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

Let me start out by saying that I did in fact love this book and it was a five-star read for me despite some of my feelings. Why? Because it was still fun, it was still a good plot, the characters were still amazing. the romance was still romancing for me. It was still an incredible SJM book for me. Is it my favorite? No. but it was still good.

I LOVED THE BOOK... but I was super underwhelmed at the end. This was not the High Stakes, emotionally damaging book I was expecting. (HOSAB&HOFAS Spoiler) <Spoiler>And this has nothing to do with the crossover, even though that felt super underwhelming too, but I also wasn't expecting a crazy crossover since this is a Crescent City book, not an ACOTAR book. It wouldn't make much sense to put a ton of info in that would need to be explained in the next ACOTAR book for it to make sense.</Spoiler> I don't think enough people died. with how the Asteri were written be this huge bad multi-planet villain it just wasn't <i>enough.</i> I expected to be in a full blown reading slump and that did not happen.

Despite that, I am very much looking forward to her next book because despite this being the ending to Bryce and Hunt. I do not think this will be the last Crescent City Book. I mean, we still need a House of Many Waters book.

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hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

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megad_06's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.75

Really good! Took a while to get into but ended Hunt & Bryce's ark well. Wish the ACOTAR crossover had more substance but was good nonetheless

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ka_ke's review

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adventurous challenging 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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iloponis's review

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3.0

i have many thoughts

i cannot believe that the woman who wrote this book also wrote throne of glass. a staggering difference in quality. it just tries so hard to be edgy and rugged that its distracting. this is true for the cc series as a whole, but it really peaked in this book.

also someone needs to take the phrase "he/she could have sworn" out of sarah j maas's vocabulary, preferably her editor but i'll take anyone at this point

as an acotar fan, i ADORED the crossover. but i have some gripes with it being so fanservice-y.

i do not care for the "oh no the main character is dead haha just kidding" shit. i hated it in acotar and i hate it in this too. either grow a pair and kill off ur characters permanently or dont bother

while lidia carried this book, and her and ruhn's relationship was my fav, the development of their relationship was not as satisfying as it could have been and im mad about it

basically, this book felt like the culmination of the author biting off more than she could chew. half of the characters were great and had interesting stories and the other half i did not care for.

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cassidy_rain's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

“The friends they’d made were what mattered in the end. Not the enemies. Through love, all is possible.”

*Possible spoilers if you haven’t read the first books in the series*

Another fun installment in the Crescent City series. The side characters were really the stars of the show this time around, in my opinion. I absolutely love Ruhn and Lidia, both separately and together. The crossover with ACOTAR (and a little bit TOG) is just fabulous. I was never a huge Nesta fan, but her character really shines in this. Hypaxia is incredible! A lot of things tie together really nicely in this one and I love the found family/power of friendship themes throughout.

Some things that were not my fave- this one felt pretty choppy as I read through it. The perspective sometimes changes multiple times in one chapter and feels a bit like whiplash. I hate to say this, because I loved them in the first two books, but I just didn’t really feel the chemistry between Bryce and Hunt in this one. I don’t think there was much development between them. They tell each other they’re so deeply in love but I just didn’t feel it. Also, the story structure is so repetitive to her other novels. This doesn’t typically bother me, but it really lessens the stakes. Nothing was shocking.

Insanely powerful FMC must sacrifice herself for the good of all, dies in the process, but inevitably will be brought back to life. Battles won super easily. Where have we seen this before?

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading this book, I just liked the first two a bit more! At the end of the day, Sarah J Maas creates such great fantasy worlds that I love to get lost in. I’m officially caught up in the universe!

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florecita_lectora's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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jpfortmiller's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-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? No

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