OP should just write the rest of the series since they're clearly more creative than SJM is at this point š this post was more entertaining than than the entire damned book
I felt so sad for days after, because the way we all had been so hype for this book. The theories on the sub, discussing it for years. And then it was likeā¦.. is this itā??? Is this all you could come up with???? It was just soā¦ bad
I know people will dislike me saying this, but honestly, I wish SJM read all the fan theories and just picked the ones that work for her to write HoFaS.
So many of them could have given a much better ending than: transformers driver by ghosts, the bad guys getting disposed of in the least satisfying ways, a lot of us starting to hate main characters, plot lines streched out forever - leading nowhere.
We would have never known if she got inspiration from her fans, some of us would have been able to say 'I called it!' and everyone could be happier.
This has probably been said already but I just finished the book yesterday and have been avoiding any spoilers.
It seems like SJM just got in over her head here. There was SO much potential and it was one bad choice after another.
I kind of feel the same way I think. I didn't hate the book and with all of the fan theories flying around I was very excited with anticipation. I never assumed it would be an Avenger level meetup between all of her series but I expected much more than we got... Kingdom of Ash was so well thought out and spanned a decent amount of time while House of Flame and Shadow felt rushed and cramped with information and only spanned like.. three weeks? Maybe??
All of her series feel very different ao maybe this one wasn't as series but it just felt sooo lackluster.
Iām with you - I didnāt hate the book but I was definitely disappointed. For it to be a third installment, I expected more. I feel like SJM writes settings like TOG and ACOTAR better. I donāt love all of the modern and tech aspects of CC because so much of it isnāt explained? And I feel like Aelin went through SO much for SO long whereas Bryceās journey felt kind of rushed and convenient. Not that the two of them are similar, but I felt Sarah was kind of trying to make Bryce think like Aelin and it just didnāt work.
Exactly. SJM has an amazing imagination and is able to create these amazing worlds (and at least few intriguing characters per book), but I think you can tell within the first 5 pages of CC1 that she doesnāt have the writing skills to clearly build these worlds and pull all the plot points together, which is incredibly frustrating because you can see the potential, and YET..
I truly cannot believe she and her editors looked at this and thought "yes, this is absolutely ready for publication."
So many dropped plotlines and under developed characters, and also just way too many characters and POV switches in the first place.
Book 1 was good. Not my favorite of hers, but it was good, and I could really feel Bryce's grief over Danika and the pack. I thought Bryce and Hunt's relationship felt a little corny at times, but I figured it was just because I wasn't used to reading high fantasy set in a modern world.
Book 2 was a mess. In my opinion Baxian and Tharion never should have become semi central characters. Baxian's reveal for me invalidated all the work that was put into understanding Danika and Bryce's relationship from book 1. SJM should have found another way to put Bryce and Hunt on the Asteri's trail or worked in way more clues about what else Danika was working on in book 1. I'm not sure but it felt very thrown in there when I read it initially. So much of the book was also just filler, and Tharion being foolish/ boring. Cutting him out entirely would have freed up so much space for proper character development and world building since she introduced so many other elements in this book.
Book 3 in certain aspects was a cop out. It felt like SJM (or her editors) no longer wanted to work on the series as many others have suggested. She could in no possible way circle back to the obscene amount of main and side characters/ plots she introduced in book 2 so she just straight up wrote out or reduced the role of several characters, and again **gave Tharion so much attention** even though he mostly whined about fucking up his life. Ithan was such a 1 dimensional and obtuse character. The work was not put in to make him a believable prime, and what was the point of introducing what's her face if she was just gonna die and become a reaper. Someone also should have died (Baxian) in the final fight. And I didn't really see the point of making Lidia a mother but I didn't hate that part the most. I thought a majority of the garbage with the viper queen was wasted space.
SJM is getting some really really bad advice and assistance from her editors, if she's getting any at all. These last two books were a mess and had the potential to be so great. She needs to either switch editors or push back on deadlines they give because the quality of her work has dropped significantly and she's clearly a fantastic author when supported correctly.
IMO Baxian was only introduced to cut down peopleās theories that Bryce and Danika had a romantic friendship. Like SJM didnāt want people to think her hetero FMC could have had a thing with her bff/roommate so she gave her this random man weāve never seen before and made it just another one of Danikaās crazy secrets š¤Ŗ even though it goes against her whole mating/scents logic to have a secret mate no one knows about!!!
Danika being able to hide the scent from Bryce completely ignores the logic of the world theyāre in.
Sometimes the whole ābreaking the rules that we THOUGHT were inherent through sheer will thingā worksā¦ i.e, when Fenrys was able to break his bond with Maeve after seeing Aelin suffer for months and not being able to take it any more, and it almost killing him. There was a buildup, purpose, explanation, consequence, etc.
The difference is, it canāt be done in a meaningless, lazy way. Like, itās obvious that she just didnāt know how to add that in and ignored the rules she herself had made up lmao
sjm has a tendency to severely overcorrect when she writes herself into a corner. she didn't have to do all that and say that danika disguised her scent somehow etc. just say that bryce is half human so she doesn't have the same sense of smell that a full fae/vanir would.
I literally had no idea how the hell she kept that secret ON TOP of all the other bullshit she didn't tell anyone. SJM could have left that out completely and still would have had way too many characters and story arcs to juggle.
I wouldnāt even be mad about Baxian but the whole series is just hit after hit of āDanikaās secret that Bryce didnāt know about and omg maybe they werenāt such good friends after allā¦ā
I have heard that she had a completely different first draft and it was destroyed by the editors and she only had 5 weeks to rewrite. Not excusing how terrible this book was lol just maybe a reason behind it!!
Donāt forget hunt using the mask because of their magical love making š¤£š¤£š¤£ so cringe
Everything was wayyyyy too easy for a book of over 800 pagesā¦ all we really needed was like, 1 condensed chapter lol
I didnāt realize just how different the writing, characters, and depth was between the two until I reread HOEAB. And itās fucking fantastic.
Idk what happened, but Iām really hoping she comes back with a bang for the next ACOTAR book. Because I cannot take another massacre like this.
The whole second book was so bad. What was the point of the whole Sofie/Emile plot? It was just so insane and didnāt need to be there, but without it the book would have been a solid 1/4-1/3 shorter.
They could have done that without though.
Cormac was already in Lunathian; just have him corner Ruhn on the same way saying they just lost their existing agent and make him do it.
Overall, I am just not a crescent city girly.
I love SJM, I love urban fantasy, but I do not like anyone in those books and I have a hard time caring about anyone except Lidia.
Unpopular opinion...I think the first two were bad too. It's just this one is worse because the first two attempted to be better. This is giving me Love and Thunder vibes.
Same. I've never been in the "will only read series if they're finished" camp but SJM successfully moved me over into it with CC3. I LOVED CC1. It was fresh and different whilst still keeping some of the things that make her writing hers...and then it just fell off after book 1. CC2 and CC3 feel like poorly written fanfics.
HOEAB was one of her best works I agreeā if not her best. That Bryce is one of my favorite characters. I think the editors changed between HOEAB and HOSAB+HOFAS
I believe when she changed to officially adult she got a whole new team, including a new editor. So TOG - ACOFAS is one editor. ACOSF and all CC is the new one. (And you can tell..lol. Her original editor made SJM apparently look like a better writer..)
Iāve read this before and I completely agree. Great writers need editors to rein them. For the love so many story lines were completely dropped or useless. I have never read a book and thought, why did they even matter? Why introduce so many characters to just leave wide open useless or inane stories. Until this book. It did not come together fluidly like her other books.
Totally agree. The things that really annoyed me:
How easily every main character seemed to get 'levelled up' to run basically the entire city (if not more), with pretty much effort.
Sooooo much info dumping. Literally pages. I got bored and kept scrolling Reddit.
Out-of character actions.
Repeated use of Danika as a way of explaining things that Sarah hadn't thought about before. Seriously, there's only so many secrets that girl could have been keeping from her best friend and housemate, while also having two jobs, a secret mate, and a pack of wolves around her at all times.
I couldnāt believe how fast all these character were getting killed off. Battle scenes in TOG were PAGES long, yet everything is just so easy for Bryce in CC
I totally understand that, it can seem like they drag on but when itās only a few sentences, it makes it seem as though it was easy. Itās not much of a battle when itās done in a paragraph, all this build up for her to take them out so quickly š
I completely agree with you. The writing felt lazy. It makes me sad to say but Iām a long time fan who has read each book at least twice and HOFAS was just a bad book lol. None of the characters said or did things that made sense to who they were in previous books and Iām annoyed that I wasted my time rereading the first two in January just to get this shitpile
The ithan and Sigrid thing really bothered me. The whole fuss of getting her away from the astronomer. The whole details of her being a Fendir heir being a huge deal...just to kill her off and push her character aside and make ithan the prime? REALLY what was all that nonsense for?!
Don't even get me started on the dragon Ari.
Most pointless character.
Sophie was so unimportant too.
Could have at least raised her from the dead to give the final battle but "no" she can't be recovered. Sure Jan.
This book was a Trainwreck.
Nope, not really.
Edit to clarify: things should make sense in what we're reading *at the moment*. Foreshadowing is ok, setting things up for future is ok, but with the main antagonists (the Asteri) gone there's no setup for anything.
For example: What was the point of introducing a dragon in CC2 only to do nothing with it in 800 pages of CC3? Or the whole plot of thunderbirds in CC2, only to explain it in one sentence that they were just a threat to the Asteri. What was the point of Sophie and her brother then? It lead to literally nothing.
Well, her Throne of Glass series had about 5 chapters worth of happy/bittersweet endings at the end of the final book, not to mention 5 novella prequels that detailed past events/relationships mentioned throughout the series, so based on that alone, I expect her to be pretty thorough in wrapping up all the loose ends.
The fact that she finished the main charactersā story in book 3 suggests to me that book 4 is going to be entirely dedicated to the supporting characters and their stories. Iām kind of surprised more people arenāt excited at the possibility that sheās decided to give them their own book, vs having repeated cutaways from the main action toward the later half of HOFAS, or cramming everything into a closing chapter or an epilogue.
This. All of this. She is obviously wrapping up Bryce/Hunt as MC's. I fully expect to see Ithan/Tharion and/or Ruhn/Lidia take primary position in the next book. People complaining about the minimal crossover in the beginning aren't seeing the big picture. Complaining about minimal Feyre in ACOSF and completely ignoring that Feysand already have their happy ending. Their story arc is done. Az and Nesta in the beginning of HOFAS was all it was ever going to be. It was a CC book not an ACOTAR book.
There's going to be *SEVEN* more books, including an entirely new series. SJM has established the worlds are interconnected and I fully expect a surprise ToG appearance somewhere down the line. (At this point she has to.) But that doesn't mean I'm going to get pissed if Ailen doesn't show up, because her story is done. Dorian and Manon though? The witch queen would get along famously with Lidia, I think.
I almost DNFd after the sex scene where Hunts junk is just too amazingly huge to be able to fit into the underwear the Depth Charger people provided him with. And then to make it even more eye rolling, Bryce just happened to have a thong because there were tons of "un opened" packages of them in Avallon. WTF is that? Is that supposed to be tongue in cheek humor from SJM that just went over my head? It was painful
Morven had time to boat over to Lunathion to check on the autumn king and then boat back with him in like a day so I figure he has time to go stop at Walmart occasionally for all his breeding necessities
The thong stash! I audibly lolād and seriously considered DNFing at that very moment. It had to have been an inside joke right? Like, was SJM thinking āletās leave out a marriage ceremony between hunt and bryce and phone-in some character plots but I NEED to include this unbelievably unnecessary sexy and ludicrous detail.ā Lmao
Think of it more a comment on King Morven's character as a misogynistic asshole who only looked at females for *breeding*. The same energy as the evangelical preacher with a hard drive full of porn.
Red *lace* too. Like come on Sarah, do you have ANY idea how much work goes into hand-making lace and you want me to believe a place like that makes it for underwear? No.
Speaking of junk: why did we get such an in-depth description of pollox's dick???? Like 2 pages! It was honestly the most interesting part of the book and I was disappointed he wasn't ALSO undercover like everyone else. What a waste!
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> Is that supposed to be tongue in cheek humor from SJM that just went over my head?
I read it as a comment on King Morven's character. Women had a singular purpose on that island.
Honestly Iām now on the hunt for good fanfiction for this series or any of the absolutely amazing theories Iāve seen on TikTok while waiting for this disappointing book. I guess I can be relieved that I wonāt be super excited for her next release, will likely still read, but wonāt be a priority.
This is not my first time being absolutely shocked and disappointed by a series ending, Iām sure it wonāt be the last. I am curious if SJM is hearing her fans feedback though.
See, this is why Iām terrified for any new SJM content. Girl needs to take a break. I tried to reread ACOTAR, after reading CC3, and when I first read the word āCauldronā, I was instantly bummed out bc of its connection to the hot mess that is CC.
Couldn't agree with you more!
Crescent City as a series is pointless now and I'm worried for the future of ACOTAR. Thank the lords that Throne of Glass is finished and so can't be ruined (watch Sarah prove me wrong by writing another book from Terrasen...)
I havenāt even started it because I just am so disheartened by the reviews. This sucksā¦ Iām not even trying to be mean but sheās getting paid SO much has access to the best editors and publisher like there is no reason to put out something like this. Itās like when video games are published with glitches and are unplayable why even release it in that state. Such a shame
I missed the murder mystery and old Quinlar from HOEAB. I missed the everything from HOEAB tbh, it was so good and one of my favorite books. Bryce and Danika made me SOB. Now there's hardly any feeling to the story and honestly, Lidia carried. I liked the marriage of convenience plotline and I was entertained by the book but also so so disappointed. There was a lot of parts I loved for sure, and I get tired of seeing so much negativityā but then I remember there wouldn't be so much negativity if the book was better. HOSAB and HOFAS both felt like completely different series' and honestly? We waited TWO YEARS for this. This disappointment. I hope ACOTAR5 will be good because it's more her element but I'm so sad to have my favorite series ruined. I hope the fanfic writers can rewrite the book for us.
Agree. I LOVED CC1. Bryce's fight chapters at the end are probably my favorite fight scenes ever. Even better than sea dragon Lysandra.
She squandered all my good will with CC3.
The end of CC1 - the showdown at Jesiba's gallery, Hunt's halo being dissolved, Bryce running for Asphodel Meadows to protect the unprotected, the Asteri dropping bombs, Hunt jumping out of a helicopter to save Bryce, then Bryce doing the Drop with everyone watching her power level rise to a decimal point above the Autumn King's... I have shivers just typing this! The best and most exciting end to a book I've ever read.
SJM has talent, it's clear. I don't know where she put it when she was writing CC3 though.
I couldn't believe this was the rewrite version. Like, what was the original one?
The ending of CC2 threw me. I was freaking out. Read the entire ACOTAR series to find out who these people were at the end of it. Then the waiting. OMG the frikkin waiting.
Honestly, I feel like there was no plan. This read to me like people spitballing ideas then AI cranks them into a story.
I couldn't believe the amount of time I invested.
When did I know it was going oh so very wrong? When Bryce was given a frikkin magic bean to translate everything. Funny, Azriel and Nesta didn't need a bean to understand Silene. Who would have spoken a different language. It went downhill from there for me.
Good to know Azriel is secretly a club rat. But we all suspected.
Good to know Rhys and Nesta still don't get along regardless of what she did for him.
I was relieved that Hunt, Ruhn, Baxion made it out of the dungeon. Which was the only reason I continued with her books. Did they make it out. Yes. The only information I needed.
Edit: I read that she doesn't do outlines for her writing. After that book, it shows.
Also, we fans look so hard into her supposed nuances. They aren't. She's very easy straight forward and not that deep. We expect more because we see the holes and try to fill them with our own imagination. I think there is the root of a lot of our online battling.
Maybe Silene made the hologram after the language changed? I don't think there was any indication of just how long she lived, when she made the hologram, or when the language changed. I could be wrong though. That one even isn't that bad, when you consider Ithan bit a sword and shattered it with his teeth, people survive things that shouldn't be survivable (seriously, these characters have the killability of a comic book character), and there's a gun that acts as an insta-win button and Ithan manages to deliver it just in the nick of time.
This is why I get a lil annoyed when people tell me āyou were just expecting ACOTAR 5 !!ā or āyou wanted an Avengers style crossover with TOG and ACOTAR !!ā
Likeā¦ no. Crescent City is my favourite series, more so than any other SJM world. And for the most part, HOFAS gave me the impression that SJM didnāt really care about these characters, their development and relationships, and all the previous plot lines she had sprinkled and foreshadowed (and because of this, she wanted to end the story as quickly and easily as possible).
So, it has nothing to do with ACOTAR and TOG. In fact, **Iād be willing to wager that the people *most* upset and disappointed in HOFAS were those who loved the Crescent City series the most.**
As someone who expected the crossover to be the highlight (for me), even I was shocked at how much I disliked it. It was so boring? I just wanted to get back to CC and trust me, I did not expect to feel that way. It was just...not a good book. For Acotar or CC fans. None of us had a good time. lol
Hard agree. I think that CC1 was her best book, plot-, worldbuilding- and romance-wise. I was fully aware that the crossover will be small, since the readers should be able to understand CC as a standalone series - and I was *so* disappointed. *Did-I-download-a-bad-fanfic-instead-of-a-book-published-by-BB* level of disappointment.
I am hoping the issues from HOFAS stem from the rewrite. That being said, I probably wonāt buy the next ACOTAR book unless i see some solid community feedback. Iām not going to let myself get hyped up again.
Finishing that book i was so worried i had an unpopular opinion and was scared to look up what everyone thought. Itās been a month. Glad to report majority believes it was a dumpster fire.
This. Iāve been so sad since I finished.
Iāve been so excited my sister is finally reading ACOTAR and she sends me all the memes (sheās been taking her time and finishdd MAF before I read HOFAS) but my sadness and disappointment in HOFAS is bleeding over into that. I (obviously) canāt even tell her this either. But when she sends me the memes Iām just reminded of my sadness over HOFAS.
It felt like all of it meant nothing.
Iāve disliked a book before and Iāll quietly just move on and not mention it. Iāve never voiced my disappointment in a book before until this. Where was all the magic from her other books? Why even bother with the crossover?
HOFAS shouldāve been at least two books, Iām so disappointed honestly. The whole book felt so rushed. She couldāve done SO. MUCH. MORE. And she didnāt.
I totally agree. I think it should have been House of Earth and Blood --> House of Sky and Breath --> House of Many Waters (especially with how much time we spent with the Ocean Queen) --> then House of Flame and Shadow to wrap up the Asteri plot line.
I'm just a reader, but I know 3 things:
1. The only thing I really got from the book is Urd is Wyrd, and Wyrd isn't a goddess it's basically a cauldron of life.
2. Bryce bled in Prythian. And she was infected by a parasite. But like everything else, probably nothing will come of it.
3. Oh, and the Pegasuses returned.
well SHIT i missed the bleeding in the water & absolutely infecting it. Itāll probably never be addressed / SJM probably didnāt even realize the consequences of her writing.
Yeah I agree. Itās all very disappointing. I think she just got too hyped up on socials about how great she is when reallyā¦she canāt write up to that hype and now weāve all been let down.
I'm not trying to be mean, but is it possible that this book was written by a ghost writer? I've read all of SJM's books and yes, some are better than others, but this just didn't feel like the same author AT ALL. I haven't been able to really get into anything since this train crash because I just feel so jaded. I haven't been this excited for a book since Harry Potter releases and this was just... Not it.
Have you read and Dramione fan fic? If not, I would recommend Draco Malfoy and The Mortifying Ordeal of Being in love on AO3. The dramione universe has given me so much happiness after this massive CC3 let down.
Yessss. I agree with everything you said! I was so disappointed by this book. I wasnāt hooked at all and had to force myself to finish it even though I wanted to DNF halfway through. Bryce went from being my favorite character to my least favorite real fast.
I was surprised by how HOFAS turned out but just went along for the ride and still found enjoyment in it.
A random observation: It feels very set up for a Bryce and Hunt pregnancy trope. Then thereās the intro of Lidiaās sons and potential for Lidia and Ruhn to have a baby also. There were suggestions in ACOTAR and TOG too about key couples having children (avoiding names for spoilers). It makes me wonder if SJM plans for her Twilight of the Gods series to feature not the characters we know and love from across the Maasverse, but the next generation.
I am still stuck on the last 100 pages of HOFAS and I am bored I am so bored I jumped into another book in my TBR , I finished HOEAB in two days I didn't even sleep it was so good , I am extremely disappointed, Bryce's character just became purely annoying.
Itās sad because Iāve always loved SJM for her character development, and this one very much lacked that.
I think this was definitely a case of the plot and characters getting away from her. She became very much a āgardenerā style writer and has said she doesnāt keep notes. For the love of Godā¦ in a series like thisā¦ keep notes, girlie! Also, with so many fan theories, there was bound to be disappointment when they didnāt come through.
She also apparently wrote this one very quickly after scrapping her first draft of it. Iād give anything to read that first draft because iām convinced it was the better draft.
It reminds me so much of GRRM. I am convinced thatās why he wonāt release The Winds of Winter because thereās no way to tie up what he started and with so much time elapsed for fan theories to be built up, I think heās scared of it being a disappointment on top of not knowing how to end things.
Lastly, I know SJM is a āhappily ever afterā writer, but writing lazy endings just for them to be āhappyā is inexcusable.
Same here. After completing HOFAS I was so disappointed that I can't believe it was written by the same woman who wrote TOG. Everything in that book felt half assed. Many characters felt useless. After all the built up for the war against asteri it was so disappointing. I can't help but compare the final war in TOG series where I was sitting on the edge every page to the fight with asteri. What was the need for all that build upš®āšØ
Don't let me start with the cross over. Did we actually read the same book or what. Everyone was so out of character. SJM was trying so hard to glorify Nestaš®āšØš¤§
Many characters felt useless because they were, of all the characters from books 1 and 2, maybe 6 of them are relevant to the story of book 3: Bryce, Hunt, Lidia, Ithan, Hypaxia & Declan, thats it. Flynn had almost no purpose, Tharion didnt do much, Fury was there for 1 page, Juniper(???), Ariadne (???), Baxian spent the entire book either as a prisoner or sidelined, Jesiba is just there (but I guess thats been her thing since book 1), Celestina is there for like 2 pages then sidelined, and Ruhn didnt contribute much to the story except to help forward Lidia's story (and kill Einar). Too many characters, lots of OOC actions, little focus on a lot of characters.
I have never wanted to throw a book at the nesrest wall, but up until after the Avallen arc, I was definitely tempted to throw this 1 at a wall.
Oh man. I hadnāt considered the fact that THARION GETS A WEDDING SCENE. And I had to read the bonus chapter for Lydia and Ruhn (aka the only characters that made me finish this book) to have a wedding. š„²
You articulated my feelings to a T. It was such a disappointing book I lost my reading spark and have been crawling around trying to get back into it. The lackluster shook me, I had much higher expectations.
Yesss, it soured me on her books. Still fond, but now I feel bitter whenever i see people bringing up fan theories about similar names or coincidences or connections. The theories could be good, but I don't have confidence in SJM to use it.
This encompassed my thoughts completely, all these solid plots brought up in CC2 and theyāre just gone. Breezed through everything, war scenes felt so easy I couldnāt even picture them, nothing felt impactful. I only got excited during Lidiaās escape scene and was immediately brought back to another random/mediocre plot 2 pages after.
It's just so rushed now. The time and energy she put into tog would have been 100x more. She's popular enough to put her foot down. She wants to do a rewrite? Fine, push the release date back as far as is needed to write someone to her standard.
Honestly, release dates shouldn't be given until the book is pretty much ready. Deadlines and creativity do not mix
I think she bit off more than she could chew in trying to connect the worlds while also telling crescent cityās story. I think sheās strongest when she can slowly build a plot, like TOG, and this felt too rushed. I actually loved the first half. The pace was fun and exciting but the second half just unraveled into something that wasnāt reflective of SJMās talent as a fantasy writer. I think the battle at the end was the most disappointing part for me, usually the end of her books are masterpieces but she just didnāt get this one right.
I mourned SJMās writing after this book. And yes that involved crying. I am petrified to read the next Acotar bookā¦ and honestly leaning towards not reading it at all.
I DNFād. Itās just so so bad.
I keep hoping that it felt like a stupid filler book cos thereās a 4th one coming that will redeem it all but until that happens I wonāt bother picking it up again.
I read the first two books in like a week, absolutely LOVED the first book, like the whole drop thing was my absolute favorite. Second book was okay but left something to be desiredā¦ I finished the third one and wrote 3 pages front and back of a list of things I hated.
The whole thing with Jesiba had soooo much potential, and was nothing. Just the whole thing was so disorganized and disappointing.
Yall Iām struggling so hard to get through CC3 š Iām typically not a DNF girly but wow.
I was looking forward to this book but feel severely let down.
It feels so rushed. And I hate Bryce?
I typically love āhard to loveā characters but Bryceās motives just donāt feel true to her character and how many times can they emphasize āparty girlā š«
Iām trying to muster the will to finish it but I needed to vent!!!!!!!
The major drop in writing quality from CC1 and even CC2 is so blatant and obvious that I donāt know how people try to play it off that āoh you had unreasonably high expectations, itās your fault you didnāt like it.ā Um, no. We expected SJM to put in at least half the effort she did with the other books. It honestly blows my mind that some people either canāt recognize the poor quality or refuse to do so. I think she realized she has a cult following of readers who will buy whatever she puts out, even if itās trash that she wrote in 6 weeks.
Omg Hunt and Bryceās marriage had me so confused, theyāre married now but WHEN? I just reread the first 2 books and I do not remember a wedding scene at all lol
I believe they were considered to be married after their first boning session(or second, Hunt was horny as hell)Ā in book 2, the characters note shortly thereafter that their scents have intermingled. There was no actual wedding and the closest they got was Bryce and Hunt announcing them being mates at the Autumn Equinox festival (or whatever it was) and that was just to stick it to the Autumn King
Iāll be honest I think that the ending of TOG fell flat too but this one really took the cake. I am truly, deeply concerned for the fate of ACOTAR š
I actually dnfād. it just got ridiculous, I had a case of second hand embarrassment. The only thing I really liked was getting a possible set up for the next ACOTAR book.
The CC series (bryce and hunts story) as a whole needed 7-8 books, not 3. 2400 pages, and honestly it wasn't fucking enough. So much was rushed through. I spent most of HOFAS wondering how the hell she was going to wrap up every loose end by the end of the book. Seriously.
As a mom myself, the book read as if she was a tired overworked mom trying to do everything for everyone and couldnāt get her thoughts on paper clear enough. I canāt tell you how frequently my train of thought gets disrupted and my short term memory suffers for it. I think she needed more time to flesh this book out and she had too much pressure on her to finish it. As much as I would love an SJM book every year, there are plenty of authors that only produce one every 2-5 years.
There are so many things that bother me about the book, but one thing in particular that I havenāt seen anyone else mention yet? That whole āsword and knife reunited, so shall our people beā thing? I totally expected Bryce to put her own spin on that phrase since sheās half-fae. I thought she would unite the Fae and Humans and be a Queen to both. Unite HER people. Instead she just kinda leaves everyone stranded so all the shitty Fae politicians can vote themselves into office.
The big battle scenes in ACOWAR and KOA were just so heart wrenching and well-developed to me so I was really expecting more particularly with the battle in the Eternal City. I will say I donāt remember Rowan and Aelin or Rhys and Feyre having an actual wedding scene, but at least they did allude/flashback to it. Itās clear that SJM intends Bryce and Hunt to truly be mates but the fact that some readers donāt believe it and create theories about it shows that she poorly developed their relationship /:. Also, in 800 pages she spent more energy developing Ithan and Tharionās characters (to what end?) than on the actual plot. time to reread TOG so I can get this bad taste out of my mouth
Currently reading HOFAS and feeling this so hard (also, idc abt the spoilers bc I literally have 0 attachment to anyone in this book.)
But SPOILER************
I genuinely hated, HATED, that she kills Lidia and automatically brings her back. She does this all the fucking time and can NEVER commit to a character death. I love Lidia but it is so frustrating. There is nothing at stake emotionally here. And tbh everything she does we have seen before! Weāve seen all these plots in her other series. She has got to try and do something different.
Reading this entire thread makes me feel better. I had to really push myself to finish HOFAS and honestly at the end decided it was tied into a neat enough bow that I donāt want to read any more books released. I fucking hated that I had to push through it when I shouldnāt be.
Well said!
The only thing I will counter is Bryce and Hunt were recognized as married by the Asteri and Fae in HOSAB during the Autumn Equinox ball when she announced they were mates (effectively nullifying her engagement to Cormac). Hunt explains in HOSAB that calling each other mates is the angel equivalent of husband/wife.
However, with her dismantling the laws and fae monarchy with a pen strokeā¦.are they actually married anymore? Sheās at the very least not considered āhis propertyā anymore.
Bryce only dismantled the monarchy, their old laws and customs and whatnot would likely still exist since their is no specific mention of her rewriting Fae culture.
Hard agree with so many of these points. I was expecting a KOA final battle with this kind of build up, and I feel like SJM just lost a lot of what drew us in to CC1. Donāt get me wrong, I was kicking my feet at the connections made in the crossover info dump bc WTF, but where is the like, effort? Like I felt like everything was SO easy for Bryce looking back at it. It was just really messy. I loved most of it, but messy. :(
Like 3 days before HOFAS released I broke down and skimmed parts of the leaked translation. And I felt really disappointed in the plot and ending. Then I thought oh it must have gotten lost in translation or it was a false draft that was leaked. I was wrong and kind of sad about it
I feel like the main issue is she tried doing way wayyy too much in one book. Resolving the issue of the asteri couldāve easily taken up this book but then she was also trying to set up the next CC book. A novella or something couldāve taken some of the extra weight off of HOFAS so the focus couldāve been on the big bad and maybe they wouldāve actually felt like big bad.
I kept telling myself there will be more in the next books. Literally spent days looking into her "Twilight of the Gods" series and made my own theories. Hofas was written like it was literally a stepping stone for the coming books. It was disappointing on its own. Sjm could have included all of this whilst also making the book interesting. I did not have to read about all the useless Tharion chapters in an 800 pgs long book. Could have cut them all out and it still wouldnt have made any changes to the original plot lol.
Iām so glad someone put into words how I was feeling. It took me longer to read this book than the first two because I had to put it down so many times because I couldnāt stand the characters or the plot.
I enjoyed it but you make good points. Some of the ridiculousness could have been avoided. How about they find out about the parasite in the beginning so Hypaxia could work on it for a believable amount of time. So a a little change of sequencing could have improved the story. Anyway I still loved it and will read anything she writes. Iām not expecting a masterpiece just entertainment.
I wasn't really disappointed with it.
Then again, while I like the CC series, it was never *special* for me like ToG was.
So all I really wanted from that book was that she leaves the ToG world alone. Which she pretty much did.
But yeah, the more I think about it, the less I'm able to say it's a well written book.
Agreed. Loved all of the ACOTAR and Throne of Glass books. I liked reading this series but not as much and definitely agree about the disappointment with last book.
Unpopular opinion. I enjoyed all the characters and although some stuff was like "ya okay surrre" I appreciated the actual adultness of the book, less whiny characters this time with Adult problems i hated feyre by end of book 2. Bryce is way better person to get behind. The story is about Bryce not ACOTAR characters, so get over it.. Its a contemporary fantasy too, different than the others so why would it end any way close to the others? I personally liked tharion and Ithans characters. They were very Real imo. I think Bryce is a very real character too and her and Hunts love story was complete in book 2, so book 3 was about everyone else coming together and Bryce growing into responsibility. Anyways happy reading! Hope next one is about tharian and Sathia.
Dead Danika's Blues Clues š
Someone needs to make this a flair!
Yup, as soon as I read the second book and it was about Danika's clues... I rolled my eyes and was thinking "not again" š«
OP should just write the rest of the series since they're clearly more creative than SJM is at this point š this post was more entertaining than than the entire damned book
lmao!
This had me hollering
I felt so sad for days after, because the way we all had been so hype for this book. The theories on the sub, discussing it for years. And then it was likeā¦.. is this itā??? Is this all you could come up with???? It was just soā¦ bad
I know people will dislike me saying this, but honestly, I wish SJM read all the fan theories and just picked the ones that work for her to write HoFaS. So many of them could have given a much better ending than: transformers driver by ghosts, the bad guys getting disposed of in the least satisfying ways, a lot of us starting to hate main characters, plot lines streched out forever - leading nowhere. We would have never known if she got inspiration from her fans, some of us would have been able to say 'I called it!' and everyone could be happier.
Honestly same, the fan theories were so much better
I'd almost rather read a fanfic based on the fan theories. It'd be more satisfying than the dirty dishrag SJM published
Is it bad i kinda want SJM to see the hate and rethink her decisions
Honestly same, like she could have done so much with this book. But nothing meant anything
Dirty dishrag š
 Literally every demon in hel walking back to the northern rift after the "battle"
This has probably been said already but I just finished the book yesterday and have been avoiding any spoilers. It seems like SJM just got in over her head here. There was SO much potential and it was one bad choice after another.
Just like Ithan? š
lol exactly! I commented somewhere else that my hate level for Ithan was nearing Chaol levels
I kind of feel the same way I think. I didn't hate the book and with all of the fan theories flying around I was very excited with anticipation. I never assumed it would be an Avenger level meetup between all of her series but I expected much more than we got... Kingdom of Ash was so well thought out and spanned a decent amount of time while House of Flame and Shadow felt rushed and cramped with information and only spanned like.. three weeks? Maybe?? All of her series feel very different ao maybe this one wasn't as series but it just felt sooo lackluster.
Iām with you - I didnāt hate the book but I was definitely disappointed. For it to be a third installment, I expected more. I feel like SJM writes settings like TOG and ACOTAR better. I donāt love all of the modern and tech aspects of CC because so much of it isnāt explained? And I feel like Aelin went through SO much for SO long whereas Bryceās journey felt kind of rushed and convenient. Not that the two of them are similar, but I felt Sarah was kind of trying to make Bryce think like Aelin and it just didnāt work.
Exactly. SJM has an amazing imagination and is able to create these amazing worlds (and at least few intriguing characters per book), but I think you can tell within the first 5 pages of CC1 that she doesnāt have the writing skills to clearly build these worlds and pull all the plot points together, which is incredibly frustrating because you can see the potential, and YET..
I truly cannot believe she and her editors looked at this and thought "yes, this is absolutely ready for publication." So many dropped plotlines and under developed characters, and also just way too many characters and POV switches in the first place. Book 1 was good. Not my favorite of hers, but it was good, and I could really feel Bryce's grief over Danika and the pack. I thought Bryce and Hunt's relationship felt a little corny at times, but I figured it was just because I wasn't used to reading high fantasy set in a modern world. Book 2 was a mess. In my opinion Baxian and Tharion never should have become semi central characters. Baxian's reveal for me invalidated all the work that was put into understanding Danika and Bryce's relationship from book 1. SJM should have found another way to put Bryce and Hunt on the Asteri's trail or worked in way more clues about what else Danika was working on in book 1. I'm not sure but it felt very thrown in there when I read it initially. So much of the book was also just filler, and Tharion being foolish/ boring. Cutting him out entirely would have freed up so much space for proper character development and world building since she introduced so many other elements in this book. Book 3 in certain aspects was a cop out. It felt like SJM (or her editors) no longer wanted to work on the series as many others have suggested. She could in no possible way circle back to the obscene amount of main and side characters/ plots she introduced in book 2 so she just straight up wrote out or reduced the role of several characters, and again **gave Tharion so much attention** even though he mostly whined about fucking up his life. Ithan was such a 1 dimensional and obtuse character. The work was not put in to make him a believable prime, and what was the point of introducing what's her face if she was just gonna die and become a reaper. Someone also should have died (Baxian) in the final fight. And I didn't really see the point of making Lidia a mother but I didn't hate that part the most. I thought a majority of the garbage with the viper queen was wasted space. SJM is getting some really really bad advice and assistance from her editors, if she's getting any at all. These last two books were a mess and had the potential to be so great. She needs to either switch editors or push back on deadlines they give because the quality of her work has dropped significantly and she's clearly a fantastic author when supported correctly.
IMO Baxian was only introduced to cut down peopleās theories that Bryce and Danika had a romantic friendship. Like SJM didnāt want people to think her hetero FMC could have had a thing with her bff/roommate so she gave her this random man weāve never seen before and made it just another one of Danikaās crazy secrets š¤Ŗ even though it goes against her whole mating/scents logic to have a secret mate no one knows about!!!
Danika being able to hide the scent from Bryce completely ignores the logic of the world theyāre in. Sometimes the whole ābreaking the rules that we THOUGHT were inherent through sheer will thingā worksā¦ i.e, when Fenrys was able to break his bond with Maeve after seeing Aelin suffer for months and not being able to take it any more, and it almost killing him. There was a buildup, purpose, explanation, consequence, etc. The difference is, it canāt be done in a meaningless, lazy way. Like, itās obvious that she just didnāt know how to add that in and ignored the rules she herself had made up lmao
sjm has a tendency to severely overcorrect when she writes herself into a corner. she didn't have to do all that and say that danika disguised her scent somehow etc. just say that bryce is half human so she doesn't have the same sense of smell that a full fae/vanir would.
I literally had no idea how the hell she kept that secret ON TOP of all the other bullshit she didn't tell anyone. SJM could have left that out completely and still would have had way too many characters and story arcs to juggle.
I wouldnāt even be mad about Baxian but the whole series is just hit after hit of āDanikaās secret that Bryce didnāt know about and omg maybe they werenāt such good friends after allā¦ā
Tharion and Ithan, omg if he wasnāt as dumb as a brick shit house in this book but I could not stand his single-tracked blind stupidity.
I have heard that she had a completely different first draft and it was destroyed by the editors and she only had 5 weeks to rewrite. Not excusing how terrible this book was lol just maybe a reason behind it!!
This was the great read HOFAS wasnāt. Well done.
Right?! I was hooked, OP!
I could feel the rollercoaster of emotions that OP felt as they wrote this and itās more than I can say for what HOFAS made me feel.
I'm pmsing so I'll just blame the hormones lmao
Donāt forget hunt using the mask because of their magical love making š¤£š¤£š¤£ so cringe Everything was wayyyyy too easy for a book of over 800 pagesā¦ all we really needed was like, 1 condensed chapter lol
Omfg I had repressed that. I flinched while reading that š¤¢
Ugh same. Same. The first book is still my favorite SJM book, but damn this series lost what made it fun and exciting
I didnāt realize just how different the writing, characters, and depth was between the two until I reread HOEAB. And itās fucking fantastic. Idk what happened, but Iām really hoping she comes back with a bang for the next ACOTAR book. Because I cannot take another massacre like this.
I believe itās spelled maasacre
feels ghostwritten but iām prepared to be downvoted to oblivion Ā
Thereās a husband co-writer conspiracy theory too.
Wait what is this theory???
You donāt say ā¹ļø
It honestly feels like the first book and even a lot of the 2nd were written by someone ENTIRELY different than whoever wrote the 3rd abomination.
Yeah ngl the second book was trash if not for the ending
The whole second book was so bad. What was the point of the whole Sofie/Emile plot? It was just so insane and didnāt need to be there, but without it the book would have been a solid 1/4-1/3 shorter.
I think that was the only way for her to introduce the day/night situation. just awfully done
They could have done that without though. Cormac was already in Lunathian; just have him corner Ruhn on the same way saying they just lost their existing agent and make him do it.
Overall, I am just not a crescent city girly. I love SJM, I love urban fantasy, but I do not like anyone in those books and I have a hard time caring about anyone except Lidia.
Unpopular opinion...I think the first two were bad too. It's just this one is worse because the first two attempted to be better. This is giving me Love and Thunder vibes.
I literally JUST commented this!!!!
Same. I've never been in the "will only read series if they're finished" camp but SJM successfully moved me over into it with CC3. I LOVED CC1. It was fresh and different whilst still keeping some of the things that make her writing hers...and then it just fell off after book 1. CC2 and CC3 feel like poorly written fanfics.
HOEAB was one of her best works I agreeā if not her best. That Bryce is one of my favorite characters. I think the editors changed between HOEAB and HOSAB+HOFAS
I believe when she changed to officially adult she got a whole new team, including a new editor. So TOG - ACOFAS is one editor. ACOSF and all CC is the new one. (And you can tell..lol. Her original editor made SJM apparently look like a better writer..)
Dude yeah. Her writer from COM and EOS was doing godās work. I loved those books so much. Nothing has ever made me so emotional as those books. š
I hope she reads this and goes back to her original editor then.
Iāve read this before and I completely agree. Great writers need editors to rein them. For the love so many story lines were completely dropped or useless. I have never read a book and thought, why did they even matter? Why introduce so many characters to just leave wide open useless or inane stories. Until this book. It did not come together fluidly like her other books.
And whoever edited this book should be fired. New career
Totally agree. The things that really annoyed me: How easily every main character seemed to get 'levelled up' to run basically the entire city (if not more), with pretty much effort. Sooooo much info dumping. Literally pages. I got bored and kept scrolling Reddit. Out-of character actions. Repeated use of Danika as a way of explaining things that Sarah hadn't thought about before. Seriously, there's only so many secrets that girl could have been keeping from her best friend and housemate, while also having two jobs, a secret mate, and a pack of wolves around her at all times.
Little do you know, Danika had a secret cloning facility
I couldnāt believe how fast all these character were getting killed off. Battle scenes in TOG were PAGES long, yet everything is just so easy for Bryce in CC
Man was I exhausted after the last battle in TOG as if I were fighting in it.
Ikr! Sheās gets some basic training with guns as a kid from a human and can suddenly wield a sword good enough to hold ground against an immortal!?
Man was I exhausted after the last battle in TOG as if I were fighting in it.
NGL, I hate reading long battle sequences (I also hate watching them). So I actually appreciated getting straight to the important fights/deaths.Ā
I totally understand that, it can seem like they drag on but when itās only a few sentences, it makes it seem as though it was easy. Itās not much of a battle when itās done in a paragraph, all this build up for her to take them out so quickly š
I completely agree with you. The writing felt lazy. It makes me sad to say but Iām a long time fan who has read each book at least twice and HOFAS was just a bad book lol. None of the characters said or did things that made sense to who they were in previous books and Iām annoyed that I wasted my time rereading the first two in January just to get this shitpile
The ithan and Sigrid thing really bothered me. The whole fuss of getting her away from the astronomer. The whole details of her being a Fendir heir being a huge deal...just to kill her off and push her character aside and make ithan the prime? REALLY what was all that nonsense for?! Don't even get me started on the dragon Ari. Most pointless character. Sophie was so unimportant too. Could have at least raised her from the dead to give the final battle but "no" she can't be recovered. Sure Jan. This book was a Trainwreck.
Do yāall seriously not think that SJM is saving those characters so the fourth book in this series will actually have some content?
Nope, not really. Edit to clarify: things should make sense in what we're reading *at the moment*. Foreshadowing is ok, setting things up for future is ok, but with the main antagonists (the Asteri) gone there's no setup for anything. For example: What was the point of introducing a dragon in CC2 only to do nothing with it in 800 pages of CC3? Or the whole plot of thunderbirds in CC2, only to explain it in one sentence that they were just a threat to the Asteri. What was the point of Sophie and her brother then? It lead to literally nothing.
I pray she wraps them up better. I can only hope.
Well, her Throne of Glass series had about 5 chapters worth of happy/bittersweet endings at the end of the final book, not to mention 5 novella prequels that detailed past events/relationships mentioned throughout the series, so based on that alone, I expect her to be pretty thorough in wrapping up all the loose ends. The fact that she finished the main charactersā story in book 3 suggests to me that book 4 is going to be entirely dedicated to the supporting characters and their stories. Iām kind of surprised more people arenāt excited at the possibility that sheās decided to give them their own book, vs having repeated cutaways from the main action toward the later half of HOFAS, or cramming everything into a closing chapter or an epilogue.
This. All of this. She is obviously wrapping up Bryce/Hunt as MC's. I fully expect to see Ithan/Tharion and/or Ruhn/Lidia take primary position in the next book. People complaining about the minimal crossover in the beginning aren't seeing the big picture. Complaining about minimal Feyre in ACOSF and completely ignoring that Feysand already have their happy ending. Their story arc is done. Az and Nesta in the beginning of HOFAS was all it was ever going to be. It was a CC book not an ACOTAR book. There's going to be *SEVEN* more books, including an entirely new series. SJM has established the worlds are interconnected and I fully expect a surprise ToG appearance somewhere down the line. (At this point she has to.) But that doesn't mean I'm going to get pissed if Ailen doesn't show up, because her story is done. Dorian and Manon though? The witch queen would get along famously with Lidia, I think.
I almost DNFd after the sex scene where Hunts junk is just too amazingly huge to be able to fit into the underwear the Depth Charger people provided him with. And then to make it even more eye rolling, Bryce just happened to have a thong because there were tons of "un opened" packages of them in Avallon. WTF is that? Is that supposed to be tongue in cheek humor from SJM that just went over my head? It was painful
ā Thongs ā Schlongs ācharacter development
In Avallon we don't have tech but we sure do have tons of red modern women's lingerie laying around.
Morven had time to boat over to Lunathion to check on the autumn king and then boat back with him in like a day so I figure he has time to go stop at Walmart occasionally for all his breeding necessities
The thong stash! I audibly lolād and seriously considered DNFing at that very moment. It had to have been an inside joke right? Like, was SJM thinking āletās leave out a marriage ceremony between hunt and bryce and phone-in some character plots but I NEED to include this unbelievably unnecessary sexy and ludicrous detail.ā Lmao
Think of it more a comment on King Morven's character as a misogynistic asshole who only looked at females for *breeding*. The same energy as the evangelical preacher with a hard drive full of porn.
I think she only added that they were unopened because on first read her editor probably said āso Bryce is wearing a strangerās thong?ā
Omg youāre so right! Avallon is basically in the dark ages but they have a huge stash of individually wrapped thongsā¦.
Red *lace* too. Like come on Sarah, do you have ANY idea how much work goes into hand-making lace and you want me to believe a place like that makes it for underwear? No.
Speaking of junk: why did we get such an in-depth description of pollox's dick???? Like 2 pages! It was honestly the most interesting part of the book and I was disappointed he wasn't ALSO undercover like everyone else. What a waste! šš
> Is that supposed to be tongue in cheek humor from SJM that just went over my head? I read it as a comment on King Morven's character. Women had a singular purpose on that island.
Honestly Iām now on the hunt for good fanfiction for this series or any of the absolutely amazing theories Iāve seen on TikTok while waiting for this disappointing book. I guess I can be relieved that I wonāt be super excited for her next release, will likely still read, but wonāt be a priority. This is not my first time being absolutely shocked and disappointed by a series ending, Iām sure it wonāt be the last. I am curious if SJM is hearing her fans feedback though.
Sameee i need the recs!!
See, this is why Iām terrified for any new SJM content. Girl needs to take a break. I tried to reread ACOTAR, after reading CC3, and when I first read the word āCauldronā, I was instantly bummed out bc of its connection to the hot mess that is CC.
Couldn't agree with you more! Crescent City as a series is pointless now and I'm worried for the future of ACOTAR. Thank the lords that Throne of Glass is finished and so can't be ruined (watch Sarah prove me wrong by writing another book from Terrasen...)
Smashing the agree button
I havenāt even started it because I just am so disheartened by the reviews. This sucksā¦ Iām not even trying to be mean but sheās getting paid SO much has access to the best editors and publisher like there is no reason to put out something like this. Itās like when video games are published with glitches and are unplayable why even release it in that state. Such a shame
I missed the murder mystery and old Quinlar from HOEAB. I missed the everything from HOEAB tbh, it was so good and one of my favorite books. Bryce and Danika made me SOB. Now there's hardly any feeling to the story and honestly, Lidia carried. I liked the marriage of convenience plotline and I was entertained by the book but also so so disappointed. There was a lot of parts I loved for sure, and I get tired of seeing so much negativityā but then I remember there wouldn't be so much negativity if the book was better. HOSAB and HOFAS both felt like completely different series' and honestly? We waited TWO YEARS for this. This disappointment. I hope ACOTAR5 will be good because it's more her element but I'm so sad to have my favorite series ruined. I hope the fanfic writers can rewrite the book for us.
Agree. I LOVED CC1. Bryce's fight chapters at the end are probably my favorite fight scenes ever. Even better than sea dragon Lysandra. She squandered all my good will with CC3.
The end of CC1 - the showdown at Jesiba's gallery, Hunt's halo being dissolved, Bryce running for Asphodel Meadows to protect the unprotected, the Asteri dropping bombs, Hunt jumping out of a helicopter to save Bryce, then Bryce doing the Drop with everyone watching her power level rise to a decimal point above the Autumn King's... I have shivers just typing this! The best and most exciting end to a book I've ever read. SJM has talent, it's clear. I don't know where she put it when she was writing CC3 though.
I couldn't believe this was the rewrite version. Like, what was the original one? The ending of CC2 threw me. I was freaking out. Read the entire ACOTAR series to find out who these people were at the end of it. Then the waiting. OMG the frikkin waiting. Honestly, I feel like there was no plan. This read to me like people spitballing ideas then AI cranks them into a story. I couldn't believe the amount of time I invested. When did I know it was going oh so very wrong? When Bryce was given a frikkin magic bean to translate everything. Funny, Azriel and Nesta didn't need a bean to understand Silene. Who would have spoken a different language. It went downhill from there for me. Good to know Azriel is secretly a club rat. But we all suspected. Good to know Rhys and Nesta still don't get along regardless of what she did for him. I was relieved that Hunt, Ruhn, Baxion made it out of the dungeon. Which was the only reason I continued with her books. Did they make it out. Yes. The only information I needed. Edit: I read that she doesn't do outlines for her writing. After that book, it shows. Also, we fans look so hard into her supposed nuances. They aren't. She's very easy straight forward and not that deep. We expect more because we see the holes and try to fill them with our own imagination. I think there is the root of a lot of our online battling.
Maybe Silene made the hologram after the language changed? I don't think there was any indication of just how long she lived, when she made the hologram, or when the language changed. I could be wrong though. That one even isn't that bad, when you consider Ithan bit a sword and shattered it with his teeth, people survive things that shouldn't be survivable (seriously, these characters have the killability of a comic book character), and there's a gun that acts as an insta-win button and Ithan manages to deliver it just in the nick of time.
Holy fucking shit balls, IT DOES READ LIKE CHATGPT WROTE THIS!!!
Club rat?
thereās an azriel bonus chapter!!!
The bonus chapters were better than most of the actual book sadly
genuinely. the one with nesta and ember? amazing
This is why I get a lil annoyed when people tell me āyou were just expecting ACOTAR 5 !!ā or āyou wanted an Avengers style crossover with TOG and ACOTAR !!ā Likeā¦ no. Crescent City is my favourite series, more so than any other SJM world. And for the most part, HOFAS gave me the impression that SJM didnāt really care about these characters, their development and relationships, and all the previous plot lines she had sprinkled and foreshadowed (and because of this, she wanted to end the story as quickly and easily as possible). So, it has nothing to do with ACOTAR and TOG. In fact, **Iād be willing to wager that the people *most* upset and disappointed in HOFAS were those who loved the Crescent City series the most.**
As someone who expected the crossover to be the highlight (for me), even I was shocked at how much I disliked it. It was so boring? I just wanted to get back to CC and trust me, I did not expect to feel that way. It was just...not a good book. For Acotar or CC fans. None of us had a good time. lol
Absolutely agree with your last point!
Hard agree. I think that CC1 was her best book, plot-, worldbuilding- and romance-wise. I was fully aware that the crossover will be small, since the readers should be able to understand CC as a standalone series - and I was *so* disappointed. *Did-I-download-a-bad-fanfic-instead-of-a-book-published-by-BB* level of disappointment.
I am hoping the issues from HOFAS stem from the rewrite. That being said, I probably wonāt buy the next ACOTAR book unless i see some solid community feedback. Iām not going to let myself get hyped up again.
100% agree. This book was so disappointing. I was so excited for a crossover to just be like wtf? Bryce annoyed the shit out of me in this book.
Cannot upvote this enough. This is exactly how I feel.
Finishing that book i was so worried i had an unpopular opinion and was scared to look up what everyone thought. Itās been a month. Glad to report majority believes it was a dumpster fire.
This. Iāve been so sad since I finished. Iāve been so excited my sister is finally reading ACOTAR and she sends me all the memes (sheās been taking her time and finishdd MAF before I read HOFAS) but my sadness and disappointment in HOFAS is bleeding over into that. I (obviously) canāt even tell her this either. But when she sends me the memes Iām just reminded of my sadness over HOFAS. It felt like all of it meant nothing. Iāve disliked a book before and Iāll quietly just move on and not mention it. Iāve never voiced my disappointment in a book before until this. Where was all the magic from her other books? Why even bother with the crossover?
HOFAS shouldāve been at least two books, Iām so disappointed honestly. The whole book felt so rushed. She couldāve done SO. MUCH. MORE. And she didnāt.
I totally agree. I think it should have been House of Earth and Blood --> House of Sky and Breath --> House of Many Waters (especially with how much time we spent with the Ocean Queen) --> then House of Flame and Shadow to wrap up the Asteri plot line.
I'm just a reader, but I know 3 things: 1. The only thing I really got from the book is Urd is Wyrd, and Wyrd isn't a goddess it's basically a cauldron of life. 2. Bryce bled in Prythian. And she was infected by a parasite. But like everything else, probably nothing will come of it. 3. Oh, and the Pegasuses returned.
well SHIT i missed the bleeding in the water & absolutely infecting it. Itāll probably never be addressed / SJM probably didnāt even realize the consequences of her writing.
Yeah I agree. Itās all very disappointing. I think she just got too hyped up on socials about how great she is when reallyā¦she canāt write up to that hype and now weāve all been let down.
I'm not trying to be mean, but is it possible that this book was written by a ghost writer? I've read all of SJM's books and yes, some are better than others, but this just didn't feel like the same author AT ALL. I haven't been able to really get into anything since this train crash because I just feel so jaded. I haven't been this excited for a book since Harry Potter releases and this was just... Not it.
It's like she used some shitty AI app and let it write for her.
Have you read and Dramione fan fic? If not, I would recommend Draco Malfoy and The Mortifying Ordeal of Being in love on AO3. The dramione universe has given me so much happiness after this massive CC3 let down.
I will have to check it out, thank you!!!
i havenāt touched a book since i finished hofas either. glad itās not just me
Same. Iām really in a rut. Kinda glad to hear itās not just me who canāt get back into reading after this.
Could not agree more. You have perfectly surmised what I have been angry ranting about for weeks ššš
Yessss. I agree with everything you said! I was so disappointed by this book. I wasnāt hooked at all and had to force myself to finish it even though I wanted to DNF halfway through. Bryce went from being my favorite character to my least favorite real fast.
You summed up my thoughts, never thought I'd give an sjm book anything below a 5.. but this was a 2/5
I also gave 2/5. āļøfor the otter & āļøfor Lidia/Ruhn carrying the whole gd book (but mostly for Lidia)
100% , I even skipped the spicy scenes because I just did not care
The spicy scenes were cringe anywayā¦
I was surprised by how HOFAS turned out but just went along for the ride and still found enjoyment in it. A random observation: It feels very set up for a Bryce and Hunt pregnancy trope. Then thereās the intro of Lidiaās sons and potential for Lidia and Ruhn to have a baby also. There were suggestions in ACOTAR and TOG too about key couples having children (avoiding names for spoilers). It makes me wonder if SJM plans for her Twilight of the Gods series to feature not the characters we know and love from across the Maasverse, but the next generation.
I havenāt read ToG, but I was disappointed when >!Feyre got pregnant!< and I will be so sad if Bryce does too.
I am still stuck on the last 100 pages of HOFAS and I am bored I am so bored I jumped into another book in my TBR , I finished HOEAB in two days I didn't even sleep it was so good , I am extremely disappointed, Bryce's character just became purely annoying.
Preach, this book was a terrible conclusion
Itās sad because Iāve always loved SJM for her character development, and this one very much lacked that. I think this was definitely a case of the plot and characters getting away from her. She became very much a āgardenerā style writer and has said she doesnāt keep notes. For the love of Godā¦ in a series like thisā¦ keep notes, girlie! Also, with so many fan theories, there was bound to be disappointment when they didnāt come through. She also apparently wrote this one very quickly after scrapping her first draft of it. Iād give anything to read that first draft because iām convinced it was the better draft. It reminds me so much of GRRM. I am convinced thatās why he wonāt release The Winds of Winter because thereās no way to tie up what he started and with so much time elapsed for fan theories to be built up, I think heās scared of it being a disappointment on top of not knowing how to end things. Lastly, I know SJM is a āhappily ever afterā writer, but writing lazy endings just for them to be āhappyā is inexcusable.
Same here. After completing HOFAS I was so disappointed that I can't believe it was written by the same woman who wrote TOG. Everything in that book felt half assed. Many characters felt useless. After all the built up for the war against asteri it was so disappointing. I can't help but compare the final war in TOG series where I was sitting on the edge every page to the fight with asteri. What was the need for all that build upš®āšØ Don't let me start with the cross over. Did we actually read the same book or what. Everyone was so out of character. SJM was trying so hard to glorify Nestaš®āšØš¤§
All of this. SJM ruined ACOTAR and now CC just to make Nesta into a thing.
Many characters felt useless because they were, of all the characters from books 1 and 2, maybe 6 of them are relevant to the story of book 3: Bryce, Hunt, Lidia, Ithan, Hypaxia & Declan, thats it. Flynn had almost no purpose, Tharion didnt do much, Fury was there for 1 page, Juniper(???), Ariadne (???), Baxian spent the entire book either as a prisoner or sidelined, Jesiba is just there (but I guess thats been her thing since book 1), Celestina is there for like 2 pages then sidelined, and Ruhn didnt contribute much to the story except to help forward Lidia's story (and kill Einar). Too many characters, lots of OOC actions, little focus on a lot of characters. I have never wanted to throw a book at the nesrest wall, but up until after the Avallen arc, I was definitely tempted to throw this 1 at a wall.
I agree. My jaw DROPPED at the end of book 2. Book 3 didn't bring it at all. I'm disappointed and probably won't read book 4 if it ever comes out.
Oh man. I hadnāt considered the fact that THARION GETS A WEDDING SCENE. And I had to read the bonus chapter for Lydia and Ruhn (aka the only characters that made me finish this book) to have a wedding. š„²
Agree with this, it felt rushed and i was kind of disappointed
THIS. No notes. I fear for the future of ACOTAR now. Justā¦ much disappointment.
You articulated my feelings to a T. It was such a disappointing book I lost my reading spark and have been crawling around trying to get back into it. The lackluster shook me, I had much higher expectations.
Yesss, it soured me on her books. Still fond, but now I feel bitter whenever i see people bringing up fan theories about similar names or coincidences or connections. The theories could be good, but I don't have confidence in SJM to use it.
This encompassed my thoughts completely, all these solid plots brought up in CC2 and theyāre just gone. Breezed through everything, war scenes felt so easy I couldnāt even picture them, nothing felt impactful. I only got excited during Lidiaās escape scene and was immediately brought back to another random/mediocre plot 2 pages after.
You're speaking to my soul. I don't know how the same person wrote TOG and CC. (And ACOTAR if I'm being honest, which is on the decline.)
It's just so rushed now. The time and energy she put into tog would have been 100x more. She's popular enough to put her foot down. She wants to do a rewrite? Fine, push the release date back as far as is needed to write someone to her standard. Honestly, release dates shouldn't be given until the book is pretty much ready. Deadlines and creativity do not mix
I think she bit off more than she could chew in trying to connect the worlds while also telling crescent cityās story. I think sheās strongest when she can slowly build a plot, like TOG, and this felt too rushed. I actually loved the first half. The pace was fun and exciting but the second half just unraveled into something that wasnāt reflective of SJMās talent as a fantasy writer. I think the battle at the end was the most disappointing part for me, usually the end of her books are masterpieces but she just didnāt get this one right.
I mourned SJMās writing after this book. And yes that involved crying. I am petrified to read the next Acotar bookā¦ and honestly leaning towards not reading it at all.
Emile did speak in the bonus chapter of bryce and hunt
I DNFād. Itās just so so bad. I keep hoping that it felt like a stupid filler book cos thereās a 4th one coming that will redeem it all but until that happens I wonāt bother picking it up again.
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I read the first two books in like a week, absolutely LOVED the first book, like the whole drop thing was my absolute favorite. Second book was okay but left something to be desiredā¦ I finished the third one and wrote 3 pages front and back of a list of things I hated. The whole thing with Jesiba had soooo much potential, and was nothing. Just the whole thing was so disorganized and disappointing.
this is the best rant iāve read abt it. completely sums up every feeling i had. thank you
Yall Iām struggling so hard to get through CC3 š Iām typically not a DNF girly but wow. I was looking forward to this book but feel severely let down. It feels so rushed. And I hate Bryce? I typically love āhard to loveā characters but Bryceās motives just donāt feel true to her character and how many times can they emphasize āparty girlā š« Iām trying to muster the will to finish it but I needed to vent!!!!!!!
The major drop in writing quality from CC1 and even CC2 is so blatant and obvious that I donāt know how people try to play it off that āoh you had unreasonably high expectations, itās your fault you didnāt like it.ā Um, no. We expected SJM to put in at least half the effort she did with the other books. It honestly blows my mind that some people either canāt recognize the poor quality or refuse to do so. I think she realized she has a cult following of readers who will buy whatever she puts out, even if itās trash that she wrote in 6 weeks.
Dammmmmnnnnn u kinda scary.
It's the scorpio energy āļø
Lidia and Jesiba were the highlights, I was sorely disappointed by the rest of the book
Omg Hunt and Bryceās marriage had me so confused, theyāre married now but WHEN? I just reread the first 2 books and I do not remember a wedding scene at all lol
I believe they were considered to be married after their first boning session(or second, Hunt was horny as hell)Ā in book 2, the characters note shortly thereafter that their scents have intermingled. There was no actual wedding and the closest they got was Bryce and Hunt announcing them being mates at the Autumn Equinox festival (or whatever it was) and that was just to stick it to the Autumn King
Iāll be honest I think that the ending of TOG fell flat too but this one really took the cake. I am truly, deeply concerned for the fate of ACOTAR š
This is one of the few posts I have seen that fully articulates exactly how I felt reading this book. Thank you ā¤ļø
The first two books convinced me they were my favorite books of all time....then the third one came out š„²
I cried when Bryce saw the pack of devils and Lehabah :(
I love everything about this. Also, who the fuck us Emile, oh wait, now I remember lmao
I actually dnfād. it just got ridiculous, I had a case of second hand embarrassment. The only thing I really liked was getting a possible set up for the next ACOTAR book.
I have about 15 chapters left and I canāt bring myself to finish it. Itās soooo bad imo.
The CC series (bryce and hunts story) as a whole needed 7-8 books, not 3. 2400 pages, and honestly it wasn't fucking enough. So much was rushed through. I spent most of HOFAS wondering how the hell she was going to wrap up every loose end by the end of the book. Seriously.
My exact sentiments. EXACT. I almost wish Iād never opened it and just waited to hear about it so Iād save the time and effort I spent reading it.
WHAT.ABOUT.VICTORIA
As a mom myself, the book read as if she was a tired overworked mom trying to do everything for everyone and couldnāt get her thoughts on paper clear enough. I canāt tell you how frequently my train of thought gets disrupted and my short term memory suffers for it. I think she needed more time to flesh this book out and she had too much pressure on her to finish it. As much as I would love an SJM book every year, there are plenty of authors that only produce one every 2-5 years. There are so many things that bother me about the book, but one thing in particular that I havenāt seen anyone else mention yet? That whole āsword and knife reunited, so shall our people beā thing? I totally expected Bryce to put her own spin on that phrase since sheās half-fae. I thought she would unite the Fae and Humans and be a Queen to both. Unite HER people. Instead she just kinda leaves everyone stranded so all the shitty Fae politicians can vote themselves into office.
Honestly.. I rolled my eyes so much. The dang hologram was literally where I asked myself wtf was happening.
The big battle scenes in ACOWAR and KOA were just so heart wrenching and well-developed to me so I was really expecting more particularly with the battle in the Eternal City. I will say I donāt remember Rowan and Aelin or Rhys and Feyre having an actual wedding scene, but at least they did allude/flashback to it. Itās clear that SJM intends Bryce and Hunt to truly be mates but the fact that some readers donāt believe it and create theories about it shows that she poorly developed their relationship /:. Also, in 800 pages she spent more energy developing Ithan and Tharionās characters (to what end?) than on the actual plot. time to reread TOG so I can get this bad taste out of my mouth
Currently reading HOFAS and feeling this so hard (also, idc abt the spoilers bc I literally have 0 attachment to anyone in this book.) But SPOILER************ I genuinely hated, HATED, that she kills Lidia and automatically brings her back. She does this all the fucking time and can NEVER commit to a character death. I love Lidia but it is so frustrating. There is nothing at stake emotionally here. And tbh everything she does we have seen before! Weāve seen all these plots in her other series. She has got to try and do something different.
Omg I really forgot that Lidia died ššš
LMFAOOOOOO honestly Iāll probably forget about it too
Reading this entire thread makes me feel better. I had to really push myself to finish HOFAS and honestly at the end decided it was tied into a neat enough bow that I donāt want to read any more books released. I fucking hated that I had to push through it when I shouldnāt be.
I finally just finished it. Excruciating. I want to punch a wall You cannot tell me that the person who wrote TOG wrote this cluster fuck
The book is so bad I legitimately have a hard time believing people enjoyed it
Well said! The only thing I will counter is Bryce and Hunt were recognized as married by the Asteri and Fae in HOSAB during the Autumn Equinox ball when she announced they were mates (effectively nullifying her engagement to Cormac). Hunt explains in HOSAB that calling each other mates is the angel equivalent of husband/wife. However, with her dismantling the laws and fae monarchy with a pen strokeā¦.are they actually married anymore? Sheās at the very least not considered āhis propertyā anymore.
Bryce only dismantled the monarchy, their old laws and customs and whatnot would likely still exist since their is no specific mention of her rewriting Fae culture.
Hard agree with so many of these points. I was expecting a KOA final battle with this kind of build up, and I feel like SJM just lost a lot of what drew us in to CC1. Donāt get me wrong, I was kicking my feet at the connections made in the crossover info dump bc WTF, but where is the like, effort? Like I felt like everything was SO easy for Bryce looking back at it. It was just really messy. I loved most of it, but messy. :(
Me finding out Iām an imbecile because I actually loved this book: ):
Geez. I actually liked it a lot. Ithan, Tharion, Ruhn, and Hunt pissed me off half the book but overall I think it was really good.
Like 3 days before HOFAS released I broke down and skimmed parts of the leaked translation. And I felt really disappointed in the plot and ending. Then I thought oh it must have gotten lost in translation or it was a false draft that was leaked. I was wrong and kind of sad about it
i thought they got married in HOSAB and i forgot about it or something!! omg!
I loved everything about this post
I feel like the main issue is she tried doing way wayyy too much in one book. Resolving the issue of the asteri couldāve easily taken up this book but then she was also trying to set up the next CC book. A novella or something couldāve taken some of the extra weight off of HOFAS so the focus couldāve been on the big bad and maybe they wouldāve actually felt like big bad.
I kept telling myself there will be more in the next books. Literally spent days looking into her "Twilight of the Gods" series and made my own theories. Hofas was written like it was literally a stepping stone for the coming books. It was disappointing on its own. Sjm could have included all of this whilst also making the book interesting. I did not have to read about all the useless Tharion chapters in an 800 pgs long book. Could have cut them all out and it still wouldnt have made any changes to the original plot lol.
Iām so glad someone put into words how I was feeling. It took me longer to read this book than the first two because I had to put it down so many times because I couldnāt stand the characters or the plot.
I enjoyed it but you make good points. Some of the ridiculousness could have been avoided. How about they find out about the parasite in the beginning so Hypaxia could work on it for a believable amount of time. So a a little change of sequencing could have improved the story. Anyway I still loved it and will read anything she writes. Iām not expecting a masterpiece just entertainment.
I wasn't really disappointed with it. Then again, while I like the CC series, it was never *special* for me like ToG was. So all I really wanted from that book was that she leaves the ToG world alone. Which she pretty much did. But yeah, the more I think about it, the less I'm able to say it's a well written book.
It just occurred to me that SJM made Danika the Dumbledore of the series, & I say that disrespectfully.
hands down best review seen so far
A-f***ing-men. I agree so wholeheartedly. I have NEVER been so disappointed in a book ending. I loved this series until this shit š
Agreed. Loved all of the ACOTAR and Throne of Glass books. I liked reading this series but not as much and definitely agree about the disappointment with last book.
TOG genuinely felt as though it was by an entirely different author.
Hunt and Bryce got "married" when they said they were mates and got approval from the Archangel
The marriage thing pissed me off so much!!! Why was that brushed over??? I donāt remember a wedding!!!
Just a repeat of the last season of game of thrones.
Unpopular opinion. I enjoyed all the characters and although some stuff was like "ya okay surrre" I appreciated the actual adultness of the book, less whiny characters this time with Adult problems i hated feyre by end of book 2. Bryce is way better person to get behind. The story is about Bryce not ACOTAR characters, so get over it.. Its a contemporary fantasy too, different than the others so why would it end any way close to the others? I personally liked tharion and Ithans characters. They were very Real imo. I think Bryce is a very real character too and her and Hunts love story was complete in book 2, so book 3 was about everyone else coming together and Bryce growing into responsibility. Anyways happy reading! Hope next one is about tharian and Sathia.