Update: I was going through such a heavy book hangover, and missed the characters so much, I had to reread the book yesterday. It helped. I think I can wait a little more patiently now. Hopefully.

"Feyre." Rhys's eyes lingered, taking in every detail. "Are you running low on food here?"

"What?" Tamlin demanded.

Those violet eyes had gone cold. Rhys extended a hand toward me. "Let's go."

Tamlin was in Rhysand's face in an instant, and I flinched. "Get out." He pointed toward the staircase. "She'll come to you when she's ready."

Rhysand just brushed an invisible fleck of dust off Tamlin's sleeve. Part of me admired the sheer nerve it must've taken. Had Tamlin's teeth been inches from my throat, I would have bleated in panic.

Rhys cut a glance at me. "No, you wouldn't have. As far as your memory serves me, the last time Tamlin's teeth were near your throat, you slapped him across the face."

This book was a spectacular sequel to [b:A Court of Thorns and Roses|16096824|A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491595796s/16096824.jpg|21905102]. It's rare that a sequel is not only a better book than its predecessor, but that it also improves upon the first book in the series. Maas has created and sculpted such amazing characters with this series, but particularly with this book. I do not look forward to having to wait an entire year for the next book.

Rhysand is utterly phenomenal in this book, but Maas doesn't overwhelm us with him. He's perfectly placed, perfectly poised, and so damned perfect. I never once felt tired of any character's appearance in the book. In fact, though I was wary about starting this book simply because of its heft, I don't recall a single page that didn't hold my interest. Each page made me want to read the next.

Above her young supple body, beneath her black, beautiful hair, her skin was gray—wrinkled and sagging and dry. And where eyes should have gleamed instead lay rotting black pits. Her lips had withered to nothing but deep, dark lines around a hole full of jagged stumps of teeth—like she had gnawed on too many bones.

Feyre has grown and changed tremendously since the first book. She's been through so much and it has cost her. She is broken and needs to heal. As I found with Celaena in her Throne of Glass series, Maas does a very good job of riding that fine line of showing the reader just how broken and screwed up the main character has become, it almost gets to the point where you worry it might be too much, but it never goes beyond almost. It's like traveling in the character's mind to the brink, but we stay with her as she decides to come back and learn to heal.

Let's get this set. There is no love triangle. This is yet another element I loved. Maas took the chance here to explore that circumstance that many young women get themselves into—falling for that first guy who shows them any small bit of attention. Tamlin was that for Feyre in the first book, and she has come to realize just how poisoned she was by him. She was unloved and taken for granted and just generally mistreated, and at such a young age. Tamlin strolls in and sweeps her off her feet, and she breaks a curse for him, and she sees all of this as true love. She felt love, surely. She loved him enough to break the curse at the risk of her life and soul. But, she was too fragile, too broken to realize that it wasn't actually the type of love she needed. Now we have Rhysand. I repeat. There is no love triangle. This is about a girl growing up, and realizing what she actually wants, what is actually best for her, and how she needs to feel like she deserves more.

I finished this book in the wee hours of the morning, and even with very little sleep, I reread the last handful of chapters this morning just to savor the story for a little longer. And now we wait.