Brainfullofbooks

Hate her or love her, Sarah J Maas has accomplished an incredible feat that no other author has done before.  She’s created an interconnected multiverse of incredible scope and size throughout her various series, and no matter what you think of her writing you have to admire the commitment.  Such dedication to planning and writing three whole series just to establish such an intricate multiversal lore is nothing less than astonishing.  Only the MCU rivals that level of detailed, developed plot lines across universes, characters, and worlds. All her series harken back to one another. Thus, for the eagle-eyed reader, and even the casual enjoyer, there are clues in almost every book, pointing to one of her other series (though one doesn’t need to be an avid fan of Maas to appreciate her works).  So, It most likely will come as a surprise to no one that the streak continues in House of Flame and Shadow.  The third book in Crescent City even references Maas’s first ever series, and the one that propelled her to international fame: Throne of Glass.  However, most of the references and cameos have to do with fan favorite series, A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Long time readers not only get to return to Crescent City but visit the land of Pythian again to see it and their favorite characters through new eyes.  Unfortunately, we don’t get to see all the so-called inner circle. Feyre is completely missing except for one or two references.  We never even see Elaine, and besides appearing in one scene Rhysand is only mentioned briefly.  So, readers who hoped to see Bryce interact with all of them and befriending the other fae (like me) will be a little disappointed.  There is still enough to satisfy fans rabid for any scrap of ACOTR and the rest after years and years of no content.  I can appreciate how Maas shines a light on somewhat overlooked characters, like Azriel and Nesta.  Let’s face it, she still doesn’t have as many pages written about her as Feyre does.  In fact, my little fangirl heart was screaming the entire time I was reading it; and, if anything, I wish this part had been longer.  Bryce spends less than half of the book there before returning to Crescent City.  I had hoped that she would spend the entire novel in this new world, recruiting and planning with them and then at the end she would return with them an army of fae gathered from all seven courts of Pythian . . . but, unfortunately my dreams were dashed. Bryce returns to help her friends with nothing more than knowledge and a new sword. Be that as it may, it was still amazing to see them again.  Much as I love Bryce and all the other characters Crescent City has introduced, I have to say I missed them—and Maas more than delivered with this cameo.  

Maas may have some amazing characters both big and small, but Lidia Cervos is the breakout star of Crescent City.  She is such a wonderful, complex and interesting character I would argue she rivals Bryce for the title of main character.  Granted, all Maas’s characters are fully fleshed out, no matter how much of a side character they are.  I would go so far as to say there are no side characters in any of Maas’s works.  All of them are sympathetic but most of all they’re shown as human.  It’s the flaws–the ways they make mistakes, screw up, or mess up even when they have the best intentions that humanizes them.  Especially the way they take the blame and feel guilty for those mistakes.  Still, in this series there are few more compelling characters than Lidia.  She has the most layers of any of them: the hound, rebel spy, traitor, and hero.  But I appreciate Maas showing that it’s motherhood that adds the most depth to her character in this novel.  It doesn’t stop her from being herself or a badass; she can and still does cool things.  In fact, it’s because she’s a mother that she does most of the things that make her amazing in the book.  It may not necessarily be new, but it was exactly what made me like her.  However, while that may be one of her biggest secrets revealed in this book, it’s certainly not the only one.  But I will leave it to readers to pick up House of Flame and Shadow and find out for themselves.  On the whole, after reading it I can’t help but wonder where Maas will go from here.  Not only with A Court of Thorns and Roses, but Crescent City as well because she’s already confirmed there’s going to be a third book (despite the fact this was originally planned only to be a trilogy). But until we get those answers fans can rejoice: Maas is finally returning to ACOTR. The new installment will most likely be released early next year, and I can’t wait.  Hopefully it will focus on Elaine, and we’ll finally get the answers to some of the questions we’ve been asking ourselves for the last three years.