#brythalar

"𝑩𝒓𝒚𝒄𝒆, 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅-"

"𝑵𝒐," 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅, 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕. 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕. "𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖- 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆."

𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏. "𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒕𝒐𝒐.”

✩🔥🌟Review:

My jaw can rest easy now that I’ve devoured this book (it was on the floor practically from start to finish). 

“House of Flame and Shadow” follows Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar as they rally everyone they love to save their world before it is lost forever.

Sarah J. Maas is notorious for making the last 100 pages absolute chaos, but this novel jumps right into the action and kept me engaged all the way through!

With her newfound abilities, Bryce is able to walk between worlds. Maas allows the reader to explore new and familiar places through Bryce’s point-of-view. Her complex world-building immerses the reader in Bryce’s new environment with other beloved characters. At the same time, Maas doesn’t lose sight of what is occurring in Midgard and makes sure that Bryce’s time in those worlds doesn’t overpower the main storyline. 

I really enjoyed the addition of Lidia’s points-of-view, no matter the pain it caused me. Lidia’s perspective gives the reader access to her involvement with both the Asteri and Ophion as well as her past. My favorite part of this book was definitely the development of her relationship with Ruhn. The mutual pining and sexual tension is just so well done.

Of the trilogy, House of Earth and Blood remains my favorite. I anticipated that House of Flame and Shadow would take the cake, but despite the curveballs and shocking revelations, I ultimately did not find many of the character perspectives as compelling as they were in previous books and did not like the turn that Bryce’s characterization took. She invalidated Hunt’s feelings when he was trying to process the trauma he underwent (which honestly disgusted me) and somehow managed to master her powers while carrying out elaborate plans behind the scenes. I just didn’t buy it and didn’t think her behavior aligned with the character I knew from books 1 and 2.  

Despite these criticisms, I had a great experience with this book, as I do with all Sarah J. Maas books, and look forward to returning to Lunathion if/when Crescent City 4 comes out!

Moodboard: Bryce Quinlan

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar from Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas

Cormac: But that’s a trash can.