Review | House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

Title: House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Rating:  ★★★★★

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Release Date: March 3, 2020

“Through love, all is possible.”

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I don’t think I’ve devoured a book so quickly in quite some time. Something about this book just completely hooked me from the beginning and I didn’t want to put it down. House of Earth and Blood follows half Fae Bryce Quinlan as she tries to recover from the loss of her best friend and seeks answers to all the unanswered questions surrounding the devastating event. Bryce teams up with Fallen angel Hunt Athalar to find answers, while he seeks his own freedom.

Things I Liked
Byrce’s friendship with Danika was so impactful. I never read the synopsis, so when Danika died, I was devastated and really felt the pain and disbelief linger. But Danika and Bryce are soulmate – there is a pure and unconditional love there that is so beautiful and heartbreaking. Seeing Bryce fright through her pain and trauma was so cathartic.

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding – Crescent City is so full of vibrant characters with complex histories and I felt like I really got introduced to the world. I loved that we got so many types of fantastical creatures with their own codes and rules. I’m very excited to see more insight into the other Houses, and a very intriguing demon cat.

There is so much great action and fighting in the story. It’s complex and has high stakes and it totally kept me engaged. I was anxious, nervous, on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. The last 200 pages flew by and had me completely engrossed.

Things I Didn’t Like
The romance was fine and I liked the strong friendship Bryce and Hunt develop, but they weren’t OTP status or anything. I’m not mad at it, but I don’t mind jumping ship for something else.

I can still feel the dried tears on my face from all that this book put me through. I immediately latched onto the characters, was swept away by the expansive world and creatures, and had a laugh at the surprising amounts of humor that added some much appreciated levity. House of Earth and Blood is not a perfect story, but it was so damn entertaining and I just connected fully with the story, so I couldn’t help but fall in love.