A Court of Thorns and Roses recap

Nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the winter woods that turns out to be a faerie, and a great beast comes to claim a life in return, taking her across the wall into Prythian. The beast is Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court, cursed to wear a mask while a blight ravages the faerie lands. Living on his estate, Feyre falls in love with him, but he sends her home to keep her safe from a growing danger. Learning that Tamlin has been dragged Under the Mountain by the tyrant queen Amarantha, Feyre returns to save him. Amarantha forces her through three deadly trials or a riddle to win his freedom; the mysterious Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court, aids her at a price, binding her to spend part of each month in his court. Feyre survives the trials but is killed by Amarantha, only to be resurrected as an immortal High Fae by the seven High Lords. Amarantha is destroyed, the courts are freed, and Feyre returns to the Spring Court remade, carrying deep trauma and her bargain with Rhysand.

Feyre Archeron supports her impoverished family by hunting in the woods near a mortal village. When she kills a large wolf that proves to be a disguised faerie, a monstrous beast comes to her family's cottage and demands a life in payment under an ancient treaty. Rather than kill her, the beast takes Feyre across the wall into Prythian, the faerie realm her people fear. There the beast reveals himself as Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court, who can shift between man and monster and wears a jeweled mask he cannot remove. His friend and emissary Lucien treats Feyre coldly at first. Given the run of a beautiful estate rather than imprisoned, Feyre slowly realizes that something is deeply wrong in these lands - a blight is spreading, faeries are disappearing, and her hosts speak of a threat they will not name.

Living among the faeries, Feyre begins to lower her guard. She learns fragments of the court's troubles from the servant Alis and grows closer to Tamlin, who is gentler and more burdened than she expected. She witnesses the danger of the faerie world firsthand and comes to understand that the blight afflicting Prythian is tied to some larger menace pressing on the Spring Court. At a wild festival tied to the land's magic, the cruel and beautiful Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court, discovers Feyre where she should not be. He unnerves her with his menace even as he spares her, hinting that powerful forces beyond Tamlin's control are closing in on them all.

Feyre and Tamlin fall in love, and for a while the estate becomes a refuge of painting, quiet, and stolen happiness. But Tamlin grows increasingly troubled, and the pressure on the Spring Court mounts. Feyre pieces together hints of a curse and a looming reckoning, sensing that the danger is far worse than anyone will tell her. Tamlin, desperate to protect her from what is coming, makes the wrenching decision to send Feyre back across the wall to her human family, ending their idyll to keep her out of the enemy's reach.

Back among her family, who have risen in fortune, Feyre cannot forget Tamlin and cannot ignore that something terrible is unfolding in Prythian. Learning the truth of the curse - that a cruel queen named Amarantha rules Under the Mountain, holds the High Lords in thrall, and has now taken Tamlin - Feyre resolves to return and save him, even knowing it may cost her life. She crosses back into the faerie lands and makes her way Under the Mountain, into Amarantha's court, offering herself in exchange for a chance to free Tamlin and his people.

Under the Mountain, Amarantha sets Feyre a bargain: complete three deadly trials, or solve a riddle, to win Tamlin's freedom and break her hold on the courts. Feyre survives the first trial, a fight against an enormous burrowing monster, with hidden help. Rhysand offers his aid in her worst moments, but at a price - a magical bargain that binds Feyre to spend one week of every month in his Night Court thereafter, and forces her to play a humiliating public role at his side. Battered, drugged, and displayed for Amarantha's cruel amusement, Feyre endures the second trial and clings to her resolve as the final test approaches.

In the last trial Feyre must stab three hooded faeries through the heart. Two are innocents she is forced to kill; the third is Tamlin, whose heart Amarantha has secretly turned to stone so the blade cannot harm him. Even after Feyre passes, Amarantha refuses to free the courts because the riddle was never solved. Feyre speaks the answer aloud - love - and Amarantha, in a fury, kills her. The seven High Lords each give a portion of their power to resurrect Feyre as an immortal High Fae. Freed at last, Tamlin destroys Amarantha, lifting the curse and the blight from Prythian. Feyre returns to the Spring Court remade and reunited with Tamlin, but scarred by the deaths she caused and bound by the bargain that still ties her to Rhysand and the Night Court.

Feyre completes Amarantha's final trial only by stabbing three faeries through the heart; the first two are innocents, and the third is Tamlin himself, whose heart Amarantha has turned to stone so the blade cannot kill him. Even so, Amarantha refuses to free the courts because Feyre never solved her riddle. Feyre says the answer aloud - love - and Amarantha, enraged, breaks her neck and kills her. The seven High Lords, including Rhysand, each pour a shard of their own power into her, resurrecting her as an immortal High Fae. Freed, Tamlin kills Amarantha, and the courts are released from her rule and the blight. Feyre returns to the Spring Court reborn and reunited with Tamlin, but haunted by the innocents she killed and changed forever by her new nature. She also carries the bargain Rhysand struck with her Under the Mountain: one week of every month is now owed to the Night Court, a debt that will shape what comes next.