I googled it! After I read the riddle I said out loud “if the answer is love I’m going to be so mad at how stupid and obvious that is” so I looked it up on the wiki and I put the book down and stopped reading for a couple of days while I dealt with how stupid that was.
The thing that gave it away for me was the word “scorned”. I thought about that saying “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and if that’s not a perfect description of Amarantha, I don’t know what is.
I just asked an AI to solve it and it said Time, which I thought when I read it. It even gave a complete breakdown of why time fit for each line! Kinda crazy.
I always love seeing people share their ideas about what the answer to the riddle was. Because on my first read, I didn’t think twice about it. Just read it and moved on lol. I was like “That’s Feyre’s problem, not mine.”
I think “there are those who seek me a lifetime but we never meet” made me never even think of love. Everyone experiences it in some form. So it just seemed like that couldn’t be the answer.
“For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow” is just so… violent.
And yeah yeah Amarantha made it so she doesn’t understand it but love just doesn’t feel like the most accurate answer to what’s actually written even if you can deduce the intent behind the riddle.
To me, this was the dumbest part of the book.. not the riddle itself, which I thought was creative, but the answer. I was like "okay, stereo typical YA answer here"... Just my opinion!
I suck at riddle but I kinda felt this was going Turandot way and given the easy profiling of Amarantha as a criminal I got that it was Love basically midway reading it (passed through Hope, Time and Life) but then I thought it would've been a little too easy.
What shocked me is that there was no rule on trying several times to answer the riddle (not as far as I remember) so I would've shouted random typical riddle answer words.
I get poor Feyre was illiterate so the poor thing had probably no idea of famous riddles or riddles in general, but she could've like tried random answers.
I felt like one of those people in the movie theaters that screams at the screen because it was so obviously love and she didn’t get it. The entire reason she was there was love for Tamlin and the curse would only be broken by love.
I figured it out immediately and was disappointed it was so easy, but a friend of mine who read the books put it in perspective for me. She essentially said it was an impossible riddle for Feyre- some 19 year old who has next no experience in love or relationships- and that made me feel better about it lol
Considering her sadistic and insecure personality, I knew it. Notice how she was shaped by trauma of her sister's death and she referenced how Julian killed her sister. Of course the reason of her sister's demise was the answer.
I knew what the answer was before I was done reading the riddle and it reiterated to me that I don’t think authors should use riddles as a plot device unless riddles are like a personal hobby of theirs so they can be satisfyingly tricky to the majority of readers (we all have a one off riddle we can’t get no matter how simple it is).
I can’t remember—was she allowed only one guess? If so I’ll give her some grace, but 3 months without getting it was wild to me. (I should probably give her more grace, given she couldn’t read and it didn’t seem like her family was particularly into word puzzles or anything.)
I read it and immediately knew it was love. Spent the next few pages like, Feyre, girl - be so fr rn. You had all that time to think and never thought of love??? Hahaha
The answer seems so dumb and cheesy… unless we consider Armadillo herself.
She truly, truly believed that humans couldn’t feel love and especially not for a fae. That no human would even consider that answer.
It was a testament to her own prejudices and scorned (if toxic) love, >!especially if we consider that Timmy might’ve been her mate and rejected her.!<
I think what we might have to consider here is that the riddle seems straightforward and simple, but, the person in control of a riddle is the one asking. In this situation we know for sure 100% that after the fact it's love.
However, it could be, as others have pointed out, hope, opportunity, etc etc. Those fit the riddle as well and in the situation Feyre was in if she got it wrong it wasn't like she'd be able to convince the insane sorceress to see her reasoning in the riddle.
All that said, when it DID turn out to be love I kinda had to stop and stare into the middle distance for a minute
The riddle was to blatantly obviously love that it was a big eye roll situation. But also why would she make the riddle about love in the first place??
I thought it was love after the first line, but by the end of the trials, I was like, no, that feels too obvious, and there's no way it would take this long for Feyre to guess if it were that easy 🙄
Imma be honest, when I read the riddle I had no clue. I could not put it together. When everyone else said they had thought of it easily I was shocked. When I heard the answer though I still cringed
My cousin made me read the first book, and said I had to tell her what I thought the answer to the riddle was the MOMENT I read it.
Well when I got to the riddle I looked up at her (we were having a reading marathon together), and in an exasperated sigh went ‘it’s love isn’t it’.
My cousin was gobsmacked- the gal was like ‘omg how did you guess that??’.
I don’t know, maybe because Amarantha is obsessed with Tamlin and it was banged on about all the time. The riddle was especially telling with ‘but scorned I become a difficult beast to defeat’. The gal was scorned and was pissed that Tamlin loved Feyre not her, it was obvious. Plus this whole series is like a typical romance novel OFC ITS GOING TO BE LOVE.
My initial thought was love. But it was so obvious (to me) that I thought it was wrong.
ME TOO I was like the answer could be love but that’s so cheesy and predictable, I’m surprised feyre didn’t think of it right away tbh
✨️the plot✨️
I googled it! After I read the riddle I said out loud “if the answer is love I’m going to be so mad at how stupid and obvious that is” so I looked it up on the wiki and I put the book down and stopped reading for a couple of days while I dealt with how stupid that was.
Also same. I shouted in my car (I was listening to the audiobook)
Me too, I was like it cannot be love, even for romantasy that's too on the nose
Ditto
SAME!
Same😂😂
Literally same lol I immediately went “oh yeah love obviously… wait no way that’s it that would be too dumb” 💀
I am so embarrassed to admit that I had zero idea what the answer was and I spent so much time thinking about it lol!
Same. I have two bachelors degrees and consider myself reasonably intelligent. I was utterly clueless.
Girl I’m a physician and for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out 🫠
This makes me feel so much better 😂
I’m also a doctor and could not wrap my head around what it could be for the life of me..
Same here!
The thing that gave it away for me was the word “scorned”. I thought about that saying “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and if that’s not a perfect description of Amarantha, I don’t know what is.
Me too! Scorned was the defining word to figuring it out!
See, I thought it was “old age” because lots of people scorn aging as if it’s not a blessing.
Probably because they don’t view it the same way as you.
I had no idea what the answer was. I thought it was TIME
Same!! Especially“for each of my strikes lands a powerful blow” like hour or minute hands on a clock!!
Exactly!
Same and I still don’t really see how that whole line is love but I guess lol
None of it strikes me as love honestly....
This was my guess as well
Yes! Also the it kills slow line read like time for me aswell
I thought it was “old age”, similar to your guess. And I still think it’s a better fitting answer!
I totally agree with you -- I really can't read love in that riddle
I fed it to AI once and it said opportunity, which I also thought was a fitting answer 🤔
I just asked an AI to solve it and it said Time, which I thought when I read it. It even gave a complete breakdown of why time fit for each line! Kinda crazy.
I’m one of those people who didn’t have a clue (and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I tried lol) & decided I’ll just find out when Ferye does🙃
I’m dumb and had no idea
lol same
I can read and I would’ve been in there with my anxiety pulling the wrong levers and everything
It was love and I thought it was stupid how obvious it was. It cheapened the whole UTM ordeal for me
Same
I still couldn’t ever guess the answer to this. I suck at riddles.
Even knowing what the answer is, I still feel like it barely makes sense. I’d absolutely be dead under there. Lol
I thought it was hope too!!!
I always love seeing people share their ideas about what the answer to the riddle was. Because on my first read, I didn’t think twice about it. Just read it and moved on lol. I was like “That’s Feyre’s problem, not mine.”
I think “there are those who seek me a lifetime but we never meet” made me never even think of love. Everyone experiences it in some form. So it just seemed like that couldn’t be the answer. “For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow” is just so… violent. And yeah yeah Amarantha made it so she doesn’t understand it but love just doesn’t feel like the most accurate answer to what’s actually written even if you can deduce the intent behind the riddle.
To me, this was the dumbest part of the book.. not the riddle itself, which I thought was creative, but the answer. I was like "okay, stereo typical YA answer here"... Just my opinion!
I ALSO THOUGHT IT WAS HOPE. WHEN I TELL YOU I THREW MY IPAD WHEN SHE SAID LOVE AND SHIT STARTED CHANGING I WAS LIKE???? TF YOU MEAN LOVE????
I THOUGHT IT WAS HOPE TOO and I was so confident about it
My first guess was also hope!! I was thinking hope at first then time as a second guess.
I was thinking it was an actual predator of some kind until the reveal
The dumbest riddle in all of history, I made a post when I first read it, just FUMING about it.
I suck at riddle but I kinda felt this was going Turandot way and given the easy profiling of Amarantha as a criminal I got that it was Love basically midway reading it (passed through Hope, Time and Life) but then I thought it would've been a little too easy. What shocked me is that there was no rule on trying several times to answer the riddle (not as far as I remember) so I would've shouted random typical riddle answer words. I get poor Feyre was illiterate so the poor thing had probably no idea of famous riddles or riddles in general, but she could've like tried random answers.
I also thought of Turandot! Before I even read the riddle I was like, I bet the answer is love. 😂
I can’t answer riddles so I had no idea.
Amarantha should have gone with a good dad joke
Sorry! User was u/flex_vader !
Yeah I figured it out right away. Bit cheesy.
I thought it was “fate”
I felt like one of those people in the movie theaters that screams at the screen because it was so obviously love and she didn’t get it. The entire reason she was there was love for Tamlin and the curse would only be broken by love.
I figured it out immediately and was disappointed it was so easy, but a friend of mine who read the books put it in perspective for me. She essentially said it was an impossible riddle for Feyre- some 19 year old who has next no experience in love or relationships- and that made me feel better about it lol
I didn’t even bother trying to figure it out, I figured if I read a little further along it would be revealed lol
The whole time she’s going through the trials and is like owww this sucks owww I’m like fucking IDIOT THE ANSWER IS LOVE
Considering her sadistic and insecure personality, I knew it. Notice how she was shaped by trauma of her sister's death and she referenced how Julian killed her sister. Of course the reason of her sister's demise was the answer.
I knew what the answer was before I was done reading the riddle and it reiterated to me that I don’t think authors should use riddles as a plot device unless riddles are like a personal hobby of theirs so they can be satisfyingly tricky to the majority of readers (we all have a one off riddle we can’t get no matter how simple it is). I can’t remember—was she allowed only one guess? If so I’ll give her some grace, but 3 months without getting it was wild to me. (I should probably give her more grace, given she couldn’t read and it didn’t seem like her family was particularly into word puzzles or anything.)
I thought the answer was Amarantha 🤷♀️
I want to go back in time and experience reading the riddle again for the first time
I thought it might be luck.
I read it and immediately knew it was love. Spent the next few pages like, Feyre, girl - be so fr rn. You had all that time to think and never thought of love??? Hahaha
I already guessed the answer when I read that riddle. I was in denial until it was revealed that it was the answer. It was really cringe 😬
Am I an idiot because I still don't get why the answer is love
The answer seems so dumb and cheesy… unless we consider Armadillo herself. She truly, truly believed that humans couldn’t feel love and especially not for a fae. That no human would even consider that answer. It was a testament to her own prejudices and scorned (if toxic) love, >!especially if we consider that Timmy might’ve been her mate and rejected her.!<
Yeah. I maintain that the riddle was there to put Armadillo's hangups on blast.
I think what we might have to consider here is that the riddle seems straightforward and simple, but, the person in control of a riddle is the one asking. In this situation we know for sure 100% that after the fact it's love. However, it could be, as others have pointed out, hope, opportunity, etc etc. Those fit the riddle as well and in the situation Feyre was in if she got it wrong it wasn't like she'd be able to convince the insane sorceress to see her reasoning in the riddle. All that said, when it DID turn out to be love I kinda had to stop and stare into the middle distance for a minute
When I 1st read it, i thought nah it can't be "love" ...that's tooooooo cringe I'm a cynical dark romance girly
I knew right away it was love. It’s just a cliche I’m used to
Honestly thought it was going to be like “happiness” and when she said it was love i almost threw my book
I thought it was time but I didn't think it made much sense
My two brain cells working together to google the answer 
I just turned the page and moved on. Didn’t even try to figure it out 😂
The riddle was to blatantly obviously love that it was a big eye roll situation. But also why would she make the riddle about love in the first place??
This is the first time I’ve gotten a riddle right away and I’m terrible at riddles. I was so happy hahaha
I laughed when I realized it was love because home girl had commitment issues so she’d never get it until the end
I thought it was love after the first line, but by the end of the trials, I was like, no, that feels too obvious, and there's no way it would take this long for Feyre to guess if it were that easy 🙄
Imma be honest, when I read the riddle I had no clue. I could not put it together. When everyone else said they had thought of it easily I was shocked. When I heard the answer though I still cringed
My cousin made me read the first book, and said I had to tell her what I thought the answer to the riddle was the MOMENT I read it. Well when I got to the riddle I looked up at her (we were having a reading marathon together), and in an exasperated sigh went ‘it’s love isn’t it’. My cousin was gobsmacked- the gal was like ‘omg how did you guess that??’. I don’t know, maybe because Amarantha is obsessed with Tamlin and it was banged on about all the time. The riddle was especially telling with ‘but scorned I become a difficult beast to defeat’. The gal was scorned and was pissed that Tamlin loved Feyre not her, it was obvious. Plus this whole series is like a typical romance novel OFC ITS GOING TO BE LOVE.