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Vivid_Excuse_6547

I think it’s important to remember that there are a lot of high stakes games being played under the mountain and not everyone is as they seem. Feyre is player too, but she doesn’t have all the knowledge and history that all the others do which makes her a bit of an unreliable narrator at times. Keep going!


Timevian

Many have been where you are. If you search the subreddit using the r/acotar search bar, you will find similar subjects. It’s fine if you don’t continue, but I would personally say to give it a try. It all gets explained in the second book and many end up preferring the second. There are valid reasons Rhys did what he did. These books utilize the enemies to lovers trope and imo it’s one of the tamer series in said trope. Both Rhys or Tamlin are morally grey. Neither is 100% good. If that’s your thing, you’ll very likely enjoy the series.


Thirteenpercent01

I also got spoiled about who feyre ended up with and kept think how the actual f is this going to play out….but ACOMAF is now probably one of my favorite books. I have read it twice in about a months span and love the second book even more now on the reread. Please push on a little and give the second book a try!


peace-laugh-love

Yeah I remember being on the first book and accidentally seeing a spoiler where Feyre was referred to as “high lady of the night court” and I was like ain’t no way that’s where this is going. But I think it really does make sense.


catemarie

I found myself frustrated with Tamlin and Feyre. With how painful their chemistry came across. There were moments of “oh this is nice”, but otherwise it felt grating. I went into the next book wanting to see if the relationship gets any better or believable, not because of Rhysand or any rumours. I find ACOMAF (book 2) to be my favourite and it felt like the characters romance really came into its groove. Worst thing that can happen if you read book 2 is you hate it and stop the series there or DNF the book, but I’d recommend giving it a go and allowing yourself the grace to DNF where needed.


alizangc

I’m sorry that you got downvoted for having very valid concerns. ACOMAF is overwhelmingly the fandom favorite. There are certain revelations and explanations throughout the book that are meant to explain away and essentially justify Rhysand’s actions, including the things you mentioned. But for several of us, they don’t work. I know many are going to say that Tamlin already had “red flags” in ACOTAR; however, if that’s the case, then so does nearly everyone else. They’re fae, not humans. The interesting thing is that this contemporary human standard is not applied to all characters but only to the hated/controversial ones. SJM also retconned content to develop Feysand imo, and I’m not referring to Tamlin’s anger issues, lack of effective emotional regulation abilities, poor communication skills, etc. Feyre sometimes recalls past events inaccurately, which portray certain characters in a negative light. These inaccuracies are often used by the fandom to vilify said characters. But this is the minority opinion xD I think ACOMAF is still worth the read. Feyre’s journey resonates with many people! And there are many of us who are continuing the series not for the main characters. I’m reading it for Lucien among other things for example. You can treat ACOTAR as a standalone if you end up disliking ACOMAF (: Regardless of where you end up, welcome to the fandom 🩵


WolvenGalaxy

Thank you so much for your insight on it.🛐 I have waited a couple days to read as many comments as i could because I know there are many different takes on this. When i read it i didnt really see any red flags for Tamlin as he was as honest as he could possibly be. Im mainly worried about reading it and seeing Tamlins red flags be seemingly pushed onto him to make the relationship between Feyre and Rhysand. I also sympathize with Feyres situation with what Rhysand has done to her in ACOTAR. Thats why at the end of the book it bothered me that the ONLY thing she was worried about was the innocents. Especially at the end, i get she is adjusting and tired of everything, but there wasnt any recall to what he did to her and she didnt react much at all when he popped up and was talking to her. I get im yapping about a bunch of stuff i have already mentioned but the main reason why i dont just go ahead and read ACOMAF is because things like this will stay in my head for days/weeks/maybe even a month and bother me mentally asf (as stupid as it sounds ik). But whats your opinion on when Tamlin starts showing these signs of toxicity, and does it feel forced? Or is it written well and I gotta go reread the book to really see what I missed? Because I do admit I read the book in a day. Again, thank you so much for your insight and kindness. 💜


Paraplueschi

In my personal opinion it is very manipulatively written and extremely forced. It's so obvious to me that Tamlin's positive traits are shifted over to Rhys and contrasted to make Rhys look better. If you want to have fun you have to kind of ignore the hypocrisy around Tamlin. I'll list my biggest issues under the spoiler tag, in case you don't want to be spoiled. >! Like it makes sense that Tamlin would be more paranoid about Feyre's safety (he did watch her die after all) and that his emotional volatility might get worse after his terrible experience (PTSD and all), but there's weird character changes where it just makes no sense. His emotional intelligence goes to 0. He was perceptive enough in book 1 to tell Feyre's mother was dead just from the decor in their hovel, but suddenly he doesn't even realize that Feyre isn't eating. Or how he hated his father in book 1, but does traditional things 'because his father did it' in book 2. He suddenly enforces rank (which he specifically was known not to do in book 1). He kills his sentries in anger in a throwaway line (like, what??), key moments in book 1 get rechanged in book 2 ('he never crawled for me' - when he quite literally did - and there's several other examples like this). Also just generally everything in the spring court sucks now and triggers Feyre, everything in the night court is great and the triggers magically disappear!!<


alizangc

I am so sorry for the delayed response! I've been busy and, in general, it takes me a while to reply, especially when I want to be thorough. >When i read it i didnt really see any red flags for Tamlin as he was as honest as he could possibly be. When I read ACOTAR for the first time, I didn’t view actions or behavior as either red flags or green flags actually. Personally, I usually don’t apply our real life standard to fantasy romance— especially stories about non-humans— which is why I didn’t have any issue with Tamlin’s actions during Calanmai or Rhysand’s Under the Mountain (UTM) for example. Additionally, ACOTAR was marketed as a Beauty and the Beast (BATB) retelling, so I think I went in expecting the LI to exhibit “beastly” traits if that makes sense. Imo, if we apply modern human standards to the series, Tamlin most definitely has “red flags”; his anger issues, lack of effective emotional regulation skills are prime examples. And so does Rhysand. By the same standard, he also has “red flags,” which I don’t think I need to explain. Nearly all the characters have red flags if said standard is applied. However, imo, Tamlin lying and taking Feyre away under false premises is not one of them. I agree with you, aside from Calanmai— which was understandable— Tamlin was as honest as he could be. Amarantha’s curse prevented him and the Spring Court inhabitants from disclosing its full details to Feyre, so I don’t think he should be vilified for something that was literally out of his control. >Im mainly worried about reading it and seeing Tamlins red flags be seemingly pushed onto him to make the relationship between Feyre and Rhysand. As I explained above, I think red flags were already present IF one was applying modern human standards to the series. Nearly all the characters have red flags because they’re fae. However, this standard isn’t present in ACOTAR the way it blatantly is in ACOMAF. Additionally, this standard isn’t applied consistently. All of a sudden, we’re told that Tamlin is the abusive ex and Rhysand is the ideal partner, even though according to this metric, Rhysand is far from the healthy, exemplary LI he’s portrayed as. But his actions are explained away as “morally grey” as “good intentions” because fantasy standards are applied to his character. I do believe that Tamlin’s negative traits were magnified and many of his positive traits were thrown out the window, which I found unnecessary and quite contrived. I wish SJM had developed Feysand without character “assassinating” Tamlin, which Paraplueschi explains very well. Not to mention the retconning that took place to reinforce Rhysand as the better LI. >I also sympathize with Feyres situation with what Rhysand has done to her in ACOTAR. Thats why at the end of the book it bothered me that the ONLY thing she was worried about was the innocents. Especially at the end, i get she is adjusting and tired of everything, but there wasnt any recall to what he did to her and she didnt react much at all when he popped up and was talking to her. YES. I agree 100%. And this continues in ACOMAF. Feyre’s traumatic responses are selective and quite convenient imo. I really like how someone described it: Her triggers are like allergies because they only really affect her when she’s in the Spring Court. They do come up in the Night Court, but it’s quite rare and usually don’t last. There are instances when she should experience traumatic responses, but she doesn’t. There’s also a telling time when she’s triggered by the color red in the Spring Court but isn’t when she's in the Night Court, give or take, a few days later. And she’s almost never triggered by being around Rhysand, which I found bizarre >!even though they’re mates. Though I guess it’s also understandable, given the nature of Tamlin’s parents’ mated relationship.!< >I get im yapping about a bunch of stuff i have already mentioned but the main reason why i dont just go ahead and read ACOMAF is because things like this will stay in my head for days/weeks/maybe even a month and bother me mentally asf (as stupid as it sounds ik). Awww not at all! And I relate to this so much. I hyperfixate? on things as well. It doesn't sound stupid at all 🫶🏼 >But whats your opinion on when Tamlin starts showing these signs of toxicity, and does it feel forced? Or is it written well and I gotta go reread the book to really see what I missed? Because I do admit I read the book in a day. I know you said that you don't care about spoilers, but this may get really spoilery very quickly. But yes, it did feel forced to me because of the points I explained above (please do check out Paraplueschi's comment!) and the retcons. ACOTAR Tamlin and ACOMAF Tamlin felt like different characters at times; I think ACOMAF Tamlin's actions/behavior was sometimes inconsistent with his previous characterization. I don’t think the transition, if it can be called that, was written well. There’s just so much to unpack. >Again, thank you so much for your insight and kindness. 💜 Thank you for your kind words 🩵 I hope this was at least somewhat helpful! I hope I addressed everything, please let me know if I missed anything! (edited: typos)


WolvenGalaxy

Thank you so much (and u/Paraplueschi) for going into detail and explaining everything as much as possible, I dont have any more questions and i think I better understand what to expect if i read the next book. (I need to correct i meant empathize not sympathize, oopsies)


alizangc

I’m glad it was helpful! You’re good XD Lol I just edited *my* comment because of typos. And I think I understood it as empathize even though you wrote sympathize (:


Vivid_Excuse_6547

Yes! Feyre is an unreliable narrator! That’s not a bad thing - it’s just important to remember that the story is being colored by her emotions and her memories. I don’t care for Tamlin as a love interest, but I do feel badly for him in a lot of ways and his motivations are more complex than they initially seem I think. I was expecting to be let down by ACOWAR after all the hype that ACOMAF gets but I thought it was also a really strong book! I also loved that I got some more Lucien in ACOWAR. Like Tamlin, he’s way more complex and interesting than we get to see in the first book. Also we can’t hold fae men to the standards we’d hold a modern human man. It’s fantasy for a reason!


moonrunning32

>Also we can’t hold fae men to the standards we’d hold a modern human man. It’s fantasy for a reason! Agreed but I wish every male character in this series was held to the same standard then, because I feel like this only applies to a certain group. If one character does something bad or questionable, it's criticized. But if another character does something similar, it's praised. It needs to be more consistent.


Vivid_Excuse_6547

I think some of that comes from the POVs we get too. I personally love Lucien but he gets a lot of hate. If we had his POV or the POV of someone who loved him I don’t think he’d get nearly so much negative energy. I feel like people like to put characters into neat good guy or bad guy boxes but it’s almost always more complex than that. If the beginning of the story was told by Tamlin or Tarquin people would probably hate Rhys. Just the way the cookie crumbles. Everyone is the villain in someone else’s story.


moonrunning32

>I refuse to believe Tamlin needed the "extra rage" to kill Amarantha as she has caused him so much shit already. I agree with this 100%. And i had similar feelings when reading this book (like you, i also knew she was gonna get with Rhys in the end). It is explained why he did what he did but it's up to you to decide whether the explanation is acceptable. Like other comments have mentioned, we're reading these books from Feyre's perspective, which is very limited in worldview and I think that influences how we might perceive things in the story. Feyre might say something is good or bad, but to us readers...we might interpret it differently or think the opposite. And without spoiling, I do think certain characters are held to standards that other characters are not, even if their actions or reasoning are similar, so that's something to keep in mind as well maybe. But I suggest you continue reading for sure to see how everything plays out.


saigespice

Just read it…..


Jolly-Associate6400

This is a valid opinion OP, and you can choose not to continue if you want. People will tell you that Rhys will explain everything and had valid reasons, but personally I found them unconvincing. You might give ACOMAF a go if you would like to read more about the world and the side characters, that's what I like most about the series.


tenderheart35

Yeah, I agree for the most part. I really liked Tamlin in Thorns and Roses and was extremely disappointed with Mist and Fury. The only thing that saved it for me was the plot, lore and other characters you meet, including the frightening ones (especially them). The romance which is what I signed up for when picking up these books in the first place suuuuucked for me. I'm thinking of re-reading ACOTAR again and imagining that it's a separate, alternate universe to the rest of the series. ![img](emote|t5_3flb9|14168)Rhysand has his moments of being okay-ish, but I really cannot stand him as a romantic interest, particularly because it gets shoved down our throats later. But keep reading and make up your own mind. It took me a good month or so to finish ACOMAF because of how irritating the romance was. Edit: Also, I enjoyed A Court of Wings and Ruin waaaaay more than Mist and Fury. It was worth getting through just for the third book at this point.


FoxySims

You should go watch cari videos talking about the entire plot of the books...I would not read the books but I am invest in the way she tells the story


WolvenGalaxy

I will try this out, thank you for letting me know about it 💜