A Court of Thorns and Roses Recap

Book facts

Feyre kills Andras and is taken across the Wall

Nineteen-year-old Feyre Archeron hunts to feed her father and her older sisters, Nesta and Elain. Her father lost the family's money and has an injured leg. Before their mother died, Feyre promised to keep the family together. She resents having to provide for everyone but continues doing it.

During a winter hunt, Feyre sees a large wolf approaching the deer she intends to kill. She suspects the wolf might be a faerie. She shoots it with an ash arrow, kills the deer, and sells the wolf's hide. The wolf was Andras, a member of the Spring Court who had taken animal form.

Tamlin arrives at the Archerons' cottage in a beast form and demands payment for Andras's death. He claims the treaty between humans and faeries requires Feyre to die or live in Prythian for the rest of her life. Feyre chooses to go with him. He brings her across the Wall to his estate in the Spring Court.

Life at Tamlin's estate

Tamlin gives Feyre a room, food, and freedom to move around much of the estate. Lucien, his emissary and friend, initially dislikes her because she killed Andras. Alis works in the household and helps Feyre settle in. Feyre begins looking for ways to escape because she believes her family will starve without her.

Everyone at the estate wears a mask that cannot be removed. Tamlin describes the problems affecting Prythian as a blight. He and Lucien cannot freely explain what has happened. Feyre also learns that the grounds and surrounding woods contain creatures capable of killing her.

Feyre catches a Suriel to ask how she can return home. It identifies Tamlin as the High Lord of the Spring Court and advises her to stay with him. Naga attack while she is questioning it. Feyre frees the Suriel rather than leaving it trapped, and Tamlin arrives to save her from the naga.

Feyre and Tamlin become close

Tamlin tells Feyre that her family has been provided for. With the immediate need to return removed, she spends more time with him. He gives her painting supplies and a room to use as a studio. She also sees his attempts to protect people from the violence spreading through the courts, including a faerie whose wings have been torn off. Feyre stays with that faerie while he dies.

At Calanmai, the Spring Court's fertility celebration, Feyre leaves the manor despite orders to stay inside. Three faerie males threaten her, and a stranger intervenes. He is Rhysand, although she does not yet understand his position. Tamlin takes part in the rite, and his attraction to Feyre becomes harder to conceal afterward.

Feyre's relationship with Tamlin becomes romantic. She is also gradually allowed to see more of the estate's inhabitants after Tamlin removes the glamour that had hidden them from her.

Rhysand visits, and Tamlin sends Feyre home

Rhysand comes to the manor as Amarantha's representative. He is the High Lord of the Night Court and can enter other people's minds. When he discovers Feyre, she gives him the name Clare Beddor instead of her own. Clare is a human woman from Feyre's village. The false name later has fatal consequences for Clare and her family.

Tamlin decides Feyre is no longer safe at the estate and sends her back to the human lands. Her father and sisters are now wealthy because of his intervention. A glamour has made them believe Feyre was visiting a wealthy aunt.

Nesta reveals that the glamour did not work on her. She knew Feyre had been taken by a faerie and tried to follow her, but could not cross the Wall. Feyre realizes she loves Tamlin and returns to Prythian. She finds the manor abandoned and damaged.

Alis explains Amarantha's curse

Alis tells Feyre that Amarantha seized control of Prythian after taking most of the High Lords' power. Tamlin had rejected Amarantha, who then gave him forty-nine years to break a curse. A human woman who hated faeries had to kill one of his men, be brought to his court, fall in love with him, and declare that love. The curse prevented his household from telling Feyre the truth.

Andras went into the human lands knowing he might be killed. Tamlin's treaty claim was a way to bring Feyre to the Spring Court; the treaty did not actually require her to live there. When Tamlin sent her home, she had not told him she loved him. The deadline passed, and Amarantha took him and his household Under the Mountain.

Feyre asks Alis to show her the entrance. She goes after Tamlin despite knowing that the time limit has expired and that she has little chance of defeating Amarantha physically.

Feyre agrees to three trials

Under the Mountain, Feyre finds Tamlin seated beside Amarantha and unable to help her. Amarantha has tortured and killed Clare Beddor after receiving the false name. Feyre admits that she killed Andras.

Amarantha offers Feyre a bargain: complete three tasks, one each month, and she will free Tamlin and his court. Alternatively, Feyre can solve a riddle at any time to secure immediate freedom. Feyre accepts. Amarantha has her beaten and imprisoned between the trials.

In the first trial, Feyre is sent into a pit with a giant Middengard Wyrm. She realizes it tracks by smell, covers herself in mud, and uses the bones in the pit to set a trap. The creature impales itself. Feyre survives, but her arm is badly injured and becomes infected.

The bargain with Rhysand and the second trial

Rhysand offers to heal Feyre's arm if she agrees to spend one week of every month with him in the Night Court. Feyre accepts because she is dying. A tattoo appears on her left arm as a mark of the bargain, with an eye on her palm.

Rhysand makes Feyre attend Amarantha's gatherings. Her body is painted so that anyone touching her would leave a visible mark, and he gives her wine that leaves her unable to remember much of the evenings. He publicly treats her as his possession while also helping her survive. Tamlin remains largely silent under Amarantha's watch.

For the second trial, Feyre must solve a written puzzle while she and Lucien face being crushed by descending spikes. Feyre cannot read the question. She uses pain sent through Rhysand's tattoo to judge which choice to make and selects the correct answer, saving both of them.

The third trial, the riddle, and Feyre's death

Before the last trial, Feyre and Tamlin briefly meet in private. They kiss, but he does not use the opportunity to get her out. Rhysand intervenes before Amarantha discovers them together.

Amarantha's final task requires Feyre to stab three bound and hooded faeries through the heart. Feyre kills the first two innocent victims. The third is Tamlin. Remembering clues about his heart being made of stone, she stabs him. He survives, and Feyre has completed the trials.

Amarantha refuses to free everyone immediately, exploiting the wording of their agreement. She tortures Feyre and demands that she deny her love for Tamlin. Rhysand tries to intervene. Feyre finally understands the answer to the riddle and says love. The curse breaks, but Amarantha snaps Feyre's neck.

With his power restored, Tamlin attacks and kills Amarantha. Feyre, dead but still able to perceive events through her connection to Rhysand, witnesses what happens next. All seven High Lords contribute power to bring her back. She returns to life as High Fae.

How the book ends

Amarantha is dead, the masks come off, and the courts are freed from her rule. Feyre leaves Under the Mountain with Tamlin. She has a stronger faerie body, but she remembers killing the two innocent people in the last trial and remains deeply affected by what happened.

Before they separate, Rhysand reacts with sudden shock while looking at Feyre and then leaves. This book does not explain what he has realized. Feyre's monthly bargain with him remains in place, even though she returns to the Spring Court with Tamlin.

Where the main characters end up

Continue the series

Next: A Court of Mist and Fury recap.

ACOTAR series guide · ACOTAR reading order · All book recaps

Plot references: chapters 1–11, 12–22, 23–31, 32–38, and 39–46; Recaptains recap. Revised October 26, 2026.