The Mortal Queen of Faerie Smut

Sarah J. Maas writes massively popular books that mix fantasy lore with soft-core romance—and a whole lot of trauma.

- KATHRYN VANARENDONK

OVER 500 PAGES into A Court of Mist and Fury, the second book in Sarah J. Maas's wildly successful "A Court of Thorns and Roses" series, the protagonist, Feyre, finally hooks up with Rhysand, an ancient Fae lord with batlike wings and a deep well of emotional trauma. Rhysand ravages Feyre on a table covered in her art supplies-then scoops her up and carries her to a bathtub, where they wash off the paint they're now covered in. Maas narrates from Feyre's point of view: "Rhys picked up a bar of that pine-tar smelling soap and handed it to me, then passed a washrag. 'Someone, it seems, got my wings dirty.' My face heated, but my gut tightened. Illyrian males and their wings-so sensitive." As she starts washing Rhys, she glances over his shoulder into the bathtub. "At least the rumors about wingspan correlating with the size of other parts were right," she tells him.

This scene, like most sex scenes taken out of context, reads as baffling or laughable or both. The bathtub. The innuendo. The wings! Within the full arc of "ACOTAR," though, it represents the culmination of an epic fairy-tale transformation. Feyre begins the series absolutely in love with a different man, a golden faerie named Tamlin, and it's only after intense trauma and a grueling effort to rebuild herself that she realizes protective, possessive Tamlin's all wrong for her. It takes her nearly a full book to accept that she belongs with Rhysandthe kind of faerie who has tattoos on both knees to remind him he kneels to no one. Until, of course, he gets on his knees for Feyre.