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

Edgy's Book Love
Nov 13, 2020
3 min read

Updated: Nov 25, 2020

Rating: 5/5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Blurb:

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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Review & Reaction:

*Warning Minor Spoilers Ahead*

“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.”

I’m not going to lie folks this review took me a while to begin. How can I put all the different feelings and emotions that this book brought upon me and not sound crazy? It’s not often that a story moves me or makes me cry so much. And this one absolutely did. Which, by the way I did not see coming. LIKE AT ALL.

I was honestly BLOWN AWAY. This book was a straight rollercoaster ride. Fair warning: the first 200-300 pages is a lot of world building so please please please push through. I found myself completely engrossed but at the same time lost and a bit confused sometimes & SAD (you’ll see what I mean) while reading the beginning of it because there are so many characters, and terminology you have to get accustomed to, but I PROMISE YOU IT IS WORTH IT. So if this is you

I love good enemies to lovers trope and a slow-burn romance. I found all of these characters to be so complex and really loved that Maas took her time to flush out these characters with their individual stories. Maas does an incredible job at making us fall in love with her characters no matter how long or short of a period of time they appear in her books. So when tragedy struck very early on in the book my heart shattered 😢. Bryce is one of my favorite female protagonists EVER and I found her to be incredibly relatable. A badass b**** who does whatever, does whomever and gives 0 fucks if anyone judges her for it but she is also the most fearless and fierceness of all the characters even as a half-fae.

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

The slow burn romance between her and Hunt was beautiful 😭😍and I found myself desperately wanting more steamy scenes but ultimately appreciating their journey and the depth of these characters as they struggled with their own demons. Special shout out to Maas for creating Ruhn the BEST half-brother of all the half-brothers to ever exist in the fictional world because wtf I love him so much 😢😭 maybe even more than Hunt himself LOL. The last couple of chapters were a masterpiece. I found myself screaming, crying, laughing and cheering at the same time. Aka: I was balling eyes out and smiling

This is a murder mystery full of shocking twists and turns. An action-packed story of grief, friendship, family and the fight for one's fate.

P.S. Did anyone else feel like the last couple of chapters were like one of the Avengers movies? LOL

What did you guys think of House of Earth and Blood?

🔹Would I recommend it? HELL YES!!!

🔹Re-read it?: YES YES YES

🔹Scene Shout-Out: Bryce fighting when the gates opened. Those last few chapters but that scene specifically was just WOW.

If you've already read House of Earth & Blood (Crescent City #1) check out my list of Shocking/Wtf & Swoon-Worthy moments below!

*Warning Major Spoilers Below*

Shocking/WTF/ Swoon-Worth Moments

🔹Death of Danika & The Pack of Devils :

Seriously guys. Wtf. Wtf. Wtf how Sarah does this to us? I was shook!!! Danika! CONNOR. The last text message he sent 😢

🔹Um...Micah being responsible for the death of Danika, The Pack of Devils, the summoning of the Demonaki, & the bombings that killed a bunch of innocent people!!!