Crescent City Series, Book 3

We left Crescent City Book 2 with Bryce Quinlan jumping through a portal in a last ditch effort to find some way to beat the Asteri. Chased through the halls of the palace by Rigelus, Bryce leaped through the only escape she had, hoping to land in Hel. Only to find herself in the home world of the Fae, with no idea who to trust, why she landed in this particular land, or how to find what she needs to save her world.

This is the introduction to the intertwining of worlds by Sarah J. Maas. House of Flame and Shadow weaves pieces of ACOTAR into CCS in an elegant manner that levels up the playing field for her multiverse. Maas chose the two best characters from ACOTAR to introduce to Bryce Quinlan. Nesta and Azriel were fan favorites in the ACOTAR series, and she used them to their best potential in this mingling of worlds. 

Nesta’s warrior grace and her hard personality were a perfect compliment to what Bryce needed to learn in this “new” world. Azriel’s tragic past and scarred hands touched Bryce’s (sometimes) soft heart, and triggered her to relate the scars of Ruhn at his father’s hands. Bryce navigates through the tunnels and darkness of Prythian in an effort to learn why Urd must have sent her here. And she did learn much of the Fae past, the true history of how Midgard came to be, and a secret that might hold the power to finally destroy the Asteri. For good.

With that knowledge acquired, Bryce pulls her somewhat typical drastic exit, and burned a few bridges on her way out.

It was the perfect amount of Prythian woven into the story line and the best ACOTAR characters to start this multiverse. If more time would have been spent in Prythian, it would not have been a CCS centric novel. I thought the balance was exceptional.

Bryce returns to Midgard armed with knowledge and a bit of new, raw power that she was gifted in the tunnels of Prythian from a long lost ancestor.

Bryce’s main focus upon returning to Midgard is building her allied forces and finding out the secret behind wielding the dagger and the starsword together, to banish the Asteri.

Upon her efforts to strengthen her allies and their plan of attack, we spend a bit more time with Aidas, a Prince of Hel.

“Choose life. Choose each other. I have lived with the alternative for millennia – the loss never gets easier to bear.”

A Prince of Hel’s guidance to Bryce and Hunt Athalar as they embark on their journey to save the realm from the Asteri – the most memorable quote for me in this novel, and maybe in the entire series. 

Aidas quickly becomes one of my favorite side characters, and that I am genuinely sad that the gateway to Hel was closed indefinitely by Bryce in the final segments of the book. Aidas’ personality and charm lifted the connection to Hel, and the entire storyline from that perspective, to another level. He was a delight. The addition of Aidas’ brothers also strengthened this piece of the story for me – and I loved the connection to Hunt. The saying “it doesn’t matter where you came from, it only matters who you are now”, is proven perfectly by Hunt’s parentage and lineage that he learns in this novel.  

I enjoyed this piece of Hunt’s history. Maas offered a good amount of closure for all side characters in this novel, but also left some room to continue the series onward, with a CCS Book 4.

Ruhn and Lidia seemed to take a front seat in terms of the relationship arc and the amount of time we spent learning about Lidia’s past and her twin boys. Her commitment to the Ocean Queen came out of the blue for me, but I thought it was a nice twist to learn when and why Lidia turned rebel. It does not wash away the sins of her former life as an Asteri servant, but we gain some background knowledge of how she ended up in that role and empathize for her isolated, cold childhood.

The Ocean Queen and Beneath shockingly connect a few different story lines that I did not quite expect. From Tharion’s defecting from the Mer and the Queen’s responsibility to hold him accountable, to Lidia’s hidden sons and adopted family to the Ocean Queen’s role in rescuing innocents from Above – I was quite impressed with how well things flowed together. We did not become too close to the Queen or her powers, but I think the amount we touched on was enough. There are enough side characters within this series as it stands.

Two of those side characters that had major roles in this novel were Ithan and Hypoxia. The later of which I absolutely adore. I loved her story line in this series. She was a spark of lightness and intrigue. I was so happy that she played such a large role in the rebellion and that Bryce had such confidence in her knowledge and healing capabilities. Hypoxia’s discovery around the Asteri parasite changed the outcome of the war. I loved it. I also loved the title she acquired after defecting from the witches and the history we discover on Jesiba – another one of my favorites!

House of Flame and Shadow brought most of our characters full circle. The key open ended items are around Bryce, whether she can find the last third of Theia’s power and how Midgard will rebuild with the outing of the Asteri. Which leaves plenty of room for a book 4, possibly with some more intertwining of worlds – perhaps a bit of Throne of Glass tossed into the mix? Will Aelin meet Bryce? That would be a site to see!

This was a win for me. I loved this novel, and it only strengthened my opinion of Crescent City Series. I would give this a 4.3/5 star rating. There were some minor instances that I glazed over that were moving a bit too slowly for me, and a few encounters with Bryce’s cockiness and arrogance that I could have done without. Those were fairly few and far between though, given the enormity of the novel.

I’m looking forward to the next release and seeing what else Sarah J. Maas can throw at us!