i sobbed multiple times while reading this. said “no way oh my god what the f***” out loud to either no one or my sweet boyfriend more times than i can count. i loved this book. maybe my favorite so far. the only thing i think is weird about this series is that maas says “male” and “female” but yknow, it makes sense. they aren’t really “men” or “women” bc that implies human, right? and yes, she does say mate a lot, but that is a very special bond. quite frankly, there’s approximately 230,670 words in this book. if 202 of them are “mate,” that’s 0.0875% of the book. it is *not* that high. sorry to the person who counted all instances of it, but it is not a huge deal. if u don’t like the book, simply dnf it. it’s okay not to like things! just move on though