Book Review: Crescent City House of Flame and Shadow

It’s time for my Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow review! I finished the book late last week and I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews on this third book in the series. Personally, I loved the book and was not disappointed. Keep reading for my review, which I will try to keep as spoiler free as possible!

The novel picks up shortly after the cliffhanger of House of Sky and Breath. Bryce went through a portal thinking she would go to Hel to get help from Aidas and his brothers only to land in Velaris instead (hello, ACOTAR cameos!). Meanwhile, Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian are being tortured by the Asteri.

The novel follows Bryce as she learns more about the history and origins of Midgard and what needs to be done to vanquish the Asteri. Everything she learns gets pieced together with things that Hunt, Ruhn, Ithan, Jesiba, Lidia, Hypaxia, Tharion, etc. learn/know/can bring to the table and they all work together to try to get rid of the Asteri for good. I don’t want to say more than that about the plot because I don’t want to give anything away accidentally!

As I said at the beginning of this post, I was not disappointed in this book. There were some parts where I felt like it moved a bit slow and I, of course, would’ve loved some more spicy scenes, but overall I did love the book. Bryce annoyed me a bit in the beginning of the book even though logically I understood why she was doing the things she was doing. I know some people were disappointed that the the ACOTAR sections were more prominent and it wasn’t more of a true cross-over, but I was happy with the scenes and knew that this isn’t an ACOTAR book, but a CC book and I think what happens within those scenes will feature in the next ACOTAR book. There was less spice in this book, but more love scenes in terms of really emotional scenes where characters really share/show how deeply in love they are with each other which I loved.

Some last thoughts – Hunt is still my angel baby. I loved Ruhn in this book. Scenes about Danika and Connor still make me emotional. And omg, I love Lidia so much! She is so badass.

SJM has said there will be another Crescent City book and I have a few ideas for what some side storylines could be for it, but I can’t wait til she announces something concrete like the title and blurb for the next ACOTAR!

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