A review by d_ho16
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

The pacing was better in this than the other CCs, but some of the plot lines felt halfcocked and like they only existed to give some of the characters Something To Do. I did find myself endeared towards Tharion and Ithan and their single shared brain cell orange cat energy, after not really enjoying them in the previous book. I have really loved Bryce for most of this series, but she felt underdeveloped in this and also like SJM was trying to make her more like Aelin which just…didn’t quite vibe with how I’ve seen Bryce up to this point. All that said, I did really, really enjoy this book - which is not that surprising because I am a Ruhn and Lidia stan and they absolutely CARRIED this book. I also liked the crossover aspect and the bonus chapters that address it were really fun. If you’re expecting an ACOTAR book, you’ll be disappointed, but if you’ve enjoyed CC so far you’ll probably like this one too.