House of Flame and Shadow

Crescent City, Book 3

De: Sarah J. Maas

Narrado por: Elizabeth Evans

The stunning third book in the sexy, action-packed Crescent City series, following the global best sellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath.

Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea whom to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the number one best sellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas' Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt's world is brought to the brink of collapse—with its future resting on their shoulders.

©2024 Sarah J. Maas (P)2024 Audible, Inc.

Epic

Such an amazing series. So fresh and different!! Plus Elizabeth Evans continues to get better and better. Her voices for each character are spot on!! Just perfect. Sarah’s writing also gets more and more amazing.

The perfect ending

Was this book everything I thought it would be? No. Was it the most perfect ending for this storyline? YES! Some of my theories were right and some of my theories were very wrong lol but I had a blast reading this book! And I cannot wait for everything ACOTAR 6 will give us! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

No Surprises

On part with the other two. Cameos and hints were good and well utilized.

Elizabeth Evans is *THE* SJM narrator

what a wild ride. once again, Elizabeth Evans crushed it as narrator. her ability to bring these amazing characters to life and add even more emotional impact to already well-written scenes is truly an art. she is by far the best SJM narrator and I hope the author sticks with her for all future recorded books. the main storyline has now wrapped up and there were many full-circle moments that I appreciated. there were some loose ends and questions I still have, and I look forward to reading the next book in this series whenever it releases! Bryce is such a strong character and is definitely one of my favorites, but Lidia was a standout for me in this one for sure. this was well worth the credit!

This was Midgard’s story!

3.5 ⭐️ but I’ll round up. Some scenes had me really invested…others not so much. Some characters I loved…others not so much.

I think one of my biggest gripes by the end was I didn’t feel any strong connections to any of the characters (except for Lidia and Ruhn). Like the emotional connection and level just weren’t there — and haven’t been in this series in general — and I miss that.

I will say SJM delivered on Midgard's story and themes in the end.

All that said…even though I have mixed feelings, I’ll be in line for CC4 whenever that comes out 😅

My reasons for the rating…as spoiler free as possible:

+1 ⭐️ for all the Maasverse crossover scenes, world & lore confirmations and other character crumbs! As someone who has read ACOTAR but not TOG, I think she incorporated them both very well. Like I could get excited about the ACOTAR parts, but I didn’t feel lost, confused or left out by not connecting the TOG pieces.

+1 ⭐️ for Lidia and Ruhn’s storyline (and their whole fated mates trope. I’m way more invested in their romance than Bryce + Hunt.)

+1 ⭐️ for Lidia having the most things not on my bingo card

+1 ⭐️ for Jesiba always being 10 steps ahead of everyone

+1 ⭐️ for the Bonus Chapters — short and impactful

-1 ⭐️ for Bryce. I understand that her personality is what makes Bryce well Bryce, but I felt so many things she did and said were out of pocket — so much so that I was just losing respect points for her left and right. Personally, I found her pretty unbearable this time around and hope in CC4 she has a reality check, and some character growth.

-1 ⭐️ for the multiple POVs / storylines. There were some character storylines that I sped up the audio for because I simply didn’t care. The writing didn’t make me want to care about them (which is a shame). I just wanted to get back to the other POV I was abruptly cut short of. I felt like some could have been shortened (or straight up left out) and still have had the same impact needed by the end.

+0.5 ⭐️ for this: “For the moment I’m Queen, I’m judge, jury…and I’m your executioner.”

Another Wonderful Performance from Elizabeth Evans

I laughed, teared up, and found myself internally cheering for the characters in the third book of this series, and even hugging the physical copy of the book toward the end.

This is a great round up of Maas's Crescent City main story, and I look forward to whatever side stories she comes up with next. I have my theories!

Thank you to Maas and team for bringing such a fun story to life.

Another amazing book!

I am a fan of ALL of the SJM series and this was a perfect addition. I cannot wait to read it again to catch all of the details I missed the first time through!

AMAZINGGGGGG..

It's hard to put on words all the emotions that I felt thru all this books, first The Court of Thorns ond Roses, now Crescent City I just don't want to ended it, Be prepared to go to an amazing adventure on the world of Sarah J. Mass, you are foinf to laught, cry, get horny, scared, anxious but at the end you gonna wish to start all over again ..

SJM stepped up

I have read/listed to SJM since she first published and I can honestly say this is her best work. You can see the growth as an author in the story telling. Yes, this still has "spicy " moments but it no longer dominates over the plot. The characters also show growth with her. We are able to get to the point of things faster with less fluff.
Now to the story itself- AMAZING! I couldn't put this down. it has action, mystery, treasure hunting, vengeance and world crossing power. If you're a fan of her other work, your going to love this. This book has the crossover we've been waiting for thanks to the cliffhanger of CC2, BUTTTTTT...... there is definitely some Easter eggs that should not be over looked.

Was hard to get into but great ending

I was SO excited when Bryce went into the world of ACOTAR but honestly it fell flat for me. The beginning was super hard to get into and honestly there was WAY too many story lines happening all at once. The ending was great though! And as always I LOVE this narrator!! I wish she would do all SJM books.