House of Sky and Breath: Sarah J. Maas

We meet again!

I feel like it’s literally Christmas for us Sarah J. Maas fans. House of Sky and Breath is FINALLY here, and say what you will, but the Crescent City books have remained my favorite of her books. Are you guys ready for this one? Because I’m so excited. THIS REVIEW IS VERY DETAILED AND HAS MANY, MANY SPOILERS. You have been warned. Here we go

(Not so) Brief Synopsis:

Crescent City seems to have mostly put itself back together after the disastrous invasion from Hel that broke loose from Micah activating the Horn. While the rebel group is still going strong, Bryce and Hunt are just trying to live their lives as normally as possible, including watching Juniper in the ballet with Bryce’s parents. It’s a little hard when she has the Starborn power flaring up on her chest whenever it seems to want to, but nothing is perfect, right? She and Hunt are also doing this thing where they aren’t letting their relationship be physical until the Winter Solstice because apparently their lives were just too comfortable. Psychos.

They’re doing this to actually get to know each other in a world that they’re not constantly fighting to stay alive in. Which makes sense, but the tension between the two of them has just grown and grown. Things take a turn, not in a sexy way, at a party at Ruhn’s pretty much frat boy house. Ruhn’s cousin Cormac shows up at the party and drops the bomb that Bryce has been promised to him by both of their parents as his betrothed, also giving Cormac his own claim to the Starsword.

That’s not all, though (because of course it isn’t) it’s finally announced that the Asteri have chosen Micah’s successor. Hunt isn’t a prisoner anymore, but he’s still nervous about someone else coming into power over him. He’s continued his work with the triarii, mostly to help out his friends, and he agrees to meet with Celestina. He’s instantly suspicious when she seems to be a genuinely nice person (angel?) and I feel so bad because someone’s nice and he’s just like “this is very suss” but also same. I don’t trust her, or just about anyone in these books.

Meanwhile, Tharion the sexy striped mermaid is being punished for stepping out on his Queen’s daughter and has been sent to track Sofie, one of the rebels that was trying to make a break for it and was hunted down and tossed in the ocean on blocks. Sofie and her brother Emile both have very rare powers. They’re called Thunderbirds and their kind were supposed to be extinct, but they still exist somehow. When Tharion finds the blocks and chains underwater, but no Sofie, he begins to believe that she got away somehow.

Tharion’s research not only leads Emile and Sofia back to Lunathion, but also shows an ongoing communication to none other than Danika herself, and he decides that it’s time to take this information to Hunt and Bryce. Oh, there’s more! Hunt and Bryce have also been letting Ithan (remember Connor’s little brother?) crash in their apartment when he shows up all bloodied up and says that it’s from his pack, and they’ve kicked him out, because he stood up for Bryce publicly and Sabine’s shitty heart couldn’t stand it. I’m getting kind of tired of poor Bryce having to realize again and again that she didn’t know Danika as well as she thought that she did. Girl’s heart deserves some sort of a break.

Hunt is trying to come to terms with the fact that some from Sandriel’s crew are joining their team, but it’s not going so well. The first to arrive are Pollux and Baxian, and everything starts off with Hunt physically attacking Pollux and them both being reprimanded. However, what’s even more surprising to Hunt is that Baxian is seeming to not be as bad as he used to be, and he says more than once that now that Sandriel is gone he doesn’t have to pretend anymore. Is this another trick or is he actually decent?

Another bomb is dropped when Aidas, a Prince of Hel that seems to be very invested in Bryce’s life, visits the apartment and tells them not only that Bryce should REALLY hone her powers and be helping the rebels, but that Cormac himself is one of the bigger parts of the rebellion and just so happens to be in love with Sofie. I know, right? So the cat is out of the bag there and Cormac begins to kind of blackmail everyone into helping him, including Ruhn. He tells Ruhn that he has to use his mind powers to try and communicate with one of their big helpers or he’s going to run to Ruhn’s awful father and reveal the power.

When Ruhn reaches out for communication, he speaks with a woman that seems to be very interesting, (he calls her Day and she calls him Night) and I’m just going to say it right now: I think it’s Hypaxia and am going to be seriously surprised if it turns out not to be. Ithan begins to work with Tharion, because what else does he really have to do? Oh, he and Bryce also discover some papers from Danika’s college days that show that she’s been working on trying to figure out some of this rebel stuff since then. Danika, Danika, Danika. Always keeping secrets from your best friend. I just don’t get it, but hopefully I will eventually.

I don’t know how important this will be to the story overall, but Tharion is also having a total Ariel moment and wants to live Above, but he knows that the River Queen would never allow it. Just food for thought. A reaper attacks Ruhn and takes him into a sewer in front of Bryce, who quickly follows, ready to kick some ass. They tell them that Apollion, another Prince of Hel and THEE big baddie, is ready to fight Bryce and wants her to “level up” before he arrives. A similar message had come to Hunt in a dream the other night, so it wasn’t so much of a surprise. What was a surprise is that Cormac could teleport and yeeted a bunch of the reapers out of the sewer before giving the Starsword to Bryce, and she does the impossible with it: she kills one of the reapers. So let’s add a tally to things we have to keep secret about Bryce or a bunch of people are going to want her dead.

This means the Ophion rebellion, the River Queen, Bryce & co. AND the reapers/Apollion are all looking for poor Emile, and possibly Sofie. Bryce convinces Jesiba to sell her some coins, essentially, to the Bone Quarters and while they’re talking, another secret about Danika is revealed and both Bryce and I are about done with this shit. She asks Declan to start going through old video footage of Danika in Jesiba’s library to see what Danika was really searching for all the times she was there, and then she and Hunt set off for the Meat Market to look for the golden Thunderbird siblings everyone is after.

Though the Meat Market is a dead end, things begin to come together in other ways, leading alliances that wouldn’t have been expected before and pushing literally all of the characters toward the rebellion that they’re all so scared of. When more of Sandriel’s triarii show up, with some nasty, nasty folks in tow, they start to fear that higher powers are sniffing around their leads. Is it worth it to walk face-first into this rebellion and face execution? Or should they sit back and continue playing nice in a world they don’t really agree with?

Going to the Bone Quarter to search for the Thunderbird siblings leads to Bryce and Hunt damn near killed, but they actually end up combining their powers and kicking ass. Though they didn’t know they could do this before, Hunt is afraid that it is exactly what Apollion told him about and he fears they were led there for that exact reason. Ithan decides to go and live with Ruhn, Declan and Flynn when not only does Sabine storm Bryce’s apartment and attack her, but he finds out that the nastys that worked for Sandriel actually know that his feelings went a lot deeper for Bryce than he wanted to admit.

(Guys, I’ll tell you now, it’s just a little hard for me to remember who the Hind, the Harpy, the blah blah blah is, so I’m just gonna say it’s Sandriel’s triarii or their actual names. Good? Good.)

Things have also gotten hotter and hotter between Bryce and Hunt, to the point that they’ve declared themselves mates. However, when Hunt (and Baxian) have to take off when they find out that Sabine is at Bryce’s apartment during a critical moment, Celestia and Ephraim’s (Sandriel’s replacement) pretty much mating ceremony, Celestia decides that Hunt’s punishment is to spend two weeks at the Comitium with the rest of them.

Tharion and Ithan have the genius idea to visit the mystics to try and get some answers and though Bryce is very strongly against it and keeps telling them that it’s a bad idea, she goes along with them. The mystics, the whole situation is… awful. And one of the other Prince’s of Hel shows up for the party and threatens them, you know. The usual. Ithan ends up releasing the mystics to save them all from the Prince, but it doesn’t go down well and they’re all kicked out, where Danika’s dad (yes, DAD, I know. He’s one of the baddies too) has seemingly been waiting for them and is ready to make some threats of his own.

Declan was able to dig something up from the videos of Danika in the library that had to do with her wolf heritage, so Bryce made a bold choice to go and visit the prime of the wolves, who’s actually a super nice old man, and try to get some answers about Danika and what she was researching. All she pretty much finds out from him is that Danika was pretty invested in bringing wolves back to their glory before they were watered down by the Asteri, which makes a lot of sense for her supporting the rebellion. She also tells the prime about Ithan being kicked out, and he’s pretty ticked. He calls Ithan and tells him that if he wants to, the prime is ready to not only welcome him back, but he’s willing to give him an alpha status. He grants Ithan some time to make his decisions about his future.

Ithan then goes back to the mystics and the creepy astronomer isn’t there, but one of the mystics that he freed is still awake and when he talks to her, he comes to realize that she’s a wolf. He’s outraged and is willing to help her escape, but she’s not ready. He tells her if she ever needs help he’s willing to be there for her. BUT he doesn’t leave empty handed, he steals a box of rings that the astronomer wears that has fire sprites and something else trapped inside of them. He, Declan and Flynn free them from the rings and find out that they’ve not only freed those sprites… there was also a dragon named Ariadne in there.

Meanwhile, Bryce, Hunt, Tharion, Ruhn and Cormac make a trip to one of the known rebel bases and encounter the ever-lovely (heavy on the sarcasm here, guys) Pippa and the mech suit that they stole from some of the Asteri. This thing has got some serious power and Hunt says that neither side should have them because it’s going to cause awful destruction. Pippa, bloodthirsty as ever, is delighted. She also has some Vanir killed right in front of them for pretty much no reason, not realizing who she’s messing with.

Bryce and Hunt both use their powers and blow up not only the mech suits, but some of the trucks. Pippa is furious and shoots Cormac so he can’t teleport them anywhere, so they jump ship and steal a smaller one. However, Baxian shows up in his Helhound form and forewarns them that The Hind is on her way. She ends up catching up with them and it kind of seems like the jig is up. At the last minute, a mer ship saves all of their asses and they get away. While on the ship, they unfortunately discover that Sofie is indeed dead and they have her body with them. Bryce and Hunt also finally do the deed and their power combined is so strong during that she teleports them somewhere else.

Tharion knows that he’s in for it when he gets back because he found Sofie, but he knows that Cormac (poor Cormac) won’t let him have her body to give to the River Queen. They brave going back to Lunathion, and are surprised when they aren’t instantly apprehended. Things honestly seem to be quiet for now, which just makes them wonder exactly what The Hind is playing at and when she’s finally going to strike. They’re now not only enemies of Sandriel’s triarii, but of the Ophion rebels as well. Hunt gets Bryce alone for a minute and finally confronts her on what’s been bugging him since they were facing off with Pippa: he knows that she knows more about Emile than she’s letting on. Bryce comes clean and tells Hunt that she secretly went to the Viper Queen and asked her to do “whatever it takes” to find Emile, and then acted surprised when dead bodies started cropping up. I know Bryce just wanted to help the poor kid, but it was foolish on her part to think there wouldn’t be fatalities when you decide to start working with someone like that.

They go to the Viper Queen’s lush apartment (or whatever you wanna call it) and there’s Emile. Hunt’s beyond pissed at Bryce for keeping this a secret, but she tells him that there was no way she was letting him get in anyone else’s hands. Tharion, Cormac, Pippa… they all wanted him more for what he could do for them than the fact that he’s a young boy with no family left. She made the deal with the Viper Queen that if she can take him away, no questions asked, she owes the queen a favor. I know, I know, like I said: foolish. Bryce had been talking to her mom and stepdad and they agreed to take Emile in, change his name, officially adopt him and give him a proper and loving home, because there’s something else Bryce knows. Emile actually isn’t a Thunderbird. He has no power.

Hypaxia pays a visit to Ruhn and asks him if she’ll be his official escort for the upcoming mating ceremony for Celestia and Ephraim. She also tells him she thinks she’s in trouble with her own witches because they don’t actually want her to rule, they want The Hind to rule. Ruhn tells her that not only will he escort her, but he’ll have Ithan and Ariadne trail her so that she’s protected up until the ceremony as well. Bryce is visited by her father while working one day and he has a pretty nasty truth to reveal to her. Since she’s been using her status as a princess to throw her weight around (freeing the sprites and Ariadne, thoroughly pissing off and hurting Juniper by telling them to give her the position she deserves at work, etc) it means that she’s accepted both her role as a princess and that the Autumn King is HER king. She’s now a Danaan and there’s really not much she can do about it.

He also tells her that she’s to keep up her betrothal to Cormac, but she has some other plans.

Before she can really enact these plans, she meets up with Hypaxia for some queenly advice. They’re attacked by demons while out and Ithan is really badly hurt, but Hypaxia is able to patch him up. During the fight, Ariadne takes off for supposedly greener pastures. At the mating ceremony, she approaches Celestia and Ephraim before her father can and announces to them and everyone else that Hunt Athalar is her true mate and the one that she is claiming as her prince. The Autumn King’s hands are tied and he has to accept it, but both him and Cormac are beyond pissed at her for going behind their backs and I just know that it’s going to come and bite Bryce in the ass. Hard.

Oh, also, I was apparently totally wrong about Hypaxia being Day because Bryce and Hunt find her and Celestia in a closet together doing things Bryce and Hunt were about to do in that closet. Honestly, that one I did NOT see coming and had me blinking for a while. Ruhn and Day had agreed to meet up at the mating ceremony by a fountain, but when The Harpy and The Hind both stick their noses in his business, he knows it isn’t safe. Talking to Day the way they do later that night, he finds out that she did see him and now she knows exactly who he is. They actually end up kissing (telepathically? I’m not sure how it works) but she’s pulled back. Tharion is also at the mating ceremony, with the River Queen’s daughter, his betrothed. But he’s pretty unhappy about it.

After the ceremony, Hypaxia tries to help Ithan out by using her necromancer side and summoning Connor. But it isn’t Ithan’s brother that shows up, it’s the Under-King, and he’s ready to play. He traps Hypaxia and Ithan and they’re in a lot of danger, but they fight their way out, and they have a message for Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn and the others.

While training the next day, Cormac tells Bryce he won’t forget her betrayal but he’s putting it on the back-burner for now if she promises no more secrets. He notices the look exchanged between Bryce and Hunt and forces Bryce to tell them about Emile. She does, but only partly, and pretty much tells them all to forget about him because he’s safe and powerless. This irks Tharion, because he knows now that his queen will punish him and he likely won’t see Above for quite some time. He can’t really stand this thought and visits the Meat Market to keep up his facade that he’s looking for Emile.

While there, he hears someone talk about a dragon fighting. He and Flynn confront the Viper Queen, who indeed has Ariadne, who’s already agreed to work for her. She does give them a heads up though, by saying if they’re looking for Pippa and the other Ophion rebels, he just needs to give his friends a call. That’s the message that the Under-King had. He wanted to meet with them, but it was a guise. He leads them to Urd’s temple, where Pippa and some of the other rebels attack. Bryce is able to teleport the others out, and while she does she gets the word out that rebels are attacking. The Hammer and the other triarii respond, but Hunt and Bryce are trapped in the temple.

That is, until Baxian once again saves their asses with a secret passageway. Bryce has had about enough of him always saving them and confronts him about it, and surprise freaking surprise, there’s ANOTHER reveal about Danika’s life beforehand. Baxian and Danika were mates, he’s able to prove it to them, and he tells them that’s why he’s changed. He knows what the series of numbers are that Sofie had carved into her arm before she drowned, too. Through her research, Danika had discovered a room in the Asteri archives in Pangera and Sofie was able to break her way in, but not until after Danika had died. That’s the intel that Sofie had, and Bryce is determined to also learn it, so the gang is headed to Pangera, y’all!

Tharion and Ithan both decide they have some scores to settle since they might not come back alive. Tharion breaks off his betrothal to the River Queen’s daughter and knows he doesn’t have long until they’re after him, so the idiot pledges himself to the Viper Queen. Ithan tells Sabine and the Prime about the mystic wolf, but finds out that he really put his foot in it this time when the Prime tells him, away from Sabine, that the wolf is a Fendyr. Ithan tells Hypaxia he can’t come with them to Pangera anymore because he has to do everything he can to save this wolf before Sabine can get to her.

Ruhn has one more night with Daybright, and things get really serious between the two of them. However, once again she’s yanked away, and Ruhn is afraid that they’ve captured her this time. He’s in too deep now, and he instantly goes to Bryce and Hunt and tells them that while it’s an intel mission for everyone else, he’s going to do his damndest to save Day at the same time. With all of this in mind, they set off for the Crystal Palace.

Before all of the chaos really gets going, Ruhn tells Bryce that she’s more powerful than their father is and if they live through all of this, he believes that Bryce should take his place and become the fae queen, with Cormac seconding the idea kind of ominously. Everything begins pretty smoothly, they get inside, and the diversion begins. However, Tharion realizes that Cormac never intended to get out alive, and he’s pretty much gone rogue at this point. Bryce discovers what Sofie knew, which is that the six Asteri literally require the firstlight to live and if everyone stopped giving it to them, they could easily overpower them. She also finds out something else pretty gruesome: the Asteri have been conquering different planets for eons. One of the six, Rigelus, catches Bryce and gives her a classic villain dialogue, telling her all about conquering the other planets, and how the other shifters have actually all descended from the fae themselves, and that they’ve let Bryce live this long because she’s the key to re-opening the rifts. Bryce also learns that Hel is indeed another planet and, all along, they truly were just trying to help and also conquer the Asteri.

She teleports out of there, but when she gets back to Hunt, they’re both caught and cuffed. Ruhn had also taken it upon himself to go off on his own into the dungeons and try to get to Day, but he’s caught by Danika’s awful father Murdoc. Cormac is attacked by Pippa, so it seems like the only one of them left that hasn’t been boned yet is really just Tharion at this point. Bryce, Ruhn and Hunt are locked away together and The Harpy decides that she’s going to have a little bit of her own fun before The Hind shows up, starting with Ruhn, when she starts getting her ass kicked and Day is revealed to be… THE FREAKING HIND.

You guys. I just. I didn’t see that one coming AT ALL. But I don’t hate it. How many rebel sympathizers are out there!? Unfortunately, Cormac does seem to die by blowing himself up, but he does also seem to take Pippa down with him, thank god. Tharion takes off because he knows he’s not going to make it back to water in time to not lose the mer side of him if he doesn’t hurry.

Together, The Hind and Ruhn kick The Harpy’s ass and she ends up dead. However, before they can escape, Pollux the asshole shows up and The Hind has to go back to pretending, so they’re taken to Rigelus. Bryce pleads with him to let the others go, and she’ll stay, and open portals for them if that’s what they want. She just wants the others free. But of course that isn’t all that’s going on here. The Hind had given her the key to her restraints beforehand, and she was able to uncuff not only herself, but both Hunt and Ruhn while saying their tearful “goodbyes”. Bryce and Hunt combine their powers to buy some time and she takes off running, while Ruhn and Hunt are aided by Baxian in fighting the others off for a while.

Bryce ends up opening a portal and taking off, and unfortunately Hunt and Ruhn are taken prisoner. BUT YOU GUYS, here’s the AWESOME part: Bryce was trying to portal to Hel and tell Apollion she believes him and is ready for his help, but that’s not where she goes at all. Guess where she goes? Did you guess? Are you ready? SHE FREAKING PORTALS RIGHT TO VELARIS, RHYSAND, FEYRE AND THE OTHERS. I didn’t see it coming. Did you see it coming? I didn’t, and I’m so pleased, and is the third Crescent City out yet!?

The book ends with Flynn telling Ithan that they really need his help, and he also takes matters into his own hand, waking up the mystic and lost Fendyr.

My Rating:

I don’t think I’ve had a book rock my world so hard since… well, since the Aurora Cycle books, so it hasn’t been that long, but GOD was with good. 12/10. Seriously. This just solidified my stance in saying that these are my favorite SJM books, no contest.

Devastation Rating:

Honestly and surprisingly, this is a pretty low one this time around. I was ready for more. I’m going to say… 4/10? Damn.

Favorite Quote(s):

“My point is that if you’re not careful, if you are not smart, you will find yourself giving up pieces of your soul before it’s too late.”

Check out my Goodreads (Traci Bishop) and/or my Storygraph (bookishmamabish) to see what I’m currently reading and to see a good chunk of the books I have already read. My Instagram can be found on the home page and I will share whenever a new post is up as well!

Until next time <3