The Sarah J. Maas (S.J.M.) universe is amazing and vast. It connects three of the best fantasy series’s readers have ever seen into one timeline. In the most recent book released by S.J.M. (Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath), the worlds finally converge. (SPOILERS AHEAD) At the end of H.O.S.A.B., Hunt (A main character in the series), is taken by the Asteri (The leading government of Lunathion, the place they live), while Bryce (His love interest), escape’s through a portal, hoping to be transported to Hel, so she may ask for aid. Instead, she ends up in Velaris, which is the main setting of one of S.J.M.’s other series’s, A Court of Thorns and Roses. Here, she see’s the “inner circle”, who are the main characters of A.C.O.T.A.R., before the book finally ends on the line, “Hello, Bryce Quinlan. My name is Rhysand.”, officially connecting all her books.

To explain more in depth, throughout the book Bryce and Hunt are looking for ways to defy the Asteri’s oppressive rule. To do this, they couple teamed up with side characters Ruhn, Declan, Flynn, Fury, Tharion, and Prince Cormac. Along the way they also met Prince Aidas of the fifth chasm of Hel, a realm of darkness and evil. Aidas had supposedly helped Bryce in the past so the group decided to trust him. Fast forward to the end of the book, when Bryce jumped through the portal she was hoping to end up somewhere near Prince Aidas’s level of Hel, so when she ended up on the front lawn of Feyre and Rhys’s river home, she wondered what level of Hel she was on. Now here’s where things get slightly more complicated. Azriel, who Bryce describes as “beautiful” is the first person she meets, but she realizes quite quickly that she doesn’t understand what he is saying. Eventually, Azriel decides to bring Bryce inside the home due to the language barrier, hoping Rhys could help, and that’s where she meets the rest of the inner circle, which includes Amren, Mor, Cassian, Nesta, and Elain. Now before Bryce went through the portal, Ruhn, her brother, passed her a ancient sword that the siblings have shared for the past year and told her to take it with her. This sword is called the “Starsword”. Earlier in the book this sword was told to have a twin dagger to it that had been lost a long time ago. Back in the present, Bryce see’s the dagger Azriel has, which A.C.O.T.A.R. fans know to be “Truth-Teller”, and thinks “The knife could have been the twin of the Starsword: black hilted and bladed.” This could mean that Truth-Teller is the missing twin of the star-sword.

Although, this connection is the most clear, there are actually many other connections between the three series’s, the most popular being-what fans like to call- “Aelin the Fire-Breathing Queen”. This connection is actually seen between two different books, the first being Kingdom of Ash. During chapter 99, Aelin (One of the main characters in the Throne of Glass series) falls through a random Wyrdgate (Basically a portal) while trying to get home. This leads to her falling through a bunch of different realms and worlds that are not her own, two of which being Crescent City and Velaris. The exact quote is:

“She passed through a world where a great city had been built along the curve of a river, the buildings impossibly tall and glimmering with lights. Passed through a world of rain and green and wind. Roaring, she tried to slow. She passed through a world of oceans with no land to be seen. Close. Home was so close she could nearly smell the pine and snow. If she missed it, if she passed by it- She passed through a world of snow-capped mountains under shining stars. Passed over one of those mountains, where a winged male stood beside a heavily pregnant female, gazing at those very stars. Fae. They were Fae, but this was not her world. She flung out a hand, as if she might signal them, as if they might somehow help her when she was nothing but an invisible speck of power- The winged male, beautiful beyond reason, snapped his head toward her as she arced across his starry sky. He lifted a hand, as if in greeting. A blast of dark power, like a gentle summer night, slammed into her. Not to attack-but to slow her down. A wall, a shield, that she tore and plunged through. But it slowed her. That winged male’s power slowed her, just enough.”

Now let’s unpack that. The “great city built along the curve of a river” was Crescent City, as most fans theorize. But that’s not the big one. The big connection is to the rest of that quote. First the world itself is Velaris, as previously stated, and the male and female are Rhysand and Feyre (Rhysand’s mate). Now I did say that this was a multi-book connection and that’s because in A Court of Silver Flames, at the start of chapter 62, it’s stated:

“The mood hadn’t been helped by a rare red star blasting across the sky one day-an ill omen, Nesta had heard the priestesses muttering. Cassian reported that even Rhys had been rattled by it, seeming unusually contemplative afterward.”

Due to the fire magic Aelin used to propel herself through the worlds, she would have appeared as small glowing ball of red light, which some might misunderstand as a star, meaning that “rare red star” was actually Aelin.

There are many other smaller connections that can be found throughout the different books but, those are the two largest pieces of evidence fans have to prove that these books all exist in the same universe. Hopefully, most fans questions will be answered when Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow, comes out in January of next year.

In conclusion, S.J.M. has basically written the most amazing connected universe of books ever, and everyone who has invested themselves in her books are so excited to see what happens with this connection. Between the direct and implied attachments between these books, fans have been waiting forever to see there favorite characters, actually, fully interact. If you would like to read the books for yourself, they are all available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.

-Bonus Connection:

-In the first crescent city book, “Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood”, it’s stated, “Micah loomed over her. She stretched her arm out-toward the shelf. Her tingling fingers brushed over the titles. On the Divine Number; The Walking Dead; The Book of Breathings; The Queen with Many Faces…“. The Walking Dead is from Throne of Glass where it is used by Aelin and her crew to learn Wyrdmarks (Magical symbols), The Book of Breathings is from A Court of Thorns and Roses, where it is also used for magic, and The Queen with Many Faces, is said to be the revealed title of a special T.O.G. story.