Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

60 reviews

imcourtneymarie's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked this one more than CC1 but points taken off for some of the unnecessary smut. I don’t mind spice but i found myself glossing over those moments towards the end because they weren’t adding anything to the plot (which i deeply enjoy!) 

Loved the OMG moments throughout. Lots to think about. Can’t wait for CC3 👀

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Murder, Colonisation, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Alcohol, and Infertility

marleywrites's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Cursing

Moderate: Torture, Gun violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Addiction

Minor: War and Slavery

anastashamarie's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4.25/5. I feel like everyone is rating this purely on the last pre-epilogue chapter if I'm being honest, but I'm trying to be objective here. I'm gonna keep this short and sweet because I feel like anything more would be spoiler central...

First 1/2 to 2/3 of the book is a 3/5. The pacing was slow. The plot was unnecessarily convoluted, with tons of dead ends that didn't really move the story forward imho. I honestly put the book down multiple times to read other things because it just wasn't keeping my interest that well. But we got lots of Bryce and Hunt and lots of friendship moments (both of which I love) so I'm not too mad at it.

Last 30-40% of the book is solidly 4.5 stars, however. After the first half drug on, the pacing was cranked up to 1000, and I felt like I couldn't put it down in the way I've felt about other SJM books. The last 300 or so pages were very intense, to the point that, as I neared the climax of the story, my husband asked "why I was so jimoy and breathing heavily."

And yes, that ending has me VERY intrigued and VERY excited to see what comes next. But I don't think that it's fair to call this 5 stars just because I like where SJM is taking her storyline.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, War, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Cursing, and Slavery

Minor: Torture and Drug use

microbemom's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Alcohol, Murder, Cursing, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual violence and Torture

vaguely_pink's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Classism, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Cursing, Alcohol, Death of parent, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, and Rape

theoceanrose's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Cursing, Blood, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Violence, War, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault

prairieraven's review

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It's slow to read for the first 2/3 of the book, it starts twisting and turning after that and the end leaves the reader a bit bewildered and anxious about the next book. Not her best, good. Hoping that the rest of the series improves. Still excessive use of the word F--- which is fine but it's like a word just discovered by a child and is somehow used at least once a page. 

Severe lack of diversity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Police brutality, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, War, Sexual violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Incest, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicide, Pedophilia, Murder, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Infidelity

libertyreads789's review

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Oh, boy. I’ll admit I’m nervous to post my review for this one. I do NOT need the backlash. But since I discuss books here I will go ahead and review this one. House of Sky and Breath is the second book in the Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas. In book one we meet Bryce and Hunt who must uncover the truth of who murdered her best friend and her best friend’s werewolf pack. In book two both the world and the political intrigue are expanded as we continue to follow the lives of the Fae, Werewolves, Shifters, and Angels from book one.

I found three things about this book to be particularly annoying: 1) it was unnecessarily dense, 2) it was unnecessarily long, and 3) it had unnecessary sex scenes. Though, being the asexual that I am, I find almost all sex scenes to be unnecessary. The frequency of these sex scenes is what annoyed me more than anything. In the first 250 pages we got one, and then it kept speeding up from there. A hundred pages later, then fifty pages later, then in back to back chapters. I get it, you’re mated and this is the best sex ever or whatever. But...can we get back to the rebellion here??? I truly think Maas’s publishers just let her write whatever she wants at this point. Not only in content but also length of the novel. This whole book could have happened in 500 or 600 pages. Easy. But other things that I’ve seen mentioned that also bothered me to a lesser degree were: WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? We get one female perspective and a bunch of male perspectives. Which is annoying. But the female characters we do get aren’t as well fleshed out or are barely seen on the page. I get that Bryce is supposed to be beloved by all the men she meets, but can that not happen with another main female character in the picture? Also the pacing is pretty off. I felt like the last 125 pages had all of the action while the first 672 were all meandering. I know we had to work up to the action scenes at the end, but the pace was so lopsided.

But, after giving all the Maas Stans a heart attack, let’s discuss the things I enjoyed in this one. I still enjoy Bryce and Hunt as a couple for the most part. I wish things didn’t go from “Hello” to sex in the blink of an eye, but I still like them together and I still believe in their romance. I also still love this world and this magic system for the most part. (Bryce basically being a magical battery not withstanding.) I also loved the direction this one went in terms of the politics and the stakes really being raised for our heroes. I’m on the fence about continuing the series. I’ve heard it could be a trilogy so that might be okay. But I’m also really doubting that given where this book left off. I don’t know if there’s a way to wrap up this series in one book. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Gun violence, Alcohol, and Sexual content

hapalyn's review

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, Suicide, Torture, Slavery, Rape, Genocide, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Incest, Fire/Fire injury, War, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

literaryintersections's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Hot Take: 50 pages of good story and a wild ending doesn’t make the other 750 pages worth it.

Other Hot Take: Bryce and Hunt are the literal worst and this book was saved by Ruhn.

This is a Ruhn stan account and I want more of Ruhn and Day. Forget Bryce and Hunt. 

Last Hot Take: SJM still hasn’t learned how to incorporate diversity successfully into a storyline. SJM, need a beta sensitivity reader? 🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Blood, and Grief