House of Sky and Breath

While I didn't enjoy the first book as much as some of my friends did, the second book is a massive improvement over the first.

At times, these characters are very frustrating and annoying. Especially Bryce. Her obsession with her friend who had lied to her about everything is very frustrating. She definitely has a blind spot for her, but her insistence on being surprised everytime she finds something new about Danika is downright stupid.
If that is her character, well and good, but then a bout of genius planning comes absolutely out of nowhere and seems very unbelievable.

Unlike a lot of others, I somehow do not buy the romance/whatever the hell it is between Bryce and Hunt. It seems very sudden and it really doesn't work for me.

With the bad out of the way, on to the good - the second one was much better written compared to the first. There was better progression of story, the mystery here flowed much better and the reveals came at the time they were needed and weren't just out in for dramatic effect, like I felt the first book did.

The world of Crescent City is rich. The world building in book one does come at odd places, but in the second they flow much better. Some of the criticisms I had for the first book, were fixed or addressed in this book, which helped in the enjoyment of this one.


I enjoyed this book - truly. Mostly because of Ruhn and the brief appearance of Aidas, even some of the supporting cast are fun and engaging characters. There's a surprising romance I really enjoyed and some reveals that were just too good.

But, I think I find SJM's ACOTAR series far more engaging and fun when I compare it to this series. So while I like the two crescent city novels, I'm not sure I love them as much as ACOTAR. But I am looking forward to book 3 in January.

(Referencing spoilery material below)

To be very honest, I only read this book because of the spoilers I had read about the final chapter, and what the future holds for this series and it's relation to other SJM novels. I am really looking forward to the next book and all the more lore building and the connections with the other novels.