Skip to main content
FaeShelf

A Court of Wings and Ruin Spice Level and Content Notes

By Sarah J. Maas. Last checked .

Spice level

Not rated: no public source describes the sex content clearly enough.

Common Sense Media's note says only "More violence than sex in this one, but a few sexy scenes." That does not say whether the scenes are on the page or how explicit they are, so we give no number. How we rate: the FaeShelf spice scale.

Book facts

Author
Sarah J. Maas
Series
Book 3 of A Court of Thorns and Roses
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
First published
May 2, 2017 (Goodreads)
US edition on sale
Jun 2, 2020, Bloomsbury paperback, ISBN 9781635575606 (publisher)
Pages
736, Paperback, ISBN 9781635575606 (publisher)
Age rating
16+ (Common Sense Media)
Goodreads
4.46 from 2.98M ratings on Goodreads as of Oct 12, 2026

Content notes

  • Violence: Mass killing, mutilation and hand-to-hand combat. Common Sense Media rates Violence & Scariness “a lot”. “Ever-growing piles of corpses, body parts. Hand-to-hand combat, mass annihilation, mutilation, slaughter-happy heroes and villains.” (Common Sense Media)

A book missing from this list is not guaranteed to be free of that content.

Tropes and creatures

Only tags the publisher’s own description names, with its wording.

  • Fae“Feyre endeavors to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land” (source)
  • Court intrigue“Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords” (source)

Read it or skip it

Read it if

  • You want fae and court intrigue, as the publisher's description puts it.
  • You have read A Court of Thorns and Roses up to book 2.

Skip it if

  • You want to avoid violence on the page (listed by Common Sense Media, which rates Violence & Scariness: "a lot").
  • You have not read A Court of Thorns and Roses yet: start there.

A Court of Wings and Ruin FAQ

Is A Court of Wings and Ruin spicy?

We have not rated it: no public source describes the sex content clearly enough. Common Sense Media's note says only "More violence than sex in this one, but a few sexy scenes." That does not say whether the scenes are on the page or how explicit they are, so we give no number.

Is A Court of Wings and Ruin YA or adult?

Common Sense Media rates it 16+ (checked Oct 12, 2026).

Is A Court of Wings and Ruin part of a series?

Yes. It is book 3 of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Read A Court of Mist and Fury first. The next book is A Court of Frost and Starlight.

When did A Court of Wings and Ruin come out?

Goodreads lists it as first published May 2, 2017. Bloomsbury Publishing lists this edition on sale Jun 2, 2020: Bloomsbury paperback, ISBN 9781635575606.

What content notes does A Court of Wings and Ruin have?

Common Sense Media lists mass killing, mutilation and hand-to-hand combat (Violence & Scariness: "a lot"). A book missing a note is not guaranteed to be free of that content.

Same series: A Court of Thorns and Roses

In our guides

How we checked this

This page draws on 3 source pages, each linked next to the fact it supports, last checked on Oct 12, 2026. Spice comes only from a named review or the author’s or publisher’s own content notes, quoted as published and placed on our 0 to 5 scale; reader shelves and fan sites are not used. Ratings change daily, so the Goodreads figure is a dated snapshot. Read more about our sources, or browse all books.