House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)

I hate to write a one star review but I expected a lot more from this book. I really struggled to read and finish this book. Everything was so wishy-washy

The heroine Bryce was the epitome of a Mary Sue. She was so special that is was unbelievable. Every guy liked her. And she was reckless and not at all likable.

The hero in the book also wasnt that great. I quiet frankly couldnt buy their relationship. It was completely based off lust and I get it what she is, but still the relationship was so superficial and he was just a duplicate of so many heroes in many other romance novels.

The romance wasnt the best. It was trying too hard. There wasnt any gradual build up. It felt too insta-love. I needed to see that the characters were great together and I didnt see that.

The world building and action were okay. But not great. For all the hype of the book, I didnt get the wow factor. I couldnt understand what was so unique about this spin of the fae lore.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed in this book. I expected a lot more. I can see why people liked this book. But it wasnt my cup of tea

I had to return this, it was that annoying. I was asking myself, was this juvenile piece of garbage really written by Maas? But of course it was, because the characters were just cut and paste from her previous works. Another male love interest with wings? Really? I only got halfway through before I couldnt take it anymore. The endless cursing and descriptions of peoples body parts left me wanting a shower, and NOT in a good way. Just ew. I couldnt even bear the thought of how cheesy the sex scenes must be. Its sad that this author is regressing. I never felt for a single minute that any of these characters were real people. Angels? Wasnt that already done by others and much more successfully? Skip this, read Daughter of Smoke and Bone or even anything by Cassandra Clare.

I’m usually a Maas fan, but this read like it was written by a breathless teenager who tried to cram every adjective and adverb she ever learned into her fiction writing assignment. Part of the problem is that, rather than let you gradually learn about characters and places slowly, Maas tries to cram it all into the first few pages of that person/place appearing. Usually writers develop better skills with experience, so I’m surprised that this author has regressed. At least she waited until Chapter 95 to trot out her overused “eyes lined with silver” line.

An interesting story that deserved better writing.

There is no denying I am a HUGE Sarah J. Maas fan. I have read 12 books she has written and have given every one of them a 5 star rating. The second I read Throne of Glass in 2014 I knew she was an author I was going to love for a long time. And man did she ever hit it out of the park with House of Earth and Blood. I cant even begin to tell you how much I loved this new addition to her writing catalog. When I tell you I loved it, I mean it may be my favorite book she has ever written and this is coming from someone that reads A Court of Mist and Fury sometimes twice a year. It is just that good.

House of Earth and Blood is the first book in a new adult series called Crescent City. The book follows Bryce Quinlan, a half fey living the life of a party girl with her best friend and roommate. When her friend is brutally murdered Bryce is left alone and devastated. That is until the murders start to happen again, this with the alleged killed behind bars. With the help of Hunt Athalar, a Fallen angel enslaved to an Archangel, the two of them dig into the secrets of Crescent City to uncover what really happened the night Bryces friend died and figure out how to stop it while also holding on to secrets of their own. It isnt easy, but gets even more complicated when feelings get involved.

I cant describe how much I loved House of Earth and Blood. I have said it to people already and I will say it again this is Sarahs best book to date. Everything in this story was so flawlessly executed. The characters were flushed out nicely. You really got to know both Bryce and Hunt and what their motivations were. You got to understand them and see them develop. You got to understand how the other minor characters were woven through their lives and what they meant to them. And it was done at the perfect pace. At the end I felt like I knew Bryce and Hunt and I also wanted to know more of their stories.

And in typical Maas fashion my feelings were demolished. I knew what to expect after reading so many book by her, but this book really messed with my feelings. I was all over the place. I was anxious and happy and sobbing my face off. Sometimes I was crying because I was happy or because I was anticipating what was going to happen, or because I was just plain broken by the story. This one really did punch me in the gut though and I wouldnt have it any other way.

Can I tell you more about what I loved? Absolutely. I never even touched my love of Hunt and the chemistry between him and Bryce. There was a lot of this book that I havent touched on. The reason? I dont want to ruin it for you because you see, this is a book everyone needs to read. Even if you have not been a fan of some of Sarahs past books I strongly stand-by this one and say everything about it felt different to me, and it was wonderful. Do yourself a favor and go and buy it today. Im already planning to reread it soon.

Typically, I enjoy SJ Maas books – I enjoyed most of the Throne of Glass books (thought the final one was a bit of a disappointment from halfway) and I really enjoyed two out of the three ACOTAR series, but definitely not the novella which was fluffy rubbish.

I had expected this book to be a great starter for a new series, as typically the first books in a new series are the ones that SJ writes the best. Plus this was meant to be an Adult series rather than her usual YA / teen fantasy, a bold new move that should indicate a good level of confidence in the novel and subsequent series
However, the information exposition overload in the first few chapters was a warning for the strength of the rest of the novel. It became a compilation of SJs of plot repetition from previous novels.
Theres a Mary Sue main character (Bryce) that has the most obviously implied talent (no subtly at all with that one – when the sword mysteriously started humming a quarter in, I knew that was going to go down) but of course some extra mad skillz because why not make her super powerful like the other female characters in the other series (Celena and Feyre) but with no real justification or logic as a half human / Fae.

Theres obviously a SUPER powerful hero (Hunt a replacement for Rhys and Rowan) that has been abused at the hands of female villains (Maeve / Amarantha) but has instant feelings for the main character possibly because its not possible to play the mate card across different species. Theres no clear reason why Hunt, a hardened and haunted ancient fallen angel, suddenly softens to Bryce other than the fact that shes very attractive but very much out of character, he enjoys their ridiculously annoying banter and made up words such as alphahole. That, or, the character is so badly shaped that to a reader, it makes no sense.

This book reads as though it has many different attempts of plot threads but theyve been thrown together in a frantic rush to get them all into one book. This has resulted in a romantic pairing that isnt believable (or based mainly on lust), main characters that I dont really like or care about, supplementary characters that I also dont care about or understand why they were needed in the first place, lots of watching the plot unfold but not really doing anything aka not much action – mainly exposition, and a jumble of plot threads: grief over dead friend, insta-love with mysterious misunderstood killer, crazy boss that has unlimited supplies of random crap that coincidentally happens to be useful, villainous female torturing hero, crazy one-of-a-kind super powers defying all odds, drug addiction, unjust class structure etc etc (the list goes on) all within the new structure of a paranormal fantasy world mix of every single possible type of creature, categorised in a new system, layered into a hierarchy.

Basically, I am disappointed and not sure I can be bothered to look out for the next one. Theres not enough for me to remain interested.

If you want a good world building fantasy that IS adult, check out Ilona Andrews and put this glorified older teen / YA book away.

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