A Court of Frost and Starlight repeatedly changes perspective, but mainly focuses on Feyre and Rhys. As this is meant to be a transitionary novella between the past and future books in the series, no character undergoes any development. The book simply ties up some lose ends and identifies the problems it will address in the future. Here are a few updates on the characters:
Feyre is happy as the High Lady of the Night Court. She has overcome many trials that tested her physical and emotional resolve, and now she quietly settles into life with her friends. Her only concerns turn to her sisters and the broken citizens of Velaris.
Rhysand is happy with his mate. As High Lord of the Night Court, he has numerous duties to repair fracturing political alliances, but like Feyre, his story is winding down.
Cassian is extremely concerned with growing dissent among the Illryian war camps and with Nesta. He doesn’t have the luxury a romantic companion to ease his mind.
Azriel quietly worries about Elain from a distance.
Amren is still getting used to the peculiarities of her new High Fae body.
Elain is quietly healing from her involvement in the war.
Morrigan fights her personal demons surrounding her father and Eris, and she still struggles with accepting herself and her sexuality.
Elain is quietly healing, but worried about Nesta.
Nesta is angrily avoiding all connections to Feyre.
A Court of Frost and Starlight is a short, sweet novella. As mentioned before, the main purpose of this novel is to transition between two differing parts of the series. It ties the loose ends in Feyre and Rhysand’s relationship, giving them a sweet send-off and satisfactory ending, but also reminds readers of the several loose ends yet to be tied up, mainly the continued emotional trauma of the series’ secondary female protagonists: Nesta, Elain, and Morrigan.
There is no huge monumental battle or world ending plot, in fact, there is little plot at all; just a sweet tale of a family putting away its personal demons to celebrate the holidays together. For some readers, the lack of plot is a huge deterrent. They’d prefer to read something of substance rather than a sweet, smut story. However, some readers enjoy seeing characters get together and calm down after an action-packed book like A Court of Wings and Ruin. Whether you like the story or not simply hinges on that one fact: can you enjoy light fluff or must everything be high stakes and life or death?
Either way, the book is not worth $18, and I strongly recommend checking out at a library instead of buying it.
As a result of the nonexistent plot, the pacing is slow too. The book ambles at a calm pace, never speeding up nor slowing down, just quietly moving through a winter holiday.
The romance between Feyre and Rhys is extremely sweet and sexual, however almost no other couple is touched upon.
I give this sweet 229 page book 4 stars.