Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I am back with another book review. I am so incredibly excited for this one. If you have not read House of Earth and Blood or plan on reading the Crescent City series, I suggest waiting to read this. There will be spoilers. So, let’s get into it!

It’s been a few days since I’ve finished House of Sky and Breath, and I’m still reeling from everything. To put it simply, how the hell are we supposed to wait until January 2024 for House of Flame and Shadow? I cannot stop thinking about the ending of this book; this is the crossover I didn’t know I needed.

Before I get too ahead of myself, let me start with this book is about 800 pages with alternating point of views just like the Throne of Glass series. Which doesn’t bother me, I like getting everyone’s point of view.

I tend to love the second book of all of Sarah J. Maas’ series, and the trend continues with this one as well. I loved Sky and Breath way more than the first book.

And I love that the core inner circle of characters is forming. The group dynamics are always the best in SJM books, and I think this group is one of my favorites. Its so easy to become so immersed in the world Maas creates. And it’s so easy to love all the characters, to root for all the characters. I love it especially because I’m a big character-driven reader. I need to love the characters I’m reading about.

Hunt and Bryce’s relationship is slowly becoming my favorite SJM relationship. I just also love Hunt Athalar. I said in my Crescent City Re-Read Post that he reminds me a lot of Cassian especially in this book with his warrior background and god-like powers. The whole lightening thing reminds me of Nesta, and I think, in general, is just super cool. But back to my original point, I love him with Bryce, I love that their mates, I love that they show each other off. Perfection. And I said this in a previous post as well, but Bryce reminds me so much of Aelin. In the way she thinks and plots; she’s always ten steps ahead of everyone else.

One relationship I didn’t expect to love so much was Ruhn and Lidia (Night and Day). Side note, I knew she was the secret agent. I was between her and Celestina, but then Celestina was caught with Hypaxia. So, there was really only one other option for a character who was with someone they couldn’t stand to be intimate with. Anyways, I loved them. I loved how Ruhn was opening up to her, how he looked forward to talking with her, etc.

One of the things that I didn’t particularly like, was the nicknames or epithets for Pollux, Lidia, Baxian, and the other chick whose name I can’t remember right now. The Hind, The Harpy, The Hammer, and The Hellhound…I’m pretty sure it took me the entire 800 pages to keep those four names/characters straight.

Obviously, we have to talk about the ending. I don’t think I will ever recover. I knew from word on Tiktok (yes, I trusted people on Tiktok) that there would be some crossover into other SJM worlds, but I didn’t realize it was to this extent! Bryce is in Prythian. She is with the Inner Circle. I simply cannot function. I cannot wait until January for the next book.

I’ve been trying to look up SJM universe timelines to try to get an idea as to when everything happens across the series. And I think I’m going to need to brush up on A Court of Silver Flames since I’m assuming those events happen right before or during House of Sky and Breath. Which means Nesta has the crown and the sword, Nyx is born, and Nesta and Cassian are mates. There are a lot of theories about Ruhn and Rhys and Hunt and Cassian/Nesta.

The one thing I definitely need to do is re-read the last 30 pages of House of Sky and Breath because it was information overload at the end. Hunt and Ruhn are in the Asteri’s Dungeons (Hunt is there again), Bryce world hopped and needs an army, the Asteri are basically aliens (?). I’m going to need to work through all of that information.

Overall, I loved this book, and I’m loving where the series is going so far, 5/5 stars!

Alright folks, that is all I have for this week! Come back next Wednesday for another blog post! As always, thank you for reading:)