The book series A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas, has had BookTok in a chokehold for quite some time now. The fantasy series, which started as a take on the classic Beauty and the Beast story, evolved into something much more—and much spicier.
The first book of the series, ACOTAR, was released in 2015, and after no small success, a second novel followed the next year, titled A Court of Mist and Fury. In the first book, Rhysand fits the archetypal charming bad boy; he is mischievous, a touch malevolent, cold, and dangerously seductive. In the second book, we discover the layers of complexity that come with the character, and how much of what we read in the first book was a deception. Maas transforms the character into the main love interest, as he gradually charms and wins over Feyre, with a heavy amount of flirting and sexual tension to be had.
Yes, A Court of Mist and Fury is spicy, much more so than the first one. The first half of the book focuses on Feyre’s mental health and her PTSD from what she went through in the first book, but towards the second half of the book, as Feyre and Rhysand spend more time together, it gets much more intense. The novel has 69 chapters (yes, I too wonder if this is a coincidence …) in total and three of them are hella spicy.
Chapter 42 is the first chapter that offers us a little sexual tantalization. In this chapter, Rhysand reluctantly takes Feyre to the Night Court, a place where he must don a mask of power and cruelty to keep the lords in check. Here, he parades Feyre as a pet, having her sit on his lap while he addresses his subjects. He caresses Feyre, who finds her body reacting to his touch, and his brutality and power also excite her, making her realize that her body is no longer shut down as it was at the beginning of the book.
Chapter 48 then takes this sexual tension and pushes it further with an age-old, and effective, trope: a room at an inn with only one bed. Whatever is the solution? Feyre wants to be distracted from the evetns of the last chapter, and Rhysand willingly obliges, touching her intimately. They do not have sex, but we all know that the two of them are holding on by a thread at this point.
Chapter 55 is when things really kick off, with the two of them confessing their love to one another. They quickly move on to showing each other just how much they love one another on the table, in the bathtub, and in the bed, making a mess of one another as they also get covered in paint. This is by far the steamiest moment in the book, and one of the best spicy scenes in the whole series, given how desperate fans were to get to this point.
ACOTAR is a series famous for its spicy scenes that have left (predominantly female) fans in a state. The scenes have sparked multiple trends on BookTok where people either read them out loud, add funny voices, or have boyfriends read them out loud in shock and horror (always hilarious). There have been a fair few books added to the series since, with plenty more sultry scenes, so smut-lovers, you know where to go.
(featured image: Bloomsbury Publishing/Edited by El Kuiper)
