House of Flame and Shadow
Ratings239
Average rating3.9
I can't believe this series is over (or that I believe haha)
Even though it took a bit more of effort to go through it than with the previous ones I ended up liking it.
In my particular case, the secondary characters and theirs stories were what kept me going, were the most interesting for me.
Ruhn, hypaxia, Ithan, Lidia, Flynn, Dec and the sprites were everything.
SPOILERS
THE APPEARANCE OF MY FAVORITE SISTER WAS EVERYTHING! That's all I'm gonna say.
Contains spoilers
I feel torn about this - I did definitely enjoy reading this, but not sure it lived up to my expectations? I could have used more ACOTAR crossover, honestly, the plotlines started to feel a little jumbled/too many characters...I guess perhaps some of the novelty of this series that felt so zippy in the first book has worn off. I'm glad ACOTAR is what Maas is writing next.
Oh SJM I love this amazing world you've woven for us, but this book missed the mark a bit for me. Loved some character arcs and others just didn't flow or make sense. Moments made me very emotional and others made me say “what the hell”. A more detailed review may come later when the books been out a bit longer and my dms are always open for thoughts and discussion. For me this was more than a 3 star but less than a 4 star read. The Crescent City series is adult fantasy, 18+ for sexual content and violence
Better than the second but still preferred Crescent City 1! Good parte and overall entertaining. It isn't 5 stars because it felt very convenient and fairly predictable.
Better than the second but still preferred Crescent City 1! Good parte and overall entertaining. It isn't 5 stars because it felt very convenient and fairly predictable.
House of Flame and Shadow was such a good book! I cannot stress enough that you should read the Throne of Glass series and the A Court of Thorns and Roses series first! Everything connected in a beautiful way, and had a lovely ending. I'm not sure if there is going to be a book four, as the end of this book could easily have been either the end of the series, or the start of something new for the Crescent City Series!
House of Flame and Shadow stands as another literary flop, weaving intricate plots and meager character development that barely captivate readers from start to finish. The novel grapples with pacing issues and an abundance of point-of-view switches, with some chapters containing up to five transitions. While this technique adds depth to the narrative, it also elongates the story, causing the storyline to progress at a slower pace.
This was a highly anticipated release for this year and as you can tell by my rating it didn't disappoint. Was this a favorite from Sarah J. Maas? No. Did I love it non the less? Absolutely!! This is action packed from the get go and it keeps that momentum all throughout the book. This one didn't have the emotional gut punch that some of her other books have but it still had me on the edge of my seat. I've seen where a lot of people have been disappointed by this book but for me it was everything I wanted. I did have a couple issues with what certain characters did because it was so pointless but overall another great instalment. I cannot wait for her next release.
Okay, my rating will scare some people, but I promise that I DID enjoy this book. It just didn't live up to the hype of the first two for me, so I'm knocking it down to 3.5 stars in rating. I can see the makings of a fantastic book here, but this one just isn't quite there.
House of Flame and Shadow deserved to be two books instead of one massive one. (House of Many Waters AND House of Flame and Shadow, anyone???) There is so much going on in this novel that should have been dragged out and foreshadowed on and done in DETAIL. There are like six or seven MAJOR plot things that happen and instead of taking our time with them we're just onto the next without really pausing to process what just happened. It feels like a bullet point list of a novel.
Character development really takes a back burner, and it SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE. I wanted to see Bryce COPE with what happens to her. What she's forced to do, what Ruhn and Hunt are forced to go through. Instead, we deal with it for what feels like a paragraph and move on. Some of these things are EXTREMELY TRAUMATIZING. We should have been dealing with them for the whole book. Nope. A paragraph here and a paragraph there, and ONTO THE NEXT THING.
Romantic and platonic relationships that we should have seen grown and shift over time just sort of bloom what feels like overnight. Other relationships needed to have the room to breathe, to have the chance to grow into a SOLID ROCK FOUNDATION. Instead, we have characters questioning legitimately questionable things and it barely feels discussed. Or, alternatively, it feels contrived and forced. Oh, and don't get me started on the weird timing of sex scenes. Maybe don't get a boner in a dangerous cave while trying to find your definitely-in-danger-friends.
I'm not going to post spoilers about specific things, but if anyone wants to come talk to me about this book my DMs on Twitter are open. I'll happily hash out my feelings to you, because I ADORED this world. I'm just disappointed about how our time here has ended. And yes, I still love Maas's writing and her Fae universe she's got going on, I just think making this one book really hurt the series as a whole.
I love SJM's characters. I grow so attached to them and end up crying multiple times during every one of her books. Her action scenes are unparalleled and the suspense is always gripping. That being said, there were too many things squished into this book. That's crazy, considering it was 800+ pages. The power ups and the parasites were over the top. It was hard for me to get used to the abrupt POV shifts to the point where every time it popped back to Ithan I would scoff and close the book for a while. Ithan and Sigrid could have been edited out and I would have been fine with it. I'm assuming the next book is going to focus a lot on Tharion and the Viper Queen and his wife, which I'm excited about. I liked where their story was going. I love Lidia and Ruhn more than Bryce and Hunt so I was happy that we got to see their romance more for this book. I almost quit reading when Lidia died for a hot minute. I loved Jesiba's whole character and the sprites. The amount of times I exclaimed, “lol. What?” out loud while reading this book was insane. Exclamations also included were: “Secret tunnel!” “Sons?!” “SON?! Bruv what is this book?” “The freaking sprites!!” “I love secret staircases!!” “I forgot about the ottersss.” “DOES THAT MEAN THAT LIDIA IS A DESCENDENT OF AELIN IF IT'S BRANNON'S FIRE???!” I will say, I'm more excited to see what will happen in the next ACOTAR book with Nesta and the sword and I'm hoping to find out what the connection between Ruhn and Azriel is. Also, the moment that Nesta got to hear loving words from a mother figure with Ember.
Had a fun time on this wild ride but was def hoping for more!!! Probably more like a 3.5 than a solid 4.
So... House of Flame and Shadow... One week later and I'm still not sure where to start and what to write on this review. The short summary is: I didn't like it.
Some might say it's an issue about expectations, but it is not.
I agree that the passage of time between the publication of books in the same series for highly acclaimed writers can be problematic. Readers have the time for their imagination to run wild, leading to the creation of endless theories that can easily culminate in heartbreak, because no author can ever fulfil the enormity of the expectations created. This might be the case for George R. R. Martin, and Patrick Rothfuss, but I don't see it as a problem for Sarah, for several reasons:
• not that much time passed between publications.
• I love her books but, in my opinion the world she has created doesn't have the same depth as the examples given to reach the same level of theories circulating.
• I had a total amount of zero theories for this book. I had some things that I would have liked to see, but nothing that would dramatically affect my enjoyment of the book. I think she is a wonderful storyteller and I just wanted to enjoy the ride towards the happy ending.
I have one main issue with the book: Bryce became the greatest alphahole and single-handedly ruined the whole story.
This is the only trope I truly hate. I just can't stand a Mary/ Gary Sue and honestly, I see it as a lack of effort because it's much easier to defeat the evil if you are insanely powerful.
SJM is well known for creating over-powerful FMC, but this doesn't particularly bother me because they usually train and have a bit of time to grow into that power. This, however, didn't happen to Bryce. She just kept acquiring power, and immediately dominating it, doing everything by instinct.
This was particularly annoying to me as SJM created Bryce as someone with barely any magic, and even after she acquired some power, it served mostly as an enhancer/ enabler of other's magic (particularly Hunt), which was a much more unique concept, and one that I would have liked to see.
Crescent City was a series with a major focus on mental health. It had amazing descriptions of living with depression, regrets, and grief, and I loved that the main couple's relationship was based on acceptance of each other past, and support of each other feelings.
Somehow, we moved from this acceptance and support, to absolutely dismissing Hunt's feelings. I just can't accept that a character that spent more than 200 years suffering, and 3 books being tortured and having his wings cut, could not have a single moment to be traumatized, sad and scared. Moreover, he was a general before, but he could only contribute with one opinion in the whole plan, because obviously, all 25-year-olds know best. What is the purpose of having centenary people around if you are not going to use their knowledge. Bryce is not only overpowered, but outsmarts everyone which is absolutely unrealistic.
The writing was bad, the change on POV messy, and some character's ARC were awful.
Lidia and Ruhn were the only good thing in this book.
First thoughts:
Uff, it's over. RTC after collecting my thoughts
As a series, I've loved this since book 1, it's epic and sweeping and incredible, but as a single book this one actually fell a bit short for me. I really enjoyed most of it but in the overall Maasverse, it's probably my least favourite book, saying that they're all 5 stars so really how can you choose!
The first few hundred pages were amazing - I absolutely loved every minute we got with Bryce, Nesta and Azriel. I loved their interactions, I loved the lore they discovered, it was just perfection. I didn't love Ithan's and Tharion's chapters as much, they took a much longer time to get interesting.
Part 2 was a little slow for me, but as SJM always does she sticks the landing. That said, I do feel like part 3/the ending was a bit chaotic. There were a lot of plot points which just conveniently happened - Bryce is floating in space, but oh look there's Shahar's spirit with a handy mech suit so Hunt and pop into space and save her, and look the Princes of Hel just nicely holding a void open for them to float back on through.
I'm dead
I'm crying in my grave and dying
I'd give anything to read more about any of these characters
Wasn't really feeling the character work here but liked the plot beats.
I didn't know what to expect from this book because I was expecting it to be the 3rd of a 4 book series but I was decently happy with it! It was fast paced and brought me through so many emotions especially at the end but it didn't feel like this should be the end of CC but I now don't see how she could continue it. I am on the fence about the overlap with ACOTAR but I'm glad Bryce didn't completely abandon Nesta in the end.
Another great book by Sarah J. Maas! I really enjoyed the ending. I want to read it again already! Would definitely recommend this Crescent City and the Court of Thorns and Roses series to fantasy romance (Romantasy) fans. I read the ebook via the Kindle app on my iPad while simultaneously listening to the Audible recording. The book was epic! While Elizabeth Evans is an awesome narrator, the high esteem of these books should allow for a male narrator for the male voices. She doesn't do those and they've become expected. I say this with a lot of audiobook experience- I own over 950 Audible titles alone, and I have subscriptions to Kobo, Everand (fka Scribd), Audiobooks.com, and I borrow them through Libby. That is a lot of audio listening so I really do believe wholeheartedly adding a male voice, in addition to Evans, would have made this even more epic!
Really tried to make it last, but I just could not put it down. Plot holes and unnecessary stuff aside, this book was a WILD ride and I loved every minute of it.
So I have sat on this book for a little bit, and I have to admit, some of it fell flat. I think the fact that we waited so long for this book, everyone's expectations were just too high. I'm happy with the ending, the conclusion, the aspects of TOG and ACOTAR were great. I think I hyped it too much in my head.
There is a few story lines that kinda made me go ‘huh'. Tharion's and Ithan's being the main two. The rest was just Bryce doing a lot off page, and then us finding out what a good character she is after.
So many tears shed. Such an incredible book. It was a lot of information and was frustrating at first at how quickly the scenes were broken up. I don't think there needs to be another book in this series based on how it ended. My heart is so full though. Looking forward to the next ACOTAR book.
This was everything I hoped it would be and simultaneously so much better than I could have imagined. I love you forever SJM now time to go to bed
Firstly, to whichever Harris Teeter employee fucked up and shelved two copies of this into the corner of the book section just a week before the official release date, THANK YOU!
Here's all of my VERY SPOILERY notes that I took while reading House of Flame and Shadow for the very first time. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. :)
• Lidia I love you
• Noooo Ruhn and Hunt and Baxian