Cassian, and Jurian.

Bottom line, it was an okay third book - I did enjoy reading it, and still love the series overall, but it was FOR SURE the weakest of the three. And sadly, given the lack of growth in many of the side characters, I'm just not that excited to see what happens with them in the upcoming books.

There is nothing to not like about this book. It has everything, it gives you all the feels there are to feel. It transports you to another world that you never want to leave. All of these books... Action, gore, suspense, romance, a true heroine who does not let you down. And it actually leaves you feeling like a better person for having read it. It will be a series that I will hold all other books to it's standard now.

I finished this book solely to know the end of this particular series... And while I was glad I read it, it left me feeling underwhelmed. ACOTAR was enticing, ACOMAF was enthralling, but ACOWAR was just sort of... eh. I'm glad I read it so I know the end of this segment of the series, but it wasn't the epic conclusion I would've thought fitting for the books before it.

*Spoilers!!!! Sort of*

(seriously, friend, like... mild spoilers. Ideas without details. Please don't get mad I just have thoughts on things)

If you're invested in the series for Feyre, this will be (mostly) satisfying for you! However. All of the the other characters leave you with a sense of just general disappointment. Some of the character development felt way misguided, some of the characters were way underutilized, and everything just hit kind of flat. Perhaps this is because Maas intends to continue the characters' stories later, but... I don't know. I wasn't into it. Some of the characters I previously enjoyed/admired became sort of (and I hate myself for saying it) annoying. I wanted to jump into the book and shake them by their shoulders– MULTIPLE times. Perhaps this will be remedied in later books?? Hopefully??

Also, there was a wicked amount of emotional manipulation. Don't get me wrong– emotional manipulation can be done super well. I *like* feeling things. Really. But there were enough moments of 'OH MY GOSH THEY'RE GONE FORE– lol never mind" that I just kind of started rolling my eyes. It was predictable. And also everything with the mirror at the end made me cringe. Like it just seemed like this extra-tidbit thrown in to make Feyre seem even MORE heroic and self-accepting and badass(which was also starting to seem annoying. Idk, man.)

The highlights of the book (in my opinion) were Jurian, the Suriel, THE LIBRARY(I loved the library) and literally any Cassian/Nesta interaction. Everything else just seemed sort of... muted. Especially Rhysand. I feel like his character was just... duller compared to the previous books, which was a total bummer. He lost some of his spark– sort of the like the series did with this book(that sounded harsh, I'm so sorry.)

I am 100% for letting this be redeemed in the next books to be released– I'll even come back and change my review if my thoughts are impacted by whatever storytelling occurs in the future. But for what we know now, and where this series has gone as of today... it wasn't the worst, but I definitely expected more.

It was hard waiting for this book to be released. So in the mean time I started the series over again so I would be up to speed an start in on this new book when it was finally out. I had a hard time with the f*** word because that has never been part of my vocabulary. I shudder every time that I hear it so tried not to voice it in my mind whenever it showed up. The battle scene was a bit tedious to me but it was told so well that I could see it in my mind as if it was a video being played. Not to spoil it for someone who hasn't read the book but there was a place that I cried so hard because I loved the character. That wasn't the only place that I cried because it seemed like I was living what was going on. I loved this book. I read every chance I got but I didn't want to read too fast because I didn't want it to come to the end. It was like loosing someone that you cared a lot about. It will be hard to wait for the next book in the series coming out in 2018!!! Till the next.....!