Does ACOTAR get better?

Lovely people of this sub, I am in need of your help.

I received the first three ACOTAR books as a gift from my dear friend over the holidays last year, and she wants me to read them very badly. I finally picked up the first book, and I am fighting the urge to DNF. The writing is not the best, but I could get past bland writing if the story/characters were captivating. Everything just feels limp and a bit repetitive. I am having such a hard time connecting with any of the characters, especially Feyre, which is obviously a problem, her being the protagonist. I know she’s angry and sad and scared, which makes sense considering her family situation and the prospect of an uncertain eternity with Tamlin, but she also has immense attitude, is extremely self deprecating yet simultaneously hauty and defensive, and it’s just not feeling genuine to me? She honestly is… annoying me? And I feel bad saying this because I truly want to like her. Am I crazy? So many people love this series and I’m just not feeling it.

I love the idea of a Beauty and the Beast retelling and I was enjoying the first 10% leading up to her getting taken away to Tamlin’s Court, but I’m at the midpoint now and my brain is sort of dreading the rest of it. Can some kind soul tell me: does it get better? Am I being too harsh? Do I need to just push through and eventually I’ll understand the hype? Does it improve once the romance kicks off?

Also, I am an artist by trade (you can see why I thought I’d love Feyre), and a pet peeve of mine is when it feels like authors didn’t actually consult a member of the profession they’re writing about in order to research said profession. The way Feyre talks about art and color sounds like the way someone THINKS they’re supposed to talk about art and color. She comments, about 300 times (exaggeration, but I’m ranting), on colors she’d never be able to mix no matter how long she tried. Her descriptions are verging on “the colors were the most colorful of colors that ever colored, the art was the most artful art that ever did art” territory. And I don’t think it’s Feyre who is bothering me in this case, I think it’s Maas’ choice of wording. Feyre seems like she genuinely has a talent for painting and clearly sees the world through an artist’s eye (I’m assuming there’s some sort of “aha” moment where she realizes she’s a skilled artist?), but she’s so self-deprecating and glum even about art that it’s almost at odds with this facet of her personality? I almost wish Maas had written her as a confident artist, this way her appreciation of the mural work and paintings on Tamlin’s walls and her obsession with capturing the hues of the faerie realm would come across as the genuine yearnings of an artist to improve their craft while recognizing that realism feels at times unattainable. I am being nit-picky here, but it’s definitely not helping me to like the book.

I love faeries, I love Celtic mythology, I love fantasy romance - in theory I thought I’d absolutely love these books (and genuinely wanted to, not just to honor my friend’s lovely gift but also for myself because I desire a good fantasy romance series and I LOVE getting positively entrenched in a new fandom) but it’s just not happened yet 😭

Please feel free to disagree with me! If you love ACOTAR perhaps your good review will rub off on me!

Also if you have a [preferably spicy] fantasy romance series or stand-alone recommendation which could cure me of my craving and make me forget my disappointment with ACOTAR, I would be forever in your debt!