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

No context favorite moments & thoughts:
-Ruhn MF Danaan.
-Azriel is a club rat, and maybe a metalhead.
-Nobody in the NC knows wtf an iphone is.
-Lidia Servos absolutely serving.
-Ember Quinlan being the mommy we didn’t know we needed.
-I bet Jesiba Roga makes a mean drink … and she owes me one at this point.

Content Warnings

payton_layne's review

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adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

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reneec1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

4.5

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
🌶️🌶️🌶️

The one spoiler I saw before I read this is that this is

not an ACOTAR book

and even though I try to go in blind, I’m so glad I did!

CHARACTERS: Bryce became a little less likable for me in this book, but she’s still a great FMC. I really like that there’s such a large cast of characters. However, there were far too many POV changes. Some chapters had several switches and that really takes me out of the story. I loved getting to know much more of Lidia’s story in this one.

PLOT: it was about what I expected coming into this book, but my one complaint is that it was high stakes all the time, so in a way that made it boring.

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amy_in_the_city's review

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adventurous dark emotional slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

This book was just OK. It did have some major issues and was definitely my least favorite of the three books in this series. I'm just glad to have a conclusion to the Asteri plotline, even if the final battle was underwhelming.

The book suffered from pacing problems. The first third of the book dragged on and on, with Bryce spending way too much time wandering through tunnels looking at art. Maybe it would have been a bit more interesting if we at least got some angst from Bryce, but it felt like she wasn't all that concerned about her mate and brother being in grave danger. There was no sense of urgency on her part to rescue them from being tortured and maybe eventually executed. Then, later in the book, we get to follow along as Bryce wanders through tunnels again. Not exactly riveting stuff.

There were also too many POVs happening to allow enough time with the main characters. I really didn't care about Ithan's and Tharion's storylines and dreaded every time it switched back to their POVs. They were mostly just those two characters making stupid mistakes followed by a lot of self loathing. I hope they make Tharion much more interesting and likeable if he's going to feature prominently in the next book. I did like his marriage of convenience subplot and think there is interesting potential there.

Bryce and Hunt's relationship was a mess in this book, and I really didn't like Bryce much. She never communicates her plans with Hunt. Then even though Hunt is blindly following her into danger, she picks fights with him because he isn't enthusiastic about being there. How can he be 100% on board with her plans when he doesn't know what they are? She doesn't seem to care that this is only a couple days after he got back from spending several days being brutally tortured for allowing her to drag him into this mess. Or that the situation is reminiscent of how things went with Shahar and to say that ended tragically would be an understatement. Bryce was being so disrespectful towards Hunt and his trauma because she wanted to look like a badass with gotcha moments and zingers. Really, it feels like most of her plans were half-baked at best, and they only work out in her favor because of plot armor. It didn't feel like an equal partnership between the main couple. Bryce just does whatever she wants, doesn't tell Hunt, and leaves him to deal with the consequences. At least she does apologize to Hunt for being a dick at one point, but I'd prefer if she didn't spend most of the book acting like a dick to begin with.

Ruhn and Lidia were this book's saving grace. I kept wishing they were the main couple because they were great, and I wanted the story to spend more time with them. Lidia was such a badass, so clever and sneaky. I love sneaky characters who know how to play along with the game in order to achieve their goals and there aren't nearly enough leading women out there like this. I don't know that we got enough justification for why she joined the evil side to begin with though, and I feel like the explanation for why she changed sides was kind of flimsy. Ruhn is almost perfect in every way, with a major exception for

when he shot Lidia to try to save her. That was kind of a patriarchal bullshit move.

. I still love him so much.

Other characters I really liked spending time with in this book were Nesta, Azriel, Hypaxia, and Aidas.

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unboundbooklover's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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ashleynp24's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.75

Loved the book, I wish the ACOTAR characters had a bit more time in the books but I’m glad that Nesta was the main character in the crossover. I felt that everything kind of got summed up really nicely. Lidia probably turned out to be my favorite character, and the hint she’s related to Brannon, and therefore Aelin was wild. I do want to know what happened with Sathia and where Ariadne was considering she appears at the end and that’s the last of that chapter.

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hematthews's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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