Scan barcode
A review by stevienotnicks
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have no idea how I read this beast so quickly, but SJM has a way of sucking you into her worlds so completely that time has no meaning.
This is the third a the series, so look away if you don’t want general Crescent City Spoilers…
Where to even begin?! Because it’s been so long since I’ve read CC1 and CC2 I had forgotten how this series leans more into high fantasy storytelling than ACOTAR. It really does callback a lot of lore from ACOTAR and a smidge from ToG and while I really don’t think you HAVE to read those series before jumping in, some of the reveals lose a bit of their umfph without that knowledge.
If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that “found family” is one of my absolute favorite tropes. HOFAS really leans into this, developing even deeper connections between the characters we fell for in the first two books, while introducing to more characters to love. I’m also a big fan of high stakes magical battles & HOFAS delivers!
So why only a four star, you might ask? The pacing is thrown off by the flip flopping between a million POVs. There are so many subplots in this book, I feel like I was reading four entirely different stories. I kept waiting for them to coalesce in some epic way by the end, but I really just found myself trudging through Ithan’s storyline because it was SOOOOO boring. Sorry not sorry.
Despite that, I really enjoyed this one and am excited to see what happens next. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go rest my hands & wrists from holding this one up for hours lol
This is the third a the series, so look away if you don’t want general Crescent City Spoilers…
Where to even begin?! Because it’s been so long since I’ve read CC1 and CC2 I had forgotten how this series leans more into high fantasy storytelling than ACOTAR. It really does callback a lot of lore from ACOTAR and a smidge from ToG and while I really don’t think you HAVE to read those series before jumping in, some of the reveals lose a bit of their umfph without that knowledge.
If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that “found family” is one of my absolute favorite tropes. HOFAS really leans into this, developing even deeper connections between the characters we fell for in the first two books, while introducing to more characters to love. I’m also a big fan of high stakes magical battles & HOFAS delivers!
So why only a four star, you might ask? The pacing is thrown off by the flip flopping between a million POVs. There are so many subplots in this book, I feel like I was reading four entirely different stories. I kept waiting for them to coalesce in some epic way by the end, but I really just found myself trudging through Ithan’s storyline because it was SOOOOO boring. Sorry not sorry.
Despite that, I really enjoyed this one and am excited to see what happens next. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go rest my hands & wrists from holding this one up for hours lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Violence
Moderate: Sexism and Sexual assault