House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) Review

Hello, all!

Like many others, I spent the days counting down to the release of House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas. This is the second installment of the Crescent City series (my review of the first book here), so while I tried to keep this vague, potential spoilers ahead.

Pub Date: 2-15-22
Adult - Fantasy

It's been a few months since Bryce Quinlan risked her life to save Crescent City from Hel demons, and she's been trying to get back to some sense of normalcy. Bryce and Hunt Athalar, the fallen angel better know as the Umbra Mortis, were forced into keeping a low profile to protect the ones they love from the wrath of the wickedly powerful Asteri. After the nightmare they went through, the pair are looking forward to some downtime and trying to see what their life could be like together. They should've realized peace wouldn't last long.

With uprisings happening throughout the land and rebels chipping away at the Asteri's powers, Bryce and Hunt once again find themselves on the brink of war. The pair find themselves with two choices: step aside and let the Asteri keep oppressing the land, or stand up and fight for what's right. Luckily, both have never had a problem standing up against authority. With threats coming from both sides, Bryce, Hunt, and their friends must go to whatever lengths to uncover the truth before it's too late.

We all know that I'm SJM trash and will read anything she puts out. I would most likely read her grocery list if it were published, but girl, come on. Not enough happens in this book to justify it being this long. The first 60-65% just felt like characters having conversations in various locations with a sprinkling of investigating. There were too many character's POV's which made it feel messy at times. (Sorry, Tharion, I like you, but reading from your perspective didn't move the plot along.) I also think using Danika as a motivator for Bryce is getting lazy. And as much as I love Bryce, her stubbornness and inability to think situations through started frustrating me a bit throughout this. She just jumped into things without having a plan or backup plan and put herself and others into danger so many times. All that aside, I did still really enjoy this. Maas has this way of putting her characters through it, so when they're thrown into a situation that requires them to sacrifice themselves, it's the most brutal of gut punches. It happens so often in this book. There were so many moments that left me emotionally unwell. Especially the last chapter. My jaw was on the floor the entire time I was reading it. There have always been hints and theories about her stories interweaving, so I'm beyond excited to see where this will go from here.

Rating: 4.5/5