Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas Book Review Part One

“‘Everyone is fine, Legs. Now let’s sit down like a good little rebel family and tell each other what the Hel happened.'”

(pg. 363)

About

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: High Fantasy New Adult

Series: Crescent City Book 2

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Other Crescent City Book Reviews

House of Earth and Blood

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.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom―and the power of love.

Review

Spoilers DEFINITELY, 1000% Contained Below!!!! I WILL SPOIL YOU, SO DON’T READ UNLESS YOU READ HOS&B

To the Sarah J. Maas queendom,

MY FREAKING GOSH.

I would just like to this review will be chaotic as my brain.

I cannot even express how my motto of this book is literally, “Wait, WHAT?!!!?!??!!??!!?” I literally cannot tell you how many times I said that while reading.

My brain feels fried. I am malfunctioning. I have no idea what to do with myself.

I mean, what do I do.

How can I go back to reality when House of Shadow and Breath (HOS&B) happened?!?!??!?!? Someone take me on a one-way ticket to Crescent City because my gosh, I would love to live in the fantasy. I kid you not, I binged HOS&B) for three days and yesterday when I finished, I took a walk outside, and I literally forgot where I was and what it meant to live in reality after being immersed in Crescent City for so long. It felt absolutely weird to walk in the middle of the day—-trees, grass, birds, the whole. nine yards—-when I was living in the CHAOS that was Crescent City for 72 hours of my life. What a time. I loved every second of it. Dang, when I say fantasy books are the love of my life and my home, I mean it. Fantasy books hit differently and there’s nothing better than getting fully lost in a world that is bonkers, but you still want to be there.

I loved every second of this cluster truck of a book, and I mean that in the best possible way.

I don’t even know where to start or how to organize my thoughts. But I figured, I’m going to talk about each character first, then the major plot points because I have something to day about each character for sure.

**Update: I’m in the thick of probably the most chaotic book review I’ve ever wrote because I literally want to talk about everything but don’t know how to put into words what happened and what order I wanted to put it in, but all I knew was this book review was too long, so I’m breaking it up into two parts.

The first part talks about the characters and their dynamics in the beginning up until the Yrd escape and part two is the whole ending and theories.

Back to the book review.

I just wanted to say first that I loved being back in the Crescent City world because it felt like forever, and I just love Crescent City. House of Earth and Blood really focused on friendship, loss, grief, battle, mystery, deception, hopelessness, and love; this set the stage for House of Sky and Breath. House of Sky and Breath had the similar vibe, but it felt more rooted in building up to what is going to happen in the future with all the characters. The story didn’t follow a a deeper storyline with grief as the last book did, which makes sense. But there was a different sense of grief for sure based on the events in House of Earth and Blood. Just a different vibe, not a bad vibe, but I will say I really enjoyed House of Earth and Blood for the deeper storyline of mystery, friendship, and grief.

But I still loved loved loved this book. I think love is not even strong enough a word.

Bryce.

I freaking LOVE LOVE LOVE Bryce 💙

“I’m the super powerful and Special Magic Starborn Princess, remember? . . . I’ll protect you.”

(pg. 51)

I mean, I always loved Bryce’s Quinlan but she is truly such a fierce, brazen, bold, unapologetic, sassy-as-heck, compassionate, head-strong, beautiful, and clever woman and I LOVE her. There was not a sassy moment of hers that I didn’t love or didn’t completely laugh to myself, wishing that I had that much finesse and sass within me to say those things. She was just so unapologetically herself, snarky, and witty, and it was hilarious and heart-warming because it was just so her. I want to tap into my inner Bryce!

I was thinking about this as I was reading, but Sarah J. Maas truly has created such different female characters, most noteworthy, the female leads. Sometimes female leads from an author can sound the same, especially if their powers are similar, but I love how all of Sarah J. Maas characters have such different personalities, and each one of them someone I can love, relate to, or learn from. From Throne of Glass with Aelin, she was fierce, a trailblazer, and a warrior and Feyre from ACOTAR was compassionate, powerful, compassionate, kind, kick-butt, and regal. All three have very similar qualities, but such different personalities that distinguish them. Like if I need someone to have a good laugh with or to learn to be more confident, I would go to Bryce; if I wanted to talk to someone kind and gentle but strong, I would go to Feyre; and if I wanted someone to be honest with me and teach me and to learn new things with, I would go to Aelin. I just thought I mentioned the characterization because it’s phenomenal.

Anyway, I digress.

Since the last book, Bryce and Hunt had to lie low and try live a “normal” life because the Asteri, Rigelus, threatened them to not say or do anything extreme because he would hunt and hurt their loved ones. The Asteri were fearful of Bryce and Hunt because they killed two Archangels, and they were both mighty powerful. They were also now more under the public eye because everyone knew Bryce was the Princess of the Autumn Court even though Bryce didn’t claim that title. They also knew Bryce as the woman who saved Lunathion from the Kristallos demons and the person who was “dating” the Umbra Mortis, which for sure got her many stares. One of the things that I loved was seeing Bryce after everything that went down in the last book, especially seeing Bryce living for herself and past her grief. I loved how we got tidbits of Bryce drinking again but in moderation because we know how painful drinking was for her. I also LOVED how she was dancing again 🥺 because Bryce loved to dance and she stopped dancing after Dannika passed away because she lost a sense of her happiness, and so she stopped dancing. So knowing that she was finding her way back to things that used to be in her life, really made my heart warm because it meant she was finding her way back to herself. I was just beyond happy for her.

But I can’t even tell you how FRUSTRATED I was at Bryce and Hunt for this STUPID deal they had 🤪. I WANTED TO SCREAM.

They were IdIOtS!!!!!

Not going to lie.

After what happened in the Spring, Bryce and Hunt had a talk where Bryce told him she wanted time to get to know each other without the pressures of him watching over her like a body guard and the pressure of solving a mystery together. She wanted to slow things down to see if they were actually good together beyond the stakes they were put in. The plan was to wait until Winter Solstice for any sort of physical connection or intimacy. My first thought was WINTER SOLSTICE???! Bro, we best be getting to the end of Winter Solstice by the end of this book if that was the case. My second thought was how they were both counting down the months, days, and minutes until Winter Solstice, and how they obviously wanted to end this dumb deal. I mean, I get it though. Getting to know each other was a reasonable explanation; they were in a high-stakes situation that brought them closer together and that made her fear that they only liked each other because they worked so closely. However, they had undeniable chemistry and love between them, they didn’t need to slow things down in my opinion 👏🏼🙈. They were absolutely perfect for each other.

And in Ember’s words:

“‘They make such a beautiful couple.’

. . .’You two would be as well, I you got your [shiz] together.'”

(pg. 36)

Not Ember actually calling them out 😂!

I was choking. You know, we all know where Bryce gets her dazzling personality from.

But I truly, absolutely love Ember. I loved her in the last book and I loved her in this book. I really would have loved to seen more appearances from Ember and Randal in general, but given what happened in Crescent City and the action, I was glad they weren’t actually in Lunathion because at least Ember and Randal were safe. But I missed having Ember’s two sense and her screaming at Bryce for something. I did appreciate that Sarah J. Maas included Ember in the beginning and Bryce had a cute little night with her real parents, looking at art and watching Juniper dance. I didn’t think much about the art until I realized how important the art was for later. But one of the paintings was called The Making of the Sword of a powerful Fan male that held a hammer towards the sky. The person looked similar to Hunt, so Bryce took a picture and snapped it to Hunt. The painting gave me Thor: Love and Thunder poster vibes. The second painting they looked at was one of Hel’s armies arriving to conquer Midgard during the first war. I just thought these paintings were interesting because they depicted many people in the Lunathion history and the Asteri history, which was something we didn’t know much about. But gosh were we going to learn later.

I freaking laughed at how Bryce’s starlight tattoo in the middle of her breasts started to glow and then Hunt had to literally put his hand over her boobs and they joked about how the headlines in the news would be “Horndog Umbra Mortis Gropes Starborn Princess at Ballet.” 😂 But I mean, we loved that he was respectful to block her firstlight from the show, and only he could really be the one to do that for her, if you know what I mean. But I also loved hw throughout the entire production, Hunt was clearly looking at Bryce and admiring her. I just can’t when the love interest is so infatuated with the person they love and they only have eyes for them 🥺💙.

Or when they went to the party and he was all over her—-or like visually all over her.

“His fierce, strong, beautiful Bryce. . . He was a stupid f***ing animal. But he’d always been a stupid f***ing animal around her.”

(pg. 47)

We love to hear it 🤪.

But I just LIVED for their banter and how they just got each other. I really loved when Bryce was saying some banter around her friends, and Hunt easily picked up on it and reflected that banter.

“‘The swords as much as yours as it is mine.’

Bryce waved a hand. ‘I’ll take it on weekends and holidays, don’t worry.’

Hunt tossed in, ‘And it’ll get two Winter Solstices, so . . .double the presents.’

. . .He got her—her humor, her fears, her hedging, Whatever it was, Athalar got her.

(pg. 65)

I mean, what more proof did they want that they were undeniably perfect for each other 😢.

It just meant a lot knowing how much they understood each other from their pains to their joys to everything in between because when you know someone is the one, they just get you and they pick up on your nuances and you them. And you just mesh and intertwine your lives in such a natural, easy way. To see that ease between them, brought so much happiness to my heart because they were the perfect couple and everyone knew it, but they had this DUMB Deal of not “dating,” when it felt like they were dating or that they were obviously together in some way. Also, thinking about how reserved and alpholey Hunt was as the Umbra Mortis and how far he had come to crack snarky jokes was so fun to see. He really has grown a lot as a person, and that was because of Bryce and how much she taught him how to live, laugh, and enjoy life. He gave him a reason to be.

You know what also gave Hunt a reason to be? His work in the 33rd Legion.

Because Bryce and Hunt killed two Archangels (Micah and Sandriel) in the last book, Lunathion needed two new ones 😂. At the after-ballet party at Ruhn’s house, Hunt got an email from Isiah about the new Archangels who were going to replace Micah and Sandirel. The first person was Ephraim of Rodina who was assigned toNorthern Pagnera (Pangera being the continent separate from Lunathion/Crescent City). The person replacing Micah, who the 33rd would answer to, was an Archangel named Celestina. She originally oversaw the Nena population and had one legion under her command, meaning she didn’t have a lot of experience with control or power. She didn’t ever had a triarii to back her up. A triarii is a personal army of the Asteri/Midgard) So Isiah, Namoi, and Hunt would be her makeshift Crescent City triarii she would commander while she was there. The thing was, Hunt was very apprehensive of Celestina because she was so new and seemingly experienced. He thought that she was obviously given a high position as a puppet for the Asteri, which I wouldn’t put it past the Asteri to do.

However, when we met Celestina, I got good vibes. She gave me Glinda the Good the Witch vibes. Like she genuinely seemed so kind and wanted to do better than Micah and Sandriel—-she wanted to lead with compassion and kindness. She also wanted to treat the legion as equals and give them freedom, which I loved because it said how she didn’t want them to feel trapped to their jobs but to also balance their lives. She was very upfront about wanting there to be changes and knowing how Micah treated them was vastly different from how she wanted to run things. However, she wanted to make things right and rectify all the harm Micah has caused the legion and Crescent City. I loved her. She had a good heart and I could see that she was not going to rule with fear, and no one likes to follow someone who rules with anger and hate because they only end up hating that person even more. Isiah and Naomi easily accepted Celestina because they good feel the goodness she wanted to bring to the 33rd. Hunt, however, was still hesitant to trust Celestina and her goodness. I understood why he was reluctant to trust her because he trusted Micah and Sandriel who all gave the facade of being kind Archangels, making promises but ultimately turning out to be the most vial and repulsive people ever. When Hunt was taught that kindness can be a facade for power and obedience, it is hard to unlearn that or to not trust in someone’s goodness. But I just didn’t get that vibe from Celestina.

Not trusting in the good that was coming their way was a big emotion that Bryce and Hunt felt a lot in the beginning. They felt like things were going to good and they were too good to be true. That sucked that they felt that way because after the shiz they had been through the last few years, they deserved good things. I know it’s easy to feel like we don’t deserve that as people after going through hardships or to always feel on edge like the next hardship is around the corner, but I really did want them to know that they shouldn’t think like that and to accept that maybe Urd was giving them goodness in their life. That’s a great reminder for me too.

I liked how later Celestina talked one-on-one with Hunt because she could tell out of everyone, he was the one that she still needed to get through to and earn his trust. I had to pause for a second when she said she knew Shahar, that they were friends. That was wild. Apparently Shahar and Celestina were best friends and secretly contacted each other because they didn’t want others to think they had an unfair alliance. Celestina said she always lived with the regret of not doing something to fight with Shahar that day because having another Archangel on their side would have changed everything. Celestina also said after Shahar, Hunt, and their group rebelled, she wanted to buy Hunt from the masters who held him/his punishment, but the Asteri rejected her proposal to buy Hunt. She kept trying to find ways to free or buy Hunt so he could be free, but then she stopped a long time ago to not raise suspicions. I thought it was interesting to learn Celestina was best friends with Shahar because like Hunt, it was the first time we were hearing about it. At least she tried to do something—-that there was someone out there who was looking out for him even when it didn’t feel like it. I kind of wonder why she didn’t reach out to Hunt sooner if she knew how much Hunt meant to Shahar. She could have told him this whole story a long time ago so that he would have been aware and more comfortable with this person he was now working for.

After this story, Hunt did trust Celestina a bit more because part of Hunt will always love and respect Shahar, so if Shahar was friends with Celestina, Celestina couldn’t really be as distrustful or bad as a person.

The only sucky part was that the Hammer and the Heckhound came from Sandriel’s triarii to serve Celestina in Crescent City.

“The most brutal, sadistic a**hole to have ever walked Midgard’s soil. Motherf***er Number One.”

(pg. 109)

I should not have laughed as hard as I did at Hunt’s seething anger at Pollux and Baxian being in Lunathion 😂. In my brain, I was thinking about how Hunt labeling them both as mothertrucker Number One and Two as like an deragartoy Dr. Seuess version of Thing One and Thing Two.

I remembered Hunt saying how much he detested Pollux and Baxian in the last book, and one of the points I said in my House of Earth and Blood book review was that I hoped to see Hunt and Pollux interact 😅. Gosh, did we see them interact. I cackled when one of the first things Hunt did was beat Pollux up. We love to hear it. They definitely had bad blood, but also Pollux truly does suck as a human being, sorry fae-thing because of the absolutely repulsive and vile things he has done. I would have wanted to punch his face upon seeing him too. I didn’t blame Hunt. But I did think it was quite funny when Bryce had to pick Hunt up from the prison cell that Celestina put Pollux and him in—-like they were two grown a** males who needed a time out.

To help Pollux and Baxian acclimate to Crescent City and a less hard leadership, Celestina paired up the 33rd with Pollux and Baxian. Naomi was to help Pollux, which darn sucked for her, and Hunt had to work with Baxian. Pollux just gave me all around sicko vibes and I repulsed the thought of him. He just didn’t seem like a good person and like he was never going to be a good person. But Baxian was different. I could just feel it. When Baxian found out Hunt was going to be his mentor of sorts, I liked how they seemed to have a civil conversation in the training rooms where Baxian answered Hunt’s questions honestly and meeting his banter with normalcy—-not in a superior or snarky way like I believe Pollux would have interacted with Hunt. And the fact that Baxian seemed nervous about being assigned with Hunt—-like he actually feared what being mentored by Hunt meant—-it made me feel like Baxian was not the bad guy and he just needed guidance towards a better path. It’s similar to how Hunt first came to Lunathion and didn’t know who to be because he was under a harsh leadership for so long. However, when he finally left that toxic environment, he found a better home with Lunathion and himself. He could discover his interests, he could make friends, he could feel a bit freeer in the things he did. Baxian just left the toxic environment and he gave the sense that he also wanted a better life for himself and a better version of who he was than this intimidating Heckhound everyone thought he was.

I really liked Baxian’s character because I could tell that he didn’t want to be a menace anymore. He really was trying to turn his life around; he was complex and he was trying. Baxian would show up at random moments, which felt suspicious because who the heck invited him 😅, but even in those moments, he never once told anyone what the Crescent City gang was doing. Hunt and the gang expected him to snitch because Baxian is one of the most feared people in Sandriel’s triarii, heck, Pangera, but the fact that he didn’t was a testament to how Baxian didn’t want to be the bad guy. Baxian trusted that whatever the CC gang was doing, was for the good, and Baxian wanted to be a part of that. He wanted the CC gang to trust him and involve him to be part of something bigger and better than himself. Anyone who wants to change for the better, has my utmost respect because it is not easy to go from someone that you are not proud of and to acknowledge that you don’t like that version of yourself, so you want to change. It’s also hard because I know that if someone sees you one way, then they will always see you that way and won’t trust this new version of yourself. And it was hard because Baxian was in this new city and he was trying to improve himself, yet he felt lonely at times.

When Hunt gave Baxian the grand tour of the quarters, I thought it was a nice moment between Hunt and Baxian. But also, Baxian must have felt so out of place because here was this new world that he had been so disconnected from that he didn’t even know what technology or video games were. It also made me sad when Baxian was eating lunch with Isiah and Hunt and he stared at them longingly because he saw the healthy and loving relationship between Isiah and Hunt—-something Baxian never had with Pollux because their relationship was mostly about superiority and threat. When Hunt literally had to tell Baxian that he could laugh, my heart squeezed 😢. The dude didn’t even know how to laugh or didn’t even know when he could laugh because that was taken away from him when nothing was laughable around Pollux, Sandriel, and all these other awful people he surrounded himself. Baxian wanted the type of easy camaraderie that Hunt had with Isiah—-a healthy friendship.

One of my favorite moments with Baxian and Hunt was when Hunt had to stay in the barracks for two weeks as punishment for leaving Celestina at the event when Ephraim came. Hunt and Baxian were talking about being in Sandriel’s triarii and Baxian sounded kind of jealous and somber about the life Hunt build for himself.

“‘I want to know what in it for me. What kind of life I can look froward to.'”

(pg. 430)

Because Hunt had all these friends, he could laugh, and he found love. All Baxian had was an empty room with no one to talk to because he didn’t even like his so-called friend, “Pollux.” I loved though when Hunt came out of his room later, and saw Baxian working on papers. Instead of leaving Baxian alone like he wanted to, I loved how some part of Hunt thought to talk to Baxian. Then they played video games together, and Baxian finally learned! I was so happy for him, but it was also sweet to see a softer and more playful side of Baxian and that Hunt wasn’t totally put-off by being around him. From Hunt’s perspective, I could understand how weird it must have been to have hated Baxian to the point of frying his neck 😂 and then be at a place where Baxian wasn’t a terrible person, but someone he could play a round of video games with. I loved their banter and how normal it seemed—how happy it seemed. I hope that we get more moments in the future with Baxian where he is a part of the CC gang because he is a good person deep down. People can change. And Baxian just needed to be in the right environment and with the right people for that part of him to come out.

Pollux was definitely not the right person for Baxian to be around.

I loved that scene where Baxian beat the daylights out of Pollux. Gosh, that sounds so violent and I don’t condone violence but Pollux sucks toes—-the worst of a human being, to be quite honest. Hunt, Naomi, and Isiah had to listen to Celestina reprimand Pollux and Baxian because they were a triarii together. Baxian beat Pollux like a piece of meat because Pollux sexually harassed a woman. Baxian had been following Pollux the whole night and saw Pollux and the girl go into an alley and Baxian heard the girl say no at one point, but Pollux kept going. I have to say, it’s TRASH like Pollux that make me want to rage and flash down lightening to make fat-jerky!!!! WHAT A PIECE OF GARBAGE!!! How dare Pollux take advantage of not only this woman, but all these other woman because he’s some sort of powerful fae with a reputation. I don’t care if he is the gosh darn Asteri or whatever he thinks he is, if someone says no, you respect a no and there’s no ands, ifs, and buts about it. Also, the freaking AUDACITY Pollux had to spin the story around to make it seem like that woman wanted it or that she didn’t say no *shakes head*!!!! He just didn’t listen to her no

I was FURIOUS. Darn, right that Baxian beat him up 👏🏼!!!! Someone had to do it.

Just the fact that Baxian beat Pollux up—-someone who worked closely with him—-now revulsed him and wanted to beat him up, highlighted how disgusting Pollux was. Even before this big fight, Baxian would talk about Pollux with nothing but disgust in his voice, which made me wonder why Baxian felt that way. I mean, the Hammer and the Heckhound were an immovable team, so something had to change to make Baxian want to change. One of the reasons was that Baxian probably could now see the vile and inhumanness of people like Pollux and decided that he didn’t want to be similar to someone so disgusting and wrong. The other reason is something I will get into later because it’s a whole other ordeal.

But I really loved seeing Baxian change before Hunt’s eyes and our eyes because it really is a wondrous thing to see someone be a better version of themselves.

Going back to Bryce and the party they were at, a weird shadow thing was detected flying over the house. This weird dude shadowed himself in and declared Bryce his fiancé!!?!?!!

I mean, apparently she was betrothed to her freaking COUSIN.

This was my first, wait what moment. Because who was this Cormac dude, showing up at our freaking no where to declare that Bryce was his freaking fiancé 🤨.

He had to take that up with Hunt because we all know how that would go. Bryce wasn’t going to marry that Cormac. Cormac sounds like a car company 😂 name. I could not.

Cormac is an Avallan Fae Prince who was betrothed to marry Bryce as declared by the Autumn King. Avallan Face are a different type of fae and they are kind of the enemy of Valbaran Face, although they act like they are allies. Cormac was also present for Ruhn’s Ordeal with Dec and Flynn when they all tried to pull the Starsword out of the rock.

Bryce was supposed to marry Cormac because she was of age and not married, and the Autumn King had a rightful say over who she could marry. Someone needed to get these old a** marriages out of here!!!

“Males will always try to control females who scare them. marriage and breeding are there go-to methods.”

(pg. 97)

As far as I know, they were living in the 15032 century and they should have progressed enough where a man does not choose who the woman marries, but a woman have power over who she can marry. I detested these marriage rules because it was another stupid way for the men—in this case, the Autumn King—to control Bryce again. I honestly thought that Hunt would have fried Cormac on the spot because he was coming after his woman. I was surprised he didn’t. I loved how Ruhn was peezed off for Bryce too because he knew how much Bryce loved Hunt and she be able to choose who she married—we love Ruhn supporting his sister’s basic human rights to love.

But there was no way in heck Bryce would actually marry Cormac and go through with it. There was no way because first Bryce didn’t let any guy control her. I loved how when Cormac started talking, she was like, don’t you freaking dare interrupt me again 😂. Second, Hunt would burn this bi*** before he could marry Bryce 🤪. They were going to find a way out of Bryce marrying Cormac for sure. But I would love to say more on Cormac’s character, but I feel like I can’t talk more abbot him without also mentioning a few other characters first and how they play into what Cormac and everyone else is going to do later. But I will say that my first impression of Cormac was I didn’t like him because he showed up out of nowhere, announcing he was married to Bryce without asking her about it. Where was the consent dude? Heck, she didn’t even know she was betrothed or that Cormac existed until he showed up. I thought he was being rude to her because she’s a human being and deserved basic a** respect to have a say in her life, but then again, that’s more on the Autumn King than it was on Cormac. But he could have rejected the proposal if he had a respectful bone in his body. The other reason I didn’t like Cormac at first was because he just seemed arrogant and like he had it all figured out. He also kept pushing his way int Bryce’s life, showing up at weird moments or at her work place like he wanted to remind her that he was going to be his husband.

“If you’re looking For How Not to be an Alphahole, it’s shelved between Bye, Loser, and Get the F*** Out.”

(pg. 101)

I could not when she clapped back at him when he creepily showed up to her Fae Archives office 😂.

I have to use that line one day.

Bryce’s star tattoo kept shining around him for some reason, and it made me wonder why Cormac made her light shine? I knew she didn’t like him that way, but was there a special power that Cormac had that made her star shine? Also, why was Cormac so insistent that the Oracle said that a marriage between them would save the world? If that was the case and they did marry, I knew like Hunt, I would throw a rage because I didn’t want this series to be a situation where Bryce had to fake marry someone because it was the noble thing to do. It was complicated, but I wasn’t a Cormac fan. At first 😉.

I am a fan of Ithan.

I was NOT a fan of Ithan in the last book because of his suck a** treatment of Bryce 🤪, but I knew that the way he treated Bryce came from a place of hurt and grief. How he treated Bryce didn’t excuse his actions, but it sure as heck did make sense. He also redeemed himself a bit in the last book with choosing to protect the humans during the Spring attack and also laying off his hate on Bryce. But after being at that after ballet party and the whole Cormac thing, Hunt and Bryce returned home to a bleeding out Ithan on their carpet. My heart felt for Bryce because seeing Ithan lying there bleeding, reminded her of a similar scene to what she walked home to that night two years ago. My gosh, that pained me because all that trauma was sure to come back to her in a rush from her best friend being murdered and her potential lover also being murdered. I was so worried for Ithan because I didn’t want it to be a similar situation what happened to Dannika and Connor.

“She’d lost one Holstrom already.”

(pg. 81)

Thank goodness it wasn’t. Ithan had been kicked out by Sabine and Amelie from the pack because Ithan defended Bryce in a paper, and Sabine wasn’t happy at the way Ithan painted Bryce the hero and made her look bad. Sabine was same old Sabine and called Bryce a spoiled party girl and was at the right place at the right time. Sabine could take that BS and shove it up the stick already up her butt. Well, I was glad to see Sabine hadn’t changed from being a psycho sicko 🙃—-I guess, some things never change. I was proud that Ithan spoke the truth of Bryce being a hero because he really did wake up last spring to change and be a better person— a person Connor would have wanted him to be. However, Sabine and Amelie gutting Ithan like a fish was a clear sign that they kicked him out of the pack.

Not having a pack was a big deal as a wolf because a pack meant kinship and bonding. Ithan gave me a sort of lost feeling a lot in the beginning because he didn’t have a pack and he didn’t have a purpose. He wouldn’t shift into a wolf as much because I don’t know if it pained him to do so because he didn’t have a pack or a reason to turn into a wolf or there was some magic that made it hard for him to wolf up because he was packless. You know, after everything he went through with losing his brother and his anger-filled grief, not having a pack made him feel more isolated and alone because it truly felt like he had no one to turn to. He didn’t have a pack, he didn’t have a home, he barely had friends because no wolf was his friend anymore and his relationship with Bryce was different. I could only impinge what he was going through or how he was feeling at such a young age too. Heck, he was my age and had been through so much more than anyone should ever have to go through. I really felt for Ithan. He was a lone wolf who just wanted a family and a purpose again.

I mean, he literally chilled on Bryce’s couch with Syrnix because he had nothing better to do. He also watched Sunball a lot because he had nothing better to do and he didn’t play it anymore. He quit what he was passionate about for different reasons, but one of them was because he couldn’t bring himself to do what he used to love anymore because he didn’t feel like himself anymore. I could understand that. It’s painful when you loved something so much and you still love it, but it’s hard to do that hobby/love because it doesn’t feel right anymore in someway or that you have outgrown it. It’s almost like going through a break up. I freaking laughed when Ithan had his whole playing with Sabine’s sword thing in Bryce’s apartment because it did feel like he was going stir crazy and just wanted to have fun. But above all, he wanted to have meaning and do something more with his life than just sit around. He didn’t know what to do until he literally was planted back into Bryce’s life and was given a chance to figure things out with the people around him.

I loved how Tharion included him in the hunt to find Sophie and how Ruhn also took Ithan in and how they became a found family or a found brothership towards the end—-that this packless wolf who didn’t have the support of the people who were supposed to support him, found that in people who did. I loved that for Ithan 💙. I really did. Becuase it made him feel less alone and like he had people he could rely on or who would be there for him when he didn’t have his brother anymore or his pack.

He also still, and always would have Bryce.

They were best friends once before Connor passed away and Ithan retreated into his anger and hate. They would chat like old friends, they looked out for each other, and made jokes about all the hot guys at Sunball. I loved that conversation the first night Ithan slept over at Bryce’s house. I loved the fact though that she accepted and welcomed Ithan into her life so easily after everything because she will always love Ithan and look after him. But the conversation was so wholesome and needed because at the end of the last book, Ithan did change through actions, but he needed to speak that change through words. They talked about Connor, and gosh when I say I was tearing up, I was BALLING. I swear, Connor is the only character I have read in all my book years that has had little book time, but such a huge impact.

“‘He loved you more than anyone.’

Her heart strained. ‘He loved you more than anyone.’

(pg. 84)

They had all this shared history and a shared love of Connor 🥺.

In many ways, it was what kept their love for each other alive because only they understood what it was to love Connor so much and to lose someone so amazing early on. While I’m talking about Connor, I just wanted to say how much I admired and loved the wya Sarah J. Maas paid homage and honored all those who had lost their life in the past battle by bringing their names up throughout the story. I wondered about that at the end of the last book because life went on, but how were they going to live on with their loved ones in their memories. Whenever there was something or a moment that reminded Bryce or the gang about the people they loved and lost, they thought of that person and carried that love and grief with them. That’s such a very real feeling—that when you see something that reminds you of a person you loved, it takes you back to all those memories with that person. I really loved it—-the ode to Lebedah, Connor, Dannika, etc.

After their conversation, I really wanted to see them mend their relationship because they were best friends and had the potential to find a new dynamic.

But there was also the fact that Connor had to grieve or live with the fact that Bryce was not the love of his life.

I was pleasantly shocked, but not really to learn that Ithan always loved Bryce to. I mean, I didn’t blame him. Bryce is lovable.BUT MY GOSH, to know Ithan had been secretly pinning for Byrce all these years, really did something to my heart 😫.

The Harpy was playing poker and ribbing Ithan by using his crush on Bryce. When she kept talking about how “Ithan was lusting after the woman his brother loved,” I was like, “Oh” 🙁. Ithan. And then she kept talking about Ithan pinning away for years, and then I started to feel really bad because I knew that there was a part of Ithan that liked Bryce and I could pick up the hints by the way he looked at her like he was mourning something besides his brother. But it wasn’t until the Harpy teased him about it that I really felt hurt for Ithan.

I loved hearing the first time he met her and thought that he would marry her, start a life, have a family. He met Bryce one day when he was going to Connor’s dorm during his freshman year at CCU. He met Bryce in the hallway and was captivated and dazzled by her beatify and kindness. They talked and he felt like they were mates. Hearing him talk so openly and honestly about how much he loved her even then, broke my heart because there’s nothing like a moment when you feel like you meet someone and they are the love of your life only for them to not be. Connor saw them talking in the hall, and Ithan’s heart deflated because Bryce was the girl Connor had been talking about and how much he liked her. Ithan took a backseat role because he knew how much his brother wanted to also be with Bryce.

However, Ithan was upset with Connor during those years because Connor never actually acted on his crush and asked Bryce out, but here Ithan was wanting to do so but not going to out of some brother code. I never knew that Ithan was the one who prodded Connor to finally asking Bryce out all those years. But to be quite honest, Connor should have made a move sooner, but hey, maybe he was waiting for the right moment. I respected that Ithan didn’t want to step on Connor’s toes with their shared crush, but he should have also just went for it during the time they liked Bryce because if Connor wasn’t acting on his crush, then Ithan could have and he should have. It would have been Connor’s loss if he didn’t do anything.

But, again, I understood why he didn’t. It was a really complicated situation.

To have loved her and to know that he couldn’t be with her because his brother knew her first—that he stepped back for his brother—-made me sad for Ithan. Then I also felt terrible for Ithan because now his brother passed away and it left this place where Ithan could date Bryce, but it would also seem wrong if he did like he was chasing the woman his brother did like and was happy he was now out the way. So maybe that was another reason Ithan was angry at Bryce because he wanted to be with her but he didn’t know how to approach the situation without it coming off like he was too eager that he had his chance. But then by that time, Bryce had met Hunt and Hunt and Bryce were meant to be together, so he lost his chance altogether. The dude really loved her and had all these chances that he lost, and he had to live with seeing her happy with someone else that wasn’t him. I know what it’s like to like someone from afar and want the best for them but also secretly always wanting it to be you. It sucks. I wanted to hug Ithan.

It was incredibly sweet though how much he did love her and still wanted to be part of her life even though it hurt. I mean it had to hurt to see her so happy with Hunt and to know that he wasn’t the one who brought her that happiness or who was going to create that life he dreamed of with her. Connor trying to move on from Bryce was the other reason he quit Sunball. He used to play Sunball to get Bryce to notice him, and she did. She went to his games and cheered him on. But when Bryce met Hunt and Ithan saw their dynamic, he knew Bryce would never choose him in that way. So he gave up Sunball even if he was really good at it because he didn’t think there was a point anymore if the girl he liked was not going to be his.

I loved that we got to uncover more depths to Ithan because he’s such an interesting and complex character. He’s been going through heck and back the last few years and now he’s involved in the bigger scheme of this book, which I’m excited about because he’s going to get a bigger role. I’m also excited that he’s getting this redemption arc 💙. Even the things we learned so far about Ithan already redeemed his character in my eyes because he really is a good guy who was just hurt and hurt others—hurt people hurt people. But there’s so much more to him that we never understood, that we are beginning to. I really love Ithan and how he finds himself in Bryce’s life.

Another key person in Bryce’s life that I need to talk about before we get to a main plot point is Tharion. I can’t not talk about Tharion.

I FREAKING LOVE THARION 🧜🏼‍♂️.

I was soooo excited when he too got levels up to main character energy!

There’s just something about Tharion from the last book and this book that I am obsessed with. He’s one of my favorite characters, but then again if you ask me who my favorite CC character is, I’d probably list all their names 🤪. But Tharion is someone I truly love. He still gives me Finnick Odair vibes, but Tharion has a lot more sass, flirtatiousness, and humor in him. I love his relationship with Bryce in how he always calls her Legs or shamelessly flirts with her in front of Hunt. But Hunt knows they have a platonic, flirty friendship and he doesn’t mind. I also love how they never stay mad at each other for too long and forgive each other with otter or ab pictures. They are just too funny and fun! They have amazing chemistry.

As much as Tharion can give off careless and facetious manner, he has a deep darkness that was explored in this book that I never thought Tharion could have. Not that he couldn’t have depth, but I just never thought that he battled as many things as I thought he did.

Tharion is a mer(maid) and lives in the Istros, which is controlled by the River Queen. The River Queen gives me prudish a**hole vibes. I don’t like her. The way she treats Tharion and keeps him on a leash makes me want to rage under the sea. A while ago (or I’m not really sure when), Tharion insisted that he wanted to be with the River Queen’s daughter. In actuality, he just wanted to sleep with the River Queen’s daughter. However, the River Queen tied Tharion to her daughter and they were engaged to be married, but Tharion didn’t want to marry her anymore because he didn’t really love the River Queen’s daughter. But he couldn’t get out of this engagement and how had to constantly prove himself and work under the River Queen to do her work to keep the River Queen and her daughter happy.

But you know who wasn’t happy?

Tharion ☹️!!!!!

She treated Tharion like a piece of trash and makes him do her bidding because she had some sort of ax to grind with him and wanted to prove a point—that she would and will always control him. I freaking hate that for him. Tharion has such bubbly, fun energy when he’s Above and with the people he loves, but when he goes Beneath back to the River Blue, he hates his life. It was alarmingly and blaringly clear how much Tharion hated his life Beneath and wanted out. It felt like he was dragging himself back to the river each time and that he dreaded being there. I don’t know if Tharion never loved living in the river or if his new situation with the River Queen made him absolutely hate the Beneath now, but it made me sad how he didn’t even like going “home” anymore.

Honestly, a sad Tharion = a sad me.

He just felt stuck in a sucky situation and he wanted out of it literally and figuratively. I wanted Tharion to be happy because he kept this facade around people that he was okay and happy but he was really holding in this melancholy that wanted to be free. Also, I don’t know if I forgot this in the other book, but Tharion had a sister??!?!?!

Tharion had a sister named Leisa who used to fight for the Viper Queen. However, Leisa ended up being murdered by someone and Tharion hunted and killed that murderer as retribution for his sister. It was apparent that Tharion was still processing his anger and grief at losing his sister. I didn’t even know he had a sister 😅. But then it had me thinking, who was Tharion’s family? Like legit. Who were his parents and why didn’t they seem to make an appearance if they cared about their son or daughter? I mean, were all mer left to their own devices? Later on Tharion mentioned how his family was at the mercy of the River Queen (pg. 420), which made me confused. Was that another reason that Tharion had this darkness around him? Was the River Queen holding his family hostage or under a tighter leash that by doing what she wanted, he was helping his family? Where was his family? I really wanted to know. There seems to be more to the story with Tharion’s family that I wanted to know.

I hope we get more answers later on, or more deep conversations with Tharion to push past this sunny facade he has. That would be cool though, if him and Bryce had a heart-to-heart because they joke around with each other most of the time, that it would be beautiful if they spoke honestly to each other too.

One of the tasks that the River Queen bestowed on Tharion was to find Sophie Renast and in turn Emile, her brother.

The prologue introduced a many new characters—some very new and others new in in the way this was the first time we were interacting with their characters. One of the new names and faces was Sophie Renast. Her name was literally the first word of this 800+ page book, and my first thought when reading her name was that I know my memory of the characters in the last book were not as crystal clear but I gosh darn don’t remember a Sophie 🤪. It made sense she was new. Not going to lie, the prologue confused the bonkers out of me because there was this new character who seemed to be escaping somewhere and had all these other characters we heard about chasing after her. And then something about a boat being set on fire with light and them sinking and then Sophie was drowned. Or that’s what it felt like in my brain.

In actuality, Sophie was part of the Ophion Rebels, which is the rebel group that wants to take down the Asteri rule. In the Option rebels, there are different groups and commands. One of the groups is called the Lightfall group/soilders—as in they wanted the light beings (the Asteri) to fall. The commander of the Lightfall soldiers is a ruthless leader named Pippa Spestos, and she does not care about the consequences of her actions, even if it means killing many innocent people. She was one of the people who gave the go on that plan to use innocent kids as a way to test something or something, either way I didn’t like Pippa because being a monster does not justify the ends.

“To destroy monsters, you become monsters.”

(pg. 381)

So Pippa was one of the woman waiting for Sophie as she escaped Kavalla prison from where Sophie was trying to rescue her brother who had been taken there three years ago.

Sophie had been working with Ophion to help the greater good, but mostly everything was done for her brother because he was the only family she had left. Everyone else had been hunted by the Asteri because they discovered that her ancient grandmother was one of the last the Thunderbirds who managed to breed and carry down the Thunderbird line. Thunderbirds were beings who had a gift of light where she could suck power into herself to instantly strike people down and kill them; They were an unstoppable and dangerous force. Because of the danger Thunderbirds posed to the Asteri power and people in general (if they made the wrong enemy out of Thunderbirds), they were eradicated. However, Sophie had the gift and that made people fear her, but also want to use her as a weapon in their army. However, no one knew Sophie was a Thunderbird until the Asteri discovered that she was and wanted to kill her for it. They also wanted to kill Sophie for being a rebel and for having this life changing information that would take down the Asteri. In her three years work as a rebel, she gathered intelligence of how to save her brother, but also she worked to gain this secret about the Asteri that could change the game. She finally knew what the Asteri’s secret was, so they wanted to kill her for it before she could tell anyone else. So one night she tried to free her brother from Kavalla—-the death prison—-and it started this huge chase with the Hind and Mordoc on her tail.

The Hind is a feared, lethal Pangera warrior/the republics spy hunter, almost on the same level as Pollux in having a tremulous reputation. The Hind’s name was actually Lidia Cervos and she was actually Hypaxia’s half sister. That boggled my mind considering how gentle and sweet Hypaxia was, and her sister was a lethal killer 🙃. Hypaxia took after the mom and stayed with the mom’s coven (the Hecuba Coven) because Hypaxia showed powers that aligned with necromancy and with magic. Hypaxia took after the father with her shape-shifting abilities and went to stay with the dad’s kin. I kind of wondered how the Hind became the Hind and what kind of messed up upbringing she had to turn her into a ruthless monster. Because we all know that the Hind was not born overnight and was probably a product of shizzy parenting 😅. I mean, aren’t all the villains a product of shizzy parenting. Tell me I’m wrong 🤪.

There was a moment where Sophie had to split up from Emile who she managed to get out of Kavalla. It was either go with Emile and the other kids she managed to rescue or risk them all being captured. So she put Emile and the kids first. When Sophie told Emile to go, I was like, she was saying goodbye to him because part of her didn’t think she would make it, but hoped she would. She also told Emile that she would find him and to remember everything she told him, which was cryptic as heck because what the heck did she tell him? The Asteri secret, I hope! But it made my heart hurt to see her literally sacrifice her safety for her brother and those kids—Sophie was nothing but a true hero and I was sad we didn’t get to see more of her. She saved her brother by also drowning the Omega ships that were hurtling towards the safe ship that she set up for the escape. Pippa thought that it was Emile using his Thunderbird powers, but it was Sophie.

As Emile was making his way to Agent Silverbow and Pippa to safety, the Hind had reached Sophie because she was drained from her powers. But I loved how Sophie was unwavering in the face of the Hind. She really stuck with it until the very end and didn’t let the Hind get a peep of fear out of her. The Hind tried getting Sophie to tell her what information she gleaned or where Emile was, but Sophie didn’t say anything. In the end, the Hind shackled Sophie and threw a white rock in the ocean before telling Sophie that it was a long way down and the information would die with her. Sophie still didn’t show any signs of fear or defeat. I did freaking cackle at Sophie’s last words to the Hind: “Go to Heck.” She had spunk in her—we love!

A big part of me felt like Sophie didn’t die because first lesson is that if there is no body, you can’t prove that they actually passed away. Watch any mystery show and you’ll learn that 😂. So I wasn’t convinced that she wasn’t alive. I hoped she was alive because I wanted to see her reunite with Emile and what her Thunderbird powers were and what they meant. I also wanted to know what the HECK was this Asteri secret.

Thus, this. brings us back to Tharion. One of the first scenes we had with him was on a boat, trying to find the lost body of Sophie Renast. The River Queen wanted to find Sophie and Emile for some reason that she never disclosed to Tharion. But Tharion picked up the pieces and kind of guessed that the River Queen was fearful of the other River Queens wanting to one day take over her river. There was the Black, White, and Red Queens of the four great Valbara rivers: the Istros, the Melanthos, the Niveus, and the Rubellus (pg. 279). He thought the River Queen wanted him to find Sophie and Emile to use them as weapons to defend her title as River Queen of the Istros and that she could turn Sophie and Emile’s power into elemental energy to expand her influence of the rivers. First of all, ain’t nobody want her river 😂. I mean, she had a river and the other River Queens practically had an ocean, so no one was going to fight her or anything so I don’t know what she was thinking. And second, Sophie and Emile were people and not machines—they shouldn’t be used.

But there Tharion was, hating his life, trying to find a sunken Sophie. Bro, when he saw that her shackles had been unlocked like Sophie was able to save herself and swim to safety. I mean, she was a strong, clever woman, I wouldn’t put it past her not to do so. But then started Tharion’s search of finding Sophie and Emile and really digging deep to where she could have gone or where she could have rendezvous with her brother. In his deep dive of research, Tharion discovered emails Sophie made three years ago, mysteriously called Dusk’s Truth. The emails were weird because they sounded very cryptic, something about gaining access and getting inside to know the full story. The email chain was never finished. Then Tharion found another email chain from the same email talking about Project Thurr and about how the Six would kill her for knowing about Project Thurr. WHAT WAS DUSK’S TRUTH AND PROJECT THURR?

My first train of thought went back to the this statue of Thurr Bryce asked Jesiba about because Bryce was trying to sell archive it, but didn’t know it’s original price or something. So was this Project Thurr connected to this person in the statue and how so? Who was Thurr? And if we were going down this Project Thurr line, It only felt right that Tharion would meet with Bryce at one poitn to discuss Thurr. But also, came the fact that the person who was emailing Sophie Renast these mysterious emails was none ofher than Danika.

I loved how Dankia managed to be the character that was kept alive and kept surprising us even when she passed on 🙃.

My second wait what moment for sure. because how the freak did Danika even know Sophie? And second, what was Danika working on this time with these two projects?

So talk to Bryce, Tharion did.

I freaking laughed at how Tharion and Ithan met. It’s funny because we both knew these two dominant characters, and yet they hadn’t met each other until now. It was a fun time.

“Bryce snickered, but Ithan asked from the couch, ‘Who are you?’

Tharion flashed him a smile. ‘None of your business.’

(pg. 131)

We love to hear it.

Tharion asked Bryce if Danika ever heard about Sophie, but obviously a running theme throughout the book was that Bryce had no clue who Sophie was. So Tharion gave Bryce the whole spiel about Sophie being a Thunderbird and a rebel and how she saved her brother and how she was drowned. He also informed her about Dusk’s Truth and Project Thurr to see if that meant anything to Bryce, which they didn’t. But from Tharion’s information dump, Bryce was convinced that she wanted to find Emile. I love love Bryce because she wasn’t thinking about finding Emile because he was a powerful Thunderbird and to use him for his powers, but because he was a 13 year-old little kid who was in a death camp and was probably scared shizless out there in the world. She was so selfless because she saw through the power to the human of him, which is something most people wouldn’t even consider in this world. It’s definitely not what the River Queen, Pippa, or the Asterii were thinking. But there was also the fact that I knew Bryce wanted to find Emile and in turn find Sophie for answers about Danika because how could she not be curious about this person who Danika shared secret projects with that she knew knotting about. So Byrce was doing this for Emile and Danika, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, considering that Emile and Sophie were rebels, it would twist Hunt and Bryce up into going against the Asterii in some way, and they needed to stay low. Hunt was apprehensive of rushing into looking for Emile because of what happened the last time he rebelled—being enslaved and turning into the Umbra Mortis. I didn’t blame him for telling Bryce to take a second to really think about what their next steps would be before making a decision because that was a rational thought to say. Also, I didn’t blame Hunt for fearing for his freedom and Bryce’s life because he didn’t want to fall back into what happened in the past.

When thinking about whether or not to help Tharion find Emile—which was definitely a hard yes from Bryce, but she pretended that she was considering her options—she had a nice conversation with Fury Axtar. I’m happy Fury was more in this book and that we saw more tidbits with her and heard about Fury’s relationship with Juniper. I was happy for them too, but I would have liked to seen more moments between Fury and Juniper rather than in passing. I would have liked to know more about Fury in general because it kept being alluded to that Fury wasn’t quite Fae, she was whatever the heck she was, which made me wonder who the heck was she? What kind of power or person was Fury and what made her different. But that wasn’t what the conversation between Fury and Bryce was about. Fury didn’t know anything about the projects that Danika kept secret, however Fury did know that Danika was a bloodhound. I had no idea what that meant 😂. All I knew that it had to be shocking. But it explained why Danika had a keen sense of smell and how she could pick up how Fury was different and how Bryce and Ruhn were related before everyone else knew they were related. Being a bloodhound was dangerous for others and that person because to know someone’s true lineage was perilous information not just anyone wanted anyone to know, you know. But later, there was also the secret that Danika was Mordoc’s daughter, which had me reeling. We all knew Danika didn’t like her father, and now it was understandable. That monster?! Yea, sis, no wonder she didn’t want to associate with him. But I was shocked how Ithan and other people knew it besides Bryce. Mordoc apparently showed up one day to visit Danika and the pack headquarters, but she didn’t acknowledge Mordoc because to him she was never her real father in all the ways that counted. Morodoc raged that day for some reason, so I guess he cared about Danika in his itty-bitty heart. Also, it finally made sense who actually wanted to be with Sabine 🙈. YIKES.

Haha. I’m not joking.

But yea, my gosh.

And don’t even get me started with how when Ithan was having his fun make believe sword moment in Bryce’s apartment, he broke her coffee table to reveal a pile of papers that Danika had kept hidden. All the papers were things that Danika had been researching in school. She was very into the history of Midgard and where the Asteri came from. She was also highly interested in lineage. What sparked Bryce asking Delcan to look back at footage of Danika when Bryce worked at the Great Library of Parthos, was when Bryce talked to Jesiba and she mentioned something about how Danika would do suspicious things at the library that Bryce didn’t know about. When looking back on video tapes of Danika in the Great Library of Parthos, Declan managed to find a moment when Bryce went down with Lehabah to find a book or something, and Danika was there, feigning like she was just chilling. After a few seconds she got up and she scanned the books until she found one that said Wolves Through Times: Lineage of the Shifters. In the video, Danika pointed to a page like she found what she was looking for. Before Bryce and Lehabah came back, Danika returned the book and acted natural. However, it posed the question of what she was looking at and why.

Jesiba sent the book over to Bryce, and they saw how Danika was looking at Fendyr linage of her ancestors. However, none of Danika’s ancestors to her knowledge were alive because they all dated way back when. Because Danika was so interested in her lineage, Bryce took it upon herself to talk to the Prime of the wolves to get more answers as to why Danika would be intrigued by her ancestors. One of my biggest comments in my House of Earth and Blood book review was that I hoped we saw more characters and the greater world outside of Lunathion, and we sure as heck got what I asked for. I never heard of the Prime of the wolves 😅. Is it just me or? I swear, he wasn’t mentioned or he wasn’t super important for me to feel like I should have remembered him. But he gave me big alpha dog vibes, which I guess that was what he was. I loved the fact that the Prime was surrounded by smaller dogs when Bryce snuck into see him. But the Prime said something about how wolves were more glorious and free before the Asterii—that they now abided by the control of the Asterii. Danika was interested in wanting the wolves to return to that glory, so she researched about the wolf lineage and even talked to the prime about it. Because if she knew how they once were and who the Asterii were, she could find a way to reform what the society was to restore all these people who felt like they were on a leash before the Asterii.

Because that is something I noticed heavily with every House we met—-how they all felt weighed down by the Asterii control. They all mourned or talked mournfully about how glorious and free and happy they were before the Asterii, but afterwards, they felt powerless, guarded, and taken advantage of. They were all suffering because of the Asterii. So it begged the heavy question fo who the Asterii were and how idd they get so much power over all these species of people who were obviously a lot stronger together than these supposedly six god-like people. But that is question I can divulge into later.

And that’s not even to say how Baxian was Danika’s MATE. Her Mate! Yes, the Mate.

What. The. Freak.

First it was the synth and then the Horn, and then it was that Danika was a secret rebel who knew Sophie and who had all these papers and things hiding in plain sight. And it was also that Danika was a bloodhound and she wanted to know her lineage, and honestly, she just kept suprising everyone, most of all Bryce.

And I felt for Bryce 😢.

Because it felt like she didn’t even know her best friend, and that she wasn’t even Danika’s best friend if she didn’t know all these things. The fact that her best friend kept all these secrets from her made Byrce feel like Danika either didn’t trust her enough as a best friend should and that she didn’t even know who Danika was because she had all these things that Bryce never knew. I wanted to hug Bryce because she felt hurt and frustrated not only at Danika keeping secrets, but at how frustrated she felt at Danika. Bryce didn’t want to hate or be angry at her best friend, but it was understandable that she was angry at Danika. I would be too if I discovered all these new facts about someone who was supposedly my best friend. It would definitely make me question whether or not that friendship had been real or what was real. I wanted to tell Bryce it was okay to feel hurt and angry and that she didn’t need to do all these things to learn more about Danika to feel closer to her. However, Byrce needed to learn these things to gain closure on the person she thought she knew.

I still think that Danika and Bryce had a real friendship and the love between them was real, but that Danika loved Bryce too much to tell her the secret things; Danika wanted to protect Bryce from whatever danger lied in all the secrets that Danika knew. When thinking about it like that, I respected Danika because I. knew it came from a place of love. However, we don’t really know what Danika was thinking because she never had the chance to tell Bryce all these things or reassure Bryce that she was reserving all this information from a place of love. To Bryce, it felt like a betrayal to not know the person who she thought she knew best. It hurts.

Knowing Danika had a mate was probably the lowest blow that I feel hurt Bryce. When I think of friendship, especially best friends, the one thing that best friends talk to each other the most about is romance. So when Bryce learned from Baxian that Danika was his mate—that Danika didn’t tell Bryce even this one momentous thing—it struck her heart.

Baxian told Bryce and Hunt that Danika was his mate when Baxian appeared yet again out of no where to save/rescue Hunt and Bryce from the Under-King set-up with Pippa. Baxian had found another secret entrance below the throne in the temple, which was very needed because most temples had only one in and out and they were stuck there and didn’t know where to go or what to do. So Baxian really pulled through, and it’s not that I didn’t want him in these situations, it was just I knew Hunt and Bryce didn’t want him there. They didn’t trust him even though Baxian continuously showed that he was on their side. Bryce pointed a gun at him and he said the best thing ever: “Through love, all is possible.” He knew the quote 🥺!!! He knew the quote because he said Danika was his mate.

Honestly, “Through love, all is possible” is going to come back and haunt every crevice of this series 😂.

And I’m not mad at it!

I love a recurring quote 🙈.

Baxian had met. Danika at a Pangera and Valbaran wolf gathering that she was forced to go to as a wolf emissary. Danika sought out/sniffed out Baxian when she was away at the gathering because she wanted to ask Baxian question about wolf lineage and shifter ancestry. In Danika’s research, she saw a name on an early family tree that traced back to the last living descendent who was Baxian. So she wanted to ask him questions about where he came from or his family, who were the Shifters, the Face, and who they were before. By learning all this information, Danika hoped to gain a sense of clarity as to what the Shifters, Fae, Wolves, and all the magical beings could be if there was no Asterii and if everyone managed to take them down. Danika was also looking for someone who could possibly replace Sabine because she didn’t want the wolves future to pass to Sabine. It sounded like Danika was thoroughly convinced that all her secrets and digging wouldn’t keep her alive for long, so she wanted someone else to challenge Sabine. But through the questionings and knowing each other, Baxian and Danika knew they were mates. They had met two years ago—-two years ago when Hunt had left Sandriel’s rule and why Baxian kept alluding to how things had changed. Because guess what?

Through love, all is possible.

Through love, Baxian changed.

He changed for love🥺💙!

He loved Danika because love made him want to be a better man worthy of being with someone like Danika. So he cleaned up his act, didn’t date anyone else, and stayed loyal to his mate. He wanted to be with her and they would sneak off to hotels to be together. Danika wanted to find a way where they could be together more in public—a world that would welcome them and accept them. But then everything with the synth happen and . . . gosh. I can’t even imagine how Baxian must have felt to hear about his Mate being murdered. Mate’s are a powerful, heck, powerful doesn’t even feel like a powerful enough word for the bond between Mates. I wonder how he took the news and if he flew down for her crossing? Gosh, what was he going through in those years too? But he was happy that Bryce killed Micah because he probably would have ended up doing so too. Honestly, Micah had a huge a** target on his back and everyone hated his guts 🤪. But it’s also no wonder that Baxian wanted to rebel or be on Hunt and Bryce’s team because the Archangels who were controlled by the Asterii basically killed his other half—-his mate. And that is something he probably could never look past.

During this confessional of all Danika’s secrets, Baxian said that Danika knew Sophie when Danika was researching Thunderbird lineage and traced down that secrete living Thunderbird and then Sophie. So Danika found Sophie by tracking her down and sniffing her out. Later on, I’m assuming, is when they started emailing back and forth because Sophie and Danika knew each other. Baxian also revealed the reason why Sophie probably carved a series of numbers and letters on her arm before she drowned.

I’m getting ahead of myself because we’re not at that part yet, but those numbers and letters will be significant when I’m talking about things later.

But let’s go back to the question of if Danika know the hiding spot that Sophie and Emile might be at? Because gosh knows we never found them and I never talked about finding them yet.

Danika said in one of her emails that when Sophie finds Emile to lie low in the place where the weary souls find relief from suffering in Lunathion. Instantly my mind to if Sophie and Emile were chilling in the Bone Quarter because that made the most sense.

But then, I had to stop and think, could people even chill in the Bone Quarter when it was this after life place. I thought the dead had to make a crossing on a boat to be judged to be given entrance to the Bone Quarter. So it didn’t make sense if the Bone Quarter was the place because Soohpie and Emile were very much alive and out of all the places they could go for safety they would choose there.

We sure as heck learned a lot about the DANG Bone Quarter in this book, that’s for freaking sure.

It was fascinating learning more about the Bone Quarter because I thought it truly was just a place people went to when they passed and they had the judgment ceremony. I mean, a morbid and scary place, but I didn’t know that there was more to the Bone Quarter than just what we heard about.

First, let’s talk about the Reapers. I forgot that the Reapers were part of the House of Flame and Shadow, so when Hunt and Bryce were walking through Lunathion one day and mentioned seeing a Reaper getting off a mysterious a** black boat in the middle of the day, I was thoroughly confused. Were they going to take a soul or a person? I didn’t know they could do that? I thought the Reapers could only do that when a person was passing or was near the Bone Quarter or something. But they can go out and drag people, which was terrifying. But also gave me Scythe by Neal Shusterman vibes 😅. Creepy as heck, but interesting. Imagine if those two words collided—it would be a wild time. So the Reapers creeped me out because this was the first time we were introduced to them.

Separate from the Reapers, but they were the Half-lives who sold their soul to the Under-King as their guard and servant. So they passed away, but instead of passing on, they served the Under-King, so they didn’t really find peace, more like service.

Then there was the whole Under-King introduction with how the ruler of the Bone Quarter was the Under-King. I mean, that made sense that the Bone Quarter would also have it’s rulers. Not going to lie, I got big Silent City, Silent Brother energy 😅. Literally, not my bibliophile brain making its bibliophile connections. If they Bryce and Hunt wanted entrance to the Bone Quarter, they would have to talk to the Under-King, which they really did.

Esepically after Ruhn was dragged by Reapers.

I could not. Bryce and Ruhn were having a nice brother-sister conversation about some existential things with planets and if there were other worlds and if they remember those worlds. I also loved how this was the moment where Bryce asked Ruhn if he wanted to go home with her to visit her mom in Nidaros. My heart swelled because they were half-brother and sister so Ember wasn’t Ruhn’s mother. But knowing the tense relationship they had in the last book and how she was now wanting to bring Ruhn home to share with her family family, made me happy. But then bah bam! Dragged. Ruhn backed out for a momenta and was being DRAGGED through a sewer by a bunch of Reapers. I was SCREAMING. I know his whole prophecy with being the last in his line, but I was not prepared! They couldn’t just drag him like that 👏🏼!

I didn’t believe that this was the end for Ruhn because it didn’t feel like it and that would be too easy. But the Reapers hung Ruhn from the roof of the sewers and Bryce hopped down to save him. That’s true love right there—-if your loved one would go into the sewer for you 😂. What happened was that Byrce wielded the Starsword against the Reapers because they seemed petrified by it like the sword was cursed or something. She was able to kill a Reaper—-blood and everything—with the Starsword, which was unheard of because how do you kill something that is already dead? What was this sword? It was powerful for sure if it could kill even the dead, so what was the Starswords power and where did it come from? Was it because Bryce had Starborn magic that was different that the powers when she used the sword was different because there was a moment before Bryce used it that she said the sword seemed to come alive. I talk more about the Starsword later and where it came from according to the Autumn King, but it was hard not to wonder what this swords’ powers meant.

But it was truly a creepy and random situation because the Reapers came out of nowhere and attacked Bryce and Ruhn, which didn’t make any sense. Who sent them? The Under-King and why attack them? Apparently the Reapers were sent by Apollion, the Prince of the Pit, as a warning that he was ready to strike and bring the army. He wanted to test Bryce to see if she was also ready and using her full Starborn power.

Apollion, The Prince of the Pit. The Star Eater. The one who ate the seventh Asterii.

He made a couple of appearances before this.

The first time we saw Apollion was in a dream-ish sequence, but it was actually where Apollion had met in a pocket-realm; not a dream in Hunt’s mind but like an essence of them being together but not really. Apollion gave a different vibe then Adias. Adias was more playful where Apollion seemed more commanding. Because I’m writing this when The Summer I Turned Pretty adaptation just released, I would say Adias was more like a Jeremiah and Apollion a Conrad 🤪. And yes, I did make that comparison. I’m well aware. Anyways, Apollion has a more ominous reputation compared to Adias because Apollo defeated and ate up the seventh Asterii during the Aterii and Hel war. Apollion’s father is teh Void, the Being that Existed Before, and Chose was his wife. Whatever that means 😅. I don’t know. Sounds threatening and terrifying. But Apollion wanted to warn Hunt about a war coming and to tell him to put his gifts to use—-to really explore his powers. I was confused as to why Apollion was warning about the war and why he was concerned about Hunt honing his powers and also exploring his powers with Bryce. I mean, if they were starting a war with the Fae, why warn them and give them time to harness themselves. I was confused, but also creeped out that Apollion could talk to Hunt like that and why he would want to talk to Hunt? Is Hunt related to a Prince of Hel? Hmmmmm . . . .

The gang also had a visit from Adias earlier in the day. Two Princes in one heck of a day, am I right?

Not going to lie, I thought we were going to get more Adias and Jesiba in this book. Adias only made one appearance—the one I’m going to talk about—and Jesiba was only mentioned through phone calls. Seeing how the epilogue of House of Earth and Blood ended with them conversing about Adias not screwing up again, I was surprised and disheartened that they weren’t. Were they off doing something evilly on the side that would play into everything later?

When Adias did visit, it was kind of funny.

What was funny was how Bryce had just gotten home from work and Ithan and Tharion were chilling at her house and Ithan was like, “Nice cat.” And Bryce was like, “That’s not a cat” 😂. Bro, she don’t even have a cat.

But I was excited because obviously it was Adias!!!

Adias had also come to warn Bryce and Hunt about a war with Hel and how she should use her real powers. Bryce had been trying to lie low as everyone wanted her to, but she had all of the Starborn Drop light powers in her—power from all those who gave their magic to the Gates over the years—-and she had the Horn power, but had never tried to see what that meant.

Something I wrote about in my House of Earth and Blood review was how I believed that Bryce was a descendant from Queen Theia or maybe a descendent in the way that Queen Theia had two daughters and no one knew what happened to the second daughter, so maybe Bryce came from the line of the lost second daughter. I’m not too sure, but Bryce sure did have Queen Theia’s Starborn power and was as powerful as the last Starborn Queen. Adias discussed some of the history of the Starborn power and Queen Theia. There were different versions of starlight powers, which explained why Ruhn’s power was different from Bryce.

For the history aspect, Queen Theia’s eldest daughter was named Helena and she had the Starborn gift too. She married Prince Pelia’s who was also Bryce and Ruhn’s ancestor. Pelias was not a true prince, but he was Queen Theia’s high general and then he made himself prince when he forced Helena to marry him. Pelias as able to get away with forcing Helena to marry him because he had slain Queen Theia and stole her blade after he killed her. So the Starborn sword that Ruhn won in the Ordeal, was actually for a female heir and not a male heir like Ruhn. However, Ruhn went through the whole Ordeal with Declan and Flynn to get the Starborn sword, so it was technically something he got. But he knew that Bryce was entitled to the Starborn sword just as much as him because they were siblings and Bryce had Starborn power as well. But the whole Prince Pelias and Theia’s story was to inform them that they celebrated a Starborn Prince who wasn’t even a Prince but a killer and controller. Pelias used the Starsword and the Horn to further make him a prince and he passed down the sword to the children he made with Helena when he took advantage of her. So you know, Pelias was you classic trash of a human being who deserved to burn in Heck with Pollux. From what I got from the whole sick, twisted morbid history with Helena and Pelias was that the Starsword had a lot of power that belonged to Helena and the female line and it was never for Pelias to take. Somewhere else in the book, it was mentioned the he Starsword was also made out of a meteorite and had powers beyond their planets laws or something like that. Bryce and Ruhn went to the Autumn King on a whim that he had the answers to why the Starsword was so powerful. I wondered what fallen star/meteorite and what planet’s powers. I was getting many hints about different planets?

A universe maybe 🤔?

Going back to the whole Ordeal thing, I either forgot about what an Ordeal was or this was a new concept in the book because I don’t remember Ruhn talking about going through an Ordeal to get the Starsword in the last book? I must have missed it 🤪. The Ordeal gives me low-key Hunger Games vibes and the or something similar to the Blood Rite that Nesta went on in ACOSF. I guess it’s where three Fae’s compete against three other Fae’s for something and they have to survive. But the Ordeal doesn’t seem as gruesome and to the death as the Hunger Games or the Blood Rite.

Adias wanted to also warn Bryce to wield her powers and so they don’t have a repeat of the past war where they would be on a battlefield to late to stop an opposing power.

I was just really confused by what Adias and all these Princes were trying to say.

I was literally confused up until the end was why the Princes of Heck were visiting Bryce and Hunt so frequently to warn them about a war coming. Because what I was thinking was why would they warn them about a war and being prepared if they wanted to wage war on Bryce and Hunt and the whole Lunathion. Like why give them that warning and the time to prepare to come to their full powers? I know there was something said about how Apollion wanted Bryce and Hunt to be worthy opponents, but it seemed so weird that he go as far to continuously warn them about this supposed war. So it didn’t make sense until later.

But during this surprised Adias visit, Cormac showed up out of nowhere, sorry, he poofed out of no where because he could freaking teleport. And he was freaking Agent Silverbow, aka Cormac was a rebel!!!

I really did not see that one coming because I was thoroughly convinced he was a pride and true selfish a**hat 🤪.

But I loved that Cormac secretly turned out to be not who we thought him to be.

He gave the whole spiel of Sophie being a Thunderbird and losing for her brother. When Tharion told Cormac and the group (again) that Sophie’s body wasn’t found, the Cormac lit up, was an obvious sign that he liked Sophie and that they were something. That just made not dislike Cormac as much as I originally did because he didn’t want to marry Bryce as much as she didn’t want to marry him because he already had someone he loved. He just wanted to marry Bryce or at least appear that they were married to use Bryce’s connection to Danika to know what Sophie knew or what they were trying to do. Cormac also wanted Ruhn’s help because Ruhn could mindspeak with a rebel contact who works closely with the Asterii. So now, everything with the character introductions and the backgrounds I was trying to set up will make sense now because the whole CC Gang who was going to rebel was Bryce, Hunt, Tharion, Ithan, Cormac, Ruhn, and by extension Declan and Flynn. They were all going to help each other find Emile and Sophie and also get answers about who the Asterii were. But rebelling did take multiple conversations about the risks it would pose to their lives because they were going up against higher powers who would not hesitate to kill them upon learning about their rebel activities. So the exact opposite of lying low for Hunt and Bryce. In one of the conversations between Hunt and Bryce about whether or not they should rebel, Hunt mentioned how calculated Bryce was and powerful she seemed when Bryce mentioned that she wanted to know the Asterii secrete so she could even the playing field with the Asterii—-that if they knew something about them, they would lie off of controlling Bryce and Hunt as much. I thought that was a very clever thought because you know blackmail for blackmail, however, the news she sought was probably more than just something to blackmail the Asterii with but could change the world. I wasn’t sure if she only wanted to use the information for her own benefit when Bryce was more altruistic than that.

But I was excited for all of them to work together. I mean, all these complex, fierce, clever, and compassionate human being-Fae-Mer-wolf people were going to kick some major butt as a team and I was eager to see their dynamic.

Cormac wasn’t going to really marry Bryce in the new group dynamic, but they were going to repined that they were engaged to make it not seem strange that they were spending all this time together. But they could call off the engagement whenever they needed/wanted to. They were most likely to call it out once they found Emile or Sophie. Cormac would also train Bryce to use her Starborn powers because Cormac also had Starborn powers and knew how to teleport and do all these things Bryce never knew it possible of her doing.

“Beyond Sofie, beyond Emile . . . This world could be so much more. This world could be free. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want that.’

‘Hard to enjoy being free,’ Hunt countered darkly, ‘if you’re dead.’

Cormac opened the door, stepping into the swirling shadows. ‘I can think of no better reason to yield my life.'”

(pg. 193)

Cormac really surprised me when he said this because again, I thought he was an arrogant prick, but he had feelings and noble feelings. He was willing to give up everything and sacrifice his life for a better world than they were living in—a world where they were free. I agree that you can’t really enjoy a free world if you aren’t there to see it, but the fact that Cormac said that he thought there was no better reason to sacrifice his life . . . wow. Cormac really redeemed himself in my eyes with his altruism and his bravery for wanting to sacrifice himself for something better. But also he wanted to carry out what Sophie had started. He risked his life everyday by being an Avallan rebel and that highlighted to me how much he wanted a change and was willing to do anything to achieve that. I admired that about him.

Cormac also needed Ruhn for his mindspeak as mentioned earlier. Ruhn had a big role to play in this book because finding Emile and Sofie was a rebellious act, but not as risky as actually talking to a rebel in private to relay information.

Ruhn, Ruhn, Ruhn.

I love this guy too! 😂💙

I told you I’m going to say I love every freaking character and I mean it.

I just love him so much. He’s a complex, broody, but honorable character and he’s the best big brother you could ask for. I mean, sure he had his moments in the past, but don’t we all. I loved how we saw how much more love was between Bryce and Ruhn than there was animosity and how much they looked out for each other. I really enjoyed seeing them work as a team because it bonded them with a shared wild experience. Ruhn also just seemed to be chilling in life before everything happened. I mean, his first perspective paragraph was him saying how much he loved his life while he was high off of something at a party. But Ruhn’s not a party dude deep down. He has depths that want to feel loved and feel significant because he feels like he’s just another Fae shadow (pun not intended) compared to others in his life. And like he could not live up to be what others wanted of him when he didn’t even know if he had a future.

You know what I loved?

Whenever everyone who knew Ruhn hyped him up without him ever fishing for a compliment. They genuine saw the best in him and he couldn’t see how awesome a person he was. And that made my heart sad 😢.

“Honestly? I think you don’t know how special you are Ruhn.”

(pg.266)

I agreed with Bryce whole-heartedly.

Ruhn had so much specialness and heart and strength within him and he wasn’t just a weaker Fae Starborn compared to Bryce, he had so much promise. He could bring shadows and mind read. He’s pretty darn cool.

Cormac wanted to meet with Ruhn in private to convince him to mind read with their secret agent, Agent Daybright. Agent Daybright and Sophie used to communicate through code, but someone apparently cracked their code because the Hind found Sofie and everything. But Cormac had this communication crystal rock that was broken into seven separate crystal rocks. The seventh rock was given to Agent Daybreak, and one was left in Cormac’s possession. Cormac gave the crystal to Ruhn as a way to hopefully tether and connect Ruhn to Agent Daybreak. I did wonder how the heck would Ruhn be able to communicate with someone he didn’t know—-like was he just going to reach his mind out into the ether and hope for the best? But the crystal idea made sense. Cormac made it very clear to Ruhn that if Ruhn ever wanted out, he would find a way out for Ruhn and wouldn’t string him along. I liked that Cormac respected Ruhn’s boundaries or knew how risky rebel communication was for him and reassured him safety.

Ruhn’s first mission was to connect with Agent Daybreak and then inquire about a hit on the Spine, which is the north-south railway that cut through Pangera: The Spine was the main road for supplies in the war. The rebels wanted to strike the supplies to decimate the supply stock and to gain access to this new Asterii suit that could be dangerous and lethal in the way.

You know what I loved?

That Declan and Flynn were always there for Ruhn.

Honestly, they were Ruhn’s brothers by heart 💙🥺. I just loved how they were always down to help Ruhn and everyone else with no questions asked because they were by extension family. I just loved having them part of the action with Declan and his coding and hacking skills and Flynn his support 😂. I just loved them and I would love to see more interaction or characterization with them because I think it would be pretty cool and fun to know their stories and histories. I mean, Declan was dating Marc and Flynn was another Fae prince whose parents seemed to be also breathing down his neck about finding a wife and his sister also finding someone too. I hope we see more of who they are in future books. But Ruhn filled them in on everything, which was basically the opposite of what Cormac and the gang said to do, which I thought was funny. But hey, they were bis brothers and it warmed my heart that he had people he felt comfortable entrusting this information with. They were with Ruhn when he had his first conversation with Agent Day. I freaking laughed with how Ruhn just winged his entire secret conversation with a rebel agent fire being thing and how he was lucky he didn’t show up in his real form. He really was out of his element and had no idea what he was doing. But his conversation with Agent Day sounded very flirty and cute to me, and I liked it! I instantly thought that Agent Day was going to be his love interest because Ruhn needed some love in his life and talking with a mysterious spy in his mind who named him Agent Night sounded like a good idea for a love interest 😏.

The more Ruhn communicated with Agent Day, the more convinced I was that he liked her and her him. I just really liked how their conversations weren’t all about spy business but getting to know each other and be honest/vulnerable in ways they probably were scared to be in real life. I think Ruhn and Agent Day were similar in that way where they both gave off a certain image to the world that wasn’t honest to who they really were, but being in a secret mind connection gave them the opportunity to let their guards down to be vulnerable. I also think it’s easy to open up to people you don’t know because there is less judgment there. I know I feel more comfortable sharing things with a person I just met than a person I had known my whole life because it’s easier to craft a new version of yourself with someone else because they don’t know who you are. I guess, there’s that anonymity that was so special and bonded them because they could be the version they wanted to be. As much as Agent Day shared about her life, there were many moments where she kept things in because I felt like she feared anyone getting close to knowing the true her or knowing her fears or flaws. I think she was scared about what people actually thought of her more than she let on. I could also sense that Agent Day hid a lot about herself and that she wasn’t happy with her life because she didn’t have any friends she could lean on, which my gosh, no friends?! That made me tear up 😢. Who took care of her happiness and peace? She also had many “hard days” doing things she didn’t want to do. Also don’t get me freaking started on when she started getting pulled back into her real life by some male figure that wanted to have sex with her. It broke my heart how Ruhn literally pounded on her dream walls and could see how uncomfortable, fearful, and yet uncomfortable about what was going on. But it was what she did for some reason because that’s what she had to do rather than wanted to do.

I loved that Ruhn stayed and waited for afterwards to make sure she was okay. That was incredibly sweet to do, and how he stayed with her to make sure she was okay. I bet she wasn’t used to someone being so tender and kind with her that it surprised her. But Ruhn brought her comfort that allowed her to be at peace to sleep that night.

But deep down Day wasn’t happy with her life.

I mean, if I worked for the disgusting, vile Asterii, I would probably feel the exact same way. But it broke my heart because Agent Day sounded like a kind, honest person who wanted to create a better world by giving the information to the rebels, however, she didn’t like her role in it.

The big freaking question with all of Day and Night/Ruhn’s conversation was who the heck was this woman!!!!!!! 😆

I felt like that meme where that guy looks into the distance and tries to piece together all this mathematic equations—-utterly and literally lost. I was so confused trying to figure out who the heck this spy could be because she was close to the Asterii to gain all this information, so obviously they trusted her. But then I didn’t know anyone close to the Asterii. I also used the clues and backstories we gained from their conversations to guess who it was.

One of the conversations Ruhn and Day had that bonded them was about their shizzy parents. I told you it was always shizzy parents 🤪. Agent Day said she had a very influential family but they sucked butt. Her father sucked the most butt and didn’t know she was a rebel (obviously) but would kill her if she did. Also, her father beat and burned her, sooooo you know . . . he’s not winning father of the year. And where was the CC CPS 😂?

“‘Yeah. Aren’t all those a**holes allowed to stay in power? Who’s going to stop them?’

‘Us.People like us.One day.’

. . . They were silent for long minutes before she said, ‘You’re the first person I’ve spoken to normally . . . in a very long time.’

‘How long?’

‘So long that I think I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be myself. I think I’ve lost my true self entirely. To destroy monsters we become monsters. Isn’t that what they say?’

‘Next time, I’ll bring us some psychic beers and a TV. We’ll get you normal again.'”

(pg. 385)

I loved how Ruhn brought out this part of Agent Day that felt comfortable and real to be normal. But all I could think of was how my heart hurt for Day because she had never felt normal is so long and we didn’t know who she was or what she had been through to feel such a sorrowful emotion. I know what it’s like to lost who you are and to want to know that person again—to reconnect to who you are. It sucks when you look in the mirror and you don’t even know who that person is deep down. Btu Ruhn was there, allowing Day to reconnect to the humane part of her and I loved that.

There was a later conversation they had when they were both feeling loose and vulnerable and Ruhn opened up about the prophecy he had with being the last in his line. It was significant that Ruhn told her about the prophecy because he hadn’t spoken to anyone about it, but I loved how Day didn’t judge him or shut him down for what he said. It was interesting how Ruhn opened up about if he did have kids (he thought he was infertile because of the prophecy) that he was scared of not being a good dad because of his dad. That was a very valid fear because he didn’t have a good father to look up to to show him how to be a decent dad and raise kids to be the best they can be. It’s hard to be a parent and not know what you are doing and expect to help make your child turn into a decent human being when you never had that model of what to do. I also loved how she was like, “You are kind, and caring. And seem to love those around you. I can’t think of anything else needed to be a father” (pg. 526). That meant a lot to Ruhn and to me because she didn’t even know who Ruhn was, but knew he was a good person. I just really wanted Ruhn to see himself the way I and everyone else saw him 🥺.

That night, Day told Ruhn some sort of morbid version of Snow White 😂. When she started telling the story, I was like, there is no way this is a child’s fairytale, this is her story. I just had a hunch because ain’t nobody falling asleep to what she was saying! The story was about a young witch who lived in a cottage and the mother tried to do her best to raise her. The only friends the witch had was nature. One day a prince saw the witch and wanted to marry her because she was beautiful. The witch didn’t care for the prince, the kingdom, or riches he offered her, but she wanted a love that was true. So he and his hounds chased her through the woods because he really wanted to marry her. As the witch ran, she pleaded with the forest for help and it changed her into a deer. As the witch went along her journey, she kept transforming into things that helped her blend in sight. Supposedly the end of the end of the story was that the witch turned into a monster and killed the prince and hounds to shreds.

I felt like was a scapegoat ending because Day clammed up with how vulnerable and close they got the other night. I knew there had to be a better ending because that was not a happily ever after 😂. MY gosh! No wonder her parents sucked 🤪. I’m joking.

But the whole witch growing up in a forest and then transforming into different things and then being a monster at the end made me think about how Day talked about to destroy monsters, we become monsters. So obviously Day was a monster or she believed herself to be a ruthless monster or she grew up feeling like she had to be to protect herself. I didn’t know who she could be still, but my first guess was Celestina because she was mysterious and she had this good witch vibe going on, but maybe she was a secret rebel who hated her life. She sure as heck seemed to because she was marrying Ephraim without really wanting to because she loved someone else, and Celestina felt like someone who would rebel for the greater good. She was also very close with the Asterii, and would understand hard days with making decisions as a new leader. Also, how freaking cool would it be if she were a rebel because if Hunt and the gang ever were caught, it wouldn’t’ be a huge deal because Celestina would be a rebel and she would protect them. So I was thinking her. But I wasn’t sure because she wasn’t a monster, but you know, people can surprise you.

They had a tense conversation one day that really just stemmed from a bad day, but my gosh. When Ruhn called himself a nobody and was so thoroughly convinced that he was and that he had been handed everything in his life and deep down without that, he wouldn’t have much or be anything, it just. broke my freaking heart 💔. Ruhn was somebody. He was definitely somebody better than his father. He wasn’t the Prince of Nothing. The fact that he even knew his privilege and felt like he didn’t deserve and earn it was just another way that showed how Ruhn had a big heart.

Later on, Agent Day and Ruhn talked and they made up because they understood that when they last talked it wasn’t from a good place and they were feeling too much about how real their conversations were. In this meeting, Ruhn asked about what made a good leader, and I could tell he was thinking about his father because he knew that his father wasn’t a good leader. I wondered if Ruhn was considering leadership and to take over to replace his father because Ruhn was a better man than him and could enact change in a positive way. But his question was a great question because they had all these leaders who they obeyed and yet no one dared to question if they were fit to lead, but went along with it. Ruhn would be a fabulous leader because he would be fair, honest, kind. He’d do better. But the part that had me excited about their conversation was the fact that Ruhn and Day were talking about meeting in person for the ball where all the important people from Pangera would be there, so Day would be there too! We were going to find out who day was!!! Ruhn was going to have his Cinderella moment to meet Day at this masked ball at midnight and I was here for it.

I mean, I really needed to know who this person he was talking to and their connection. They obviously were love interests. But who was this girl!!!?!!!

But Sarah J. Maas teased us because when Ruhn was at the ball, he went to meet Day and the Harpy was at the fountain where they said they would meet. WHEN I SAID I ABOUT FLIPPED MY SHIZ, I mean it!!! If he was in love with the (vile) Harpy, I felt sorry for him 🤪. It couldn’t be her. It didn’t seem to be her, she didn’t have a heart as far as I was concerned. Gosh, the breath of relief I let out when the Harpy didn’t respond to Ruhn saying the name Day. The love lived on 😂. Gosh, the Harpy? I don’t think so. No. The Harpy was by the fountain keeping watch, so Ruhn had to abort his plan from meeting Day because it put her and him at risk if they met each other and the Harpy wondered who was this mystery person Ruhn met with. But it sucked for us because I thought we were finally going to meet her. We were cheated!! I’m joking, but I was so convinced we were going to meet her.

When they met next, they had a little steamy firey moment 🙈! Honestly, let’s go Ruhn 👏🏼!!!

Let him get his steamy on! I didn’t know if I should have felt excited for him or laughing at how bizarre the situation was because how the freak do you have ex with a dream fiery person thing?????? Like what are the semantics and dynamics of that 🤪??? I mean, they really got it on and everything and the whole time I was like, he’s literally doing this with a being in a dream where he couldn’t even see her face, but feel her body. Was it real, was it not real? The feelings sure were real 🤪. But my gooooosh.

In all seriousness, after their intimate moment, I had a hunch that Day was Ruhn’s mate because Ruhn had casual flings with other people before. But this did feel different for Ruhn because he was his most vulnerable self with Day, and trusted her in a way he didn’t even trust those closest to him so soon. So when they had that intimate moment, it felt like they were solidifying what they had and that it was more than real.

Since we’re on the topic of spice, honesty, let’s talk about Bryce and Hunt’s spice because I just have to.

MY GOSH.

You know when Sarah J. Maas says new adult, she means NEW ADULT 👏🏼🙈.

I genuinely don’t know whether to be uncomfortable or smutty about reading the smut scenes, but I know I felt some sort of way. YIKES. Honestly, it feels wrong to read smut, but you know, a reader likes the details and I will never apologize for that.

When they said off with this dumb deal, I was like, let’s go!!!!! It’s about dang time they ended this agreement because we all knew they wanted to do the dang deed but they were both too prideful to end the agreement until Bryce pushed him against a wall in an alley and said screw it 😂. Nothing says going into a high intensity situation, then kissing the person you wanted to kiss. But I will say, I did respect how Hunt respected Bryce’s boundaries until she was okay or wanted to pursue more because he knew Bryce was the person he wanted to be with and didn’t need this whole get-to-know you trial months. He just did it for Bryce.

I FREAKING LAUGHED when they did it in Bryce’s apartment and they tried to keep quiet because Ithan was in the next room, and Ithan was like:

“Please: have sex a little louder! I didn’t hear everything that time!”

(pg. 236)

or when Ithan also picked up on:

“‘Hunt growled, low and deep. ‘I’m going to f*** you senseless.’

. . . But then Holstrom shouted, ‘That sounds medically dangerous!'”

(pg.. 236)

FREAKING ITHAN 😂!!!!

I could not! Way to ruin a moment dude.

But it was hilarious because this was both of their first times in a long time and they sure had a lot of energy to give and sounds to make, but the fact that Ithan did hear them because DUH he was a wolf and could hear them, made me cackle like no other. Also, it was just funny how he knew what they were doing and wasn’t afraid to call them out on it. And not the, “That sounds medically dangerous part.” I freaking laughed when Hunt and Bryce were like, “We need to get a hotel next time.” Yea, they should because having an awkward wolf who used to love you hear you have sex with the guy you love isn’t awkward 🙃.

Bro, but the gym moment 🙈!!!

AHHHHHHHH! I was SCREAMING.

I freaking loved how wholesome it was that they wanted to workout together amidst all the crazy things. I cackled with how Bryce kept admiring Hunt on the rowing machine and her brain was literally combusting at the image. Sis, same. I could only imagine. Not Bryce actually getting water because she suddenly felt thirsty. Yea, she sure was thirsty 😏. I loved how Hunt knew she was checking him out and how crept up behind her and scared her. What a couple-y thing to do 🥺. I also loved how Byrce teased him about his “sad sack” music” and Hunt said he listened to audiobooks when he worked out. My man! We love an audiobook king. I listen to podcasts when I work out, mostly when I do low intensity workouts, so not running. I agree with Bryce that I need to listen to music that pumps me up when I run.

But they really got down and dirty and exerted some energy at the gym, didn’t they. Not going to lie, it was a very hot moment that they did it in public, but also when Hunt’s wings just splayed out when he was going to . . . I was like, get you a guy with wings who will block your cooch from the rest of the world 😂. I was like the Fae power! And the way his wings glowed???? Ookay. But when Bryce told Hunt she loved him, and he paused and he showed her how much he loved her back!!!!!!?????!?! And then he told her he loved her at the end of it. SCREAMING. When he zapped her lady bits though 😂?! I know sex can be intense, if he’s lightening bolting your lady bits, I don’t know about that 🙈. But I guess so, she’s Fae so it’s not like her lady bits wouldn’t naturally heal themselves faster. Oh my gosh, what am I even saying. He really did say he would f her senseless 😂.

But it made me kind of sad that Bryce felt worried about having said those words during a very heated, intimate moment because she wasn’t used to saying those words and she didn’t want him to think she just said it in the moment because she really did love him. And he loved her. They talked about it later that day in their room about how she meant what she said and he did too, and they wanted to make it official. I loved loved loved their conversation about what they should label what they were together. They weren’t boyfriends, they weren’t partners, they weren’t lovers. However, when Hunt said, “What about mate?” I wish you could have heard the scree I let loose. MATES!!!!!!!

UGH 😫. I’m a sucker for a mate.

Don’t get you a boyfriend, don’t get you a partner, don’t get you a lover, get you a mate 👏🏼!!!

If he’s not my mate, I don’t want it.

But mates!! That’s the highest form of a relationship because it is the most powerful connection. I liked how they discussed what labeling themselves as mates meant because it was a lifetime commitment and a bigger deal than being boyfriend and girlfriend. But mates was absolutely perfect for what they were.

“Hunt asked, ‘Does it scare you? Calling me your mate?’

. . . ‘You’re the one who’s been defined by other people’s terms for centuries.’ Fallen. Slave. Umbra Mortis. ‘I just want to make sure it’s a title you’re cool with having. Forever.’

He kissed her temple, breathing in her scent. ‘Of everything I’ve ever been called, Quinlan, your mate will be the one I truly cherish.'”

(pg. 317)

Do you hear that?

MY HEART GUSHING 🥺💙!!!

I love them.

Also, if I thought her burning her lady bits was too much lightening for me, don’t even get me started on what they did in the terrarium (I’ll talk about it later). But this was after the Yrd escape and Hunt had all this alphahole lightening energy because he felt Bryce was threatened and he wanted to protect his mate. I freakin laughed at how he literally had no chill even when Bryce was safe, and in my brain I kept thinking the only way he’s going to release this energy or be remotely normal was to release it 😉 with Byrce. So when they went to the terrarium and they cleared it for them, I was like, they are going to get it on!!!!! And my gosh, not him literally bringing lightening to their sex. I was terrified that he was going to burn her or burn this whole ecosystem they had going on the safe boat. But my gosh, you can’t say they didn’t have insane chemistry or sparks because it was definitely a moment 👏🏼. The way Bryce was there for him and knew exactly what he needed or what he needed to hear was just a testament to their increase bond. But also, not Sarah J. Maas literally using words like sliding home and impaling herself 🙈. I’m uncomfortable. I’m joking. But I literally have never heard of someone describing the deed as so.

Impaling herself.

Not this being where my mind literally went.

But they sure knew how to get it on. But what was different about this moment was how their powers seemed to intertwine and feed into each other, which was something that never happened in their other moments. Sure Hunt had his lightning and Bryce glowed, but it felt like their powers merged and they merged in an insurmountable way.

“His power flowed over her, filled her, and she was him, and he was her . . . They filled with iridescent light. He filled with iridescent light.”

(pg. 509-10)

It just seems very pivotal and magical for them in more ways than one. Their mating bond definitely changed after this moment, and everyone could sense it.

“‘You think I can’t scent what went down between you two?’

‘You mean, that he went down on me.'”

(pg. 324)

Freaking Bryce 😂.

She really clapped back with that one.

Ruhn even smelled the mate link between them—-that there was something different about Bryce and Hunt because the mating bond was rule between them.

But I’m not going to lie, the steamy moment that had me all kinds of uncomfortable but also like 🙈 was the one where they were in her apartment after the ball and he tied her hands to the bedpost and they had their whole princess, prince, royalty foreplay talk. I mean, it was kind of hot 🙈. When he said, “Who am I to deny a princess? They also did it in a library as one of their last times together.

Sarah J. Maas really brought the smut and I’m not mad at it. I could read about Bryce and Hunt’s relationships for days on end they just have fantastic chemistry and they are just the bestest together, not even in a a physical way because I’m not trying to make this a dirty sentence, but they just had insane chemistry in understanding each other and being there for each other. They protected each other but also knew when to let the other person defend themselves because they knew that they could. I just loved that because they trusted each other’s strength, but would always be there if the other needed it. I also loved how Hunt constantly reiterated how much he loved her and how he was her mate and he was hers. He just loved her with his whole heart and I loved that.

“But wherever you’re headed when this life is over Quinlan, that’s where I want to be too.

(pg. 381)

Their love was just so pure and strong and wholesome and I loved loved loved them. I cannot reiterate that enough.

But besides the incredible smut, I really loved seeing Tharion’s friendship/partner work with Ithan. Because Ithan literally had nothing to do in the beginning, I loved how Tharion kind of recruited him to be his partner in crime to help find Sofie. I liked how Tharion took Ithan with him to the scenes of the crime like the Dock and asked Ithan for his advice. I also loved when Tharion took Ithan to the Deep Blue and showed him where he worked because it was pretty cool how Tharion had this whole bubble office that looked out into the ocean. I mean, talk about a view. I really did enjoy learning more about the Deep Blue court or where Tharion lived/was from because an ocean society sounds like the most incredible and wildest thing ever but also cool in the way they had technology and did normal things that you would never think the mer people or people underwater to do in general. But I loved that Tharion trusted Ithan to come with him and to share that part of his life with Ithan.

I also loved how Ithan roomed with Ruhn later in the book and how easily Ruhn and his friends welcomed Ithan into their lives—how much Ithan fit in with them. It made my heart swell for Ithan seeing the friendly camaraderie between Declan, Flynn, and Ruhn and reminisce about how he never had that with his own pack because they didn’t accept him as easily or felt like they could joke around with each other.

The wolves, especially Sabine was scum. I don’t know what kind of high horse they were on to think that they could kick out one of their members like that for absotleuly nothing. I mean, all he did was defend Bryce and they gutted him and tossed him to the curb like he meant nothing. I’m still upset about it. But the freaking audacity Sabine had to knock on Bryce’s door and choke her!!!?!?!??! Not even a hello, but straight up had her around the throat and flung her across the room.

What a pleasure Sabine was 🙃.

I freaking loved how everyone backed Bryce up and ganged up on Sabine though—Ruhn with his gun, Tharion with his knife and Ithan with his wolfness. And then Hunt flew in and when he walked through the door and picked up the last of the conversation and was like, “Neither do I” to Sabine’s empty threats. I was surprised that he didn’t make beef jerky for touching his gosh darn mate! I freaking loved when Bryce called her the big bad wolf 😂. Sabine huffed and she puffed choked the house down.

I mean that’s what she was. She just was the book bully and no one really wanted her there at all. All she did was rage, try to attack, and then she retreated because she’s not all that. I couldn’t believe how scared of Baxian she was, but Sabine knew Baxian was Dan ika’s mate and that he wouldn’t take no shiz from her. Glad that there’s someone besides Hunt who could also put that bully in place. Honestly, she needs to get a life 😂. Seriously, what is she doing with her life that she finds the time to slut shame everyone in town and then chokes them? Does she have nothing better to do with her time than, I don’t know, run a freaking pack? Loser.

Detested that woman with my whole heart 🙃.

But let’s go back to how Bryce and Hunt believed Emile to be hiding in the Bone Quarter. After Ruhn was dragged by Reapers in the sewer, Bryce wanted to pay a visit to the Under-King even more to ask if he really did send those Reapers to attack them. However, they couldn’t just barge into the Bone Quarter because they for one, weren’t dead, and two, they had to get to the Black Dock and across the boat with the coins Jesiba gave to Bryce. I wondered why Jesiba kept aiding Bryce’s escapades unless she also knew that Bryce needed to go on these trips to discover the grand scheme of everything—like Jesiba was in on a bigger plan. Before they went to the Bone Quarter though, Bryce tricked Hunt to going to the Meat Market with her under the guise that she was going to the gym to clear her mind. Not the gym scene was I was talking about earlier, but a different scene. I loved how Bryce invited Fury and Juniper to help her scout the Meat Market to see if Emile was there. The Meat Market is owned by the Viper Queen and no one messed with her. It served somewhat as a black market where people traded and the Viper Queen had people who fought and waged money on it. I really didn’t know that Juniper had a brother who used to fight for the Viper Queen. I honestly didn’t even know Juniper had a brother. But I loved how her friends were down to help Bryce even if it meant going to some sketchy places or places that brought up heavy memories. It just went to show how much her friends loved and cared about her to help her when Bryce needed it.

I also loved how much Bryce also supported her friends with Juniper and her dancing and being furious on her behalf that she wasn’t Principal dancer. June hadn’t made Principal even though she was undeniably the most talented dancer there. However, many higher ups held a grudge with June for calling them stuck up or something and keeping the gates open for the humans during the Spring attack. Don’t even get me started on how FURIOUS I was for June too because that is sooo incredibly dumb that they punish her or make her feel like she’s not a good dancer because they were too petty to hear the truth that they are being cowards in not letting the humans come into the safety areas where they were. June was in the right for keeping the doors open and saving all those lives. They were only concerned with saving themselves, and yet they punished her for it. That’s not fair, nor was it right. But the way June held her head up high and didn’t let their inane treatment get to her, made me have even more love and respect for June because go her! Don’t let them make her feel like she wasn’t good enough because they were just holding a grudge. She was regal and right in all the ways and we all knew it.

However, because Juniper didn’t make Principal Bryce used her Princess title to request that Juniper did—she pulled some strings behind Juniper’s back to do so. I knew what Bryce did was out of love because she knew Juniper deserved so much more than how she was treated by the dancers. However, I knew it wasn’t the right move for her to make. When Juniper did find out she was furious because she made Principal and had her dreams come true, but it wasn’t because of her talent or her work, but because she had a leg up because Bryce helped her. It felt like she hadn’t earned her place and it was given to her, which defeated June’s dream coming true and being on her terms. I understood where June’s anger came from because I would feel upset too if I wanted to achieve something so badly and then have it magically happen for me just because someone told someone else to make it happen. It would feel like I hadn’t worked to be where I was and that it was just handed to me, which never feels good. I mean, working hard has it’s moments, but I would rather work hard and know that I earned where I deserved to be rather than be where I didn’t because I knew someone. It broke my heart to see how much it tore Bryce apart to know her friend was angry at her because they were practically sisters, and Fury would always have June’s back first because they were dating. I really would have liked to seen more closure with June and Fury and to see Bryce make it up with them because at the end Bryce just called June to tell her she was sorry. Hearing Bryce’s call left me in tears because it felt like a final goodbye, a goodbye I would have liked to seen in person or at least that they were mending their friendship. But it was sad that they didn’t even have time to do that in this book.

What warmed my heart though was when Bryce was leaving for the end to go to you-know-where, that she took a picture of Fury and June and her with her and put it in her pocket like she wanted to take her found sisters with her for wherever she was heading next 🥺💔.

I got ahead of myself there. But it was hard not to talk about all the friendship things when they were valuable people in Bryce’s life.

Back to the Meat Market. They didn’t find Emile, so it made it even more clear that they had to go to the Bone Quarter as a last resort.

I thought we were going to se Danika in the Bone Quarter again because of the whole Half-life thing and the part about how Danika could be their secrete weapon. But we didn’t see her. I am thoroughly convinced though that we will see Danika again. I think it’s possible, but I don’t know, I have a hunch. Sarah J. Maas can do anything, so . . . 🤪.

Going into the Bone Quarter in this book was so fascinating because we knew that people just went there when they passed and that they faced a judgment of sorts of whether or not they were worthy of entering the Bone Quarter resting place. Byrce had also been there previously when she traded her place in the Bone Quarter to ensure Danika would make it. But when she was there, she saw green grass and happiness. However, the Bone Quarter was much more dreary than that. It had this Hades feel to it with the pillars and the river and the faded feeling. The Under-King truly did serve me some Silent Brother action but more morbid with his decaying body description. I would be terrified to speak to someone with such immense and unfathomable power, however the way Bryce just straight up sassed him with her brazenness made me want to laugh! What a queen!!! I need her level of confidence because my gosh.

The Under-King didn’t send the Reapers after her because he seemed confused about what she was talking about, so it ha to be Apollion who sent them for some reason. The Under-King also confirmed that Emile was not in the Bone Quarter because he would have known. Then he went on this whole monologue about what happened to people when they actually got to the Bone Quarter. When people passed they pass to the Bone Quarter, however, after some time when people forget their name or the t person’s they are taken to the Gate in the Bone Quarter where they become a different version of firstlight–secondlight. So basically people’s light is recycled as power for the city and the whole Bone Quarter was more of a story to keep the mystery of peace after people pass. That’s kind of a morbid thought to think about because here everyone was thinking people were frolicking through the flowers and living their peaceful life in the Bone Quarter but here they are being recycled for the city. So that made me wonder when exactly do they get recycled and where did the souls rest before then? Were those the souls that were in a different area actually living in peace before enough time has passed? Is that where Connor probably was? Probably.

I knew this dang dude was telling this whole spiel to Hunt and Bryce because they weren’t going to make it out of the Bone Quarter alive because why else would he freaking tell them??? No one gives a villain monologue if they don’t plan to kill you 🤪.

I freaking cackled with how Bryce was literally “Fry this f***er and then roast him like a hot dog.” 😂 Ah yes, we love hot dogs and wolf jerky and when Hunt goes all Alphahole.

He really brought the lightening and raged on all those Reapers and the Shepard dog of the gates so Bryce could make a run for it towards the boats back to the Black Dock. But when Bryce turned around and that Reaper was on her and the Shepard was coming towards her too, gosh I was screaming at Hunt to go save his mate! Not that Bryce is incapable of saving herself, but gosh darn, this was one of those instances he needed to rescue her. When he saw that he needed her, I loved loved loved the primal instinct in him to save her. When Hunt started to glow from his lightning, I was like, “It’s going down!” Hunt said don’t you dare come for my Mate. I swear, Hunt in Alphahole mode really is my favorite because he’s protecting who he loves and would do anything for her. He literally shook the Bone Quarter’s house down boots! We love.

“Alphahole to the core, yet it warmed something in her.”

(pg. 181)

But gosh, what a bada*** moment was when Hunt went all raging lightning Alaphole on her, she met his lightning with the Starsword Ruhn gave her to take to the Bone Quarter as protection. I mean, she could have been fired to a crisp, but that energy went into the sword and she could wield it. Then Hunt figured that he could channel the energy from the Bone Quarter gate into himself so he could power Bryce’s magic. Hunt’s power was special in the way he was a conduit to other powers, and that was what Apollion had wanted Bryce to explore—the capability he could have if he worked with Bryce because she was also powerful. Hunt touched the Dead Gate and let the power slam into him and then when he was charged like a battery, he said:

“Light it up, Bryce.”

(pg. 352)

I was SCREAMING!

Hunt and Bryce put the power in POWER couple 👏🏼!!!

I loved how Tharion was on his boat waiting for Hunt and Bryce because he could sense the lighting was from Hunt. Tharion was in the Istros meeting with the River Queen and saw the lightning and knew the two were in the Bone Quarter, so things probably didn’t go well. But we loved that he was there to help them back to the Black Dock when they needed it most.

Another absolutely absurd and crazy and bonkers adventure they went on was to see the Mystics.

As one of their last ditch efforts to find Sophie, Tharion had the incredibly brilliant idea to go visit the Mystics.

The Mystics who?

Yea, that’s what I was wondering.

When I said to expand the world, Sarah J. Maas really gave to us. I’m not mad at it, but it sure was a cluster truck for my membrane 🤪.

You know when even Bryce says that something is a “dumb f***ng idea” that it probably was an incredibly dumb f***ing idea. I felt it

The Mystics were people with special individual gifts who were put into tubs/tanks with the equivalent of bath salts and they had breathing masks on their face and they were controlled by some dude called the Astronomer where the Mystics could see the cosmos/other worlds. They could also map the world and they often were the ones who mapped the stars because they could see that far. There were different salts that the Astronomer put into the tubs for different services. The tubs were hooked up to a machine that could mind read what the Mystic person was scrying in their mind and relat/transcribe it for others to see.

BLEW MY MIND. More like gave me a headache trying to process who the heck these people were. But Mystics usually came from those were were not rich and they sold their children or themselves to the Astronomer where they are put intros tub and their gifts are exploited. They are enslaved to the Mystic job and they also grow an unhealthy attachment to being a Mystic that they basically give up their life to be in this tub to see the other worlds. They gave me creepy, bone-chilling, messed up vibes because who the heck would want to spend their life in a tub becoming a prune to see the cosmos. I mean, sounds like a significant role, but it sounded torturous the way they lived in these tubs and were so consumed by it that they didn’t even know what life was. The fact that kids, kids, were sold to the Astronomer, made my heart so heavy because they had so much life to live and here they were tethered to nothing but the infinite landscape of their mind, doing the Astronomer and the Asteri’s business when needed. The Mystics also creeped me out because they were alive but not, they were human but not. They were also in this business were they were enslaved or sold into it and they lived in a progressive time where they shouldn’t even have this sort of disgusting business that did this to people. And don’t even get me started on how the Astronomer had his rings with the Sorties in it. Lebedah is quaking. I felt disgusted for her.

Bryce, Tharion, and Ithan wanted to ask first and foremost if Connor’s soul was okay and had moved onto a healthy place. It unsettled Bryce and Ithan the most not knowing if Connor was at peace and wanting to help him before he become secondlight—a fate that Connor didn’t deserve. I loved how even still, Ithan and Bryce were looking at for Connor. It sure did cost a lot to use the Mystic’s services though, and the Astronomer sure did milk that. Honestly, the whole Astronomer building was eerily cool in a creepy way with the seven worlds diaroama thing he had and the spiral staircase and the pedestals with the tubs and the seven pits of Hel beneath. I mean, messed up, but cool. I imagined a big globe looking building that was painted a deep purple and had stars painted on it and a yellow ring around the building to keep people out. I don’t know why, but for a creepy place, I imagined a peculiar building.

There were three Mystics there: a girl and two boys. One of the boys was able to reach out to the cosmos to talk to someone. When the boy Mystic started talking and forming a connection, I felt like the world around me got quiet or maybe it just felt that way with how creeped out I was. They managed to talk to Thanatos, which in my brain I processed as Thanos 😂. Yup, just a Marvel junkie over here.

But Thanatos was the Prince of the Ravine, and had this eerie, cold, desolateness about him that was scarier than Apollion. He gave me true creepy vibes like if dry ice were a person. But when the boy Mystics eyes opened because Thanatos wanted to see who the people in the room were??? JUMPED out of my chair. I would have shizzed my pants if I were the three of them and a creepy a** pruny Mystic person’s eyes all of sudden popped goed the weasel.

You know, Bryce really has no filter and seemingly no fear for how she talked to yet another Prince of Hel without restraint. I loved how she kept telling people to make it a “date” with her whenever they said that they wanted to challenge her or come for her. She suer was racking up those dates though 🤪. The Prince of the Ravine said that Connor was still in the Bone Quarter but he was being left alone now until the time has passed for him to go to be secondlight. I think it was because the Under-King had a bone to pick with Byrce and Hunt and knew how much Connor mattered to both of them that he isolated Connor’s soul and then was just bidding Connor’s time until he could make him secondlight. Then Tharion had to ask if the Prince could find a boy in Lunathion, which wasn’t something the Prince could do.

This sick Prince of the Ravine wanted to feast on the Mystics or by extension Bryce, Hunt, and Ithan because of the time they took up and the questions they asked, so he started to feast on the Mystic souls, which caused them to convulse. The lights in the room went on and off before they lost power and I felt like this was such movie moment where I could easily imagine a creepy scene with lights blinking and going off and the Mystics all screaming and shaking. I was so scared for them because Bryce seemed terrified. But through that fear, Bryce, Ithan, and Tharion managed to unplug some of the tubs/tank things to help the Mystics because they were still human beings and they were being feasted on by this Prince, whatever that meant. Maybe he was eating into their soul and mind because he sure had access. The girl Mystic surprised me with her screaming of wanting to go back—go back to her eternal darkness or to the real world? But it gave me chills how the Mystics didn’t even know how to use their voice excuse they weren’t used to talking. But they saved her from whatever wildness was going on in her membrane or with the Prince of the Ravine. I still want to know what he does and his relationship with Adias and Apollion.

Bryce was PEEZED at Tharion for making them go through with such an idiotic plan, which thinking about it about now, was dumb. Dang, I really would have wanted to see Hunt’s reaction when Bryce told him she went to see the Mystics because he was going to go all Alphahole on her and I felt it. He was in his two week time out with Celestina when they went. But this was the first time I felt genuine anger from Bryce at Tharion. I was surprised because they’re usually so playful and to see her furious at him and say she wanted out of helping him, and how she called him out on being a backstabber made me uncomfortable. I mean, how did Tharion backstab them? I never got the impression that he did, unless she was talking abbot how he popped the Emile question out of nowhere. But Tharion had always been honest with them. It felt very quick how she did a 180 to chewing him out to teaming up with him again when Mordoc saw them outside the Mystic building. She knew that it was better to ally with Tharion again because there was strength in numbers against Mordoc. But the whole anger fest probably came from the fear and frustration of what happened with the Mystics that she probably didn’t mean what she said to Tharion given how quickly they made up.

But the Mystics truly were a new species that were interesting and gave me heebie jeebies, and I think Sarah J. Maas has a heebie-jeebie species in every series 😂.

Honestly, did I even talk about how Mordoc and the Hind came to Lunathion with Ephraim for Celestina and Ephraim’s wedding?

Probably not. Well, Celestina was going to marry Ephraim because it would draw attention away from the fight Pollux and Baxian had (the one where Pollux took advantage of a woman). Having two of her triarii fight wasn’t a good sign of leadership, so she was going to untie with Ephraim and cause a distraction. But also it broke my heart how she did things out of duty and she too felt like she was a cow for society to breed and give babies. What an age old stupid idea. She obviously didn’t want to marry him or do the deeds to have babies, but she went with it because that’s what the Asterii wanted. But the fact that people controlled her future and her body and constantly reminded her to have offspring, rubbed me wrong way. I was disgusted and furious for her. This was her life and her body and no one should ever feel pressured to having kids or providing offspring just because other people keep posting them about it and asking about it. I didn’t like that. It’s something a woman constantlly has to hear—-when are you having kids? Your eggs aren’t getting any younger. And it really sent’ anyone’s business what a woman does or does not do with their body, but it should be that woman’s choice.

We better be bringing Lunathion into the 21st century or something, heck maybe even a different century because gos knows we still don’t treat woman right in this day and age, but something has to change for women.

Also, when the Hind came, gosh, when she walked into that bar and shook Ithan and Ruhn down to scare them? I was terrified of her power because she just exuded it. I can’t even explain how scared and amused I was that when Ithan, Cormac, and Ruhn saw Mordoc they hid behind an alley and Cormac teleported them away one by one so they weren’t caught by Mordoc because he could sniff you out real good. The Hind did seem onto Hunt and Bryce’s group though and I was worried for them because I felt like the Hind had eyes everywhere and I wouldn’t put it past her to know every little thing about them.

“‘I’m merely observing an anomaly. Wondering what might be so . . .compelling that so many people of power, from different species and Houses, are hanging out at Bryce Quinlan’s apartment.’

‘She’s got one Hel of a video-gaming system.'”

(pg. 400)

The fact the Hind knew they were even meeting at her apartment creeped me out because what did she know?

But Hunt’s response was golden 😂.

He gets his sass from his mate.

“‘I was warned you had a mouth on you.’

Bryce blew him a kiss. ‘Happy not to disappoint my fans.'”

(pg. 422)

Or when Mordoc finally met Bryce. I freaking LOVED her 💙.

I need to channel my inner Bryce Quinlan.

I like to think of the Hind, Harpy, Hammer, and Mordoc as the Pangera baddies 🤪.

The next crazy adventure they went on as part of their rebel activities was going to Yrd to retrieve the Asterii suit that would draw firstlight from the ground and would make an unstoppable and destructive weapon if ever used in the war. The shipment was to occur in Yrd where Day told Ruhn and Ruhn told Cormac, so the CC gang all headed down to Yrd. They were able to get to the suit, but they were also intercepted by Pippa and the rebels. Honestly, I don’t like Pippa. She was working to make the world a better place by being a murderous person and I felt like that absolutely defeated the person of the cause. I freaking loved when Hunt went berserk on the Asterii suits and burned them all to the ground because they might as well destroy them before they got in the wrong hands. But then Cormac got shot by a garthion bullet and the Pangera baddies were there because they heard about a rebel event was going down at the site. So freaking Hind, Harpy Pollux, and Mordoc were also in Yrd where they would probably be suspicious as to why the CC gang were there because to their knowledge they weren’t supposed to know about the rebel event; so if they were discovered the Pangera baddies would be onto them for sure. What surprised me was how Baxian was also there, but how he gave a secret nod to Hunt about which direction the Hind and them were taking so they could go the other way. This was the first Baxian encounter where he supported Hunt and the gang in showing them that he was on their side. I liked how Hunt got the hint and said to sail in the other direction. But this was the time where I knew that Baxian was a good guy because he chose to save their butts then out them. He was also their the day Bryce and Hunt went to the Bone Quarter and he didn’t say anything then either. So I trusted him.

But when they were all in the ocean, trying to figure out if they could make it out of this situation without being discovered as rebels but Hunt couldn’t use his lightning or fly with soaked wings, Cormac was shot and couldn’t teleport, and Ruhn couldn’t shadow hide them because they were in the sun, so it just felt hopeless that they would get out of the situation without being discovered.

Then there was the part where the baddies most likely saw the CC gang and they probably picked up on who would blast all that lightning when they were trying to protect themselves. So the Hind knew that they were rebels, but I was very confused by how she knew and didn’t tell anyone or didn’t seem to be more unhinged about the news. I mean, she was known as a lethal spy killer for a reason and yet she knew all these spies who she would gladly take down and yet she didn’t say anything. She did boat out to them to talk to them, but then she taunted them with the white rock thing she dropped in the ocean when she sunk Sofie. She offered them to go with her or to sink like Sofie did.

I freaking laughed when Ruhn and Bryce were mind speaking through the Hind’s taunt, trying to figure out how to get out of the situation, and Bryce offered to use her Starborn power from her star tattoo to, in her words, “blind the bish,” which I was here for. I mean, I din’t want them to learn they were rebels, but they definitely were. This was also the part where Hunt when all alphahole with his barely contained lightning because he knew Bryce was threatened and the innate mate in him wanted to do anything and everything to protect her and wouldn’t quit until she was. Just the sheer magnitude of his power when he went into alpahole mate zone was bonkers in the best way (pg. 490). Hunt has so much power that I don’t think we even touched the surface of with yet. I believe he can do so much more and so much more than just being a conduit for Bryce. I mean, Bryce was learning to teleport and everything as a new part she discovered of her power, but what was there to discover of Hunt’s powers? I mean, bro does not look like the living embodiment of a lightning god and not have immense power. There’s something more there and I’m curious to what.

Then a boat came out of nowhere to get there, the boat was run by Commander Sendes from the Ocean Queen. I had no idea there was an Ocean Queen’s, but I loved learning more about the world because this whole Midgard planet just had so much depth and interesting things to discover, it was hard not to want to know. The Depth Charger, one of the six city-ships was soo cool! It delineated water, it had a biome terrarium (you know the terrarium). The boat could camouflage and it tricked the Pangera baddie’s Omega ships from finding them. I loved how everyone on the boat was drink gin smoothies and living life, unconcerned that there was a very real threat trying to find them. But they knew they were safe by how The Depth Charger blended in and disguised the signals. Also, the Charger didn’t run on first light, so they couldn’t be detected; the ship ran on the Ocean Queen’s power. I would quite like to meet his Ocean Queen. I also really liked Sendes because she seemed like a kind and honest person, and I liked how she trusted Tharion so easily because they were both Beneath people. I kept thinking when Tharion and her were talking how much happier the Ocean People seemed and how much Tharion would thrive being a vigilante on a boat and living his best life. I really wanted him to take Sendes up on her offer to join them and the Ocean people because it was much better than where he was now. Also, the Ocean Queen didn’t seem as threatened or threatening and would allow Tharion to live the life he wanted, and I felt like that was important for Tharion because he wanted more out of life—-freedom and happiness. The Istros with the Blue Court and the River Queen weren’t it.

But what got me was how Sendes knew who Sofie was and how she said Sofie was dead.

Like actually dead.

Like she had a body and everything.

WE WENT THIS WHOLE BOOK—500+ pages—trying to find this woman for her to not be alive!!!!!!!!!

I was shook.

What the heck.

Not going to lie, I was kind of disappointed that we had gotten this far in the book to only discover that Sofie hadn’t made it. Not in a mean way, but like bro we were searching for her this whole book and now they were back to square one with nothing and no clear cut answers!

I wanted to see the CC gang with Sofie!!!!! 😫

But gosh, my heart went to Cormac 😢. Sofie was the love of his life, and the way he said he always felt like it was too good to be true but he didn’t want to believe it . . . made me want to sob and become the Salty Tear Queen. Cormac 😭.

Gosh, when Cormac saw her and held her hand 😭????? He started talking about how he met Sofie at a report to the command and he had to talk to her, but then they fell in love quickly and that was it. Cormac did have a heart and it loved Sofie 🥺💙.

“It kept her alive in my heart a little longer . . . My Sofie.”

(pg. 519)

Gosh, can I give Cormac a hug?

He just lost the love of his life.

So they knew looking for Sofie was a no go anymore, but they still had to find Emile because he was still out there.

But where?

This book review is already too long, so I’m going to chop the book review and save the rest for part two 🙈.

If you want to read my reaction (and it will be a good, chaotic time), click the link below for my end half review of the best half of the book (in my opinion).

See you in part two,