A Court of Silver Flames

By: Sarah J. Maas

Narrated by: Stina Nielsen

Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

Sarah J. Maas' sexy, richly imagined series continues with the journey of Feyre's fiery sister, Nesta.

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she's struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can't seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it. 

The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre's Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta's orbit. But her temper isn't the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.

Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance - and healing - in each other's arms. 

©2021 Sarah J. Maas (P)2021 Recorded Books

The narration is the worst. :(

I have been waiting for this book for months now. I was so excited to hear another story from a beloved series. Until the narrator ruined. It was over exaggerated to a embarrassing degree and especially during the intimate scenes it was absolutely laughable. Amazing book, but I would recommend recording it with one of the previous narrators if you want it to be successful. This one can’t even compare to the last 4 books as far as narration.

Where is Jennifer Ikeda or Amanda Leigh Cobb??

I know how many Sarah J Maas Fans have been anxiously waiting for this book with high anticipation and hopeful expectations...I am one of them!! *sigh*
My review is not for the book itself, as I haven’t gotten very far into the story. My very sad and disappointed review is for the Audio version.
I don’t mean to diss or be unfair to Stina Nielsen, I have listened to her narrate prior books that I enjoyed. I’m just not sure what happened here with the Major Overacting. It’s almost like listening to something being narrated for very young children.
So yeah, it’s been very distracting to the story, which is SO unfortunate! It sucks when a beloved series changes narrators that may not know, or get the feel of the characters, or how the story has been told in the prior books.
I really don’t like being negative or critical about an artists’ work... I’m sure Ms Nielsen is very talented and well regarded in her field. Sometimes things just don’t vibe right.
I would just recommend listening to the sample before purchasing the audio version.
Posted by: ShaunaSmiles 😊 🎧📚

I can't get past the narration

I've been waiting over a year for this book! I pre ordered the audiobook and woke up today excited like Christmas morning. However, after suffering through 4 hours of the narration- I had to give up. I am loving the story so far despite the rough narration (which is a testament to Maas and her amazing series) but I feel like I have to continue reading on my own so I can pay more attention to the plot line and less cringing at the narrator. Everything is so overacted, voices all sound the same (especially the women) and I find my mind constantly wandering and missing the narrators of the last 4 books. If you are able to read the actual book, I recommend saving your audible credit, buying a copy and bringing the characters to life the way they deserve.

I don't care for the new narrator.

Nesta, Feyre, Mor, and Amren all sound the same. I had a hard time knowing who was talking. There is no cunning to Amren's voice, no light to Mor's, no sharpness to Nesta, and no hopefulness in Feyre's. They all sound tired, bored, and "sultry."

I should have purchased the hard copy instead.

Good god the narrator sucks

Love the story; HATE the narrator. Everything is over done, the accents are terrible, character voices are all the same. Do yourself a favor and read the print version.

Good luck getting passed the narrator

I’m counting down the minutes until I return this for a refund because of the melodramatic and silly narrator. At this point, I’m like, one more minute, one more minute. Also, when did this series turn into the Black Dagger Brotherhood? Same-same! The author dialed it in, so I guess none of it matters.

built me up just to let me down, hard.

PSA: This book is absolutely not child-friendly! MUCH more expletive & adultly graphic than Crescent City was. If you wouldn't let your children read absolute erotic literature, don't let them read this!

There are a few issues I have with ACOSF & the narration.

The narration is SLOPPY. I'm incredibly disappointed and completely caught off guard by the lack of quality control on Stina Nielsen, SJM, & the editors of the audiobook. every hour or so (for all 25hrs of this book), you can hear footsteps thudding through Stina's recording studio for 5-10 seconds. This deserves a caps lock: AT THE MOST ANTICIPATED AND CLIMACTIC CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT POINT in the last 3 books, STINA'S PHONE VIBRATES ON HER DESK. LITERALLY as the words are spoken and you're listening super intently, her phone vibrates, loudly. I relistened to this part like 5 times because I was so caught off guard and thought it was a problem with my headphones - it wasnt. This was a lazy, sub-par delivery and I do regret listening to this book.

The feeling & personality of the characters we've come to know intimately that Jennifer Ikeda & Amanda Leigh Cobb delivered were delivered so differently, that I felt I didn't know who they were - when did half of our favorite and most well understood characters begin sounding & talking like a tv show's snobby British aristocrat?

I don't mean to totally tear Stina down - she is VERY explosive & animated in her reading, and she did an EXCELLENT job crescendoing & building every moment - intimate moments felt intimate, anger felt real, her delivery of happiness actually made me smile, and sadness felt genuinely sad.

Now, for the story - Im still shaken at how unanswered & rule changing this book was. In previous books, certain "rules" and explanations were given that apply to the universe around this realm, and ACOSF absolutely disregards some of the rules SJM developed for all of the previous books. I felt like she forgot a lot of the explanations & character development of previous characters, and now that they're not in the storyline the rules that apply to them (and newer characters) are totally different. additionally, lingering questions & curiosities about the last 1-3 books were not only left unanswered, but their storylines were actually brought to an end that doesn't have much opening for further exploration or explanation.

overall, I feel that this book was incredibly rushed story-wise, and the only details not spared were graphically sexual (I don't have a problem with it, its just frustrating that this wasn't so much a fantasy book as a Erotic Literature.)

Narrator Ruins It

This is the fourth full length book in this series - why doesn’t then narrator even know how to pronounce the names of cities and characters correctly? The narrator is absolutely horrible and spoils the entire story. Why in the WORLD is Mor’s voice always sultry and slow? Rhys and Cassian and Amren all sound wrong...this audiobook will be returned and I hope the publishers go back Jennifer Ikeda ASAP.

I just can't.

I am still in the beginning, but I just can't get into this book like I do the other. This is really disappointed. I feel like I waited a whole century for this book to finally come out and the narrator just ruined it. Half of the time I can't even tell who is talking. Plus the over acting!

No, because I hate these people.

Still in the beginning, but holy mother of God, are these characters insufferable. The only good character is Nesta. She had literally several story options and we choose the route of making her a prisoner because they don't like her lifestyle. Forced relinquishing of freedom never sits right with me and I would love a story where Nesta deals with trauma her own way discovering something on her own while battling back the Night Court and her sisters. Maybe Nesta could learn more about herself by being the independent woman she is and that she need helps. But I know where this story is heading and it's going down the road the other books went down. Feyre and Rhys are ones who call the shots completely. I get it, they rule the joint, but still. I just want someone who knock them down a peg. Please!!!
Another thing, she doesn't have to fall in love. seriously, she seems like the person to not fw with this characters to begin with so this forced relationship that is already building with Cassian is not doing for me. Nesta is literally the only character with actual character.
I just want someone to punch Rhys in the mouth. Just one time please.

Narrator

Really disappointed with the narration of this book after waiting so long for its release

Okay

Stina Nielson is a great narrator but not a great choice for the characters in this book, didn't reflect the steeliness of Nesta.
Bit disappointed with the ending, I wanted the drama between the characters after being faced with the challenges, but instead got about 30 mins of round up that was flowery and didn't match up to the intensity of what they had been through.
Also a bit disappointed that Nestas triumph got completely ingnored by her family for the sake of making it about Feyre (the stuff with Feyre could have just happened a week later).

Poor narration

Very disappointed with the narration, I've had to buy the book to read instead as the characters aren't at all in keeping with the narration for the previous books in the series. Gutted.

Should rename this book as 50 Shades of Faye

This book was ruined by excessive graphic porn scenes! Why oh why did SJM have to ruin a perfectly good series with trash!! The story is good enough without descriptions of what was dribbling down her leg! The graphic porn scenes added NOTHING to the storyline, and why the heck so many, I got fed up in the end. On this premise I'll return the book, and hope SJM goes back to good quality story telling. If I wanted 50 shades of... or Jackie Collins I would have bought that.

Did SJM really need to sink to this depth to sell books? Surely not...

I loved the series up to this point.

A ​Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Firstly, I went in thinking that it's hard enough writing a sequel for a great book, but this author has pressure with a capital P after the whole ACOTAR series because each book was phenomenal. So where would this land in the scheme of things?

'𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝑵𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒂. 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅—𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆. 𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆.”

Remember that? Well this book is that and more. So much more.

Before we get into it, let me just say that this is 100% defo not a YA read… like, at all….

This is where A Court of Silver Flames comes in and completely upturns my emotions. If you were contemplating whether to buy the book, let me tell you right now that you should. And if that still doesn't convince you, maybe the fact that I finished the entire book in just over 24hrs will. You heard it right, I read all 750 pages in under 2 days because I just couldn't bring myself to stop.

There has been so much hate for Nesta that many people seemed not to want to read her story. For me, she was awful to her family, but I knew that awful came from somewhere profound.

“𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒖𝒑 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆?” 𝒀𝒆𝒔. 𝑵𝒐. 𝒀𝒆𝒔. “𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒆.” 𝑨𝒛 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒂 𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆. “𝑰’𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑰’𝒎 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉.”

This book has kept me up through the nights, learning Nesta's past, long before Fayre went into the woods and killed the wolf. Her sullenness eventually turns. With her entire family around her, she realises that she can't talk to anyone, to explain why she is the way she is. Nesta needs to forge her own bonds, forged in blood and silver flame, she finds her family, and herself.

Sarah told us that this book was going to be about healing and self-discovery, and that's exactly what it did. We saw a different side to both Nesta and Cassian, a side that was never completely visible from Feyre's first person perspective.

"𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒚. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆."

I loved the character development and the whole process of Nesta's recovery (as much as one can recover from trauma/ptsd), as well as the relationship’s that we saw between Nesta and the other women who had been through terrible things. I think that this book was important and had to be written very carefully and with a lot of consideration. And I truly believe that Sarah delivered that.

I found the book to be highly amusing, often humorous, with the perfect mix of angst, anger, love, and consideration. Nothing really seems to be rushed, but it was amazing to see into both Nesta and Cassian’s minds and perspectives. It really gave a massive insight into those characters, their story, and their past. I loved the new characters that were introduced.

I just want to end my review with this final note: whilst this story is being sold as the love story of Cassian and Nesta, it's so much more than that. It's about the importance of friendship, family and ultimately, loving and forgiving yourself.

All in all, it was a fantastic book that I would definitely recommend (maybe not to younger viewers though due to some of the more explicit scenes).

A struggle to get though

So much snarling, growling toxic behaviour it was really a struggle to get through and I kept having to stop the book from pure cringe. I gave an extra star for the blood rite. That part was good.

meh

this did not need to be this long. I think the valkyrie storyline was well done and sweet. But holy moly all the sex scenes where so looooong and happen very often.
It was sad not to follow feyra anything at all in this book, or elaine for that matter. And mor was nowhere to be found?!
overall it had potential, but it fell kinda flat.

better than I expected

I liked it, so much better then the original books.
the characters were alot more interesting in this one.

Familiar and riveting.

I haven’t read one of this series for a while, but as soon as this book started I felt back with familiar friends. Love this series and this book.

A long time waiting

This book now officially has a deep rooted place in my heart. I love the whole series and all of SJMs books but the journey of healing from trauma it’s witty and funny as all of her books are but the female journey of recovery for so many and finding friends and love and loving yourself despite what you’ve been through has helped my heart heal even more than it already has in the past. Incredible as always.