House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J. Maas

SYNOPSIS:

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

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Genre: New Adult Fantasy; Romance

Page count: 803 (Hardcover); 816 (Kindle Edition)

Year of publication: 2020

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.75/5)

“Let someone in, give them the power to hurt you, and they’d do exactly that, in the end.”

When I saw 800+ pages I got a bit scared.

Okay, a bit more.

But then…

…I LITERALLY HALTED ABSOLUTELY FUCKING EVERYTHING TO READ THIS BOOK AND I DON’T REGRET A THING.

It’s been amazing.

AMAZING.

At this point in life I don’t even want to question anymore this woman’s books.

Every time I buy a new, fancy wig in order to look decent while reading one of SJM’s books, she snatches it into cosmic space like it’s nothing.

I always think I’ve got it well glued to my scalp but oh well. I’m always terribly wrong. Literary goddesses don’t give flying shits about glue anyway.

The world-building, as usual, is fabulous. I really love the fact that this world has been fashioned in an urban fantasy style because with this, the whole multiverse Sarah J. Maas is creating (like the goddess of life that she is) gets even more credibility and depth.

I even love the fact that I could witness a mixture of traditional weaponry, modern style guns and technology. I mean, I truly loved this whole picture of someone strapping a sword down their back and pulling out a mobile phone and texting or snapping a picture. It’s cool, deal with it.

Now, as a bit of a warning, this book gets full-on (New) Adult – bad words and all. So if you feel offended by this kind of thing (like the word fuck for example), then I don’t know what to tell you, deal with it or suck it up.

I, for instance, have no problem with this (I’m Romanian, we’re nasty creatures) and it definitely didn’t ruin anything for me. Au contraire, it added flair.

Throw those F-bombs like confetti, queen, I am here and I am ready.

At first, the characters of this book don’t seem to be the most lovable. I was actually kind of okay with them until I learned to love and appreciate them, but I think that is because they are new characters in a new world and it gets a bit more time to get adjusted to everything. I wasn’t very fond of most of the characters in the first books of Throne of Glass and ACOTAR series either so that’s definitely not an issue. It’s normal.

After some time passed and I got used to the story, I started to realise that under all that notorious party girl exterior Bryce tries to put like a charm around her, she is a broken soul who’s trying to get through life – life made hard by those who try to tear her down; she’s a braveheart who loves too much; she’s compassionate and smart; she’s a bad bitch. And Danika is her equal bad bitch bestie and I kind of love them both. And their friendship is heartbreaking! No one writes friendships like SJM, I’m telling you.

“It’s easier for me – when people assume the worst about what I am. It lets me see who they really are.”

Hunt is a bit of a stiff-ass but he gets better as the story moves on. Still not head-over-heels in love with his character but he’s definitely a good lad. He’s as broken and lonely as Bryce and this is what makes them fall in love so fiercely and deeply. They feel right for each other. They feel like home.

“You are where I want to end up. A life – with you. You are my fucking path.”

Also I actually can’t help but love Ruhn, with all of his frat-boy-dude-bro type of attitude he has at the beginning. Yeah, Ruhn’s the one I truly liked from the beginning. He’s such a goof at heart, I can feel it.

And Hypaxia. OMG, Hypaxia exudes big queen energy. She might be a possible all-time favourite of mine. But we shall see.

I would also like to underline the fact that Lehabah is my baby and I love her so much and Syrinx can eat all the food I have in the house for all I care!!

Precious babies.

Now, we have to talk about this too. A kind-of warning matter like the bad words thingy.

Even though there are some serious matters going around the Crescent City, this book is very sexy. Sexy for real. And some sexy things also happen *oopsie*.

Just harness your horses for a moment, please and listen to me.

SJM already mastered this skill of mixing business with pleasure in her books so be prepared to feel a bit uncomfortable at the smut. But just get quickly over it because people die and demons roam free in that world. And there are some juicy secrets teasing us too in there somewhere so you won’t even have time to catch your breath and think too much of those hot-hot scenes.

Blush a bit, go wash your eyes and get over it. This book means business.

Because, you’ll see after you pick it up, the last 200 pages are THE SHIT. I honestly cried at least three times and I wasn’t feeling very like myself by the end of it.

You know a book gets to you when you broke down crying like the whiniest baby in the galaxy, so guess what? Brace yourselves, this book wants to catch you off guard and it might succeed.

So, with all that being said, GO READ THIS BOOK. And find yourselves a new obsession in it. As I did.

It’s amazing.

“She was sea and sky and stone and blood and wings and earth and stars and darkness and light and bone and flame.”

*BONUS –  there you go, if you’re not entirely convinced read this book, look at some amazing fan art: