Reviews with content warning for Body horror - House of Flame and Shadow

This was hardly a crossover. It was more like a Nesta and Azrael cameo. I love Nesta more than anything, and I did love the scenes with her, but I just . . . expected more. I’m still really disappointed that Bryce didn’t even meet Feyre, and they only mentioned her twice as Rhys’s mate. I think SJM’s interviews and marketing strategies drastically oversold this “crossover.”

It just really didn’t feel like “enough” even though she had 850(!) pages to play with. Bryce and Hunt were so disappointing. Their “reunion” is CRIMINALLY awful. They just had no emotional charge or spark in this book. I felt super disconnected from Bryce constantly, and the bouncing around POVs did not help that. Her anti-fae BS also continually grew more and more annoying each time she met more fae who WEREN’T that way. It seemed extra aggressive in this compared to books 1 and 2, which I JUST read.

I HATED the info dumping with Thea. I just didn’t care, at all, and it was presented in such an unappealing way. If I tried to read it, I skimmed. If I tried to listen to it, I’d zone out. And yes, I read all three formats (print, kindle, and audio) to slog through this one.

I never laughed out loud, and I was never even close to crying or even felt emotional at all. SJM is usually so good at nailing that ending which makes up for some greater issues, but the Asteri defeat was so anticlimactic. How many times can she kill and resurrect main characters? I wasn’t worried about Bryce at all. This was literally me: 🙄

My biggest complaint with all the CC books is how many characters are seemingly pointless. It’s like SJM introduces them for a greater purpose, but then just forgets about them or kills them off and it all feels like a waste. Danika is dangerously close to this, as she was effectively dead for 95% of this trilogy. Sigrid, Sophie and her brother, Sathia… Apparently if you get an S-name, you’re useless. And the dragon girl? There were just so many guns that were created, but never fired. She says this is the end of Bryce and Hunt, so I’m very curious to see where this goes next. This worldbuilding is infamously hard to get into, and this just felt like such a letdown.

I read that SJM completely scrapped her first draft and rewrote this book in six weeks. If this is true, it makes a lot of sense. It’s just missing so much heart and follow through. I’d be very curious to hear why this happened and read the first draft.

I originally gave this a 4 but writing this review, I’m going to have to take it down. What did I love?

Ruhn. Lidia. Oh my word. They were the shining stars (lol) of this book. I LOVED both of them and their relationship. Night and Day was one of my favorite (if not my most favorite) subplots of CC2, so it’s no surprise that I adored them. I’m still not sold on Ruhn shooting her (which, again, turned out to be COMPLETELY POINTLESS) but oh well.

I wish we got a little more Hypaxia. Her relationship with Celestina also fizzled out in such a stupid way. It feels like that was just thrown in for shock value. Like so much else, SJM just threw us a bone with one sentence explaining what happened.

Ugh. I’m just a little sad. I expected a lot more from this. I’ll be interested to see if my opinion changes as I stew.

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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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sha's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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embelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

Going to need several days to process all that is House of Flame and Shadow. With the sheer amount of content that’s covered, it honestly felt like reading 3 books in one. Was it my favorite Sarah J Maas book ever? No. But were there parts that I really enjoyed and did I still speed through this book at the edge of my seat while losing my cool!? Undoubtedly yes! Sarah J Maas’s world building abilities are next level, and this now has me sooooo excited for ALL her future books (if you know, you know!)

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emmerylynn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.25

I loved reading this! Though there were moments I just COULDN’T with some characters (*cough Ithan *cough Tharion) this was a very tense and memorable rollercoaster of a story! I laughed. I gasped. I cried. Can’t wait for the next one!

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sneha_sarcar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was so good. So much is happening but there’s a good mix between lore and action. Some of the characters make questionable decisions that have me screaming but it was a beautiful emotional rollercoaster. Occasionally the POV jumps were happening a bit too quickly and it felt like whiplash but it was nice to see what was happening in the different places all at once. I absolutely love Bryce and Hunt but Lidia stole the show for me. Her character development is absolutely amazing. This was a great read and still left more to be said.

It was nice to see that after the Asteri were defeated. It wasn’t just going back to normal and everything is okay. They are still facing challenges.

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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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