House of Flame and Shadow

After I read the ACOTAR series, one of my critiques was that it was too hierarchical. (I still love the ACOTAR series.) I thought about how there was a need for fantasy books just like ACOTAR but that take down hierarchies. And this is essentially what SJM does with this series, and it was beautiful. She also upped her game in terms of queer characters - not a lot, but more than the other books. And the way she connects with ACOTAR makes me swoon. I love it all. But I especially love that ultimately this book is about friendship, with some anti-colonial revolution in the background, along with happy endings: “let’s burn it all down… we shall build a new world atop their ashes.”

By the time I reached this book, Crescent City had already completely won me over.

What started as a series outside my usual comfort zone became one, I couldn't stop thinking about. The action is huge, the world is constantly expanding, but it was still the characters and their relationships that kept me turning pages.

Watching them fight for each other, lean on each other, and keep moving forward through impossible circumstances gave the biggest moments so much emotional weight.

When I closed the final page, I realized I wasn't ready to leave this world or these characters behind. That's always the sign of a series that found a permanent place on my bookshelf.

2.6 / 5

utterly disappointing finale to an already mediocre series. i could talk forever about the missed opportunities in this book. SJM got lazy once again - characters that were bright and dimensional (well - they were KIND OF bright and KIND OF dimensional) are now boring, flat, predictable. there is essentially no emotion in this book - all that fire from the first one dissipates in the second one and sputters out in this one.

y’all know i love a good main character. i love a woman who owns shit. unfortunately bryce is nearly unbearable in this book, and she loses a lot of her charm. i LOVE to see a bad bitch winning, but this time? i kind of wanted to see the bad bitch lose.

hunt is so confusingly stagnant and boring. dude show more everyone is so boring. there’s no pizzaz, there’s no OOMPH. i was floored by how little i cared about these characters. i’m not sure what happened here - either SJM rushed this book or she gave up after the first one. maybe both.

the info dumps in this book are horrendous. instead of weaving in the context, SJM decided to dump it all over a couple of chapters. i just - it’s not good writing babes. more than any other book i’ve read by SJM, this is not good writing. you’d think that after so many years of writing she would be getting BETTER. but no. this title was so bad, so boring, so aimless, so needlessly long.

***spoilers ahead***

the character crossover was extremely disappointing. we never even got to see feyre. like - i literally don’t know what possessed SJM to make a cinematic universe that does NOTHING for her characters. i was so thoroughly disappointed and frustrated when i realized bryce was only in their world for like a QUARTER of this book. and what happens in that time is so unimportant.

and the plot? the PLOT? how could someone who wrote such an awesome ending to CC1 write something this bad? i was not impressed. there are plot holes literally everywhere. there are missed opportunities and forgotten threads. things happen that just - don’t matter?? the whole sigrid thing was an absolute mess. after a certain point, baxian literally never shows up again. the sex is boring and lacks the energy from the first book. how many different ways can i say it? this book fucking sucked.

it took me 2 months to read this. that should tell you how much i dreaded opening my kobo to read this hogwash every night. i know this is crazy, i know this is bad - but i low key don’t think i’ll read her next book. i was so disappointed by this that i might dislike SJM now. she had the world right where she wanted them. and then she fucking fumbled the bag.

2.6 / 5 - i honestly feel like that’s generous. SJM… do better. i know you can do better. show less

EFF you Sarah, I should send you my therapist bill after what part 1 put us through.

With that being said, truly an incredible read. We've heard of the darkness our favorite characters have gone through via memories, but Sarah put us there in realtime and it definitely hit deep.

Part 1 is very difficult to get through, not because of poor writing, but due to the very graphic scenes that I may agree were necessary for the story. However, the absence of comedic relief did not go unnoticed. I felt like Bryce in part 1 was a completely different character than the first two books. I still don't understand the need for the "munch munch" in part 1, but it doesn't seem like the characters were traumatized nearly as much as the readers were. show more

I'm still buzzing from the ACOTAR tie in and hope we see more again soon. There is another tie in mention that I hope is developed more, but out of respect for spoilers, I'll refrain from further details.

There was never a dull moment in this book, which made the 835 pg read breeze by. Despite the numerous poor choices made by Ithan and Tharion, followed by a ridiculous amount of whining from both, the storylines were cohesive. There are a couple side plots that weren't fulfilled, but I suspect that means we'll get more down the road.

Maas is a literary gem to this generation and I can't recommend her books enough to anyone interested in fantasy/romantasy. show less

Bryce finds herself not in Hel, where she meant to go, but to the Night Court being held by Rhysand, where she learns important information about the history of Midgard how to beat the Asteri. Meanwhile, Bryce, Ruhn, and Baxian are being held - and brutally tortured by Pollux - in the dungeons, and the Hind, Lidia, is working to free them. Their other friends, including Tharian, Ithan, Declan, and Flynn, will also be working towards the ultimate goal of upending the corrupt government set up by the Asteri to use everyone's firstlight for their own power.

What I generally like about Sarah J. Maas's books is that she writes characters I care about and plots her stories with twists I don't see coming but in a way that makes perfect sense show more upon reflection. This book doesn't do any of that. Almost nothing of note other than Bryce's discoveries in the other world happen after 400 pages, and I almost put the book down then. I wish I had, because it doesn't get better. To be fair, it's been almost two years since I read the last book, so I'd forgotten who some of the characters were and how they got where they were. But there are an awful lot of characters to follow, and the point of view changes between them frequently, sometimes only a couple of pages at a time, for no discernible reason. A brand-new character gets introduced halfway through the book, and only really has a role for another 200 pages or so. Characters don't talk when they could and then have really awkward conversations at stupid moments when they should be concerned about other things, like surviving. The story is fairly predictable and even felt jerked around to get characters to the right place or the right thing to happen, with the magical abilities of a character just conveniently being what was needed at a particular moment. I kept reading because I knew that things got resolved with the Asteri and Bryce & Hunt's story wraps up in this book, and I wanted to know what happens. But I was annoyed with the characters most of the time, not invested in the story at all, and by the time I got to the action at the end, I didn't really care. The book needed a good editor and about half as many pages, and sadly could've much better. show less

After long years of waiting, the thrilling end to the Crescent City trilogy has arrived! I will admit, this one took me a while to get through. It was dense, and I suffered from a little bit of "not wanting to keep reading because when I finish it means that it's done."

I feel like the beginning and end of this book were both very strong, and the middle got kind of muddy. Stuff happens, sure, but I feel like a lot of it left me with more questions than answers. Maybe this just means that Ms. Maas is setting things up for more books, but for now it just left me a little unsatisfied.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading this. I did. I just wish that more of the questions I had had answers in this book.

I'm just going to be honest up front, I don't like Crescent City. I never have. I only read it because of the ACOTAR connection. Which was a major disappointment to me. But since I forced myself to read 800 pages, here are my thoughts:

Bryce is insufferable in this one. She's Aelin 2.0. Everyone is supposed to do whatever she wants without question. Everything that comes out of her mouth is sarcastic and snarky and it got old really quick. She's what, 25-26 at least? And married? Time to deal with your daddy issues and quit the bratty teenager act. Honestly though, after reading how Ember acts, I guess its not really that surprising. Ember telling Rhys off when she doesn't even live in their world was so stupid. He should have ripped her show more head off. Also I think the way Bryce treats Hunt is pretty terrible. He's not supposed to ask any questions about anything and she's always putting him down if he does something she doesn't like, but she doesn't care who likes what she does. Their relationship is basically based on him doing whatever she wants and physical stuff.

Aside from Bryce, I can't say I really like many of the other characters either. They're all pretty shallow and don't have much depth to them. The fire sprites and Syrinx are pretty much the only good ones for me. I did like Sathia and thought she was very good for Tharion. Tharion needs to grow up majorly though. He's funny at times but then he does really stupid stuff and doesn't think about who it will hurt. I also wanted more from Ruhn. I feel like I have read 3 million pages of "Ruhn is not as powerful as Bryce, the sword isn't even really his." I was hoping he'd show some power and prove them wrong at some point. And he did for like 2 seconds. I wanted more though. But she can't let him outshine Bryce, of course. I think the wolves should be cut out completely because their whole storyline is boring. Sorry to those who love Danika. It just reminds me too much of Twilight.

The prophecy fulfillment was a pretty big let down after all that build up throughout this series. Could have been a lot more monumental than it was. I wanted to see Midgard and Prythian united and using the swords together but that didn't happen. Bryce didn't face nearly enough consequences for stealing Truth Teller.

I didn't need another ACOSF 2.0 with Nesta. Her arc in this one made no sense. She was supposed to have given up most of her powers at the end of ACOSF. Now she's this big time warrior and is more powerful than ever?? What was the point of the sacrifice then? And her attitude was terrible. Constantly bad mouthing Rhys. Saying she doesn't answer to him or Feyre. Um, yeah you do. You live in their court, you answer to them whether you like it or not. I'm really hoping the next ACOTAR book is not more Nesta because I'm not sure how much more I can stand.

This book made Azriel look ridiculous and useless. You're telling me a barely trained newly fae female is the only one who can kill a wyrm when he's a 500 Illyrian warrior? One of THE best warriors of all time? And not only that, but Bryce took him down? Nah. I get that she was going for a girl power vibe but don't destroy your other characters to lift your FMC up. If you have to do that, they're not that powerful after all.

As you can probably see by now, this series is just not my thing. So take what I say with a grain of salt if you like the series. You may love it. I'm just ready to move on to ACOTAR 5! show less