House of Earth And Blood Crescent City Series #1 by Sarah J. Maas
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Web ID: 11774709One of my fav's from SJM
House of Earth and Blood is easily one of my favorites of the SJM universe, but it seems to have a relatively bad rap on social media. I'm not sure if it's because Bryce gives off the same "I don't need your help, I can handle it myself" vibes as Nesta? Or if it's because it's set in a more modern world rather than fairy courts? Either way, I enjoyed this one a lot!
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Can't believe I like an Urban Fantasy
I'm writing this review about a month after I finished the book so my memory is already getting a little rusty on what exactly I wanted to say, but I will say this: you either like it or you don't. My review isn't going to convince you. However, I did like it - actually I loved it! I'm not normally an urban fantasy girlie because it's hard for me to see how they can be cohesive. It usually takes me out of the story when the MC does something with technology that I would do - like use their phone or computer then use magic or fly. But honestly SJM did a really good job, although I do think I'm a little biased as I've loved everything from her so far. Not sure if I'd be able to read an urban fantasy from another author unless it was stellar - but if you have recs I'm all ears. I will def be reading the rest of this series
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"My friends are with me and I am not afraid."
Five stars. Ten stars. A million stars. This book is a gem and Sarah J Maas has once again cemented herself as one of my favorite authors. The character energy in House of Earth and Blood is phenomenal. It's my favorite thing. Bryce Quinlan is our resident badass; fierce, fun, intelligent, and wholly herself. She has a past and while it's not an easy one, her strength and endurance remind us all that we are more than what we've lived through. We are not defined by anything or anyone but ourselves. Hunt Athalar may be an angel, not to mention a literal assassin, but he has secrets of his own. He's witty, tense, confident, and haunted all at the same time. His strong personality meets and matches Bryces, or tries to, and their dynamic will leave you speechless. Danika, Bryce's kindred spirit, is the ferocious best friend we all deserve. Ruhn, Crown Prince of the Valbaran Fae, is dark and dreamy. Juniper. Fury. And don't even get me started on Syrinx and Lehabah... This world is big and the beginning of the book is dense with information and history. It is a lot to take in. But as SJM always does, she makes sure we don't get too lost in the knowledge. As the plot progresses and the characters develop, all of the info and history come together to help readers understand what everything all means. Well, as much as possible. Because again, as SJM always does, there's always another secret somewhere waiting to be unearthed. Light it up. Read if you like: Supernatural, tight dresses, solving crimes, sassy assistants, big cities, and best friends. Forever.
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Wow!
WOW. I tried to read this once before, but just couldn't get into it. When you start this book, you just get thrown into the world and there are a lot of people thrown at you at once, and I just wasn't a fan. However, knowing what I know about this author and this series, I wanted to try again. And I was into it this time. Some people said that it took them a while to get invested in this story, but that was not the case for me. I was invested by page 75. I cared about these characters and this story. I was not able to guess and figure out the mystery part of the story. The last 200 pages are a whole lot of big reveals with many different twists still left to discover. I actually got to one big twist and wondered to myself, "How are there still 100 pages left?" Man, what a ride this one was! I can't wait to read the second book and see where Hunt and Bryce's story goes next.
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Wonderful
First book is about character/world building and connecting with the characters. Wonderful book. The last 10-15 chapters had me on the edge of my seat. Seriously page turning. We get to see the main characters unconditional love for her best friend and her development in finding herself, uncovering things she was kept in the dark about, and potentially finding love.
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NEW FAV AUTHOR
Just finished with this one, already buying the next one. Sarah is an amazing author! I’m excited to see where these adventures take me!
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Just wow!
SJM does not disappoint with this book! From building a world to creating characters you can connect with, this book had me sucked in!
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A truly epic and gripping plot!
As of March 17th, 2023, my House of Sky and Breath review has been up over a month prior to this one, despite this being the first book in the series. Why? Well, when I’d finished book one I immediately jumped into book two and so the contents of that book were more fresh in my mind, and still, I’ve struggled to write book one’s review. **There will be minor spoilers throughout this review** *Characters* This will probably be the largest section as there are just so many amazing characters! First of course is. . . Bryce Quinlan At the beginning of the book, she is not much more than a party girl (kind of). She seems to be stuck in this loop of parties, drinking, and drugs. To be completely honest, I didn’t necessarily like her in the beginning but I also didn’t hate her. It was just hard to feel much of anything. I also just don’t care to read about the drugs and partying. All of this changed though the moment that the pack was slaughtered. Then we see her decend into this deep, dark hole of grief and rage. I absolutely LOVED how she chased down the kristallos and tried to protect the angel it injured (despite the fact that it seemed to be common knowledge that Bryce was weak because 1. She was part human and 2. She hadn’t made the drop and 3. Even if she made the drop she barely had any power). I really enjoyed watching her journey through the grief. It felt so real and it was incredibly painful. I fell in love with how loving she was. I also loved how she didn’t feel the need to show everyone who she truly was, how she let them believe whatever they wanted about her. Sometimes her snark or arrogance could be a bit much and felt almost bratty. However, it seemed to get better the further into the story I got. At the end of the day, Bryce is so selfless, brave, and deeply loving. She’s truly such a strong main protagonist. One issue I did have was how similar to Celeana (Throne of Glass series) she felt. The swagger and arrogance, the snark and confidence veering on vanity, felt almost copy and pasted from Celeana. However, there were things that felt a bit different. Celeana was cold due to her upbringing, but there was always a warmth to Bryce because of her family and just who she is. Overall, I do really love Bryce. Hunt Athalar OKAY so the one character I had absolutely no issues with was Hunt! For me personally, Sarah J Maas hasn’t always made the most dynamic male love interests. Aside from Dorian and Chaol, they all felt very flat and like they were written purely to satisfy a woman’s fantasies. However, this is absolutely not the case with Hunt. Yes, he is of course built with muscle and good looks and is a super-awesome warrior with wings. But he didn’t feel cliche or as if him being a warrior was his ENTIRE identity. Throughout the book, we watch him battle his PTSD and deep-deep grief. He is very gruff, sarcastic, and truly doesn’t care much for Bryce. He even brushes her off in the beginning. But as the story progresses and they get to know each other better, we see him admitting his assumptions were wrong and that he was wrong to dismiss her as nothing more than a party girl which I love. I think I felt for him the most. His pain was so palpable. Years upon years of torture, of being forced to kill and kill again. We see how it wears on him in ways that most authors don’t stop to show. The truth is that taking lives, even if justified, is not going to be easy or get easier with time and we see that struggle living within him. How he feels like he is going to crack and break under the pressure. I really, REALLY, respected him too. Yes, Bryce is an independant and strong woman. But she isn’t always right and she makes mistakes like any of us. So I really respected that he didn’t cave and back down when it came to doing what was right. If he knew something she said or did wasn’t smart or right, he let her know. Personally, I don’t like the idea of men groveling at a woman’s feet. Obeying her every whim and treating her as if she is a god because that just isn’t realistic. We are all human and we all make mistakes. So I loved how Sarah protrayed their growing relationship as EQUAL. Not one having a dominance over the other. Like I loved Rowan, but he didn’t have much of an opinion about anything. Hunt Athalar is my absolute favorite SJM male character and is one of my new all-time favorite love interests overall. -Ruhn- To be honest, I don’t have too much to say about Ruhn. In this book, I truly felt he was another Aedion/Cassian character and I was never a big fan of either (sorry ACOTAR fans). He did, however, improve a lot throughout the book and I now love him whole-heartedly. His relationship with Bryce and his love for her was so beautiful. It isn’t often that you see a brother/sister relationship done so well! I now find him so cool and him + his friends are such a riot to read. *Romance* Oh my goodness the ROMANCE in this was done so well! I don’t think it is any spoiler to say that Hunt and Bryce are the two main love interests. First off, I am a huge fan of hate-to-love romances but it is so easy to let them fall flat and feel kind of irrational or even childish. However, the way Sarah J Maas crafted these characters and how their traumas affected them, made the strain feel so realistic. At first they are really stand-offish and even a bit rude to one another. Then as time goes on, they see that their perceptions of one another were far from truth and seem to come to a truce. Then a BEAUTIFUL friendship blooms. They way they balanced each other out and helped one another heal in their traumas was so SO well done and I was LIVING for it. And of course, as the tension rose, I was screaming for them to just finally kiss! Their love was such a realistic, healthy, and beautiful one. I don’t think I have shipped two characters harder. I absolutely love them. *World Building* Even though I’ve been reading YA Epic Fantasy for years now, I still feel pretty new to it and am exceptionally new to Adult Epic Fantasy so all of the worldbuilding can feel a bit overwhleming. Kind of. I am also not one of those people who study a book’s world until they know and recall as much of it as possible. I usually forget whatever I am told until it is repeated enough for me to be like, “oh okay that makes sense.” So, while I don’t remember every small detail about this world, I do remember enough to give my opinion. First off, this world is HUGE. I can’t imagine how many hours were put in inorder for SJM to develop it as deeply as she did. Truly as a writer myself, it is mind blowing. She’d figured out everything from the government and city factions down to how they power their cities and more. I mean reading this it feels like a true, living society, like I could just walk through the doors. A lot of complaints about this first book is that it is slow in the beginning because of the world building. However, and maybe this is just because I don’t really study the information given to me or because I am a more character focused reader, it didn’t feel slow at all for me. Or maybe it did a bit. It took me a total of three times to actually move past the beginning scene in the gallery when Danika shows up. That was my own fault though for being impatient with the literal introduction scene because as soon as I moved past that, I was hooked. One complaint I had was about all of the different races. I personally don’t mind how many different creatures there were. In fact, I LOVED it! I mean I have always loved paranormal romances so seeing Angels, Vampires, and Demons all in one world was so fun. However, I was disappointed in how diverse they felt, or lack thereof. SJM is pretty used to writing Fae that tend to have a big mix of human and animal characteristics. There are a lot of cases in this book (and especially book two) where she seems to almost forget that the other species should act different. Angels aren’t known in any mythology I’ve read for acting animalistic (growling, roaring..etc). I just wish, each time we were introduced to a different species, that they felt different. Like had a different vibe if that makes sense? (ie: creepy, gothic vampires, or soulless demons with terrifyingly empty eyes…) Otherwise, I love this world and absolutely cannot wait to learn more about it. *Plot* I knew SJM was good at murder mystery type plots since Throne of Glass but I had no idea she was THIS good. There were so many intricacies and nuances to this plot and all of its twists. I mean I was so deeply hooked and was constantly creating all of these theories in my head! I did guess maybe on or two plot twists but I never guessed the full scope of them. SJM has always been amazing at plot twists but wow, she really went all out in this book! *Final Thoughts* After telling myself I’d never enjoy this book, I absolutely loved it! I am head over heels for Hunt and I just want to hug all of these characters (poor characters, I know Sarah is ruthless I’m so sorry). This book was high fantasy and also a murder mystery in one and I never knew I’d need that so badly until now. I plan to reread Crescent City book one and two prior to House of Flame and Shadow’s release (who else guessed the title?!) and with my rereads, I want to add more bulk to my reviews because it is truly so difficult to put all of my thoughts and feelings down in one go. Overall, I LOVED this book and its world, characters, romance, and plot! It is one of my new all-time favorites and I cannot wait to continue on with it! Note: Please keep in mind that with a lot of stories, there will be things in it that you don’t always agree with, beliefs of the author worked in that you don’t necessarily share. However, moving past that and just enjoying
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