A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 5)

Karla Lucena

In love with Cassian and Nesta love story

"Nesta was an extremely complex character, and that’s why I love more about her. She believed it that she was not worthy of love, she keeps punishing herself, thank you Cassian, for always be there for her, for your patience, for your unconditional love. This book is a journey about friendship and about love and about forgiveness. To let go of the past, to embrace the future. It is about grieving, about understanding that everyone is worthy of a happy ending. It is about hope!! ["

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May 7, 2026 Verified Purchase

Lillian @ Mom with a Reading Problem

Heartbreaking and Empowering All at the Same Time

"I enjoyed this one way more than I thought I would. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas is the newest installment of A Court of Thorns and Roses, following Nesta as she navigates her new life as a Fae with a little help from Cassian. This book picks up a year after A Court of Frost and Starlight. During that year, Feyre and Elain have given Nesta her space, hoping that in doing so Nesta would come to terms with everything that has happened to her. Instead, Nesta has only gotten worse. Now she is offered a last chance to set things right, and the person she is ordered to work with is the one person she can’t stand the sight of. Both heartbreaking and uplifting A Court of Silver Flames delves deep into how trauma can affect our everyday lives and the steps to overcome it. Nesta was never my favorite character…that is until I read this book. I thought her unnecessarily cruel and brash, caring only for herself and how the situation of others reflected upon her. Oh how I was wrong! Nesta is more like Feyre. In fact, I’d go as far to say they are identical which is probably why they don’t get along so well. While Nesta puts up a fierce face, her insides are cracked, broken, and festering. Watching helpless as the king of Hybern turned Elain into a Fae then facing the same fate was just the tip of the iceberg Nesta has to overcome. Unable to stop her father’s death and witnessing it haunts her every waking moment. All of this combined with the fact that those who she should be able to rely on do not trust her and fear the power that resides in her. All of this culminates into the person we see at the beginning of the book: a callous drunk who sleeps with random strangers to keep the nightmares at bay. After one particular night where she spent an ungodly amount of the Night Lord’s money, Cassian arrives and forces her to go to Feyre. It is this scene that is a pivot point for her. Feyre offers Nesta some tough love: go live at the House of Wind, work in the library below, no drinking and train with Cassian or go back to the mortal world to live alone as she has shut everyone out. Resentful and just a bit bitter, Nesta begrudgingly accepts and thus the story begins. Cassian is one of my favorites of the series. I could read stories about Azriel and him all day. As the commander of Rhys’s armies, Cassian has big shoes to fill. He’s always been a jokester, downplaying his responsibilities because he doesn’t believe in himself. He believes he is nothing more than an Illyrian bastard despite the power running through his veins. After losing a large force during the war, Cassian must regain the trust of his troops and also find peace for himself. Yet another battle looms, and he isn’t sure how to face it. Add to that he now has to train Nesta, and he feels like he is barely treading water. Despite all of this, Cassian sees to the heart of Nesta and realizes they aren’t that different. So much happens in this story! Nesta dealing with her severe PTSD, Cassian taking on more responsibility, and the hunt for three mythical artifacts that may turn the tide and settle the unrest in Prythian. I personally enjoyed every word, even the hard stuff. I laughed a lot, I cried a little, and I swooned majorly. I also love two characters that are brought in later who become friends and confidantes of Nesta. They are wonderful, and I hope to see more of them. Overall, I loved A Court of Silver Flames. I couldn’t read it fast enough. I’ll be honest, I was hesitant to continue reading the series because I thought it had a good ending, but I’m SO glad I continued because Nesta and Cassian are perfect! The story is one that needed to be told. I loved how Maas handled Nesta’s depression and self-loathing. It brought her to life off the pages and resonated so deeply with me. If you are a fan of the series, I highly recommend it. ["

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April 29, 2021 Verified Purchase

Ladyteach

It wasn’t a 5 even though I really wish it had been.

"This book was solidly good and yet something was wrong the entire time I was reading it that I couldn’t place my finger on until the end. And it’s this unfortunate conclusion that I came to: This book was a slightly inferior version of a story that SJM has already told. Spoilers ahead. While several of the ACOTAR fan pages I follow had people ranting for months about how much they hate Nesta and how much they didn’t care about a book featuring Nesta I had 0 problems with this being a Nesta story. For one, we left Rhys and Feyre in a good place at the end of ACOWAR and the novella. We don’t need another Rhys and Feyre book, as much as we truly love them. So that makes what SJM stirred up with them in this book incredibly frustrating. More on that later. I was genuinely happy to have a spin-off book because SJM wrote such incredible supporting characters in the ACOTAR series that -any- of them could have their own book. That is profoundly hard to do and I have only respect for her accomplishing that. And Nesta was an obvious choice to go with in this spin-off series for all the reasons that so many fans were irked to see her chosen. She’s flawed, her personality is prickly and she often seems to be a direct contrast to Feyre, who was so easy to root for. And yet... And yet I’d make the case that, by the end of ACOSF Nesta isn’t that different from Feyre and it’s because SJM followed the same formula for writing Nesta’s story that she did for writing Feyre’s. While Feyre is an unsung hero before Tamlin finds her in ACOTAR- saving her family from starvation and protecting them even as no one is protecting her- the way we find her at the open of ACOMAF is the same way we find Nesta at the start of ACOSF. They both hate themselves and are trying to punish themselves for the things they can’t live with. And while it’s safe to say most of us were shocked by the mate twist in ACOMAF it was no surprise in ACOSF - even to Cassian and Nesta themselves- even though we spend all of ACOSF dancing around what we all know is ultimately the inevitable. Cassian helps Nesta build back her strength- literally and figuratively- all the while he knows Nesta is his mate but he doesn’t want to scare her off with the news of it... sort of like Rhys, but in a less well-executed way if I’m being honest about the way it was written. In the end it’s no surprise to Nesta, who seems to already know they were mates. The thing we were building up to for the entire book sort of deflates with this realization once we get there. It wasn’t awful. Again, if I hadn’t read Rhys and Feyre’s story before this one I’d say it was really good. But we’ve been here. We’ve done this. Aside from the fact that this is not new stuff, Cassian fell flat for me and I honestly expected better from him as a character. While Nesta grows and evolves- learning from her mistakes, her flaws, the way she’s hurt people- Cassian does some things that left a nasty taste in my mouth. For one, Nesta is his mate, but he seems most naturally himself around Feyre. For as little as they interact in this book the relationship he and Feyre have seems incredibly more pleasant and loving than any scene we are tossed between Nesta and Cassian. I’d argue that in several scenes he’s more protective of Feyre than Nesta. Maybe Rhys’s character set the bar too high for my expectations of a mated male, but I also can’t go over this idea that after Nesta and Cassian have their moment of soul-binding he goes off for a week and leaves her. Huh? I thought it was so intense that mated males couldn’t stand someone even looking at their mate sideways, and yet Cassian leaves Nesta for a week?! Either he’s a crappier character than I thought or the writing went off the rails here. Quite frankly, the explanation he gives for this behavior later is incredibly weak and doesn’t fit with what it seemed like we were taught to expect from a “mated male”. And again, there’s just this overall sense that Cassian is a watered-down and less well-executed Rhys formula- the wise male who is incredibly strong, good looking, heroic and yet also selfless person... except that Cass does have moments where he’s just not as great as Rhys was at this. Maybe I’m reading them wrong. Maybe the point of the book is that Cass and Nesta are imperfectly perfect mates who make more mistakes together and come back together again because they are such a great fit. It seems like there has to be a reason this story was written this way, so let’s go with that because I don’t have any other theories. I cannot leave this review without mentioning that we did -not- need the Feyre and Rhysand drama. This story stood on its own without bringing them into it with that. We only got one really incredible scene from this side plot (Nesta revealing the heartbreaking secret to Feyre was truly well-written), and in the meantime, as much as Rhys and Feyre continue to beautifully dominate every single scene they’re in, it didn’t serve this book well. It felt like a distraction. A sort of, “Here’s one for the people who can’t get over this not being a Rhys and Feyre book”. And, quite frankly, if you’re going to throw Feyre and Rhys into a life-threatening situation I NEED more scenes between them than what I got. This just wasn’t satisfying. Things I liked: Nesta. I liked her in the beginning and I knew I’d like her in the end. Her evolution as a character didn’t disappoint The Valkyrie trio. This was unexpected and I liked it. It felt fresh in a story that was otherwise a little stale. The House. MVP award for this book goes to the house. Who knew?! I loved this character. The writing. I didn’t like how this story went down, but it was still beautifully written and the world-building was rich and true to what had already been established. I want more books from Velaris and the other supporting characters. It’s not a bad book. It’s really not. But I’m not reading this book with unbiased eyes. SJM is too good for that. I’m comparing one SJM book to another and, for me, the caliber of writing in ACOMAF set the bar too high for this story to get five stars. ["

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February 17, 2021 Verified Purchase

andrea

Absolutely fantastic read

"I honestly don’t know how to say what I want to say about this series. I have been reading non-stop and sneaking in little reading periods whenever I could. I was actually excited to finish my workday so that I could go home and curl up to read. I would read when I should have been doing something around my house! I was hooked on this story from the first book. I adored Feyre from the beginning. I actually liked Tamlin, but just knew Rhys was so much more and craved the connection that he and Feyre had. This story was just so well developed and written. Each of the characters were given so much attention and they were developed beautifully. You just have to love all of them! Their family connection in this last book was perfect. I feel like there are some real families that are not this close or loving. Sarah Maas was masterful in each character”s development. This was a very long series/story, but it never got boring or repetitive. It needed to be this long and I honestly did not want it to end. I want to know what happens with each of them. Azriel, Mor??? And what about Elain? Does she ever find happiness with her mate? This was the first fae/fantasy series I have read and I really did enjoy it. I am now a Sarah j Maas fan and will be trying her other works. I just need to recover from this book hangover first. Or actually savor it a little longer before I can move on. I absolutely recommend this series even if you don’t think it is your cup of tea. Give it a try !!! You may fall hard like I did…. ["

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July 14, 2025 Verified Purchase