Rating: ⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜
Title: House of Sky and Breath
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy
Setting: Midgard
Month Read: March 2022
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication:2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 805
TRIGGER WARNING-
War / Death / Sexual Content / Violence /
"Our love is stronger than time, greater than any distance. Our love spans across stars and worlds. I will find you again, I promise."
No Spoiler Summary:
At the beginning of the novel you find Bryce and Hunt recovering from the ending of the last book, and wanting desperately to enter a normal routine, and finally get a chance to live normal lives. A chance to relax, a chance to figure out what's next. The Asteri have not bothered our duo, but the rebels have also not gone away, and it's a matter of time before our leads need to choose a side. Will they stay silent during the obvious oppression happening, or do they fight for what they belive in above all else? This book is a sequel to House of Earth and Blood.
Review:
I'm a huge fan of Sarah J Maas, and the ACOTAR series is one of my favorites, but MY GOD WAS THIS BOOK HORRIBLE. I spent 805 pages alternating between wishing I was reading something else, and wondering why Bloomsbury won't get Sarah an editor that will make her cut 400 pages of absolute uselessness. The amount of walking around, saying the same things, and not advancing the plot at all was insane to me. I had fully decided that I was not going to finish the series, and I'd stop after this novel, and then the end of the book happens and now I feel like I am being held hostage in a world I dislike, characters I dislike, and a plot that is just absolutely awful. I honestly didn't know after slogging through the worldbuilding in book 1 that I'd still have to slog through the SAME WORLDBUILDING in book 2.
If you want Sarah's sexy sex scenes in this book, look somewhere else. The sex was badly written, almost boring, and definitely cheese. If I hear the word 'Alpha-hole' one more time I was going to set my book on fire and throw it out the window. I advise reading maybe the first hundred pages, skipping to about 600, and finishing there. You won't miss very much and you can gather what happens in-between. Mostly thinking about Danika, trying to find a missing rebel, some mind sex between secret agents, and a forced marriage ploy.
In other news, I did like the addition of some new characters, and I did like that we got a lot more supporting cast in this book than in the last one. None of them have the same chemistry as the team in ACOTAR, but maybe in another 3-800 page books we can get there.
I hate writing reviews for books that don't praise them. I've never written a book, and I don't think I'd be very good at it- but I really need a better editor on these books because I felt so similarly with A Court of Silver Flames. Write a good 400-500 page book, I don't need bad 800+ page books. They're so insanely mediocre and I know Sarah can do better because I've read every book she's written to date. Quality over Quantity seems to come in to play a lot with her books lately, and I just wish someone would talk to her. I'm unsure if I'll pick up another book in this series, or if I'll sparknotes it. I do hate that I feel like I will need to because of a twist. It's infuriating.
Recommendation:
Literally anything else.
"What she wanted was a true heart to love her, to run wild with her through the forest."
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