A Court of Frost and Starlight is the bridge between Feyre’s story and Nesta’s story. It is much shorter than the rest of the series. To be honest, I think it was meant to be a holiday special. The entire plot surrounds the characters preparing for and celebrating the Winter Solstice. They are also all healing from the recent war against Hybern and the human queens. But each character doesn’t heal at the same pace, or even finish healing by the end of this 4th book. 

Rhysand literally died at the end of the war. The only reason he is back is because Feyre convinced the remaining six High Lords to help her bring him back by donating a piece of their own magic and life force. Whatever happened to Rhys’ spirit while he was dead greatly affected him, and he is struggling to differentiate between reality and his fears. Rhysand jumps back into being High Lord, rebuilding Velaris and other cities, and investigating contentions in the Illyrian army. But where he finds his true healing is in his relationship with Feyre. This is Feyre’s first Winter Solstice in the Night Court and it’s also her 21st birthday. Rhysand is determined to give her a celebration she will never forget. I do not believe Rhysand is fully healed by the end of the Winter Solstice – events of the fifth book show otherwise – but he is doing a lot better than some of the other characters.  

Feyre has a lot of pre-war and post-war trauma to sift through. Now that Nesta is living in the Night Court, Feyre has to find a way to overcome the emotional and verbal abuse she suffered from her older sister both during her human years and recently as a Made High Fae. She has to deal with Rhysand frequently visiting Tamlin. She witnessed her father die, her mate die, and countless others. And as the High Lady, she is helping the Night Court heal by getting involved in charity groups. But as the city heals on the outside, Feyre fails to heal on the inside. She feels tremendously guilty that so many people lost loved ones or lost their livelihood. Back in the very first book, the reader learned that Feyre likes to paint. She stopped painting after Hybern forced her to return to the Spring Court with Tamlin. Feyre cannot seem to bring herself to pick up a paintbrush, and she is invited to by some of the artists in the art section of Velaris. She finally does, and paints her true self – what she saw in the special mirror in the third book. She gives it to Rhysand as a Solstice gift; and they decide they are ready to begin their family. In trying to get pregnant, Feyre and Rhysand are moving forward from the war.   

Morrigan is like Feyre in that many of her traumas are from before the war. Around five hundred years ago, Mor was betrothed to the heir of the Autumn Court, Eris. She did not want to go through with the marriage because the males of the Autumn Court had terrible reputations, and Mor “prefers females” – that’s the terminology used in the series, “gay”, “lesbian”, etc. don’t seem to exist in High Fae language. Mor’s family is too traditional for her to confess her sexuality, so she ends her virginity by seducing Cassian. Her father beats her, and nails a letter to Eris on Mor’s stomach, abandoning her bruised and naked body on the border of the Autumn Court. Eris refuses to take on the responsibility of a soiled wife and leaves her there (though Eris has his own secrets that I may cover in a later post). Mor would have died if Azriel wouldn’t have found her. Understandably, More holds deep seeded hatred for her father and Eris. She is forced to see and work with both of them in preparations for the war. In order to keep her father’s loyalty, Rhysand promises him that he can visit Velaris when he wishes. Mor feels betrayed because Velaris is her sanctuary away from her sadistic family. To avoid her father, Mor spends a lot of time after the war in her estate away from Velaris. By the end of the fourth book, Mor is still in the stage of avoidance.    

Azriel’s scars go back centuries as well. His mother was a maid who was coerced into a relationship with the patriarch of the family she worked for. Azriel is the result of that union. His bastard status led to abuse from his half brothers and the Illyrian warriors he trained with when he joined the army. He hates the Illyrian race for what their traditional views on women and status did to him and his mom. Since he couldn’t save his mom, Azriel projects his mother’s damsel status on Elain. Elain is the meekest of Feyre’s and Rhysand’s family, and Azriel makes sure that Elain is not taken advantage of – both consciously and subconsciously – by the other members of the family. In doing so, Azriel seems to be the only one that Elain is comfortable around. Azriel is also deeply in love with Mor. He has no idea about her sexuality, and moons after her for centuries. While taking care of Elain seems to help heal him from his childhood, it remains to be seen if his heartache over Mor will be healed.   

Elain is also suffering from a broken heart. When she was human, she got engaged to the son of a wealthy human lord. Her fiancée’s family hates faeries and has an extensive collection of warriors and weapons to fight and kill faeries. When Elain was kidnapped and forced into the cauldron, she could not return to her human home and her human fiancée. Her wedding date comes and goes, and Elain is distraught. Her body becoming High Fae revealed that Lucien is her mate, but she wants nothing to do with him. She is still in love with her fiancée. When Rhysand seeks human allies in preparing for the war, Elain goes to her fiancée’s family. Her fiancée rejects her now that she is High Fae. Elain’s heart breaks even more, and she retreats further into herself. Lucien’s (to be honest pitiful) attempts to get her to accept the mate bond go ignored. By the end of Solstice, Azriel’s kindness seems to be warming Elain’s heart, which will continue into the fifth book. (To be honest, I’m rooting for an Azriel-Elain union, but Sarah J. Maas already surprised me by making Mor lesbian, so she’ll probably surprise me by putting Elain with someone else or with no one.)

Lucien has several levels of hurt. Some he has been holding onto for years: his father ordering the death of his lover because she was beneath him, the general hatred from his older brothers, and the loss of one of his eyes, resulting in a metal eye. His most recent struggles are the loss of his friendship with Tamlin, and Elain refusing to accept him as her mate. As a way to numb the pain Lucien creates an unlikely alliance with Jurian and Queen Vassa. The three of them live in the human lands in an abandoned mansion. He is nowhere close to being healed. He is using this new “friendship” to hide from his problems. Very few characters care to help him heal because they put some of the responsibility of Feyre’s abuse on him. He is Tamlin’s best friend and did nothing to stop the mistreatment of Feyre. And even when she saved him from being raped by Ianthe, he still was moody and ungrateful. 

Tamlin is probably one of the few characters who brought on his own pain. In the first book, Tamlin tells Feyre that Rhysand and his father killed Tamlin’s entire family, making Tamlin the unwilling High Lord of the Spring Court. In the second book, Rhysand tells Feyre it was an act of vengeance. Tamlin’s father desired to kill Rhysand. Rhysand had been friendly with Tamlin at previous High-Lord-and-family get-togethers, and he continued to correspond with Tamlin. So Tamlin told his father how he could get Rhysand alone: when Rhysand picked up his mother and sister on their way to visit him in the Illyrian war camp. On that particular trip, Rhysand was late to the meeting spot, and Tamlin, his brothers, and father killed Rhysand’s mother and sister. Rhysand and his father sneak into the Spring Court to exact revenge. Rhysand makes his father promise not to kill Tamlin or his mother. Rhysand’s father doesn’t listen and kills Tamlin’s mother along with his father while Rhysand kills Tamlin’s brothers. Tamlin then kills Rhysand’s father. The two spend the next several centuries hating each other. Tamlin blames Feyre for the destruction of his court and once again accepts no responsibility for his part in her pain that led to the vengeance. 

After the war, Rhysand visits Tamlin every once in a while to check in on him and make sure they have a strong enough alliance so that if the human queens move against Prythian, Rhysand can count on Tamlin for help. Tamlin lives in an empty and ruined castle, finally succumbing to the beast that Feyre thought him to be in the beginning of the first book. During an attempt at a heart-to-heart, Tamlin asks Rhysand if he has forgiven him for the deaths of Rhysand’s mother and sister. Rhysand says, “I haven’t received an apology yet.” Tamlin still in that moment refuses to apologize. Tamlin isn’t even trying to heal, and no one is willing to help him,   

Cassian is struggling with the fact that he survived when so many of his warriors didn’t; and as the top general, he has to answer to their families. During the war, The Cauldron shot an instant death huff of magic into a crowd of flying Illyrians. Nesta could feel it coming before it happened and called Cassian back, saving only him. Cassian has always struggled to convince the Illyrian warriors to respect him as their general because he is literally a bastard. The Illyrians are patriarchal and traditional to a fault. Cassian’s mother was unmarried when she became pregnant with him, placing the two of them at the bottom of the social ladder in their village. It didn’t matter that her pregnancy was a result of rape. It didn’t matter that everyone knew who her rapist was and that he was a married male with a family. Because males rule in this society, they can do whatever they want. So Cassian’s bastard status makes “legitimate” Illyrian warriors despise him. Things are worse after the war, and Cassian has to squash an attempt at rebellion among the warriors. All of this could be easier to handle if Cassian had Nesta at his side. But despite her actions in the war to save Cassian, and her willingness to die with him when all seemed lost; Nesta has returned to being the cold-hearted you-know-what she has been the entire series. On Winter Solstice she hurts him one too many times, and Cassian throws the gift he bought her in the river.  

Nesta is drowning in grief, but we won’t know the full extent until we get to the fifth book. At this point we know she is devastated over her father’s death and is still furious that she is no longer human. She chose to move out of Rhysand’s townhouse and now lives in a rundown apartment. Feyre and Rhysand pay for her rent and fund her lifestyle: spending each night in the pub. Feyre threatens to cut her off financially if she doesn’t come to Solstice. Nesta gives Elain a gift, and Elain gives Nesta a gift. Neither Feyre nor Nesta give each other gifts, showing that the hurt from their human lives is still strong. Nesta has a very long journey to healing that will be covered in the fifth book.

When I read through the book, I didn’t know it was a side story, and understandably felt the plot was weak and rushed compared to the previous three books, and my original rating was 3 stars. Then I jumped onto Goodreads to write my review and saw that it is considered book 3.1. So, now knowing that it is a side story meant to prepare the reader for the next book, I raise my rating to 4 stars. 

I’m about halfway through the fifth book and I have already been tempted to throw my Kindle across the room several times. My heart is slowly warming toward Nesta. I still think many of her past sins aren’t justified, but Sarah J. Maas seems to be good at redemption arcs, so I have an open mind.