Recently, everyone has been reading A Court of Thorns and Roses. Almost everyone on social media has been reading it. It suddenly became popular even though the first book came out many years ago. I remember in 2015 when I first put it on my list of books that I wanted to read. In 2020, I read Sarah J. Maas’ other series, Throne of Glass. I really enjoyed that series and I had waited until all the books were out before I read them even though they had been on my list for years. I did the same thing with A Court of Thorns of Roses. I had it on my list and I did not want to read it until all the books came out. 

Fast forward to now, I was starting to see everyone reading the books and I was reminded that it had been on my list for a long time. I started looking into it closer because I had read Sarah J. Maas before. It turns out, A Court of Thorns of Roses is in the genre people call “romantasy”. That basically means magic, fantasy, and lots of sexual content. It was disappointing to learn that because Throne of Glass had not been that way. There had been romance but it was not graphic and meant for a younger audience. Sarah J. Maas turned it up in her new series. There is a lot of violence in the series, along with swearing, although not as intense as some other books, which is its saving grace. However, my research has proved there is a lot of sexual content in the book. I had a good friend read the series and she told me that she had to skip a lot of pages and there was not a great driving plot without the “smut”. 

I was disheartened. Many amazing stories that I have been looking forward to reading have been ruined because of the sexual content. It is frustrating. I will not be reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, even though I have been looking forward to it for years. If I were a parent, I would not recommend my child read the series. As an adult of any age, I would still not recommend it unless you are okay with skipping a lot of pages.