Rating: 6/10
Books Like This: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series, Throne of Glass Series, The Beautiful Series
For: People who like crime solving, mystery, fantasy and romance.
*Mild Spoilers Ahead
Synopsis:
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.
Introduction:
Recently, I finished House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. This book is the first installment of the Crescent City series. I have been obsessed with the magical worlds that Sarah J. Maas creates for over 2 years now. My obsession started when I found A Court of Thorns and Roses at a Barnes and Noble near me. I immediately was immersed in the plot and the characters. (I am a sucker for enemies to lovers story lines.) After finishing ACOTAR and as much of the series as I could, I soon started reading the Throne of Glass series starting with The Assassin's Blade and continuing on from there. I am currently waiting to get Queen of Shadows (the 4th book in the series). I was very, VERY interested when I found out that one of my favorite authors was starting a new series so here is my review.
Rating Explanation/Review:
You may be wondering, "If you loved the author and the previous series so much why isn't the rating higher?" That is because of a couple of reasons, the first one being the information overload at the beginning of the book. Now, I don't know if it's just me or a majority of people felt this way (or if it was intentional), but the beginning of the book was very....loaded. I got the concept of every magical and mythical being existing in this world in a kind of dystopian background, but I feel like there should've been a chart or list of the main, secondary and tertiary characters because I was completely confused for a good bit at the beginning of the book. But even at the end it still took me a second to remember who certain people were, what group they belonged to and what they were doing in relation to the plot.
Another reason the rating isn't higher is because the book didn't keep my attention. Don't get me wrong, there were some parts when I couldn't put the book down, but there were other parts of the book where the investigation went very slowly and it was hard to pay attention to what was happening. I honestly wouldn't be surprised it Sarah did this on purpose to make the investigation more realistic and after finishing the book I can appreciate that, but while I was reading it made my opinion of the book drop a little bit.
A third reason this isn't on my favorites list is because of the romance. If you knew me personally you would know that I am a hopeless romantic and I love romantic books and movies. I can't tell if Sarah made Hunt and Bryce's relationship evolve slowly on purpose (because usually the main characters of her books fall faster but there's a sudden plot twist) to maybe hint to us that because their romantic relationship didn't happen as fast that they would stay together throughout the whole series. But, I can't honestly say I wasn't relieved when they finally got together in the last couple hundred pages of the book.
The book was also really long but that's not really an issue for me. :)
Can I just say that Sarah J. Maas is the QUEEN of plot twists. I mean in all of her books I am shocked at how well thought out she is. And they always get me invested in the world and the main characters. I haven't read a series of hers where I haven't sat in my bed crying because something happened in the book. Though I do get emotional at a lot of things I shouldn't be emotional over (The Trolls Movie).
Also, Sarah always makes the best, strong, female main characters. They're relatable, witty, intelligent and overall amazing. They are inspirations and role models for a lot of women all over the world including myself. So thank you, Sarah J. Maas, for that.
Even though I did have some faults with the book, overall I really liked it. I have always love how Sarah make the most successful of her character's relationships rooted in friendship or starting with friendship and evolving into a romantic relationship. She's given me very unrealistic expectations for any future partner of mine.
Congratulations on your new book Sarah J. Maas and I wish you luck on all of your future endeavors.