A Court of Thorns and Roses
- 456
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 53 weeks on the list, peaked at #3
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Our view
“A Court of Thorns and Roses” divides readers sharply. It sets a fairy-tale romance among the fae, and those who stay with the series sometimes treat this volume as necessary groundwork for what follows rather than its high point. For some readers the heroine is the sticking point: defiant to the point of seeming childish, she puts them off early. Try it if you want romantasy and are prepared to commit beyond book one.
Worth knowing Sarah J. Maas built it on Beauty and the Beast, with threads of the Scottish ballad Tam Lin. Bloomsbury first marketed it as young adult, but the series later moved to adult shelves, and the books grow more explicit as they go. Readers who find this first volume slow are usually told to keep going: the story changes direction in A Court of Mist and Fury (2016).
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Lose yourself in a world so sumptuous that you may never return home ... The tantalising start to a seductive fantasy series from global #1 bestselling author Sarah J. Maas for fans of E.L. James and Deborah Harkness
Reading order · A Court of Thorns and Roses
Full order & progress →- A Court of Thorns and RosesThis book
7.47.4 / 10 - A Court of Mist and Fury
8.78.7 / 10 - A Court of Wings and Ruin
8.48.4 / 10 - A Court of Frost and Starlight
7.07.0 / 10 - A Court of Silver Flames
8.38.3 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.4 across 4,046 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 96% of the weight and the score stays at 7.4 — the Romance average of 7.6 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 144 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 7.4 | 3.9K | 96% |
Frequently asked
What age is A Court of Thorns and Roses for?
A Court of Thorns and Roses sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 456 pages — shorter than 63% of the ranked books in Romance.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Romance — with scores between 7.3 and 7.8, closest to this book.
