A review by cassidy_rain
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

“That’s the point of it, Bryce. Of life. To live, to love, knowing that it might all vanish tomorrow. It makes everything that much more precious.”

What a rollercoaster this book was! (I’m an adrenaline junkie, I loved it). I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous to start this series because I knew it wasn’t going to be like ACOTAR or TOG, but I really ended up loving it! In my mind the fantasy genre screams “medieval” to me so I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the modern aspects. Ahem. Drugs. Guns. Cell phones. But it worked surprisingly well! No need to fear. Just goes to show what an amazing storyteller SJM is.

Crescent City is really a true crime/murder mystery/thriller meets magic and fantasy. And what a great combo it is. It was very easy for me to visualize the city and setting (I imagine it being kind of like Rome, lol). I felt completely immersed into the story from start to finish. The first chapter was a lot of info dump, but after that I found it fairly easy to follow. There’s a lot of phrases that get repeated (I’ve read a lot of SJM books so I know this is pretty typical at this point, but can we please come up with a bit more variety?).

I loved the characters! Bryce is sassy and sexy and selfless like you would not believe. Hunt is broody and rough around the edges, but a big softie deep down. The tension is so good. Danika and the wolves stole my heart from the very beginning. Ruhn Danaan…. Crown Prince of the Valbaran Fae… nuff said; can’t wait to see more of his character in the future books. Lehabah and Syrinx. 🥹

“Bryce was a ghost for a long time, Hunt. She pretended she wasn’t, but she was…. You brought her back to life.”

I had a great time with this and excited to see where the series goes! 

Tropes: 
• enemies to friends to lovers
• found family

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