Author: Chelsea (Page 6 of 111)

Item: Ninth House
Rating: 5
Author: Chelsea

BOOK REVIEW: Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo

April 14, 2022 / Chelsea / 2 Comments

Ninth House (Alex Stern #1)
by Leigh Bardugo
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

What do you want? Belbalm had asked her. Safety, comfort, to feel unafraid. I want to live to grow old, Alex thought as she pulled the curtains closed. I want to sit on my porch and drink foul-smelling tea and yell at passersby. I want to survive this world that keeps trying to destroy me.

The way that I want to scream from the mountains and make this a total fangirl review…the urge is strong. Logic is flawed. And-I have to admit it-it’s all because I chose to believe a bunch of reviews from people I don’t even know instead of trusting in the author I’ve loved since the beginning of the Grishaverse. Shame on me.

Darlington liked to say that dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.

I’ll admit that it’s daunting when an author you know and love changes their genre completely-and in such a macabre fashion. Bardugo didn’t just go from YA Fantasy to Adult Fantasy…she went full on YA Fantasy to Adult Dark Academia. Quite a jump, and a jump I wasn’t quite ready to make when it was first released.

The resemblance was superficial, at least on the outside. But underneath? In the cut-open places, they were all the same. Girls like Hellie, girls like Alex, girls like this one, had to keep running or eventually trouble caught up. This girl just hadn’t run fast enough.

I can also admit there are key words when reading reviews that ignite that trigger response and I latched onto those with my whole being. What I failed to realize though, was I needed to read between the lines/investigate a little further to see whether those triggers would effect me. Everyone’s threshold of tolerance differs and what we can endure is in the eyes and heart of the reader. One similar scene may bother me more in another book simply because of what surrounds it or what the parameters are of the story, where another book may have an even worse similar scene, but everything surrounding it supports it, enhances it, creates a tension that just works and makes it bearable whereas the other just simply didn’t. It’s the smallest things that may set someone off (me), when before the same exact thing didn’t bother me. I can’t explain it other than I’m an emotional reader: I’m pure. I don’t have set stereotypes of triggers and how they are used other than two key triggers that are NEVER okay and I cannot tolerate: Babies (and young children) and animals. Those are it-the rest, things may bother me on a visceral level, but I couldn’t tell you from one book the next how it will effect me. That’s just how I am, I suppose.

“Thank you.” Alex winked. “Now we can be friends again.”
“Psycho.”
“So I hear,” said Alex.

All that being said-What I mean is that while this book triggered many people, it did not trigger myself. There were key things that at some time may have at some point in my life…but I guess I pictured this book to be so grotesque before reading that nothing I read was really going to phase me. Ah the power of trusting reviews. Either way, it seems that there was a certain line drawn in the sand that divided people between loving and not loving the book, and I’ll mention it here: ***I cannot get this spoiler in so will add later when I know how***. I believe this scene-paired with the fact that some people do not like change by their favorite authors (or mistakenly believing this to be YA when it’s, in fact, Adult)-is the main divider of derision/enjoyment. I personally just found one other scene to be far more disturbing-but that’s taste (omfg, taste. GAG. You’ll see. Unfortunately). OR, ya know, someone just may not enjoy it. There’s always that-which, okay, fair.

We are the shepherds.

I don’t know what I expected when I pictured this book, but I suppose I just never cared enough to realize it’s a form of dark academia, one of my favorite genres to read when done correctly. I think I always pictured some adult woman doing PI work and hanging out around a campus…fuck if I know why I thought that but…wow. The reality was so much better than that. And I guess this is a good instance of seeing why it’s nice to go in blind sometimes. I was blown away and that does not happen often to me when I am going into a darker book. Though, to me, this really wasn’t as dark as many of the books I’ve read in the last few years.

“Not at all. Demons are ambidextrous.”
“Do we ever have to fight demons?”
“Absolutely not. Demons are confined to some kind of hellscape behind the Veil, and the ones that do manage to push through are far above our pay grade.”
“What pay grade?”
“Precisely.”

And, okay, let’s cut to the damn chase: Darlington. Daniel Arlington. My newest love. How delightful. I just…I am trash for him. I love his haughtiness. I love his gentle snark. I love the way his derision never gets in the way [of always, always doing the right thing] of how he trains and guides Alex (well…mostly). I love that, above all, he lives up to his name as the Gentleman of Lethe and would never-under ANY circumstance-let any harm befall Alex (or anyone in danger in his radius, really) no matter his qualms or mistrust. He just…is the epitome of a ‘good guy’ without the bore or mundaneness. In fact, his scenes are anything but mundane, and I found myself speeding up when I knew he was going to be in the next scene. My most helpful piece of advice? Savor him. Savor his moments. Lock them up and read them slowly, stash them in the deepest crevices of your mind and throw away the key. You’ll thank you me later, if you’re a fan of him at all.

That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible. It gave back the world all lonely children longed for. That was what Lethe had done for him. Maybe it could do that for Alex as well.

What got me most, though, was the way they were together, the way they worked together. It just…got me. And, again, I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t know what I was reading so all of this was just such a delightful surprise. I can’t go on anymore lest I spoil things, but just know…he has my whole heart for my whole life.

She took out her phone. There was a message from the detective. Working a case. Stay put. Will call when I’m done. DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID.
“It’s like he doesn’t even know me.”

Alex…she was rough, but I loved her. I loved her attitude. Her tenacity. The way she couldn’t give up even though she should have for her own self-preservation. Her mix of tough/desire to be liked and loved touched my heart. I am a sucker for heroines that have a darkness to them, that can push past that darkness at any point, but have a deep softness and willingness to be accepted and loved. A fierceness to them that never lets them give up, to fight through any and all pain to do what’s right even as they were always treated poorly and without sympathy

-that paired with Darlington’s moral compass, I was dead. I loved it so much. All that, and her relatability. Her inner snark, her quips in response to literally everyone. I felt so much kinship in those moments because, even if I don’t say something, best believe I’m thinking it and I just loved her dialogue.

Colin’s enthusiasm always seemed genuine, but sometimes its sheer wattage made her want to do something abruptly violent like put a pencil through his palm.

#relatable

And, finally, the atmosphere. Again, not near as dark as I had anticipated, but there were moments of such levity that I did feel submerged in darkness. There is up and down, yin and yang, and that’s probably my favorite sort of story. I love a good ‘darker’ ya fantasy because I think they are rarer, but I do like some light moments sprinkled between-that is the case here. That’s not to say there is any lack of battering, bone-crunching, or all out gore, because there is, [PLENTLY]. But I didn’t feel weighed down by it, and perhaps that was my largest fear.

The drug was telling her brain that everything was okay, that anything was possible, that if she willed it, she could heal herself right now. But the pain was shrieking panic, banging on her awareness, a fist against glass. She could feel a splinter starting, her sanity like a windshield that wasn’t meant to break. She’d been called crazy countless times, had sometimes believed it, but this was the first time she’d felt insane.

So all in all this book jumped to an absolute favorite out of nowhere. I shouldn’t have been surprised though, as Leigh Bardugo really doesn’t release mediocrity-it’s just not her thing. So, even though this was off my radar due to the gruesome nature, once I FINALLY heard a release for book two, I was all in immediately (inexplicably), even after telling myself I’d never read it. And, I’ll admit it, I’m a whore for good book art and I saw a print of Darlington and Alex that spoke to me, that made my heart pitter patter, and that’s what really led me here. I’m not ashamed to admit that I owe this new absolute favorite to that piece of art. Isn’t it beautiful tgat the extension of our artistic expression can change a person’s perspective on something they believed to be vile and not something they’d give a second glance to? It’s beautiful to me-and amazing-that someone’s renderings of their deepest personal manifestation can help me to visualize what I couldn’t fathom before. How far we’ve come, Bookish Friends. And whether it be the atmosphere, the characters, or the utter surprise of the depth of this story, I am trash for it, and I will be eagerly awaiting in the shadows for book two to release before I emerge.

FRIEND SCALE:

Arielle-I’ve drug pushed you into it so it’s already too late for your soul. lol
Cassie-You’ve read it.
Jen-NO lol
Anna-Frankly I could see you being either way. I sure hope Darlington brings you the joy he brought me.

******

I am simply trash for Darlington

BOOK REVIEW: The Damned (The Beautiful #2) by Renee Ahdieh

March 29, 2022 / Chelsea / 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: The Damned (The Beautiful #2) by Renee Ahdieh The Damned (The Beautiful #2)
by Renee Ahdieh
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with the second installment of her new sumptuous, sultry and romantic series, The Beautiful.

Following the events of The Beautiful, Sébastien Saint Germain is now cursed and forever changed. The treaty between the Fallen and the Brotherhood has been broken, and war between the immortals seems imminent. The price of loving Celine was costly. But Celine has also paid a high price for loving Bastien.

Still recovering from injuries sustained during a night she can’t quite remember, her dreams are troubled. And she doesn’t know she has inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that could lead to her demise and unveil a truth about herself she’s not quite ready to learn.

Forces hiding in the shadows have been patiently waiting for this moment for centuries. And just as Bastien and Celine begin to uncover the danger around them, they learn their love could tear them apart.

“And real love may be a choice, but I plan to choose someone who steals the breath from my body and haunts my very dreams. That is the only kind of love worth having.”

Look, this is hard for me. I do NOT like bashing a book even remotely connected to another book I adore….let alone in the same series.

Yet here we are. Imagine how hard this is for me.  The easiest way I could think of to explain this abomination of a story is as simple as this:

This book, simply put, is the child to a mother who yearned for so much more world expansion so as to ‘have another child’ there wasn’t possibly any way to sustain the child that already existed, to possibly survive on its own. The lack of nourishment for our already conceived and existing child caused it to shrivel and die… all in the name of making sure there were enough nutrients for another child, another being that literally didn’t exist.

Ahdieh made it so we got another two books with other characters instead of taking care of the first book she had already written, made a lottt of people fall in love with, and let Bastien and Celine’s story just…what even happened? Celine legit was barely in this book. SHE WASN’T EVEN THE MAIN POV.

And here we go. HERE. WE. FUCKING. GO. Bastien. What the cinnamon toast FUCK did she to do my child?? That is NOT who we fell in love with in book one. Not a wink. I get it. I fucking get it. But to take this beloved character of mine and, like, massacre his soul like this-that is NOT okay.

And even more than that, she triggered the EFF out of me. Yes. I know. I KNOW I am sensitive and get mad at the stupidest shit…but I just felt like this was

What even. What EVEN was she doing here. Sloppy. Inconsistent. Unlike Bastien. And, I’m guna say it-COWARDLY. This was a pathetic attempt at a story and it was just…not good. I had read people said book two was different and, like, that’s okay? I don’t CARE. But this was just out of left field different.

New creatures. New storyline. No direction. I get what she was attempting here, but it fell flat, period. And to not even really do anything until the last bit of the book, to let things hang in such a manner, to throw so much in with so little payoff-especially for certain things (I WILL NOT SPOIL. I WILL NOT)-it was a slap in the face. I do not CARE about these next characters. If you cannot take care of the dog you have, you have literally zero-zip-right to get a new puppy.

Look, I sound bitter-and I AM bitter-but this was a dumpster fire of a book, and NOT in a complimentary way like the masterpiece that was You Deserve Each Other. I could go on. And on. And on. About this piece of trash but-as I said in review one-I don’t have time to pretend that such a sadistic piece of turd exists and I’ll continue to cherish book one as if it was a standalone-or, rather, a single, solitary fucking child. At least then it can learn to feed and take care of itself instead of living in the shadow of stink that this one exudes. And that…is all I have to say. Regardless of what else I want to rant about, it’s not worth it-period.

View all my reviews

BOOK REVIEW: The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon

March 28, 2022 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2)
by Samantha Shannon
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal prison camp of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the survivors are missing and she is the most wanted person in London...

As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on the dreamwalker, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city's gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take centre stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner.

Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided.

“You call a past lover an ‘old flame.’” His apple-gold eyes were more chilling than beautiful, his face carved out of nothing earthly. “For Rephaim, it takes a long time for a flame to catch. But once it burns, it cannot go out.”
It didn’t take long to understand what he meant. “But I will,” I said. “I’ll stop. I’ll go out.”
There was a long silence.
“Yes,” Warden said, very softly. “You will go out.”

It’s so hard to write reviews for a series when you are reading them back to back-Not to mention if they are dense and lengthy. The Bone Season is both of those plus more, but I cannot imagine not taking the time to at least make an effort to try and relay what makes this series special in its own unique way.

Voyants, do you hear me?

It won’t be as long or well thought out as it would have been had I taken the time immediately after finishing to write this, but it stands on its own merit and I am simply assisting those who want my personal opinion and why it works for me (wow I am so robotic-I. Am. SO. Tired. Did I mention I’m tired?).

Do you hear me?

Well, for one, this is the most ‘serious’ forbidden romance I’ve ever had the ?pleasure? of reading. I mean, it’s downright painful going page to page as these two treat each other’s goals, ambitions, and loyalties with such a staunch and unrelenting manner. The push and pull is so agonizingly sinful that I am absolute TRASH when they slip away and just simply…give in. That being said, mind you, I am undeniably mixing up books 2 and 3 right now. I am shamelessly furthering my own agenda by saying this push and pull thing goes on book after book after, well…as far as I am in book four [which is 54% of the way through.] I. Need. Some. SERIOUS. Relief…oKaY?

“Paige.” His voice was a gray shadow of itself. “It is not that I do not want you. Only that I might want you too much. And for too long.”

With all that being said, this book had a lack of Warden for quite some time-so know that the typical book two formula is in play here, but damn if the tension of her ragtag group of the seven dials didn’t fulfill my very macabre idea of a good storyline.

“Surely we have to try, Jax? Who’s going to rule I-4 when they come for us?”
“Be careful, Paige.” Jaxon’s face was losing color again. “You are treading a very fine line.”
“Am I? Or am I crossing yours?”

Which leads me to another reason I love this series: Jackson. He is the most….dastardly Mime Lord ever. Well, no, he’s not. But the sinister way in which he is their friend-but not-their leader-but not (more like dictator)-their savior-but not…It’s mindfuckery of the utmost thrilling proportions. Are we supposed to like him? Hate him? Love him? I was on the edge of my seat for so much of this book. It certainly did not suffer from book two syndrome with the action and peril and utter destruction of mind and soul.

“…And words, my walker—well, words are everything. Words give wings even to those who have been stamped upon, broken beyond all hope of repair.”

Now, one may say I’m being spoilery. Nah. Anyone with any sense of awareness in this effed up world can see how malicious that man is:

“The only reason you are not dead already, O my lovely, is because of my good word. My declaration of your innocence. Put one toe out of line, and I will have you dragged before the Unnatural Assembly so you can show them that scar.”

Does that sound like a sane person to you? He is…interesting. And in the best way possible, in my opinion, because I can’t help but love what he adds to the storyline . And that’s really the whole thing, for me-I am almost done with the books available to us readers and I find that while there is never a lack of Paige and Warden being in danger (especially Paige), I much preferred books one and two for the story structure and plot.

“You helped me.”
“Do not labor under the illusion that I am a bastion of moral goodness, Paige. That would be a dangerous venture.”

I can’t proceed with that train of thought, just know that I am a simple gal who likes simple things and I am a huge fan of books one and two for the way they intricately play out…the complexities of 3 and 4 are so good…but man, I do so love the beginnings of revolutions (lest we forget I’ve ALWAYS been a book 1 kinda gal). ***EDIT*** Just went through some book three passages and I maaayyyy have been hasty in saying book three doesn’t give me ALL the vibes. I guess 1, 2, AND 3 give me happy macabre vibes. Yes. I did say that.

London—beautiful, immortal London—has never been a “city” in the simplest sense of the word. It was, and is, a living, breathing thing, a stone leviathan that harbors secrets underneath its scales. It guards them covetously, hiding them deep within its body; only the mad or the worthy can find them.

And, lastly, I will combine the last two reasons I adore this series: Paige’s friends (mostly Nick) and, obviously, the way this author gives no shits about simultaneously almost killing Paige every other chapter with not the bat of an eyelash. It seems to be as simple as breathing to her…and I inhale those tantalizing attacks with not one ounce of shame. I love this author’s attention to the goriest detail-in fact, I thrive.

“You can never want too much. That’s how they silence us,” I said. “They told us we were lucky to be in the penal colony instead of the æther. Lucky to be murdered with NiteKind, not the noose. Lucky to be alive, even if we weren’t free. They told us to stop wanting more than what they gave us, because what they gave us was more than we deserved.”

So, there you go. And it’s so hard to write reviews that obviously mirror another one or two books in a series-especially one like this. But I am proud to say that once you get into these, I don’t really think it matters because you’re either all in or you are done-both cases of which imply that you don’t care if the facts are a bit muddled because you’re trudging onward anyway and you’re as deep as I am or you simply don’t care and you’re curious. Either way, if anyone ever wants to talk Warden and Paige, I’m all ears.

But Warden cared if I laughed. He cared if I lived or died. He had seen me as I was, not as the world saw me.
And that meant something.
It had to. Didn’t it?

View all my reviews

BOOK REVIEW: The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1) by Renee Ahdieh

March 24, 2022 / Chelsea / 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1) by Renee Ahdieh The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1)
by Renee Ahdieh
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet: The Beautiful.

My Disclaimer:

Before Reading Book Two: Highly Recommend (I literally insist)

After Reading Book Two: What are you talking about? There is no book two. This is simply a wonderfully charismatic, dramatic ending standalone. Do with that information what you will.

Nothing good ever came from succumbing to madness.

I read this over a month ago, yet I am no less breathless when I randomly begin thinking about it. I think it says something when you have read probably ten books post said book and your mind still randomly jumps back to it randomly, dumping you back into that time and moment when you wholly immersed yourself and said ‘I’ll never forget this’. But we always forget. Always.

It drove me to where I am now. But I am not ungrateful. For it brought to bear two of my deepest truths: I will always possess an errant young soul, no matter my age.
And I will always be the shadowy creature in darkened alcoves, waiting . . .
For you, my love. For you.

That’s not to say we NEVER remember it again, or can’t relive that feeling when we do think back to it, but we all move on, us readers, because we make room for so many more amazing books, if we are lucky. I think I’ve been very fortunate, as I have read no less than 40 amazing 5 star books just this past year (maybe more) and I loved them all fiercely for each individual story, each with its own merit-sometimes for the same reason, the same trope, the same male characteristics, the same strong, bold heroine, or a shy blushing MC. Maybe instead it’s witty and sarcastic, or dramatic and tension-filled, rife with peril or romantic delusions leading to a huge-but oh so amazing-misunderstanding that makes or breaks the book (but almost always makes the book, for me).

But if a monster takes a life, what kind of creature refuses to save one?

So why this book? What was so individualistic about it that it pops in my mind so much when it wasn’t without many flaws? Well. Perhaps that bias comes from book two which doesn’t even exist so why I even mentioned such an asinine thing is beyond me, but whatever. I. Don’t. Know. I just know that when I picked this book up, it felt right. I know I say that now and again [a lot] but it makes it no less true. And that just makes me a good reader, a smart reader, a very altruistic (I looked this up and legit this is not the correct word but I like the way it looks and sounds so…it stays) and enthusiastic fan. And this was no exception.

No matter where she went, danger followed.
And it horrified her. Just as it thrilled her.

I think part of the reason I fell so strongly in love with this story was that, TO ME, it felt different. New. Exciting. It’s not-not really-but it was such a mashup of so many things I felt a kinship to it, a pull unlike anything I’d felt in a while. It wasn’t my normal ‘Oh I’ll love this forever’ stint, nor did it just jump off the page and become an instant favorite. Much like the slow burn of this novel, this book grew on me in a way I’m not accustom to and…I definitely didn’t hate it.

In that instant, Celine thought she had an inkling of what it must be like to be a monster. To commit monstrous deeds. To wish for monstrous things to come about.
To revel in the dark.

Celine was a heroine I wholeheartedly enjoyed with her curiosity and fierce nature (it was a while ago I read this, so bare with me on describing her-I just know I LOVED her for simply being her and she was a fun heroine to follow, even if I don’t wholly remember everything). She knew what she wanted, and she also knew what she could and couldn’t live without-her friend was of utmost importance to her, so she did what she felt she had to. She could not put her friend in danger as she was sought after by the killer. What she could live with endangering her life for…well. Same.

Was this love then?
If it was, Celine wanted to bathe in it. To luxuriate in this feeling of knowing—without being told—that someone saw her, amid the beautiful decay. Saw her and stood by her side, against the very world itself.

Bastien. Let’s not pretend he is anything new in the male lead department…but it doesn’t mean I didn’t squee when he came on the page, morally gray as ever yet as sweet as a cinnamon roll to those he loved and cared about. I wonder who he grew to care about? Hm. Puzzler. That all being said, their love is forbidden for too many reasons to name, and he knows that. Yet as the book progresses, we begin to see his facade crack, his attitude change, and his motives become perhaps no less pure, but far more misguided.

“Ask him.” His smile turned punishing. “I have no doubt what his answer will be.”
“Mon cher, you don’t know him as well as you think you do.” Odette’s retort was pointed. “That’s the thing about beautiful fiends like Sébastien Saint Germain: they always do what you least expect them to do.” She brushed a speck of nonexistent dust from his shoulder. “And in the end, they always wear the crown.”

I cannot say why misguided, as I wasn’t quite sure what he was or wasn’t until a certain point in this story-I still raised an eyebrow when ‘proof’ was shown, but no matter. It all came to a head, in the end. Just know this: If a tortured hero (for actual good reason, this time) with forbidden love and mystery is what you fancy, I’d go for it.

“…Rage is a moment. Regret is forever.”

So. I don’t know. Without continuing to ramble I don’t know how I am supposed to express why you should read this when I can’t quite pinpoint why it felt different to me. Set in an eerie New Orleans, with unidentified creatures and Celine’s quest to figure who or what is targeting those around her, this book was just a breath of fresh air. I loved following her through the streets not knowing what was following her, who was around (not all bad, ya know), what might happen (as there really wasn’t a set formula, it just flowed), and what would eventually transpire when it all came to a head and Bastien had to make a choice-I won’t say it was right up my alley, not outright, but, okay, I was laying in said alley basking in the darkness, starlight, and forbidden lovers as they raced to survive against an unknown wholly evil force and I literally could not breathe. But, like, make your own decision, ‘kay? Don’t take my word for it.

******

The way I loved this so much 😭😭

RTC

BOOK REVIEW: House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas

March 14, 2022 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
by Sarah J. Maas
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are trying to get back to normal―they may have saved Crescent City, but with so much upheaval in their lives lately, they mostly want a chance to relax. Slow down. Figure out what the future holds.

The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels’ plans, the choice becomes clear: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent.

In this sexy, action-packed sequel to the #1 bestseller House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas weaves a captivating story of a world about to explode―and the people who will do anything to save it.

“…I did that to him. With my lightning. With a blow a fraction of what I unleashed on the Starsword.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re the tough, smart male who knows best and I’m an impulsive female whose feelings get her in trouble—”
“For fuck’s sake, Quinlan.”

This is the farthest thing from an easy review to write, but that doesn’t make it any less important for me to purge the thoughts from my mind. To say I am shocked to be doing anything less than fangirling, anything less than screaming my love from the rooftops-from the mountains-anything less than cooking up theories with friends….is an understatement-yet here we are.

I literally won’t make this long, but I will say what didn’t work for me and what did. It’s only fair and the only way to get this thing off my chest. For one, I just am clearly not an SJM follower so I didn’t understand the assignment. I thought that, ya know, for once this story was just about Bryce and Hunt and that whoever surrounded them did just that…surrounded them. I was okay with other POVs, I mean who cares, but when they kind of began to overshadow what I really came here for-for my ship to sail and deal with their shit-it just struck me dumb.

That’s not to say I don’t like more of Ruhn. Ruhn is probably now my second favorite character only under HUNT [duh]…so to see him finding a thread to follow, it was refreshing. I like having more stakes, more to root for…more to lose. But that came at a price, in my opinion, when he and Tharion seemed to almost be doing more than Bryce and Hunt. I know that’s not the case, but it did feel as though we barely got any of Bryce and Hunt. I assume that’s the aftereffect of me assuming that the book would be centered around them.

So yeah…I was bummed to not get exclusive and unending Hunt content. That should come as a surprise to no one. That butt hurt aside, probably my second-or maybe first, if I’m being completely honest (or maybe it’s a tie in to the characters?)-issue is that I am a creature of habit and I do. Not. Like. Change. Book one was literally grit and action and desperation and loneliness and finding love through heartbreak and rising above betrayal and-most importantly for my psychotic ass-peril.

There just was something so unnerving about everything being the same yet different. Evolved yet not evolved. Hunt and Bryce ended in a tentative relationship and with the understanding they would lay low but of course they CANT lay low and then we enter book two and it all just…it seems so different than what I envisioned. And there, I suppose, inlays the problem: me. Well. I have always been my own worst enemy; overhyping, overthinking, overanalyzing, playing out what I want the end to be like, wanting only what I expect…

But I fear that, while yes, a lot of this rating has to do with lack of anything happening, it’s definitely not wholly my fault. Look, this is a long ass book . For conversations to be 80% of the story-that’s absurd. Well, at least to someone who doesn’t want a million new characters and threads to tug on. So I guess that leads to my third and final issue: Maas has always been too big, too grandiose, too all inclusive of her own worlds and ideas for me.

So why did you even read this series, then, you ask? Who the hell DOESN’T want to become apart of such a big fandom with your friends? I LOVED and adored book one and was SHOCKED at how amazing it was-truly. It was dead set on searing it’s own path and I blazed alongside Hunt, Bryce, and all involved. I was trash for it-still am. So to say I can’t look away from minor inconveniences and flaws and overlook past biases is both untrue and unjust. I simply just did not see eye to eye with the paths this story took. IE: Farther away from Bryce and Hunt and their tentative domestic bliss.

“Even if **** or **** told Emile it was safe to hide out, if I were a kid, I wouldn’t have come here.”
“You were a kid, like, a thousand years ago. Forgive me if my childhood is a little more relevant.”
“Two hundred years ago,” he muttered.
“Still old as fuck.”

Now here is where my positives start flowing in: Boy do I love Bryce and Hunt together. They are the epitome of one of my OTP couples. I will never not root for Hunt to find true peace and happiness-and I AM SO GLAD this was not a cakewalk for them. Bring on the pain. Bring on the hurt. Bring on any and every big bad that is trying to tear them apart. I. Am. Down. For. That. Maas wouldn’t and couldn’t and shouldn’t

make them an easy couple and that’s okay-divine even. Domestic bliss is boring and lack of tension after a couple gets together drives a book to Boring Town in less than 5 pages. So the fact that we all knew book two wouldn’t send our main lovers sailing into the sunset is a given-Maas certainly delivered. Perhaps a little too thoroughly. I’d say I have more on that alter, but I’m past being upset and negative and it holds no place among Maas fans so what is the point-I stand by the fact that this book was far from perfect but it had so many perfect elements laying within it that I cannot hate it. Will not. My heart may be shattered that this wasn’t a masterpiece in my eyes but that doesn’t blind me to the fact that Maas gives me so many things I crave.

“Not sexy enough.”
“Lover?”
“Does that come with a ruff and lute?”
He swept a wing over her bare thigh. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a pain in the ass?”
“Just ye olde lover.”

And then she can so easily taketh away: (view spoiler) I thought we avoided that but clearly not. I didn’t say this to start down that path (though what long, winding, desolate road that would be), but to implement the fact that so many amazing elements were presented within it: Pain. Desperation (though a far tamer desperation than I wanted and needed which was delivered in book one). Longing. Loss. I love these moments above the rest, and to see them given to me in a different way I didn’t expect (though Arielle had mentioned this when I read it over a year ago as a possibility) was refreshing, though unwelcome at times.

All this being said, I am still in shock I even have to think about how I’m phrasing this and that I’m not 5 more paragraphs in blasting to the cosmos with how enraptured I am and that I am now forever an SJM fan, not lost in the throes of book slumpdom alongside my ride or die bitch, but I can’t be that person and I guess I never will. I would be remiss if I didn’t say that, of course I will still pine to know what happens in book three and I will still try with my whole heart to love book three, but am now far more unsure if that’s possible. Why bother, you’re probably asking, if you don’t like SJM. Well-what a sad world we’d live in if we gave up on our favorite characters and what will inevitably become them. What a sad world that I’d let a few things I don’t like kill the love and fire in my torch I have for Hunt and his journey for peace and happiness. My hope cannot be killed, no matter how little I felt for most of this novel. So onto three and wishing for nothing but the best in the final installment of a series I plan to die still loving.

****

Oh God the way I’m terrified to rate this candidly

Don’t tear apart my carcass please

RTC

****

ARIELLE. CASSIE. LET’S DO THIS THING.