A review by libertyreads789
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

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

3.0

Oh, boy. I’ll admit I’m nervous to post my review for this one. I do NOT need the backlash. But since I discuss books here I will go ahead and review this one. House of Sky and Breath is the second book in the Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas. In book one we meet Bryce and Hunt who must uncover the truth of who murdered her best friend and her best friend’s werewolf pack. In book two both the world and the political intrigue are expanded as we continue to follow the lives of the Fae, Werewolves, Shifters, and Angels from book one.

I found three things about this book to be particularly annoying: 1) it was unnecessarily dense, 2) it was unnecessarily long, and 3) it had unnecessary sex scenes. Though, being the asexual that I am, I find almost all sex scenes to be unnecessary. The frequency of these sex scenes is what annoyed me more than anything. In the first 250 pages we got one, and then it kept speeding up from there. A hundred pages later, then fifty pages later, then in back to back chapters. I get it, you’re mated and this is the best sex ever or whatever. But...can we get back to the rebellion here??? I truly think Maas’s publishers just let her write whatever she wants at this point. Not only in content but also length of the novel. This whole book could have happened in 500 or 600 pages. Easy. But other things that I’ve seen mentioned that also bothered me to a lesser degree were: WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? We get one female perspective and a bunch of male perspectives. Which is annoying. But the female characters we do get aren’t as well fleshed out or are barely seen on the page. I get that Bryce is supposed to be beloved by all the men she meets, but can that not happen with another main female character in the picture? Also the pacing is pretty off. I felt like the last 125 pages had all of the action while the first 672 were all meandering. I know we had to work up to the action scenes at the end, but the pace was so lopsided.

But, after giving all the Maas Stans a heart attack, let’s discuss the things I enjoyed in this one. I still enjoy Bryce and Hunt as a couple for the most part. I wish things didn’t go from “Hello” to sex in the blink of an eye, but I still like them together and I still believe in their romance. I also still love this world and this magic system for the most part. (Bryce basically being a magical battery not withstanding.) I also loved the direction this one went in terms of the politics and the stakes really being raised for our heroes. I’m on the fence about continuing the series. I’ve heard it could be a trilogy so that might be okay. But I’m also really doubting that given where this book left off. I don’t know if there’s a way to wrap up this series in one book. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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