Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - House of Flame and Shadow

I have waited for this book for so long and it did not disappoint. I saw a lot of people being disappointed by this book but I really enjoyed it. Yes there were a few things that annoyed me but all in all I think it was a super fun read and I loved all the backstory we got for the world and the characters.

This book pretty much finished the arc of this series and since I know that there will be a fourth book I'm curious to see what story she will tell there. I will definitely be reading it but I also did like the ending to this one and I could be satisfied with this just being a trilogy.

Now on to my spoilery thoughts:

1. I enjoyed Bryce being in the ACOTAR universe but I was kind of missing a second POV from over there. I really hope we get to know what happened on their side in the next ACOTAR book. I would be really disappointed if they just ignored this ever happening over there. Also I love the Ember & Nesta bonding!! And Randall bonding with Rhys over being overprotective fathers?? I love them! But I also was annoyed by Bryce. I get that she doesn't trust them and it makes sense, especially after she finds out they have been manipulating her but to just open that coffin??? She knows better than anyone how dangerous the Asteri are and still she just let one free on the off chance that she will answer her questions?? She is so so lucky that Nesta managed to kill her otherwise she would have doomed that whole planet!

2. Bryce treated Hunt quite badly for a while. I really like them both but their fights made me mad at them for not properly communicating. I can ignore it because I understand the pressure they were under but I think especially Bryce was really unnecessarily harsh towards him and didn't even try to understand what it was like for him and what he went through. She was so focused on her own goals and kind of made fun of him for feeling like it was his fault they were in this shitty situation. He was constantly trying not to make her angry and trying to show her support and I feel like she didn't give him the grace he deserved.

3. I LOVE Ruhn and Lidia. They absolutely have my heart. But still they annoyed me a bit especially in the beginning. Lidia gave EVERYTHING for him. She risked everything and he wouldn't even talk to her?? And then once she manages to save them all by almost giving her own life (!!!) She just immidiately shuts him out and tells him he's not worth knowing what happened to her.
They clearly are obsessed with each other though. But I also didn't like that they were so distracted by each other that they literally didn't realise their friends got kidnapped? The whole "you make me feel alive" thing almost makes up for it though.

4. Tharion had a TALENT for making people mad at him and defecting. It's almost comical at this point. He swears to marry the River Queens daughter but decides not to. Defects from the River Queen. Defects from the Viper Queen. Defects from the Ocean Queen. Then MARRIES A TOTAL STRANGER! And then offers to divorce her in order to go back to the River Queens daughter and marry her!!?? I mean this man's journey is absolutely insane. He fucked up so many times and even though it did annoy me a bit it also made him interesting somehow and I'm curious to see if he manages to not fuck up in the next book.

5. All in all we got so may unhinged things happening.
- Ithan and Hypaxia freezing the Under King and then destroying the ice statue? And then Hypaxia becoming Leader of Flame and Shadow?
- Rhys taking literally AGES to get to the House of Wind!? That man can literally winnow and fly! How is it possible that they just stand there having full conversations and big goodbyes all the while saying "oops be careful Rhys will be here soon! You can already see his shadows! They are are coming..." Why is he suddenly so slow it doesn't make sense.
- Lidia having sons? And literally racing to them after being resurrected(!!!) not caring about her own health. Where is that cool and calm Hind?
- Ithan killing Sigrid. Resurrecting her as a Reaper. Watching Sabine kill the Prime and Sigrid eat his Soul. And then killing Sabine and becoming Prime himself??
- Hunt being a Son of Hell??
- The whole Parasite thing?
- Bryce opening a Portal to a Black Hole in order for it to eat another Black Hole that was a Kill Switch for Midgard?
- The Soul of Shahar helping hunt to save Bryce?
- Tharion randomly being forced to marry Sathia?
- The Winged Horses being back?
- Lidias Flame magic?
- I could go on and on truly but also I'm obsessed and I love it

6. I wish we got more Fury and Juniper content. They were some of my favourites and Bryces closest friends and I hate that they kind of just got replaced by all the men. I LOVE all those men, don't get me wrong. But I really wanted to see more of them. I love that we got more from Lidia and Hypaxia whom I both ADORE! And I was happy to see Jesiba again. Still it almost felt like these two got irrelevant and I hate to see that.

7. I also LOVE multiple POVs and I think SJM does them so well! But in this book there were sometimes shifts of the POV within one chapter which confused me sometimes. Especially when we're still with the same group of people just a different person.

8. I still have SO MANY QUESTIONS and I really hope they get answered in the next book. My main one is what is Fury really? Where did she come from? What is her power? Also WHY is no one trying to save Vik? Have they all forgotten about her? She was Hunts friend and pretty powerful too? They do everything to save their friends and somehow they cannot manage one quick trip down the ocean to save her? We KNOW that she's still alive and suffering. If shes truly gone insane just get her and kill her so she's not suffering anymore!! And I'm also really curious about Sigrid. Is she going to be an enemy? Is she going to challenge Ithan? I hope she will become more than a plotdevice to make Ithan realise that he has to step up because no-one else will. Also what will happen to the witches? Will Morganthia fight against the new hierarchies? What will they do to replace the firstlight? Also what is going on with Ariadne? Who was she "bought" by? Why is she with the Viper Queen again? I thought that perhaps the Hind had bought her and she would help them with the escape (which ultimately turned out to be what Irithys did) but we just didn't hear from her again? That was kind of disappointing and I hope we get more about her in the next book. I also hope we get more from Celestina and Hypaxia. What even did Celestina do to make Ephraim not go help the Asteri? Is she mad at Hunt for almost killing her?
There is definitely a lot still to be explored in this universe and I'm excited for the next book.

Other things that I didn't like:
- Why did Danika just know EVERYTHING and not tell anyone? It's starting to feel like a plot convenience that everytime someone knows something without any reason it's just that Danika told them or wrote it down or something like that. Everything always ties back to her somehow.
- The whole parasite thing was strange. At first it was explained like it was just the reason people had to make the drop or die. And then it was something that hindered their full potential? But I thought the Parasite "ate" that magic so how can they just so easily bring it back? Also it was kind of weird how quickly Hypaxia managed to make an antidote.
- I don't like that we didn't get more about the motivations from Hel. They just showed up, helped and then left again saying "bye bye you don't ever have to see us again and you don't owe us anything we just wanted to help"?? I'm glad that they were real allies and didn't betray them but it didn't make sense to me that they didn't have an ulterior motive.
- And also I was kind of hoping to see a big confrontation between Hel and the Asteri. Especially Appolion. The one Asteri who was (presumably) killed by the Princes of Hell just died without us even getting to see it or it being properly mentioned. The time slowed and they went "oh wow guess another Asteri died" but I wish for how much they hyped them up we got to see some conflict between the Asteri and the Princes. Maybe some banter, some "this is for Theia" or something like that. Or at least show me what happens when they fight. The whole fight just went really quickly. Also why on Earth are we literally doing everything in this entire book to find out what the two blades can do and how to kill the Asteri when Bryce in the end just makes a portal? She doesn't even use the blades after the first kill??

Okay now on to what I liked:
It was basically everything else.
And honestly even the things I'm criticising did not bother me that much. I really wanted to keep reading and I think this book even pulled me out of my reading slump. It was so so FUN to read about and I had a great time. But im my opinion it was not only fun but GOOD. The worldbuilding and hierarchies and connections between different worlds and the overlaps etc were done so well! And they were genuinely interesting. Were there some small flaws and plotholes and some things only there for convenience? Sure. It's also quite unrealistic that almost all of our main characters survived this huge war but I don't care. I like happy endings and I think they all deserve to survive and be happy now. I also just really like the humour in this book, especially from Bryce. She might be a clique powerful protagonist now and somehow every single man is into her? but she's also so fun to read about and I love her! I wish we got to see more of her friendship with Nesta. And more of her with the other women in general. But all in all I'm happy with this book. I enjoyed reading it and I can't wait for the fourth book in this series!

Content Warnings

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 it’s RUINING me. If it was any other author, I probably would have DNF’d this book. So many words for so little to happen, the end left me shaking my head, and don’t even get me started on the lack of character consistency!
As one of my friends put it, “it feels like she flew too close to the sun” and I wouldn’t be sad to see this book dropped into the ocean forever.

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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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browneyesblue84's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-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

am so happy that I had a chance to read this book. I waited patiently for its release. I cleared my reading schedule just so that I would have enough time to truly immerse myself back into Bryce Quinlan‘s world. Not only did I pre-order is digital copy but I also ordered a physical copy. Yes, I am that much of a fan of this series.

I would be lying if I said that I was not nervous about reading this third Crescent City book. I truly like each and every character in this book whether they are a protagonist or an antagonist. However, I was worried about Hypaxia Enadore in the most. She’s my favorite character in the series. I was a little disappointed regarding the change in her storyline regarding Ruhn and well as the relationship with Celestina. I was afraid that she would end up sidelined, or become an irrelevant character and be killed off. However, Sarah J Maas not only introduced Hypaxia is an awesome way but gave her a very cool storyline.

I wasn’t a big fan of Ruhn and Lidia as mates but I think their relationship grew on me after reading HOFAS. I changed my mind about Lidia after a secret about her was revealed. Not once did I fathom that The Hind could be someone’s mom. It was cool that Tharion and Ithan played a bigger part in this story along with Declan and Flynn. The decision made to include some characters for a short time was cool as well. Despite the fact that I haven’t read the ACOTAR series yet I really like those characters as well.

Bryce Quinlan has changed so much since the first book. The same can be said about Hunt as well. I love their bond. The way that they are willing to sacrifice themselves for their friends and each other is beautiful. Beautiful. My favorite part of their story arc was each time they reconnected. So much happened in HOFAS and I am really looking forward to reading another book in this series. The only thing that I did not like about the story is that I’m going to have to wait another two years for another book. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be waiting patiently for the next release.

I rated Sarah J Maas’ House of Flame and Shadow five stars out of five . It was so good that I didn’t want it to end.

Content Warnings

sam_gartley91's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

3.75

Loved it! And really anything SJM does. But it was really whiplashy with multiple pov in the same chapter. And that Bryce seemed to be doing some of the work off page at times so she knew things the audience didn’t. She did that last book too and it wasn’t my fav. It wasn’t like that the audience was learning with her. It bugged me a bit. The fantasy meets sci-fi was interesting and I don’t think I’ve seen that before. There are still some characters that I would love to learn more about. Like what is fury?!! So I’m curious where if anywhere SjM is going next with this series world. The cross over wasn’t exactly what I expected good at times and a little let down at others. I really just wanted them all to be friends!! Which maybe in the future they will/could get there. But overall SjM did seem to tie everything up in a bow. Now it’s for the world to reset itself up. Overall loved it but wish it was difffernt at times.

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annabithebook's review

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adventurous informative tense fast-paced

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

1.75

The thought that kept coming to me throughout was “how did this get past alpha/beta readers??” Followed quickly by “I cannot believe that if I hadn’t just invested my soul into 17 previous books to get to this point, I would have DNF’d it.” 😳

I am so disappointed in how many things I disliked in the series. Let’s make a spoiler-free list in no particular order:

1. Open plot points from HOSAB were just effectively dismissed and no actual meaningful resolution occurred.
2. Where the fuck was Fury and why was she not a bigger part of this?
3. 75 perspective changes inside of a single chapter with no indicator (especially bad in the audiobook format) this made an already 30 hour book take literal HOURS of extra time rewinding and listening again to try and figure out who did what and when it changed.
4. Dumbass characters making reckless stupid decisions.
Sub point here: it really felt like in the early stages of TOG where people are young and reckless and immature but instead of them having the time and lived experiences over 8 books to grow and mature into the better version of themselves (which was 👌🏻) the entire “arc” occurs crammed into one book and feels thin/baseless/disingenuous.
5. I never thought I’d say an 800+ page book should have spread things out more but it should have been two separate books (á la Eos & ToD). There were just too many ambitious plot lines/characters/stories competing for page time and so instead of trimming some to fully flesh out the ones you keep or splitting into two books, they’re all sort of chaotic and rushed which makes the story feel disjointed and inauthentic.
6. Kind of related to 5, but SJM is famous for her character growth and well balanced storylines with beautiful relationships, but she just didn’t give herself the space to do that with this novel or really CC as a whole.
7. The crossover infodump.
8. SJMs famous “why didn’t you just tell her that in the first place.”
9. SO MUCH HEAD ST@BB1NG
10. Hunt/Bryce seem like a couple who should really just break up…. 😬
11. Bryce in general (weakest SJM FMC in terms of how well they’re written as leads).
12. Other main cast characters who aren’t even in this book.
13. Characters who only appear when SJM needs them for a plot function so they feel like tools and not people.
14. Questionable science “oh yeah, let’s just hold the _____ ____ open!” 😒
15. The rumbly in Baxian’s tummy that only hands can satisfy.

Now. A much shorter but MAY CONTAIN VAGUE SPOILERS list of what I loved:

1. Ruhn/Lidia - they got snubbed like Lorcan/Elide from more page time
2. Jessiba
3. The sprites
4. The message of unity
5. Patricide
6. ……it’s not a good sign that I ran out at 5 things?

Honestly, my thumbs are tired but if you want a more comprehensive and, frankly, hilarious review that is literally all the thoughts in my head too, here is another amazing GR reviewer’s thoughts: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4553540457

TLDR; didn’t DNF because I was stubborn but it tried to be too many things at once and so instead it was successful at nearly nothing. Very disappointed 😢 1.75⭐️

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