Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

39 reviews

tinkerbelle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

i dont like that people are mad about this book, i think it wraps up the trilogy perfectly and i was glad to find that it wasnt all about bryce this time.

really excited to see what else sjm has to offer!!
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savshanae's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I have never been so disappointed by an SJM book and itā€™s RUINING me. If it was any other author, I probably would have DNFā€™d this book. So many words for so little to happen, the end left me shaking my head, and donā€™t even get me started on the lack of character consistency! 
As one of my friends put it, ā€œit feels like she flew too close to the sunā€ and I wouldnā€™t be sad to see this book dropped into the ocean forever. 
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booksalacarte's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

First read- 4.25ā­ļø 3šŸŒ¶ļø

Adult High Fantasy
Multi POV
Fantasy Romance
Magic
Found family
Journey
Secrets
War
Rebellion
Tech/sci-fi elements

Tw: torture on page, language, 


This was a Crescent City book. It wasnā€™t an ACOTAR or TOG book. It was crescent city through and through with the quick POV shifts and 

This large cast of characters has always been the messiest. They are completely flawed and full of contradictions and harder to completely stand behind. There wasnā€™t a lot of self reflection for anyone in the cast. There were a lot of really brash decisions, even from seasoned warriors and politicians, that I rolled my eyes at. There just wasnā€™t the character growth that I had hoped to seeā€¦ if anything, some of the characters, a main character even, seemed to get worseā€¦ some character growth and revelations that were foreshadowed in the other two books seemed to have been completely tossed out the window. 

The plot was A LOTā€¦ and all over the place. There were moments of world-building that was just gigantic info dumps. There were times where we went into sci-fi elements. Many things were concluded and tied up prettily. Iā€™m having a hard time thinking of how this is going to be extended into any more booksā€¦ 
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sierrabowers's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was the best in the Crescent City series! I highly recommend to those who have already read ACOTAR. This book truly made everything come together and so much makes more sense. It ties up loose ends but also makes room for some new storylines. Was different than I thought it would be but also somehow better? 
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rachelwxtt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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naomi_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

This book had me ugly crying so hard I couldn't read anymore.
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kittykels's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

"The friends they made were what mattered in the end." Bro, I know she did not just write this into the end of the book. šŸ¤£šŸ¤£šŸ¤£ 

The stakes aren't high if they're fake, that's all I'll say about that.


This book was mostly boring, which is such a shame given how complex the story idea is. The good stuff is drowning in a sea of info-dumping and word vomit, a lot of it repetitive.
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toastyghosty13's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This review will contain heavy spoilers! 

I will preface this by saying I only reserve 5 stars for books I think are perfect and need minimal to no changes. 3 stars is basically enjoyable, but could use some work imo so by no means is it bad and you should still read this book. This is also by far the longest review I have ever written (itā€™s 11 pages in google docs lmao) because I have many thoughts, even more complaints, some praises, and questions after that wild ride. 

There was a lot of hype with this book and a lot to break down. I will be going through this book in order, and then going through my thoughts on each character. Overall, I disliked about 65-75% of this book, while the other 25-35% of it was S tier content that carried the absolute fuck out of it. This book felt great in the beginning and then the ending felt rushed. I wish it would have been 2 books with the 2nd half of this book being its own book as book 4, and whatever she has planned for what we anticipate to be book 4 could be book 5 instead.

Pre-Book & Beginning (unmarked CC2 spoilers, I assume you read the previous book)

The way the last book ended was an amazing cliffhanger that had a universe crossover from a different series by the same author, ACOTAR. There was so much potential for how this crossover could play out, and I found myself wanting so much more than what we got in this book. Bryce has teleported into Prythian and has met up with our favorite cast of characters, The Night Court.
I really expected for Bryce to get along so well with Nesta, but Bryce's actions seemed so out of character (more on this in the character analysis later) and she did absolutely nothing to garner Nesta's or Azriel's (N&A) trust. Bryce takes every chance she can get to try to trick N&A into situations where they are trapped, endangered, and nearly killed.

Bryce immediately thinks that all of The Night Court are assholes, and does not even consider the fact that they are being overly cautious after a strange woman landed in their front lawn with a legendary sword lost to the ages and claiming that she teleported from a different world/universe.
This was especially frustrating when, at the end of the book, Bryce looks back on these events and thinks about how they are good people even though she spent the entire time being an absolute shitter to them. I had such high hopes that Bryce and Nesta would get along and become friends, but Bryce became such an unlikeable character for me this book that I am glad Nesta has been spared.
Bonus Ch spoiler:
Side note, please read the Randall/Ember bonus chapter because it gave me the Nesta fulfillment I needed!! Ember and Nesta's friendship is everything and I hope there is more later on.
 

At the same time, Ruhn, Hunt, and Baxian are stuck in the dungeons of the Asteri being tortured while double spy Lidia is trying to find a way to break them out. This whole sequence until 
their prison break
  is particularly gruesome and was as expected, also chaotic as hell with certain events like 
Baxian having to bite off Ruhn's hand?!?! My boys trauma bonded though and got through it.
  Lidia is a very interesting character to follow even from the beginning. After we found out that she is Daybright in the last book, I have found her to be so much more mysterious and multi-faceted. Lidia has lots of secrets and they slowly become revealed as the book goes on.

Tharion is in the employ of the Viper Queen. He really does not think things through (more on that in the character section). I am not sure how he has survived anything and there is not much to say about his scenes until later imo since it is all just chaotic and no thinking ahead.

Middle

Bryce sets free 
the Asteri/Daglan in the basement of the prison, much to the protests of Nesta and Azriel (N&A).
  She has no real plan when doing this, which also seemed out of character and frustrated me. It really felt like she was doing it to spite N&A and did not even get many of her "pressing questions" answered. One thing that I also did not understand is that 
the Starsword/Gwydion & Truth Teller are both made in the Cauldron that the Asteri created, yet they cannot use either blade because it is canonically linked to Theia since she Made them. I would expect that since the Cauldron itself is made by the Asteri that anything Made from it would also be useable by the Asteri.
 

I also found it annoying that the entirety of CC2 is spent looking for Sophie and Emile, and then they are barely mentioned in this book. The entire premise of a Thunderbird is explained in a few sentences and it basically chalks up to 
their powers can resurrect people and they can help with Making items
. This is cool lore, but makes the entire main plot point of CC2 feel pointless because the Thunderbirds are all extinct and Emile is a normal human boy.

Lidia does the 
prison break and it is everything it needed to be
. There was stress, heartfelt emotions, and it was very final hour type of chaos. This was a major major highlight of this book, because it also served as a redemption for 
Lidia in trying to win back Ruhn's good graces. I really needed more Lidia and Ruhn POV's in this book and less of Hunt and Bryce.
 

Bryce 
teleports back after royally fucking Nesta & Az for no reason (she literally locks them in a prison under a mountain with no obvious hope of escape while she teleports back to her own world; what was the point of this???). Instead of trying to find her loved ones, she goes to fuck with the Autumn King, who sucks but I feel like this whole scene was pretty pointless too. She maybe got some insight into stuff that was pretty obvious anyways. After her arrival into his home she quickly found out that Ruhn, Hunt, and Baxian were still in the dungeon. To reiterate, she planned on being "trapped" at the Autumn Kings home, so she knew her loved ones were being tortured in the dungeons and really said "priorities" for some information that really was quite useless
. Meanwhile, Hunt is thinking about the potential future of having a family with Bryce and using that vision to get through the torture. Hunt deserves better.  

End

This ending felt super rushed to me. I think this book should have been split into 2 books, and should have been given the chance to explore some of the details more. I found a lot of the resolution in the last 3rd of the book to be very cheesy and felt odd for a book that is not the last in the series. It has a lot of "holding hands and laughing/marveling" at the beautiful sight of nature healing and them overcoming somewhat of a challenge. It felt misplaced and odd since these types of scenes were placed directly after scenarios that were somewhat high stakes, but by no means the most dangerous/tense in the book. More specifically, 
the scene after they fix Avallen seemed so off putting to me because them fixing Avallen took like 2 seconds and it did not seem like they had much of a challenge. They went through the entire cave and only had a real obstacle when the Autumn King and Morven ambushed them. Even then, it felt like that battle was too easy considering they were fighting two fae that have considerable power and training, plus the wisdom and experience of being centuries old. Afterwards, they literally laugh and revel in the sunlight that immediately starts shining in Avallen, which felt so bleh and cheesy to read when it felt like they did not overcome much.
 

I also felt like it was too easy for 
Bryce and crew to defeat the Asteri. For the ending, I was fully anticipating a Marvel's Avengers type battle where the ACOTAR squad and possibly ToG portals through and helps to save the day. I felt like the crossover was very lackluster, mainly used as an overly drawn out lore dump, and then as a safe haven to keep Ember and Randall safe (but not Emile/Cooper bc fuck him I guess, right??). Instead, they defeated the Asteri with some antidote that Hypaxia whipped up in about half a day (why was this so fast?) to help diffuse the Asterian parasite. I was also confused by the parasite's role in all of this since I thought it was initially said to be used as a threat of killing people if they did not succumb to the Drop. Instead, it has turned into being a constant siphon of firstlight for the Asteri and dampens the powers people have.
 

There were definitely some highlights here, mainly with 
Lidia and the sprites coming in hot (pun intended) to vehemently flame fuck the Asterian Guard. Lidia was a major highlight in this book, she needs a massage for the weight she carried in moving the plot forward and making it interesting/enjoyable. She is a queen amongst children and was the driving factor that made me ravenous for the 2nd half of this book.
 

Ithan had some cool moments with 
the wolf pack, I was not expecting as much as what happened when he revisited the Den. I am happy that he became Prime, and have been waiting for him to become Prime or Alpha since CC1. He had a lot of growth during the end because he quickly made decisions to help facilitate change. My only complaint is that the whole scene of him revisiting the Den
  felt a bit rushed for what it could have been. This is another scenario in which it should have been longer and less chaotic, while there were other scenes dragged out for no reason and felt lackluster and pointless afterward.

Ithan also helped 
with the bone quarter and creating change. At first when he went to go see Connor, I found it odd since there are clearly bigger things (like the Asteri) to take care of than some personal closure. However, it worked in his favor because of the special bullet Connor gave him and the fact that Hypaxia is now ruler of House of Flame and Shadow. I think this will be a very interesting point to revisit in the next book, since I am hoping it will mean growth for Hypaxia and that she will take action against the witches that usurped her. It is also a good way to solve the problem of souls becoming meals for the Under King and Asteri, since Hypaxia will not continue that practice.
 

I found the ultimate plan to 
create an army to end the Asteri to be such an insane reach on what is feasible, when there could have been other options. Bryce uses the ACOSF Mask to raise the wings that are pinned in the Asteri's palace from past angels of the rebellion, which is a great idea, until she decides that she wants them to possess Asterian mech suits. SJM lost me at that detail, since the Mask is a magical artifact from a different world where this caliber of technology does not exist. A massive army of the dead in conjunction with Declan hacking into the mech suits would have been a lot more believable to me for what the Mask is capable of. Hunt is also able to use the mask at one point, and it is cited that he is able to because of their "lovemaking" with that logic, anyone that Nesta, Elain, or Bryce sleeps with should be able to use the Mask. This was tacky, cheesy, and such a weird reasoning for the ability to use an ancient weapon, even if "through love, all is possible". I hated this detail even with how small it was, since Hunt only really used the Mask to release the Fallen spirits.
 

When Bryce was 
in the black hole with the Asteri, Rigelus latches onto her to try to kill her. Her plan is to then stay with him and aim for the black hole even if it means killed herself. Earlier in a battle scene, he grabs onto her and she is able to start absorbing his power, since it is pure firstlight and not actually his. I do not understand why she would not continue to drain him of everything he is while in outer space/the void/approaching the black hole with him. She easily could have drained him into nothing, and then opened a new portal with his power and the horn in her back to save herself. Instead, everyone in the vicinity comes and tries to keep the portal open for her while Hunt climbs into a mech suit (also controlled by Shahar's spirit, not sure how this was supposed to truly add any value) and goes in to the void to try to save her. This whole scene felt unnecessary because of the Horn's abilities that Bryce has been training to use for 2 whole books now.
 

 

Bonus Chapters

The bonus chapters are what I expected, and I loved them. Most of them are very nice to read, good vibes. Two of them are incredibly heartfelt and were perfection, offering wonderful scenes to finish off the book on a nice note that left you with FEELINGS. They are each 11-15 pages long, so there is not much to write about them without spoilers. They are divine and absolutely worth the effort to hunt them all down online.

Characters


Bryce

Bryce really did a 180 on who she is as a character. I quickly found her to be annoying, bratty, self entitled, and unempathetic in the worst ways possible. I miss the character that would unflinchingly stand up for those that couldn't defend themselves and let the world think the worst of her. Instead, we got an out of place (ToG spoiler) 
Aelin wannabe
, which did not work at all considering Bryce is in her mid 20's. (ToG spoiler) 
At least Aelin is in the 17-19 age range so her behavior works well with her character and she actually has growth from it too.
  Bryce acting like this was a disappointment and made me quickly dread reading any of her sections (unfortunately, most of the book is following her). This is where most of my dislike comes from, since there are plenty of other characters that were doing cool things that we would not get to check back in with until 10 chapters later. I hate that I disliked her so much this book, she was one of my top FMC's of SJM's works and now she is just mid to me. There were too many situations where I was just pissed off or annoyed with her. It got to the point where I can't just ignore it like I can with (ACOTAR spoiler) 
Rhysand's character assassination in ACOSF (and this book as well, quite frankly)
  because her behavior persisted for THE ENTIRE BOOK. I am upsetti spaghetti, give us back fun and badass Bryce!! This was not growth, this was regression.
 

Hunt

Hunt has gone through his fair share of traumatic experiences and it is a wonder that this man is not plagued with PTSD everywhere he turns. He has endured the dungeons of the Asteri twice now, although it is pointed out that this time he is not alone like he was the first time, which I assume helps with the coping. I loved seeing him, Ruhn, and Baxian bond and grow closer, albeit under the worst circumstances possible. He clearly is trying to process the events of the dungeons for most of this book, and has a trauma-based fear of them being caught by the Asteri for a 3rd time (as he should) so he is constantly fretting over their plans to infiltrate. Bryce barely tries to console him like she would in previous books and basically tells him to suck it up multiple times leading to a fight. This felt super out of character for Bryce and I felt bad for my boy Hunt, who just wants to have a normal life with his mate and start a family. He even thinks about the potential future of a family with Bryce while getting tortured to power through it and she gives him like half a though while in Prythian. She started to treat him like how Shahar treated him and my man deserved soooo much better, and has in fact received better from Bryce in past books.

Ruhn

Ruhn started off as a neutral character for me and has since grown tenfold. He is so much more than just the depresso frat boy that desperately wants to fix the relationship with his half sister that he started off as. He has grown a lot since the first book, which I mainly chalk up to his involvement with the rebellion in CC2. He becomes the main contact between Cormac and Agent Daybright, which plunges him into a role of responsibility and action that he so desperately needed. Ruhn eventually discovers that Lidia is Agent Daybright, and it changes the dynamic between the two of them.

With CC3, Ruhn is being tortured by the Hind's lover, Pollux, all while Lidia is trying her best to repair the relationship she had with Ruhn as Daybright and keep her cover with the Asteri. After Lidia
stages the prison break, Ruhn nearly loses her forever. Watching their relationship grow and and flourish into something more than what it was in CC2 has been one of the best parts, if not the best part of this book. Ruhn has changed his priorities and become his own person who is no longer afraid of his father. He knows what he wants (Lidia's) and will stop at nothing to obtain it.
He even goes so far as to
shoot her in the Asterian palace when Pollux kidnaps her sons, because he does not want her to frantically rush into a potential trap and forfeit her life unnecessarily.
I really hope to see more of Ruhn and Lidia in the next book, especially with how one of the bonus chapters left off. They have quickly become my favorite main characters in this book, when they started off as just side characters in the previous books.

Lidia

Lidia is by far the best part of this book. I cannot even begin to do her justice with how interesting her POV's are, how much I felt for her, and how excited I was to see anything about her. At the beginning of this book, I was merely intrigued by her status as a double agent of the Asteri, working for the cause of the rebellion. Lidia quickly established herself as the main event by
staging the prison break and being an all around badass. She sacrifices herself to save others she cares about, even people she doesn't know as it is revealed that she risked a lot to save rebels when it was not necessary. She became the executioner when fellow agents almost broke and spilled important intel on the rebellion to the Asteri.
 

When it was revealed that Lidia has
sons that have grown up on the Depth Charger, it gave further insight into what was at risk for her. She has been under the employ of the Ocean Queen in order to protect her sons and give them the life she would not be able to offer with her role in the world. Lidia did this for 15 years, protecting others and putting herself on the line in order to maintain a safe environment for her sons and was not even allowed to see them grow up. She was denied access to them and they grew up with 2 amazing adoptive dads, and not for one second does she resent them for experiencing what she missed out on. The dads are also very supportive of creating a relationship between her and her sons, despite who she is to the public as the Hind.


Lidia also has kept secrets about her heritage, and the fact that she has
the power of fire. This very much points to a distant relation to Aelin, with the addition of Lidia being a deer shifter (Aelin's family line symbol) and naming one of her sons after a distant relative from a different world (Brannon). This also points to the shifters in this world and the lore that they are actually fae too are from the ToG universe. There is so much potential for a cross over from ToG because of Lidia's ties, and is easily the most exciting open note left at the end of the book.


Lidia and Ruhn's relationship has grown a lot between their first encounters with each other as Night/Daybright and now. There was a lot of love and hate, back and forth, and overcoming her status as the Hind. With what happened in this book
Lidia and Ruhn are now my favorite couple. They have such an amazing relationship that feels like they truly care for each other and would do anything for each other. I previously held Hunt and Bryce in that regard, but Bryce's POV and actions throughout this entire book as made me feel that her relationship with Hunt is very one sided and that he cares for her so much more than she does for him. I hope for a redemption to bring their relationship back to how it was in CC1&2 since this change in dynamic seemed so out of place to me but was present in the entire book.


TLDR: Lidia absolutely served and slayed throughout the entire book. 

Ithan &  
Sigrid
 &  
Jesiba
 

I don't know who mopes more, Ithan or (Tog spoiler) 
Chaol
. Ithan's start in this book was boring but I quickly found myself interested in his sections. Ithan does a lot of moping and his usual loyal to a fault act during this book, but he also grows a lot. I liked seeing him get into the thick of it once he separated himself from Tharion, Declan, and Flynn and embark on his own mission to make things right. It was a cool arch that played into the wolf pack plotline since there was not much to keep them in the mix besides the fact that they are under employ of the Asteri plus whoever the mysterious mystic alpha is from CC2. Ithan grew a lot and it was good to see other wolf characters, like 
Perry
, expanded on even if only slightly. I feel like his plotline was set up well for the next book; I started off feeling neutral towards Ithan but now I am excited to see what is coming next for him. He has a lot going for him, and there are some loose end conflicts that need to be tied up without leaving too much of a cliffhanger.

Sigrid is the mystic alpha wolf that Ithan saved. I liked her at first but then quickly realized she acts just like Sabine, so she became mid to me.
  I am interested to see what happens next with her, since she is now 
a reaper and went hard giving people's souls the succ. It will be interesting to see what happens with this and the changes to House of Flame and Shadow -- the house under which reapers are aligned -- and her relationship with the wolf pack in the future.
  I would also be ok with her being forgotten since I feel like she did not offer much as a character other than as a plot device to force Ithan into a self fulfillment and growth journey to fill the shoes of 
becoming Prime
, which I have been hoping for and anticipating since CC1.

I also liked seeing the dynamic between Ithan and 
Jesiba. I wish that we got more deep lore from her, I feel like it was pretty short of an info dump and was not as chaotic as I anticipated. I was not expecting her connection to Hel and the reason that she is in the position she is in. I liked her character and the air of mystery she had around her, so I would've liked to have seen more of her this book rather than coming in out of nowhere each time and making some action quickly and then disappearing again.
 

Tharion &  
Sathia
 

Tharion is a complete idiot, I don't understand why he even exists because he should be dead at the lack of foresight and thoughts that go into his decision making. He is a himbo in a bad way, and I am not sure how he has survived thus far. I only found his scenes interesting because of seeing more Sendes and 
Sathia once she was introduced
. The only good decision Tharion did was 
marry Sathia to get her out of a pickle. I actually really like her, even from the little we have seen of her and hope to see more in the next book.
 

Tharion was basically useless for most of this book; if anything he created more challenges for the main crew and made things unnecessarily more difficult just by existing. An example is 
trying to bring the antidote that Hypaxia made to Bryce et al in the Asteri palace, and then using his waves to try to save them. He ends up flooding the main floor, almost drowning Bryce and Hunt and then dropping the bag of antidotes in the process. The antidotes in the bag he dropped basically all broke and were unusable except for like 2 of them.
  Tharion cannot do anything to save his own life, literally as seen in the Viper Queen's domain when he basically resigns himself to her employ after only giving himself 30 mins to submerge in water after breaking up with the River Queen in CC2. I have heard that the next book is following his POV and am concerned. He needs a major rework, redemption, and upheaval in his character before I touch that with even a 10ft pole. 

Hypaxia

Hypaxia still seems like a timid character that could use some work. I think the way that this book left off with her actually was beneficial with the way that this book felt rushed. Ideally, it would have been nice to see her POV and have it be fleshed out more rather than feel so rushed and in the background.
She was able to create an antidote in barely any time, compared to the antidote for the Krystallos demon in CC1 taking some time to develop. I wish we learned more about the witches usurping her crown and actually get to see it happen rather than hearing about it after the fact. Hypaxia is such a cool character with potential and it felt squandered and tossed aside (a theme I clearly felt with a lot of characters).


Hypaxia also has some changes in status with
the defeat of the Under King. Hypaxia made the killing blow, and now rules the House of Flame and Shadow. I was expecting a lot more involvement of this house and its lore considering it is the name of the book. It was interesting to hear about the Under King's origins before his demise, and I think Hypaxia will learn a lot in gaining his role as the ruler. I hope it will get the focus it deserves in the next book, since she is a good person and it is uncharted territory to have the figure everyone viewed as death incarnate for 15 thousand years be replaced. I feel like we did not get enough of Hypaxia in this book and have expectations for more in the next.


Fury & Juniper

I did not get the Fury lore dump that I so desperately needed in this book. I need receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots, everything about her background and got none of it. Fury was used as a glorified baby sitter and transportation system this entire book, we barely see her and she's not even in most of the action. For someone with such a notorious reputation for being a master assassin, I would have expected Bryce to leverage her skills to help in literally any of the battles.

Juniper who? We see her basically once when Fury and her helicopter are used as a shuttle bus. Her presence is used to offer closure to the conflict between her and Bryce after Bryce acted bratty and called the ballet to make Juniper the lead ballerina. This was in CC2 and Bryce cited that she is a fae princess and threatened to pull fae donations. 

Fury and Juniper agree to watch Emile/Cooper and that is basically all of what we see of them, which is a disappointment.

Baxian

I feel bad for my boy Baxian. He is a very cool character and had a lot of potential for being a triarii turned rebel just like Lidia. His presence started off really strong in this book while he was trapped in the dungeons with Ruhn and Hunt, but I feel like he fell off a bit after that. He does not get many POV's (or at least not that I remember) which is a shame because he could have been a cool character to see more about, especially with seeing more in depth about Danika. There could have been some more lore about their relationship, and maybe details that he knew about Danika and what she was working towards. I feel like he got a similar treatment to Fury, where he ends up playing glorified babysitter and sitting duck on Avallen while all the big action happens. He is just "kinda there" in all the other scenes and sometimes gives a smirk or a huff of laughter, but it did not feel like nearly enough for how involved he was at the beginning of the book.
 

Dec & Flynn

Declan and Flynn got a similar treatment to Baxian. They had some involvement in the beginning with Ithan and Tharion but were "kinda just there" again for the rest of it. They are the main devices for any sort of espionage-esque scenes, and are basically just mission control. They do not offer much else besides relations to a new character introduced and then being used as a device again to show 
how Avallen changed but in a good way because earth magic is thriving now
. I would have liked to see more of this duo, since they were good comedic relief in the other books of this series. If this book didn't feel so rushed, there could have been small slice of life normalcy moments that they could easily have filled with shenanigans.
 

Ember & Randall

The only good thing that came from the bleh crossover is the amazing relationship that we briefly see between 
Nesta
  and Ember. I need more of that. Bryce's POV's always make it sound like Ember is some annoying overbearing mom, but she really is amazing. I was not expecting much action from Ember, but I am glad that we got what we did from the bonus chapters. She is a fun character that absolutely helps facilitate slice of life normalcy points in the midst of the rest of the chaos.

Randall does not get much screen time, which is fine since he is just meant to be the "I'm not the step dad, I'm the dad that stepped up" character hanging on the sidelines.

Autumn King & Morven

I was not expecting much from these characters besides the normal shittiness we have seen in the past and perhaps a redemption arch (though not needed by any means). They absolutely were shitty as usual. My main issue with these characters is that they were 
killed off so easily considering their supposed power levels and experience from being centuries old. Ruhn basically snuck up on the Autumn King and stabbed him, while Morven groveled thinking he wouldn't die after the shit he put everyone through and the hate he spewed. It felt too quick and easy, and the team held hands danced on their corpses afterwards.
 

I wish there would have been more development for these characters, and that they would be featured more. This adds to my complaints about the 2nd half of the book feeling rushed, since there were opportunities for them to be included in various ways deeper than just 
"be bigoted/misogynistic asshole". The Autumn King even has a surprisingly heartfelt moment with Bryce while she is fake trapped in his house and admits to being jealous of the fact that he missed out on Bryce's life. That whole moment was pointless since he did not really have a chance to redeem himself, and I am not sure why it was even included. It took up pages that could have been used for literally anything else, especially since there were other characters doing cool things that we did not see enough of.
 

Ariadne & Fire Sprites

Similarly to Juniper, Ariadne is barely mentioned except for the beginning and 
end to set up Tharion's next steps
. Ariadne is a dragon, there easily could have been a cool alliance between Ariadne and the main crew, or even just Ariadne acting independently to go play a part in the downfall of the Asteri's reign. She is a slave, and the Asteri are the main force that allow slavery to be legal and enforce it (literally the wrist tattoos and black crown halos). There was so much potential for Ariadne to come out of nowhere in 
the final countdown and do something cool, just like the fire sprites she was enslaved with in the mystics rings. The sprites found their queen and came back to wreak havoc; it is such a disappointment and waste of a character like a dragon to not have her teamed up with them too. They helped save Lidia and destroyed a lot of the Asterian Guard forces with their flame powers and I see no reason why Ariadne couldn't be part of that and also have the set up with Tharion for the next book.
 

Nesta & Azriel

Nesta and Azriel did not play as big of a part as I had hoped for. Azriel did not do much besides lurk in the background as a shadow presence, and did not speak more than he normally would. His only purpose was to be
carrying his dagger Truth Teller so that Bryce could steal it. I wish we got more of Azriel since he has barely gotten screen time ever, and the few times he does it is depressing (solstice bonus chapter). I hope that the next ACOTAR book will focus on him more and that he will get the focus and closure that he deserves.


With the crossover, I truly thought that Nesta and Bryce
would become fast friends. Bryce gave no reason for Nesta to become friends with her, and was lucky at the end that Nesta is hugely empathetic to protecting humans. Bryce does not understand the risk Nesta took by agreeing to help harbor her parents and loan out the mask, and the vitriolic shaming from Rhysand she received. I am glad that Nesta was spared from a relationship with CC3 Bryce. Nesta and CC1/2 Bryce would have gotten along great, but now I feel like Lidia and Nesta are a much better match for a potential friendship.

I hope now that opening portals between worlds is possible that we will see some more crossover between the original land of the fae and those that reside on Midgard. I was hoping for the Prythian crew to experience Midgard and learn about this higher technology for the first time (like Nesta and Cassian being able to text, or Feyre learning about photography). My expectations for the crossover were a lot higher than what I felt we got. I felt like it lacked any real reason for making this jump and could have been a lot more concise because of that. I hope to see Nesta in this universe, and think that it would make for an excellent side plot. She deserves to see
Ember again and it would make sense to have them come back since I am not sure what else there will be to explore in the next book besides the more minor individual plot lines we saw in this book.
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angelofthetardis's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

So I didn't want to buy this in hardback as it won't fit on my bookshelf, and I have no idea when I'd be able to get it from the library (the reserve queue is huge), so I made use of my Audible subscription and bought the audiobook instead. Cheaper than the physical copy, and means I save more money to spend next year!

Thus far I haven't been as drawn into the world of Crescent City as I have with Sarah J Maas' other realms, but I was nevertheless very excited to read this one as soon as it came out as it starts to draw the worlds closer together. With Hunt, Ruhn and Baxian stuck in the dungeons of the Asteri and facing torture, and Bryce no-where to be found on Midgard or in Hel, everything is set up for this to be a gripping, bloody, thrilling ride toward the ultimate showdown.

I was hoping for an epic crossover event, a really impactful tale that would serve as an episode in both of her incomplete series and a temporary yet meaningful blending of the Night Court and Lunathion... but I was left feeling a bit cheated. I will be fair, although the ending of CC2 had been spoiled for me some time ago, I only read the book a few weeks ago so I haven't had the same length of time to have this building in my head. But if I had, I suspect I would have hurled the book across the room. Ultimately, there's a lot of wandering through tunnels, a little bit of friendly interrogation and a bitch-off between Nesta and Bryce and... that's about it. I did like the fact that little hints from both CC and ACOTAR were pulled into the narrative here, but overall the crossover element felt more like it was there to please the fans than to actually move the plot along. There is one moment which is gorgeous and brilliant and sort of illustrates Nesta's character development in a nutshell though... 

This series is probably the most complex of the three in terms of worldbuilding, and generally speaking you can see that a LOT of thought has gone into it, but it almost feels like too much. There are just so many elements to keep track of, so many character threads to follow and so much lore to remember that a lot of bits and pieces get lost in the noise. And this book only adds to the worldbuilding, expanding on the origins of the people of Midgard, the history of the Asteri and so on. Unfortunately, while I can imagine the scenes where this is set out playing well on a TV or movie screen, when listening or reading it does feel like a never-ending info dump during these moments. And there are more than one of them, which really deadens the pace and had me zoning out a little. Similarly, I'd say that a lot of snippets could have been edited out so that the focus remained on the main story. 

I'm ashamed to say that I can't ever really tell you who my favourite character is. I just can't connect with anyone in here. Their relationships with each other are well drawn and every one of the main characters and supporting cast is really well fleshed out, but there's just nothing binding my soul to one of them. If I had to choose, I'd probably go with Hunt, but even that doesn't sit quite right. And in terms of their character arcs throughout this book, I wouldn't day there are any major surprises - everyone basically acts exactly as you'd expect them to. 

Likewise, most of the major plot points are fairly predictable; however, there are a couple of moments that make you sit up and take notice, and those are worth tuning in for. There are a couple ofmloose threads that I guess could be picked up in another book or two, but I suspect any future instalments might suffer from too thin a plot and too much magical politics.

The whole series has a bit more of a sci-fi edge to it, but that's definitely expanded in this book - why am I imagining Stargates dotted a over Crescent City and at the Northern Rift? I do like it because it's not what I was expecting, but equally I think I'm more of a straight fantasy type of girl.

I'm not disappointed with the book, but nor am I particularly worried about picking it up again. A shame for such an anticipated release!
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