A Court of... Reviews

As an avid reader, who enjoys reading all types of books and all genres, I was unsure of the "A Court of" series. Not because I doubted the author, as I have immense respect for all who are able to write a book yet alone a 5 book series. But it was what I was reading and seeing online that made me worried.

The main hype around these books is the "smut" aspect so my worry, with having read books like that previously was that the focus was going to be on just that with the actual story as a secondary part.

I have found in the past, there are quite a few "sexy" books where that is the focus and the main story is not the important part when it should be the opposite, a great story with some extra fun sprinkled in here and there. Similar to movies, where the sex scenes are there in addition to the story without taking over the entire story. Also, like in some other books with a certain color in it's title, the sex scenes were filled with weird moments that are very unnatural in the way that people acted and thought, as though it was the weirdness that sold the book and made a certain style of sex totally fantasized and taken out of context.

Reading the books, for the most part, the first 4 books of the series has relatively tame sex scenes, not really getting into a lot of detail, but more suggesting what is happening or going to happen. That does go out the window somewhat with the fifth book. It is definitely the more smut heavy of the bunch with some pretty descriptive scenes. But it does make sense with the book which I appreciate being that it is told from a different perspective than the other books. This allowed for the change to make sense with the series, since the narrator or focus of the book changed to someone a lot more crass than the narrator of the other books. It did not feel like a departure from the original character to have these scenes being more rough and graphic with this change which I found quite smart.

The important thing to note with these books is that these scenes are not forced in the books, just thrown in there to raise eyebrows or having the story focus around those scenes. It is more accompanying the story and allowing for some realistic events that happen to people all the time, especially in the last book as the scenes are mainly between two people who have had clear tensions between them for the last 3 books where it clearly just boiled over and became hot and heavy.

Though this is what everyone is saying about the books, they don't really need it smut aspect. I understand that it is what the genre is and I don't mind them but the story itself is so well done that it is not needed. Which is why I believe that in the 3rd book, there is barely any scenes because the story is too intense to need that. Another aspect I respect about Sarah J Mass and her writing, the sex scenes are only there when needed. When the story is ramping up and intense scenes are happening, the smut aspect takes a back seat.

For those readers who have been worried about reading the books for the same reason I was, I will say that I believe you will be surprised and compelled to keep reading for the story. It is a great and well developed fantasy story with amazing world building, intense action scenes and more to the story than one may think.

Has it turned me to be someone to read a lot of these books? No. Not that I won't pick up one of these ever again, if the story is given a higher priority, then maybe I will. As someone who did not start reading because of a tik tok trend, I am happy that some people's world is now open to the joys and explorations of worlds held in the pages of hundreds of thousands of books.

To those who read the Court series because of the trend that it became, I ask of you to keep reading, explore other titles and you will be in awe of the wonderful world of books you have only scratched the surface of.