A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Maas's 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.

CW: See this book’s trigger warnings on Book Trigger Warnings.

All I have to say is WOW. If you’ve read A Court of Thorns and Roses and thought Chapter 55 was steamy… wait until you see pretty much this entire book. For steam/spice, A Court of Silver Flames has nothing on Chapter 55! If you’re not a big fan of steam/spice, I’d avoid this book.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m going to fully admit that I listened to A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) and A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOMAF) on audiobook, but never read/listened to A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOWAR) or A Court of Frost and Starlight (ACOFAS). I do plan to go back and read them, but I actually went ahead and read A Court of Silver Flames (ACOSF) first.

If you’ve read ACOTAR and ACOMAF, you really won’t be too lost if you read ACOSF without reading ACOWAR or ACOFAS first. I found that I didn’t really need to read those two books to understand what was going on in ACOSF at all. I know I missed some things, but it seemed to me that for the most part, books 3 and 3.5 really weren’t necessary for complete understanding of ACOSF.

My favorite parts were some of the zingers that the characters tossed around. I found myself laughing out loud enough times that my roommates would give me weird looks. I also enjoyed the banter between Cassian and Nesta – the double entendres that flowed like water between them, which the other characters didn’t miss at all.

Even though Cassian and Nesta were the main focus of this installment of the series, I have to say one of my favorite characters is Gwyn. I loved her character so much. How brave she truly is even if she doesn’t think so. I also loved Emerie.

Of course, there were also the characters I hated – Eris… Bellius… and a few others I could cheerfully reach through the pages and just slap the crap out of.

It’s hard to review this book without spoiling it, so I’ll just leave it at that. It was a definite five star read for me – I didn’t want to put it down and managed to read the entire book in 4 days.