House of Sky and Breath

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. I loved it! This is such a great series. I love the magic, and I can just picture the costumes and everything from the details in this book. Once again, I was sucked in from the beginning and left wanting more. I will definitely be reading Garden of Dreams and Desires!

Guys, I don't even know if I'll be able to gather my thoughts on this one. I'll keep this kind of brief because I plan to go more in depth on my YouTube channel. I will skip a plot recap since this is a sequel.

First and foremost, this book could have been shorter. It was too long. Second, we followed way too many POVs. Not all of them really added to the story. I like that we got this crew together and created this fun camaraderie; however, we really didn't need separate POVs for all of them. I don't think it added to the story. I think that the plot dragged for the first half of the book, but the last 1/3 of the book really picked up and got interesting. There was some queer rep in this book, so maybe SJM is listening to some of the criticisms she's had for her previous books. There is a lot more mature content in this book for sure, and I'm not entirely sure if all of it was necessary. Some of it I do think added to the story, but some felt like it was just there to be there.

SJM also I think tried to fix some of the criticisms she got from her other series in terms of colonialism. She tries to address this head on in this book and really show the inequalities and privilege's that her characters face. They try to fight back against the powers that are holding everyone down. Was she successful? I'm not sure. I think someone smarter than me would have to say.

She still heavily leans on her tropes of “mates” and “alphaholes”, but I didn't think that was going anywhere.

The ending threw me. I honestly cannot decide how I feel. I'll leave it there for now to avoid spoilers, but was it necessary? I don't know yet.

Overall, do I recommend this book? I guess yeah, if you've read her other books and enjoyed them. I don't think this was her strongest work. However, I will say that Bryce and Hunt's relationship is probably the healthiest out of all of her main ships. And the book was entertaining for the latter half.

TW: alcohol, blood, child abuse (mentioned), death, death camps (briefly visited), decapitation, demons, drugs, emesis, gun violence, murder, profanity, sexual assault, sexually explicit scenes, skeletons, terrorism, violence

Spoiler-Free Review:

HOLY CRAP, y'all! That ending... That ending! Spoiler-free is always promised here, so feel free to slide into my DMs for all things spoilery. This book was such a ride! A long ride (she is a thick book) but a wild ride throughout. I love that we see so much character development. Not only with Bryce and Hunt but with the cast of side characters as well. I loved that we got so much insight into the lives of the side characters, and I feel like they have become some of my favorite SJM “cadre.” (credit to @nightnursereads for reminding me of the term) There is so much tension in this book. Sexual tension between so many people... it is all very present, and I was here for it. I love that SJM spiced this book up so much. It didn't feel as forced as other books, and I'm not sure if that's because of Bryce and Hunt's age or if I was so ready for payoff after all the tension in HOEAB. The spice was there, and I loved every bit of it. Hello Hunt and hello Ruhn. There is such a mystery to this story. I found myself wanting to figure it all out, but also not knowing who I could trust. I feel like SJM loves to write betrayal and we definitely see a little of that here. There are such amazing friendships in this book, and I continue to love that about every SJM series that I've read. I'm currently rereading ToG, and it's just opened my eyes to how well she writes friendships. We have the cadre and court, the inner circle, and now this amazing cast of characters in Crescent City. The romantic elements in this book were very present and I appreciated that. This book has me thirsting for the next ACOTAR and Crescent City book, but I know we will have to wait a bit.
This book is an adult fantasy, 18+ for themes and sexual content.

I don't think I've ever been so conflicted over how to feel about a book. The characters and world-building are as amazing as you would expect from SJM. But so many things are left unresolved that it makes the overall story feel quite weak.

That final sentence though! It definitely makes the book and will make the torturous wait for the next book worthwhile.

I truly cannot explain the hold SJM books have on me. The world building is so shaky and yet so horny. Every single character has been engineered to have the most tragic backstory and yet also the most special abilities, which have to be constantly recontextualized when other characters' special abilities are unlocked. There are so many characters that I cannot keep track of any of them from chapter to chapter, let alone from book to book.

This Crescent City series is so bonkers because it's some kind of urban fantasy and I simply do not believe that SJM understand how technology works in real life. In this world the internet is unironically called “the interweb.” In this world mermaids have underwater glass domes to protect their computers from getting wet. In this world mermaids also use otters to send mail.

I read all 800 pages of this in like a week, no notes.

I AM OBSESSED WITH THE ENDING WHERE BRYCE TELEPORTS INTO THE WORLD OF ACOTAR!! SJM BUILDING HER OWN MULTIVERSE!!! MAAS-IVERSE!!! WHAT THE HELL
–

I had to re-read this because after I re-read the first one for the podcast I remembered the unhinged cliffhanger ending of this one, and the 3rd one is out now ,but then I realized that I didn't remember ANYTHING else from this book besides the ending, which as I've just said is unhinged.

refreshing the context makes it make, maybe, like, 3% more sense???

also again did I give this 3 stars? is it a 3 star book? Is it a 1 star books? Is it 5 stars? No probably not that. IDK I'm just overwhelmed

anyway on to read the next 800 pages of this truly baffling saga!!!!!

2024 reread:
Well... I'm surprised but I didn't like this very much the second time around. The ending was great, but I wasn't impressed with the rest. I hated the “all males are crazy about Bryce”, the ridiculous deal about the solstice to create tension that, IMO, didn't work well on that aspect, and went completely against cc1 finale.
The language, the writing and the excessive cursing that I don't feel added much to the plot, or Bryce personality really. And the smut? I must have skimmed over it on the first read because I could have sweared it was almost inexistent, but this time I noticed and found it too much, and quite cringe.

Did I read the same book? Is it my mood? Idk. Off to cc3

First review:
This was a good sequel and it was in line with my expectations.
The sequel takes into account the POV of some of the most charisched characters (Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn, Ithan e Tharion), contributing to a stonger character and story development.
The story was fast paced with a lot of action and I especially enjoyed how the team and Vanir powers are working.
Unfortunately (and as expected) it ends in a cliffhanger.

Note to self (yet again): do not start to read book series before they all have been written.

I don't know how to feel about this book. The first two parts where kinda slow and I wasn't loving it. Just kept reading for the ending because I spoiled myself on the crossover andi know my baby bats where coming.

I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between Bryce and hunt. Yeah they're mates but it didn't feel the same as in her other books. It only picked up about 70% into the book.

Can we talk about precious Ruhn and Lidia who are definitely mates???? I'm here for it

Tharion did a baaaaad thiiiing

BUT THE ENDING??? That was really the thing that made this book go from 3 stars to 4 stars

I finally finished it!!! This book took me forever to get through (def don't recommend reading this if you're trying to get out of a reading slump) but it was so worth it!!! I need the next book (either Crescent City or ACOTAR) RIGHT THIS SECOND!!

Pros:
- Bryce still sits at #1 for my fav female character
- I need a Hunt in my life (luv u M, but like... do you blame me)
- The SPICEEEEEE

Cons:
- It did get boring at times but it was worth pushing through.

i feel sick to my stomach i actually feel sick to my fucking stomach i am literally laying on the floor what the actual fuck was that last chapter shaking and crying and throwing up

spoiler-y jumbled up thoughts beyond this point

• first of all the last eight chapters had me so stressed like my heart was beating so fast while i was reading
• this was better than hoeab to me but i also don't completely remember what went down in hoeab so
• i loved the way that bryce and hunt were like “you know what fuck it let's be mates” and then they actually ARE lmao and then when they used it against the autumn king at ephiram and celestina's mating ceremony that was amazing
• speaking of celestina i hope hypaxia wakes the fuck up and sees what her lover is doing. unless celestina is redeemed which i'm not sure if i even want that.
• AND THEN BAXIAN IS DANIKA'S MATE???? FUCK LMAO i literally had to go lay down for a few minutes after i read that
• and i had my theory that lidia was daybreaker as soon as the scene where the guy woke her up for sex like i knew that was little bitch ass pollux. i hope she gets a second chance with ruhn. like she's so hot she deserves it.
• i couldn't have asked for a more perfect final chapter. bryce totally jumped through a wrydgate to get to prythian you can't convince me otherwise. i do kinda hope that acotar 5/6 focuses on the acotar characters and cc 3/however many books there are focus on the cc characters. i want my azriel book to be about az and gwyn only lmao.
• and genuinely who cared about the epilogue after THAT lmao
• i hope the cc and acotar characters gets to go to erilea as well because i miss my tog bbs like doctor strange in the multiverse of madness who??
• also as soon as i finished this i went on tumblr and saw that people are now shipping bryce and az???? like NO THANKS az is not a homewrecker!!! and quinlar is finally canon and mated i'm happy where i am sarah please don't ruin this for me
• and also sarah please don't kill bryce or hunt or ruhn or lidia or baxian or tharion or ithan or dec or flynn or hypaxia or aidas or ember or randall or cooper or fitzroy in the next books everyone else is fair game please sarah
• OH YEAH i forgot to add when bryce introduces herself as her full name and rhys only said his first name i just rolled my eyes like we're never gonna get this man's last name are we but then i had a thought
• WHAT IF RHYS'S LAST NAME IS DANAAN.
• BRYCE LITERALLY THOUGHT HE WAS RUHN FOR A MINUTE.
• THEY BOTH HAVE POWERS RELATED TO NIGHT, SHADOWS AND DARKNESS.
• THAT'S GOTTA MEAN SOMETHING.
• FUCK.
• also i just read the target exclusive bonus chapter while in target cuz a bitch is broke and i just gotta say that fitzroy brookings is my all-time favorite character of the series now i said what i said

spoiler-y jumbled up thoughts end here

okay. my jumbled thoughts are out. i'm planning to reread throne of glass next and actually finish the series this time around. might reread acotar too for funsies. k bye.