ACOTAR stans, assemble.
Whoever has read ACOTAR is clearly in love with everything in the book. Even though The Crescent City still tops for me, most of you were introduced to Sarah J. Maas through A Court of Thorns and Roses. This series is her personal best.
If you are already past A Court of Wings and Ruin and ACOFAS book, you’re already past the series’ ruthless and most romantic part.
I’m a big fan of Sarah J. Maas’ convincing write-ups to keep us (at least me) committed to reading. So, whatever violence or self-proclaimed romance she wrote was okay until I reached the ultimate level – A Court of Silver and Flames.
This ACOSF book exceeded everyone’s expectations and is way better than most of her books in ACOTAR. Whatever complaints I had with the former books, this one solved them all. It proved that SJM has so much potential to write what she claims to write.
Until this one, I almost gave up reading because the last time I remember, I was promised fantastic fight scenes, not details about everyone’s bedroom.
It was getting annoying at one point because the romance wasn’t good either. I’m glad she kept up with the constructive criticism and finally gave us something away from the mainstream: the subtle love affair between Nesta and Cassian – but that’s not it. We have a lot to unravel.
Before diving in, I suggest you read the previous books in this series to grasp all the drama that’s been going on.
If that’s too much for you, I have published my heavily opinionated reviews on each of them in this article and on all of Sarah J Maas reading order.
A Court of Silver Flames Summary and Characters: Let Me Take You Through 800 Pages in a Jiffy!
I wrote A Court of Silver Flames summary version, but SJM made it nearly impossible. There’s no line in the book or plot in sight that I can tell you without barging my significant verdict.
I promise to make it enjoyable.
Let’s Start with Nesta
You remember Nesta, right? Yep, the sister who was transformed into a high fae against her wishes is now heavily depressed, and all she thinks about now is a liquor with an unhealthy amount of body count.
No one can stop her because she has detached herself from everybody except maybe Amren. She obviously doesn’t talk to the root of her problems, her sister, Feyre. And Cassian is somehow responsible for communicating as a messenger.
Except, Erm… Cassian is in Love with Nesta
Okay, when I was reading this part of A Court of Silver Flames book, Cassian made some interesting word choices, and SJM made some questionable word choices that made me miss the person I was before reading those lines.
It’s like she searches for top words that can get her canceled and uses them like there’s no tomorrow.
I was honestly surprised to figure out that so much of Nesta’s trauma came from her father’s death. As far as I remember, her father did nothing until the end, yet she is so guilty of everything.
It seems puzzling yet so realistic how even abusive/absent parents affect their child’s mental health and how the trauma responds months later. Also, the Cauldron. Now, that’s something the booze and the boys couldn’t even solve.
We already know the sister drama, but it was not an out-of-kind gesture when Cassian knocked on Nesta’s door.
He was there to take Nesta to Feyre and Rhysand and to deliver their words. I don’t know how, but Nesta agreed to visit that little family gathering and, oh my god, that house. That freaking house.
Something About the House
That house was a top-tier luxury if you were allowed to spend all your money on the ugliest products you could land your eyes on.
Nesta was NOT impressed when she saw all the overloaded, hand-drawn paintings by Feyre, yet there was no painting of Nesta or her mother in sight. If that’s not enough, we now get introduced to Rhysand – the person I didn’t hate this much.
Nesta hates that man abhors him, to say the least. Rhysand has been finding jobs for Nesta, but we all know that’s only because of Feyre – he shares mutual feelings with Nesta.
Amren somehow got everyone into a nasty argument, and that resulted in revealing the purpose of this meetup – a final response to Nesta’s imbalanced life. A decision by Rhysand.
And what’s that? Cassian enters the scene grinning – ‘You are coming with me to train.’
Nesta’s bound to do that – after much arguing, of course.
Cassian takes Nesta out of the apartment, and she finally reaches House of the Winds after some irrelevant dramas.
The Chemistry Between Nesta and Cassian
I loved how SJM threw banters in between the drama. Cassian told Nesta that if she needed him, he would be in the room directly above her room. Nesta threw a tantrum for apparently no reason.
Cassian just makes fun and hints at the obnoxious romance books in Rhysand’s collection to help her if she’s ever bored. This is definitely for those who love that roommate trope.
Now, one would question why Rhysand owns such books – we never got the answer.
Nesta has her own moments of self-centered behaviors, but we must thank Cassian for his patience. Nesta’s no longer allowed to drink – that should be the last straw.
I’m sorry for saying self-centeredness; the sole reason was Nesta didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of the Illyrians, which I think was a valid excuse.
As soon as Cassian cracks that code, he offers Nesta to train and makes a deal that if she exercises for one hour, he’ll owe her any favor. That was successful.
Nesta is now opening up a bit and enjoying her time at the library, where she encounters Gwyn and bonds a little. Meanwhile, she is now training with Cassian, and, um, do I already sense a flirtatious scene?
Nesta Meets Elain and Discovers Something!
Here’s an interesting encounter after the whole training and sign-up plan. Nesta meets Elain in the library and gets into a heated argument.
If I were Nesta, I would keep my mouth shut, considering I needed help in the first place, and I shouldn’t bully someone like this unless I want a piece of that, too – which Elain got.
Nesta accidentally summoned her Silver Flames powers and later blamed Elain for her father’s death. Elain, of course, cries and goes running back to the inner circle while Nesta refuses to talk about it.
Cassian comes to Nesta to make sure she is okay and to know what happened, but we’re dealing with Nesta, ugh. After 300 long pages and countless emotional punchlines, they finally kiss. Nesta again convinced herself that it was only to knock off that smirk on his face.
Back in the real world, the river house and mortal queens are hard to decode. But the bottom line is that the queen is trying to find the Cauldron again to revive her youth forever.
It is said that the death lord has been helping her all this time to get – The Mask, the Crown, and the Harp – the unstoppable trio. Nesta is responsible for finding it before them because Feyre cannot do it … she’s pregnant.
Oh, they finally have a sign-up – GWYN. And after much persuasion – Emerie.
I think at this point, more priestesses are joining the training because of the bravery that Gwyn showed during Nesta and Merill’s face-off.
Nesta is having terrible nightmares surrounded by silver flames later on, and Rhysand identifies it something as pure death. Cassian is the only one that calms her down. Nesta again tries scrying with Rhysand, Azriel, Feyre, and Amren.
She has the exact same reaction as before. She points at the Bog of Oorid, and everyone assumes it as the home to the Mask, one of the Three Troves.
Whenever a scene like this arrives, I always look out for Cassion and his instinct reaction to it – he just knows how to make her feel better without even trying.
I think only Cassian thinks profoundly and lovingly about Nesta, even though she can be such a brat sometimes. That’s a relief.
But not everything is happy now. Rhysand and Feyre are dead worried, knowing that their unborn child has wings, which means it can die in the womb. It was supposed to be a secret, but – oh well.
Relating The Mask, The Harp, and the Crown
For now, Nesta, Cassian, and Azriel are assigned to find and get the Mask from the Bog of Oorid. It’s a creepy place, and we lost Azriel just two seconds into the adventure.
Now, that’s another side quest to find out where Azriel went. That’s a whole episode of fighting and winning over Kelpies and sorting out mysteries together. Still, thankfully, all of them were fine and returned to their homes safely.
I feel like Nesta has some weird and new magic like the Blacksmith said.
When Nesta and Cassian went to the Blacksmith to get Nesta introduced to that, Nesta created something never seen before. The Blacksmith apparently dumped it because it resembled similar energy to the Mask, the Harp, and the Crown.
Everyone decided not to tell her that, but it was a tie. Feyre had the last call and decided that Nesta should know about her creations.
Cassian is the one who hints and later proceeds to tell her about the weapons and Nesta…
The Emotional Turmoil
Ugh, Nesta again gets fired up because of the people who voted against her and NOT worrying about why her weapons are the way they are.
She bursts into Amren’s room and does the usual shit-talking. One thing led to another, and Rhysand was sick of it – He orders Nesta to leave Velaris until she wants to be killed.
I’m not even gonna side with Nesta on this one. Rhysand had every right to say so – The Dude was sick and worried about the child Feyre was carrying and his chances of becoming the High King when this girl was busy triggering dramas out of thin air.
The girl needed to be humbled.
The next target was the Harp, which Nesta predicted was beneath the prison. But that didn’t come easy. Nesta has a feeling that she was brought into this as a trick.
As soon as she picked up the Harp, she saw a creepy vision involving the creepy Queen Briallyn. I tell you, this Harp is a shady-ass thing, and one of the sisters is behind this. The Harp mysteriously calls, ‘Okay, sister.’ Rings the first bell.
Phew, that part was intense. Nesta now finally feels comfortable enough with Cassian to call him her buddy. They are having a little cuddly moment while still running for their life, and there goes a SLAM – Lanthys’ door is open.
Remember how the Harp talked in riddles and said, ‘Do you want me to open the door for you?’
Yeah, that thing was talking about Lanthys’s prison door. Once again, it proved that these sisters don’t do riddles well. Now die, Cassian.
The Harp is not a typical instrument – but a goddamn teleportation device. And Nesta has it in her hand right now. So don’t really die, Cassian. But those enemies are coming at her because Briallyn knows where she is.
Hmm, Lanthys is actually a pretty attractive death God. Before Nesta could slaughter him, he made her see a vision of what would happen if Nesta married him and became the Queen. They would have the most powerful child.
That child would rule the universe. Nesta, obviously, snaps out of it.
Insane Plan Rhysand Came Up With
We now have the Harp, a beheaded ugly naked man called Lanthys and Cassian, in Nesta’s hand. Nesta tells the Harp to take her and Cassian to the river house, and boom, there they are.
And there, they have a plan of assassination and discussion on what to do after what – the bottom line is Nesta will seduce Eris over Cassian’s dead body. Yep, Nesta agreed to Rhysand’s insane plan.
After all those knives and punches, Nesta and Cassian visit the old house, which is where Nesta is trying to heal herself fully.
A Period of Calm
Fast forward to one month, Nesta is now delighted, and you can tell that by how her under-eye looks lately. She is eating well, drinking enough, and having her 8-hour sleep with an amazing training schedule – life is good.
I’m gonna say this: I really enjoyed watching Nesta seduce Eris and their cryptic talking in the middle. Eris is undoubtedly getting his own book. He’s an interesting young man.
Okay, I found my favorite interaction in this whole A Court of Silver Flames book. While Mor was giving Fae dancing lessons to Nesta, she secretly gave dancing lessons to Cassian so that he could later ask her to dance at the party.
Our guy clearly didn’t know how to dance before, but he tried so hard– it was sweet to watch. Or maybe I can’t choose, for heaven’s sake, when he gifted her the Symphonia.
The girl’s night was a much-needed scene in the whole this book.
I’m tired of seeing romance plots and not platonic love between friends in this book, so it was nice to see Nesta throwing a girl’s night and doing all the cute stuff together.
Gwyn cuts the ribbon after that and finally becomes a Valkyrie. But it doesn’t end there. Cassian has made a whole plan about it.
They all fight for the warrior plan that Cassian and Azriel made, and they finally qualify by passing the Blood Rite Qualifier. Things with Amren get better, too.
The story gets boring until the priestesses see a weird red star passing through the sky. But the good news is – we now know that Cassian is Nesta’s mate.
The bad news is that they argued, and Nesta again held a girls’ night to fix her mood. She finally decided to tell Cassian her feelings and sort them out. Until something terrible happened.
A Court of Silver and Flames Plot Takes a Twist
Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie have been snatched out of their beds to participate in the Blood Rite.
Our three bad boys can’t join either because that goes against the rules. Either way, the girls have a plan for the Blood Rite and struggle their way out through the journey.
Yes, the action writing was excellent and all, but do you know what really caught my heart? The sisterhood and the friendship of the girls. Three of them pictured everything so perfectly yet full of banter that I cried and laughed in almost every scene.
She effortlessly held herself back and helped Gwyn and Emerie escape and win the battle to fight that beastly cousin of Emerie.
She put on a good fight, but it just wasn’t enough to beat him. She was on her last throw when the beast was about to slit her throat – ‘I think I’d rather slit your throat”. Man, this is gonna die just like that.
Until she saw a pair of wings.
‘No, I’m gonna slit your pretty little throat.’
Cassian, everyone. Plot twist of the century.
The Climax of it All
Briallyn has been mind-controlling Cassian this whole time and used Eris as a distraction.
Briallyn orders and says, ‘Kill,’ but doesn’t specify who. So Cassian tries to take his own life, and Nesta growls with power, dissolving Briallyn and the Crown.
Until, yeah, Cassian didn’t actually stab himself. It was shown to bring Nesta into her full powers. Finally, someone good with words and riddles.
Finally, it’s Feyre’s time. It looks like she is apparently dying in A Court of Silver Flames book. But not on Nesta’s watch. She put on the Mask and the Crown and rang the 26th string of the Harp – Time control.
Nesta begs the Harp to help Feyre, and she will give back all her powers instead. The Cauldron agrees, and we now have a happy family of three, including baby NYX.
Oh, and Nesta changed herself, too. She can have babies, and Cassian and Nesta talked about this. All is well, and they now are keeping the House of Wind, too.
Phew. I did say a LOT.
A Court of Silver Flames Characters Analyzed!
Do you know whom I Liked the Most? Nesta, of course. She was a bad bitch the whole time. If you told me to write about her just a few pages ago, I would’ve told you that she’s just a brat who lives off other people’s money.
But it’s been quite the journey.
I was still unsure if I was okay with how she treated Cassian, but the end changed it for me. I think she had to deal with a lot of trauma from the beginning because she didn’t care what anyone thought of her.
When she was brought under love’s wings (literally), she finally healed and found herself.
I hated how A Court of Silver Flames book portrayed Rhysand. Because… c’mon, he was everyone’s Man Crush Monday, and this girl just shatters that image of him. Nesta went from a messed-up brat to a family trophy and thanked Cassian for putting up with the tantrums throughout the journey.
So, yes, Cassian. I definitely don’t think of him as a side character now. He’s on my top list.
I don’t know if it is the man in love or if he is genuinely like this, but I like him a lot in this book. He surprises Nesta with heartwarming confessions through words and actions, which warmed my heart.
Also, it’s funny to see a rock-hard personality getting nervous in front of the love of his life, Nesta, because girl, I ain’t seeing like this ever. You better put a ring on it.
I think she heard me; I hear wedding bells at the end of A Court of Silver Flames book spicy chapters.
My boy, Eris. I swear he’s been the most misunderstood, so he deserves his own book. There are so many things that are unresolved and interestingly weird about him.
By the end of this book, we get to know that he was tortured by his father. By torture, I don’t mean abuse. It’s real punishment. This guy has an interesting lore and is getting his well-serving book. I’m just counting the days.
Rhysand has been so wronged in ACOSF book, and it almost makes me laugh. Listen, I still stand on business; Rhysand isn’t even that bad.
Okay, yes, he just pulled a freshly traumatized girl out of her den, threw her into hardcore training, and triggered her traumas in the most heinous ways, but so what? She had to go through that to get where she is now. It’s a win-win situation.
Also, I almost teared up at the scene where Rhysand cries and kneels, thanking Nesta for saving Feyre and her baby’s lives. These are genuinely heartwarming moments.
Do I Recommend ACOSF Book to People?
One hundred percent. I loved how warm and cozy it was, minus the spicy write-ups.
You should not even think of missing it if you are already a fan of the former books. This might be centering only one character (two, actually), but this adds so much depth to other characters, and you can see them from another person’s POV. But that did feel like fan fiction because the characters from Nesta’s POV were way too foreign. I mean, look at Rhysand.
My only complaint is that the synopsis of A Court of Silver Flames book might be too much for a decent read. SJM throws people’s bedroom facts and even takes us there occasionally. The actions should be the core focus, not the 24/7 recurring habits. I guess SJM was in a phase. We get it.