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

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Fantasy romance
Length: 816 pages
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date: March 3rd, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

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.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.

SJM’S BEST FIRST BOOK.

There, I said it. And I stand by it. This was the best first book I’ve read from Sarah J. Maas. What a brilliant debut. Man, have I have missed her writing. It never fails me by the time I finish the book that I have felt wrung out by my own emotions.

I’m not even sure where to begin or how to write this review because I’m still so wrapped up in the story. I loved Bryce. She started off poorly and her character arc and personal story was so captivating that by the end I had tears in my eyes as she finally left go of the heartache that had it’s hold on her. Bryce was another bad-a female lead to join the Feyre and Aelin gang. I thought she was had some similarities to her previous leads, but that Bryce stood all on her own.

Once again, we have a great swoon-worthy, broody male to entertain us. Hunt Athalar is slowly being etched in to my favorite book boyfriends list. We’ll see where he ends up by the end of this. Because I can’t be the only one wondering if he’s ACTUALLY Bryce’s final love interest? [Especially if you’ve read A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass, there’s just no way to know]. I liked what we got from him here. I was utterly smitten by his casual looks of just wearing a baseball cap while watching TV to his full armored self taking on demons. The flirtation and burn between Hunt and Bryce was on point and not over the top for a first book where we’re just getting to meet all of these characters. I liked their chemistry and compassion between them.

Not only were the main characters fantastic, the side characters tried to steal the show too. Especially, Ruhn. Y’ALL. He’s a new fav. I absolutely loved the brother aspect for this book. Giving Bryce a character to lean on and work through family drama with. Ruhn is funny, strong, and quite possibly my new favorite person. I think we’ll get a lot more of him and his story as the series grows. Along with him, I’d love to know more about Ithan and the wolf-pack. I feel there’s more to those stories then the original few chapters I got of them. I like that there’s many different facets to Crescent City.

I’m really curious about so many aspects of this series. The only issue I had with this was the amount of info-dumping that came out in the first few chapters. THERE’S A LOT OF INFORMATION. And that’s not an exaggeration. I feel like it took me about the entire book to really grasp the politics and set-up of the city and world as a whole. Now that I’ve latched on to those ideas I think it’ll set up for even greater installments. I liked that this was an urban + paranormal + fantasy, mash-up. Maas somehow combined all of them without making it feel silly (and I’m not usually a fan of paranormal).

Overall audience notes:

Urban/Paranormal fantasy romance
Language: a lot of strong language
Romance: mentions of masturbation, a detailed love scene, and a few detailed almost love scenes; kisses/make-outs
Violence: plenty; demon attacks, magic, physical, swords, guns
Trigger warnings: suicide ideation (and an almost attempt, method mentioned); depression and grief over loss of loved ones