A #1 New York Times bestseller!Sarah J. Maas’s brand-new CRESCENT CITY series begins with House of Earth and Blood: the story of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a contemporary fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance. Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her … 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.
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I adored this book and cannot wait for the next installment.
This is the first book in Sarah J. Maas’ new series, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a slight deviation from her other writing, but I was still enamored. As always, Maas gives us great characters, world-building, and story lines. I cannot wait to see what happens next.
Sarah J Maas does it again. One of the best books I’ve ever read and an amazing addition to the shelf. I can’t wait for the next one!
Another good book by Maas! So much partying in this one though. I loved the storyline and the mystery aspect, but could have done without all the partying. Worth a read, made me laugh out loud at times. Imaginative world I enjoyed reading about. Can’t wait for the next one
“My friends are behind me, and I will protect them.”
When I started reading House of Earth and Blood, I did not know anything about it and that’s what I would recommend to anyone who desires to read this novel. The beginning of the novel really surprised me, even killed me a little, as I had not read the summury in which the first turning point is spoiled. So, if you have not done it yet, DO NOT READ THE SYNOPSIS.
The world in which the story takes place has nothing to do with her other books. I loved how she didn’t go for a Middle Age atmosphere, but a much more modern one with electronic devices, dance clubs, reality shows, etc. But this doesn’t take away at all the “fantasy” aspects. At first I was a bit disturbed by all the Houses, but very quickly I got caught in the story and the information felt natural in the plot.
The main character, Bryce, is this “party girl”, half-breed, with no power, but with all the sass in the world. While some people might find her arrogant, she made me laugh so bad. Once more, SJM makes a remarquable job with the growth of her characters through the story. I loved that she was so assured and was depicted as sexy and not just “shy”, “fragile” or “pretty” as Feyre could be seen in ACOTAR. For the male protagonist, Hunt is an angel and a slave. He is asked to watch Bryce, which will be more tricky than what he imagined. Their relationship is much more “contemporary” than in the other SJM books. It’s a slow romance, they build a true friendship before anything else and OMG just let the waiting kill you. I truly hope they will be end game, because we all love a man with an impressive wingspan.
As I’ve alraid said, I hadn’t read the summary, so for me the beginning of the story was a real chock, I was already prepared for a more sexy and sassy book, but no no no, I’m once more a vicitm of Maas destruction. After this first plot twist, the plot will develop quite slowly, but I really adored that because we learn so much about the different characters and we end up really captivated by their story. We meet side characters such as Lehabah (my FAVOURITE), Syrinx, Ruhn and and his two best friend, that would have not had such an impact if some of the sequences had been taken off. If it were up to me, I would have made it even longer. The last 300 pages of the book are the only real “plot driven”, and let me tell you, you are not ready for that ending.
This book feels way much more like a slow romance than a high fantasy novel, the action maily happening at the end, but it is an amazing first book in a series, which allowed us to know and love all the different characters before the big adventure. The world is so different from what we are used to see and Sarah J. Maas’ talent will always amaze me. You will cry and laugh so much, it is so worth it. This book deserves one million stars for me.
I put this off because a lot of reviews said it was really slow and I don’t usually care for slow books. I waited until I got this from the library and after starting I was addicted, LOL. I even bought myself a copy because I had to return it and wasn’t finished. Now my review, it is going to be two reviews in one as the book is 803 pages and I have a thought for every one of those pages, LOL.
The content: 5 stars. The characters and the world building in this story is amazing, well thought out, detailed but also mysterious, realistic as if I could just open my door and enter this world and understand and know these characters. I loved the uniqueness of the diversity and the way the story was based on “real life” but also different enough to feel like fantasy. I loved the relationships and the way everything came together. I wanted more of a certain character but that, it seems will have to wait until the next book. I also cried near the end and was just so saddened by certain action and that really surprised me because I didn’t know I was so attached to certain characters.
The writing style: (for me personally) 2.5 stars. This book, while slow, is FULL of information and details and it starts out without any build up and immediately dumps information on the reader. I was not sure what was important, want needed to be remembers for later in the story and what was just random information that could be forgotten. This and the way the characters drifted off into other thoughts in the middle of the action or thoughts, made this a really slow read for me. There was a bunch of stuff that was repeated and that was because the book was so long that I think the author was afraid that the reader would forget.
Over all, I am rally glad I read this story and will be reading what comes next. It is definitely a book to get lost in and to fully submerse yourself into all the details. Take your time and enjoy this read.
This book is so good!
Pre-Review Disclaimer – Maas is, and always will be, my favorite author. Criticisms of this book will be minimal and should you continue reading please note that I am going to be unapologetic in my fangirling about her and this book.
Still here? OK good, let the verbal word vomit love fest begin!
House of Earth and Blood is high fantasy at its finest. Maas’ contribution to the fantasy genre are on par with King’s contribution to the horror genre. I truly feel grateful to live in the same time frame as her so that I may enjoy all of her books as they are released. She is a prime example as to why fantasy is my favorite genre, hands down.
Were there times while reading this that I couldn’t understand what was happening? Sure. Why was that you may ask. Well, House of Earth and Blood is book one in a brand new series. Thus the world and character building is HEAVY. Heavy in the way that Rowling was with her Harry Potter series. None of us knew what Quidditch was before HP, but we all do now. There are different houses, species, planets and more that Maas is creating out of nothing in order to bring us this story. As such there are words and character descriptions that we’ve never seen before.
Some people say that this book is too similar to the other books she has written. I beg to differ. This story was wholly unique which is why the world building was so abundant. That also contributed to the colossal page length of this book. You CAN NOT have an EPIC story like this without putting in the word count, it simply can’t happen.
I read a review where someone stated they read four chapters and then stopped. FOUR chapters out of a book that is 4 parts, 97 chapters plus epilogue?! Did this person also only read the first line of the Declaration of Independence and deem it not worthy of continuing? How can you make a well constructed argument against any book after four chapters? You can’t.
I digress. This book was a murder mystery in an urban fantasy setting. Issues of slavery, personal rights, and possession played a large part in the story. Maas also does a great job portraying PTSD. I absolutely loved Bryce and Hunt. Their banter brought some much needed levity to an otherwise incredibly heavy story. Bryce’s unwavering belief in others is refreshing. She never loses faith in anyone, even when those around her constantly underestimate and belittle her. “Loyal unto death and beyond”, if only we could all be so lucky to have someone like this in our life.
One question I have is, why is this book in particular deemed her “adult fantasy” while her other books are deemed “YA fantasy”? The violence seemed minimal to me when compared to Throne of Glass and ACOTARs. Sure this book has some F bombs in it, but I fail to see how this is enough to deem it “adult”. As for romance there is hardly any, at least in terms of descriptive sex scenes, there simply aren’t any. I would classify this as a slow burn romance if hard pressed to.
I am very excited to see where the series takes us next. There were so many great secondary characters and I hope to see more about them in the future!
I wont lie guys. I put off reading this for a while because I knew it was going to be amazing. It was. I cried multiple times. Prolly not a great book to read when you are emotional but I did and I don’t regret a minute of it. Though my heart still aches thinking about it.
This books everything. A whole new world and characters that seal themselves to your heart for the minute you meet them. I devoured dit. This is a typical Maas read int he fact that you cannot put it down from the minute you pick it up.
Ugh. But yeah. I don’t regret waiting but now i am dying for more and still super sad about some of the stuff that went down.
Love Sarah J. Maas and so far all she has written that I have read. Fabulous author!
I have recently become a fan of Sarah J. Maas’ books and was curious about this more adult-oriented story. I loved it, but let me first touch on what I didn’t like as much. I thought that profanity, however appropriate to the characters and the situations was used in excess. There is no need for that frequency of f-bombs in any story, in fact I think it kind of dilutes the power of the word when used only sporadically. Maas was able to deliver equally powerful and intense scenes in her more YA-targeted books with much less profanity. Her sex scenes (which admittedly are not frequent in this book) are also a bit jarring and crass. But these are all personal preferences.
That said, the story was amazing. I had a little trouble in the beginning because the two main characters are not exactly likable at first. But don’t give up on them. There are many layers to Bryce and her angel and I really enjoyed the development of their relationship from one of extreme hostility to love. The mystery was great and kept the readers on their toes and holy crap! I love when the author can surprise me. And Maas definitely did that. It’s raw, intense, and extremely touching and humane at times. The cast of side characters is fascinating and I can’t wait to learn more about them too. Highly recommend, just don’t listen to it in public, lol.
Amazing read
During the first part I was struggling to continue with this book, since it’s a new world with a lot of characters, but then, it just made me cry and I loved it.
Brice is a kick ass heroine, she’s half human and half fae, and her best friend is a werewolf named Danika.
They live together and are happy until tragedy strikes, and Brice finds herself looking for revenge and investigating different crimes with a powerful and dangerous fallen angel known as Hunt.
If you love fantasy, then you should read this amazing book, you’ll find friendship, romance, action and a complex and wonderful world.
I struggled through the first fice chapters worried that maybe I wouldn’t like the latest Sarah J. Maas book but… come Chapter 6 the story takes off and I was hooked.
The world-building is amazing, the characters are gritty and real, and the power struggles within the book feel suitably dramatic yet realistic.
Highly recommend!
An epic experience and new favorite!
I did not read any reviews of House of Earth and Blood before listening to the audiobook. I still haven’t read a single review. I am a massive Sarah J. Maas fan girl. I knew starting a new series meant getting to know new characters in a new world and to be patient. What I didn’t expect was for this to become my new favorite Maas novel.
All the feels! The emotions Bryce and Hunt put me through were turbulent and soul shattering. Their friendship was everything. Their love transcended tragic pasts, race, bigotry, stereotypes, and social status.
This captured my heart and soul!
What a ride!!!! This book took me on such a journey!!! I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on this one so let’s jump right into it.
This book was over 800 pages. Now, I’m all for Sarah J Maas and her amazing characters but I think this one was a bit too long. It took forever for me to feel that I was making any progress in the story. I also feel the story dragged a bit at the beginning but that could’ve been to the information overload we received. At the start of the book, we are learning a new world, new creatures, new powers, new hierarchy, relationships, etc. It was a bit too much if I’m being completely honest here. We jumped from creature to creature and from this to that so much that my head was spinning. I always take notes while reading stories but this one blew me away. I ended up with 7 pages of notes, front and back.
Now that I got all the negative feelings out of the way, let’s focus on what I loved about this story. Once I was able to get a grasp on everything, the story captivated me. Seeing the close bond between Danika and Bryce was pure joy. These two best friends would do literally anything for one another. Bryce is a half human, half fae while her best friend Danika is a full blooded wolf. This book breaks everyone and everything into categories. Either you are a supernatural or human/part human. There’s also every kind of creature/supernatural imaginable in the story. We had wolfs, vampires, mermaids, shifters, humans, sprites, witches, etc. You name it, this book had it. The supernatural, aka the vanir, basically ruled the city. Within the vanir we had different levels of power and rank. As I mentioned previously, it’s a lot to take it but once you get it….the story is so engaging.
I don’t want to go too into what the story was about because I think it’s best to go in this blind. I also tried not to play detective throughout this story so that I was truly surprised at every twist and turn that occurred. This book had more of a suspenseful vibe than some of her others that I’ve read. Throughout the story, we’re looking for clues and suspecting everyone which kept me on the edge of my seat.
Now, we all know that Sarah J Maas can write some delicious, swoon worthy characters. This book was no exception. I will add that this was a slow burn romance that had my angst levels at an all time high. I was also feeling the lack of steam that I’ve come to know and love from this author. Luckily, I was crushing on quite a few of the characters *grins* so I was able to focus on more than one to get my swoon on. But I would’ve like more romance and steam.
Overall, this book has made it hard for me to put my thoughts into words for this review. I’m feeling all sorts of things after completing this story. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I slammed the cover of my Kindle shut many times, etc. I think the author did a great job of making us truly feel the emotions that our characters were going through. I cannot wait to see where this story takes us in the next book. It feels like the possibilities are endless for this world!! I’m beyond ready for the journey!
This is the author’s first foray into adult fantasy. I absolutely loved the book. The world she created contains every element of fantasy that a reader would wish for. The story is compelling and fast paced. The twists are believable and you don’t see them coming. The clashes between the heroine and hero are funny. There is also a wry humor throughout. My only suggestion is to have a pad and paper to write down the multiple characters and culture described in this world. While not a cliff hanger, the ending leaves you eager for the next book in the series.
This is a beautiful work of art . . . there is no better book than this to jam into your to-read list! With revelations peeking out of every corner, this is the best fantasy book I’ve ever read!
SUMMARY OF BOOK: When Bryce’s bestfriend is brutally murdered, she pairs up with a badass angel to help find the creature responsible for ruining not only Bryce’s life, but many others.
MY REVIEW: I’ve read every single one of Sarah J. Maas books more than once and Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood is not going to be any different. Maas has a way of writing stories and creating characters that make you either love or hate them, nothing in between. Maas has a way of sucking you into each and every world that she creates to the point that even if you wanted to get out of it, you couldn’t. That’s exactly how this book was for me.
I will say that it took me about a month to get past the first 100 pages of this book. It was slow, felt like it dragged and it honestly scared me into thinking that this book was going to be a flop. Then I remembered who the author was, pushed through it, and finished the entire 816 pages in not only one day but one sitting. My back hurts, my heart hurts and I’m going to be slowly dying until the 2nd book comes out because this shit ends one a cliff hanger and I NEED THE 2ND BOOK NOW!
I will also say that there were many twists and turns in this book because it follows not only one but two, maybe three, investigations and I honestly couldn’t not figure out where the book was going. That doesn’t happen often for me. I can usually guess where the story is going, where the twists will take me. This was not the case with this book. Not only was I shocked every hundred pages but the ending… Oh Hel, the ending almost killed me. I would have never, in my entire life, guess what happened. Ever. I’m still shocked by the way the book ended and again, I NEED THE 2ND BOOK NOW!
This book contains Angels, Fae, Werewolves, Archangels, Sorcerers, and so many different creatures that I still am unsure what they actually are. Unlike Maas other books, the people in this book live in a world already immersed in all things immortal and magical and I loved it. I’m tired of humans right now so not dealing with them a whole lot was amazing. The world building and the story was so deeply developed that I actually thought I was there with them, which is not surprising considering who wrote the book. At this point, Maas could write one word and call it a book and I would love it. She can do no wrong in my eyes, outside of starting her books out really, really slow but after you push through that little part, everything is fast and amazing.
I’m going to be in a book hangover until her 2nd book comes out so this will be fun. I’m probably going to be rereading this book a few times in the meantime because I feel like the more times I read this, the more amazing things I will notice and find. I haven’t been this excited about a book in… quite a while.
If you liked Maas other books, or if this is the first book you’ve ever read from her, just take the leap and prepare to fall about a hundred thousand feet below because once you open one of her books, any of them but especially this one, you wont be able to drag yourself out. Trust me. Take the plunge, you don’t regret it.
AMAZING! SJM is my idol, and she kept me up until 2 AM last night to finish her latest work of art!
House of Earth and Blood is the first book in Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas. It was the first book from that author that i was reading and i’m really not disapointed. Totally loved the first book in this new serie.
Bryce Quinlan life was change forever when her best friends were murdered by a demon, living her alone. Two years later, the accused is behing bar but the crimes starts again and Bryce will be in the center of the investigation.
Hunt Athalar, a fallen angel, enslaved to the Archangels he try once to overthrow. With a demon on the loose he will be giving a chance for his freedom.
As both Bryce and Hunt works together to discover the dark power that threatens everyone, they find that they are becomming closer to each other. But nothing is easy as they both having secrets.
I really love these two characters and can’t wait for the sequel.