Crescent City – House of Sky and Breath Book Review

FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedInReddit

In this House of Sky and Breath book review I will be sharing my thoughts on the second book in the Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas. As usual I will try to keep all spoilers to a minimum though there may be a few smaller spoilers.

“Then why is it nearly empty? And why is your hair so shiny? Asshole!!!”

Sarah J Maas House of Sky and Breath

This is the highly anticipated second book in the Crescent City series which is an adult fantasy series by Sarah J Maas. I first read the first book after finishing the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by the same author. I was highly disappointed when I realized it was book one and I was now in a series that I would actually have to wait for each book’s release. 

I gotta say though, the wait has been worth it even though now I have an even longer wait for the next books in this series. You can check out my review of Crescent Sky House of Earth and Blood here.

Trigger Warnings

Since we don’t always get trigger warnings on books I like to give trigger warnings in my reviews. This can help people avoid certain triggers that could hurt their mental well being.

Possible Triggers in this book are:

• Alcohol
• Assault
• Attempted Murder
• Blood
• Bones
• Death
• Death Camps
• Demons
• Genocide
• Gore
• Gun Violence
• Homophobia
• Hostages
• Murder
• Profanity
• PTSD
• Sexually Explicit Scenes
• Slavery
• Slut Shaming
• Torture
• Violence
• War

For a list of the triggers I look for you can check out this link here. This may or may not be a complete list of triggers for this book, I do my best to make sure I mark anything that could be a potential trigger but I may accidentally miss triggers.

Synopsis and Author

In House of Sky and Breath we are following Bryce Quinlan and her friends as they try to solve a mystery of a missing boy and the possible death of his sister who happens to be a powerful half human half vanir who the Asteri would kill because of her power. What they find is that there is a darker secret to the Asteri and it could change everything they believe to be true.

Sarah J Maas is a New York Times Best Selling writer in the Adult Fantasy genre. Her books are beloved by many. I personally love her storytelling style, world building, and find her characters to be some of my favorites. Every book she’s ever written is on my must buy physical copies list.

House of Sky and Breath Reading Experience

Once again we are in several of our favorite locations throughout Crescent City. It’s a modern city in a fantasy world where mortals and magical species live. Crescent City is technologically advanced making use of cell phones, computers, and advanced tech.

Our main character is Bryce, however we also get point of views from Hunt, Therion, Ruhn, and Ithan. 

The plot follows Bryce, Hunt, Therion, Ruhn, Ithan, Declan, Flynn, and more as they try to find out what Ophian – a rebel faction – and the Asteri are planning. Meanwhile they are trying to find a missing kid who has amazing powers and would likely be turned into a weapon by either side.

Pretty much from the start of the book I had a hard time putting it down due to the pacing. The book moves at a pretty steady pace though there are a few scenes that speed up the pacing. 

The main theme of this book seems to be power and corruption as our team of heroes tries to unravel the mysteries of both the rebels and the Asteri. What they find is far beyond their imagination and changes everything they know.

Writing Style

House of Sky and Breath is a chunky book at a little over 800 pages and 78 chapters. She took me about a day and a half to read, understanding that I spent all of the Tuesday of its release reading. I only stopped when I needed to take care of myself or sleep. It may take someone who works or has other commitments a few days to read.

As per usual Sarah J Maas doesn’t have a lot of fluff in her books, most of everything that is written is in some way shape or form necessary to the central plot points. We still get our excellent world building however, I felt that this book had a lot more dialogue in it over the first Crescent City book. It was a nice change of pace and that dialogue was so good and easy to read.

Typically by the second book in a series I am having severe emotional distress or damage. While there was absolutely some in this book it wasn’t as bad. However, I laughed a lot more, I had moments of shock, and moments that had me absolutely screaming for joy and satisfaction.

I could not put this book down, I was sucked in immediately. There are a few twists throughout the book and one major twist at the end that is a cliffhanger. I should probably apologize to Sarah J Maas for the language I used and my distress at that ending. 

It’s been a day since I finished reading and my brain is still reeling and has me planning a full blown theory post with all of my different thoughts on where this series is headed next. Once that is written and posted I will link it here for anyone who has read the book and wants to read my theories though beware, there will be massive spoilers in my theories post.

House of Sky and Breath Book Review

Bryce again tops the list of favorite characters. I love this modern day fae who likes to turn away from tradition with snark and sarcasm. Not to mention she is unbelievably sexy, focused, and smart.

Hunt has officially made my favorites list. I was so afraid after the first book that we would lose our precious first romantic interest because Sarah J Maas has a history of making the first one go away. I refuse to attach myself to a character until I know that it’s a sealed deal.

Ruhn is my hunky, broody, smart ass, fae and I love him. Ruhn absolutely owns me and is my favorite of the Crescent City boys. I loved him in House of Earth and Blood and Chapter 3 seals the deal for me.

Ithan is my other book boyfriend and I’m allowed to have more than one in the same series. While I was skeptical about him due to his behavior after Danika and The Pack of Devils was killed, he’s absolutely grown on me in this book. 

Declan and Flynn are those perfect friends that just round out a group. I love their jokes, their protectiveness, and their personalities.

Sabine still tops the list of hated people, I’m glad she gets a little bit of what’s coming to her in this book.

The Hind, Harpy, Pollux, and Mordoc are all hated characters for their absolute brutalness in this book. The twists we get from two of these characters is fantastic though.

Baxian is someone that I feel will grow on me. I don’t want to spoil anything more about this character.

I hope that Tharion grows on me. I know we love him for being the delectable mer and we love his banter with both Hunt and Bryce but he makes some decisions in this book that I don’t know I agree with or like. I feel his desperation but I feel he’s not being smart about everything either.

Once again the plot was non stop and kept moving at a quick pace. I couldn’t put the book down and I loved everything that was going on. Unlike in the first book this book does have a lot more spicy scenes and I would give it a 3 out of 5 peppers for spice.

Sarah J Maas is fantastic with storytelling and world building. I love her writing style and even though I am disappointed with the cliffhanger, it was still an amazing way to end this book. I cannot wait for the third book in this series.

If you like high fantasy with mates, magic, romance, mystery, and action set in a modern world I highly recommend this series for you.

Star Rating

Before I rate this book I want to give you a bit of background about what my rankings mean. I typically read books that I check out through the Libby app with my local library or through Kindle Unlimited. 

I rarely buy ebooks unless they are cheaply priced or on sale. I also very rarely buy physical copies of books. I’m a bit of a minimalist so I have to absolutely adore a book to buy a physical copy that will be proudly displayed in my home.

So my ranking system is as follows:

• 5 Stars equals I am buying a physical copy of this book. I will read this book at least 10 more times, it is the best ever.
• 4 stars equals a great book. I might buy an ebook version when it’s on sale so that I can re-read it at least one more time.
• 3 stars equals a good book. I likely won’t read again but I appreciate the story.
• 2 stars equals “Meh.” I will not read this book again, it had a lot of problems and I did not care for it.
• 1 star equals a bad book. I barely finished this book and I will never recommend anyone waste valuable book reading time on this book.
• 0 stars is a did not finish book. I will never finish that book and it is banished.

House of Sky and Breath gets 5 stars. While it didn’t cause me a lot of emotional distress, the book had an abundance of funny scenes, banter, and mystery that I couldn’t put down. I fell even more in love with these characters and I’m looking forward to more.

Likes:

• The humor was laugh out loud funny.
• The way Sarah J Maas had me screaming with new reveals throughout the whole book.
• The chosen family dynamic of the entire group.

Dislikes:

• Tharion’s decisions in this book were a little weird to me and felt off.
• The fact that I likely have to wait a year or more for the next book.

Final Thoughts on House of Sky and Breath

When I finished this book I literally screamed and then sat down with my husband and even though he doesn’t read fantasy and he listened to me rant for almost two hours. So doing this as a buddy read or having someone around is necessary for this book. The amount of theories running through my head continued into this morning before I decided to sit down to write this review.

This book is a head explosion that is causing a bit of a book hangover for me because I can’t stop thinking about it and everything that is to come. Sarah J Maas has taken us to a whole new level and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Have you read House of Sky and Breath? What were your thoughts? Share your spoiler free thoughts in the comments below. Stay tuned for my Crescent City theories post coming soon. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite book boards.

FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedInReddit