Lidia carried this entire book on her back and she has my whole heart. 🫶🏼[SPOILERS below!!]•••Overall, I enjoyed the reading experience of HOFAS. There were moments that had my heart aching, while others had me laughing or clapping with pride for a character.However, I will *die* on the hill that Lidia carried this whole entire book on her back. Other characters had moments here and there, but Lidia was the true shining star throughout these pages!! Period.The RuhnLidia romance and tension between them was so 🤌🏼😍 However, I honestly wish we would have gotten more of it (though I will eat up every crumb SJM gave us with these two). One thing I do wish differently was that Lidia’s trauma and healing/recovery process was explored more. We get the “flinching” scene—and I loved that moment between her and Ruhn, and her trying to apologize after the fact—but I wish there was more depth and exploration to her healing journey.Essentially, I just need a whole book dedicated to Lidia and RuhnLidia, please and thank you. 🌅🌌ALSO!!! Lidia’s connection to TOG?? I—was—screaming. I was lowkey expecting it after the clues dropped in HOSAB and the initial portions of HOFAS, but the confirmation was still so exciting and validating!! Lidia is practically the Aelin of CC. My two favorite SJM girlies. ❤️‍🔥 I couldn’t have been more pleased.Another thing I loved about this book: Nesta!! Honestly, Nesta was the best part of the Pythian-based scenes during the first third of the book. I really loved her moments, and the way SJM left that storyline has me very interested in what she has planned for Nesta, Az, and ACOTAR5 in general. Also, the scene between Ember and Nesta **warmed my heart** 🥹Things I disliked:- The increased arguing and miscommunication between Bryce and Hunt. I don’t particularly care about them as a ship, but reading about their continued bickering grew annoying. Especially when I would have much rather seen that time dedicated to more RuhnLidia development/moments.- As I previously eluded, Quinlar has always been a bit lackluster for me throughout all the CC books, and this sadly continued to be true during HOFAS. Despite this, I was hoping for a moving reunion once they finally made it back to one another again and then….we got “hey” lolol. It was underwhelming to say the least. Literally, the reunion between Bryce and Syrinx made me feel more.- The pacing. While certain elements felt dragged out, much of it felt rushed or solutions conveniently popped up.. SJM has so many great ideas. I would have love to see more time taken with the overall plot and individual stories—it was SO much to be shoved into a single book.- The switching POVs. While I tend to generally enjoy SJM’s style of switching POVs throughout the book, something about the timing of them felt a bit jarring this time around in HOFAS.- The Ithan and Tharion scenes were dull and my least favorite parts of the book… Especially the plot line with Ithan and Sigrid. Just- why?? 🙄 I will admit Tharion became mildly interesting to me after Sathia joined him through the marriage of convenience. I’m curious to see how that storyline plays out in the future.- The deaths of Sabine and the Asteri honestly felt a bit anti-climatic to me.— —Despite the qualms I had, my overall reading experience was enjoyable! I had the best time exchanging screaming voice memos via text with one of my book besties while reading and brewing up so many new theories for the SJMverse together. 😊Now I’m going to go reread the RuhnLidia bonus chapter for the 32719 time. 🥹🥰🤍✨