Final thoughts is that I generally did enjoy this book, I had a good time and did want to keep getting back into the world. I enjoyed the little sprinkling of SJM multiverse Easter eggs throughout, however small they were, and it was fun to pick up on those little titbits of information.

Was it my fave? Absolutely not.
Did we get answers? Yes, SO much information it was occasionally hard to keep track of.
Am I attached to the characters? No, not a single one of them.
Was it everything I wanted it to be? Afraid not. And I probably won’t ever read it again.
It was a disappointment in a sense that I feel SJM had such an opportunity to do something SO cool and just didn’t deliver to its full coolness potential. But it also was not *overwhelmingly* disappointing to me because I tried to avoid theorising beforehand as much as possible, I was more of the opinion “I don’t want to know what you *think* is going to happen, I just want SJM to tell me what *does* in fact happen when I read it” so I didn’t really go into it with any expectations either.

I do think it’s a shame we didn’t actually get any content where the different SJM characters from different worlds actually like *got on* with each other, that would have been top quality delicious. One of my fave scenes from this book is actually the bonus Ember/Randall chapter, because that’s more along the lines of the kind of crossover content I wanted! Not just Bryce, Nesta and Az in a cave for 300 pages, not really liking each other’s presence and then Bryce treating Nesta and Az like poop.

The relationships between characters in CC (both romance and friendships) just don’t feel as developed as those in SJM’s other series, and for me that’s where this book seriously lets itself down. It’s almost *too* plot driven unfortunately. I just have no real connection to any of them or their relationships with each other. And Bryce is for sure the least likeable of all the SJM FMCs! Don’t know whether that’s because she’s not really faced any hardship like our Aelin & Feyre, or whether her personality is just too far towards Selfish Brat and not enough Empath idk but it was annoyingggg.

I also think the ending felt rushed. But if I’m honest I’m happy if we now wrap up Crescent City there and never revisit these characters again. Desperately hoping there’s no House of Many Waters book unless it involves more crossovers. For me CC just does not hit the same as SJM’s other bodies of work.
But I did shed a small tear at some of the Pack of Devils content, and I for sure laughed out loud and audibly gasped at times, and it’s for that reason, as well as the fact I generally had a good time reading it, that it’s getting a 3.75.