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House of Earth and Blood
by Sarah J. Maas
Indie Author: No
Kindle Unlimited: No
Publication Date: 3.3.2020

Genres: 
Fantasy
Paranormal Romance
Shifters, Angels, Demons, Fae

Page Count: 816 Pages

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.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.

Sabetha’s Review Part 1:

 5/5

I received an excerpt of the first 5 chapters from NetGalley, and all I can say is WOW. . . Crescent City brings you all that you love about Sarah J Maas, with an adult level of debauchery. (after Rhysand and Feyre I didn’t think SJM could get more debauchery into a novel LOL)

I am left with a strong desire for revenge, and can’t wait to be able to read the full book! Having been my first experience reading an excerpt, I must say I don’t think I’ll do it again! I am in agony not being able to find out what happens next! 

The world building, and various species descriptions are perfection. A fully immersive experience, that I couldn’t get enough of. If you’ve read any Sarah J. Maas books I don’t have to explain to you how amazing the world is. Her skills grow with each series she releases and I’m so excited to dive into this new one.

Expect a full review as soon as I get my hands on the full novel!

Read more reviews from Sabetha!

Sabetha’s Review Part 2:

 2/5

I give up. I made it about 300 something pages in, i’m done. I’m sure this book has an audience, it’s just not me.

I’ve hit the YA she MUST fall in love with her big strong protector right in the middle of a plot essential conversation. I can’t do it. This book is a hot mess.

I read the first five chapters via NetGalley, and that is the above review. To be honest, the first 5 chapters are a different book. They have their own solid plot and story arc. They read like they had a different professional editor from the rest of the book. 

I wanted to love this book because the world concept is amazing, I love the idea of all the various species cohabiting together. If one exists why wouldn’t the others?

It was intriguing to me because it was marketed as an adult fantasy, but in reality it is just Rated-R YA with a super model cast that everyone wants to be with *eye roll*. I’ve read most of Sarah’s other works, and the plot of this book follows her known tropes. There is an over abundance of sex, drugs, and gore, these are not themes, they are just content. This book works with YA themes, instead of themes that would make it an “adult fantasy”.

With that being said the action in this book is actually written as a sub-plot to the info dumping of world building that is happening.

If you are a person that just loves to read world building, and feel like the plot can get in the way of learning about the world then you will thoroughly enjoy this read. It gives you so much information about the world that Sarah has build that you could get lost in it. Every time anything happens, an info dump about random non-plot essential information follows.
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Aside from that, every character has at least 3 names. It wasn’t confusing as they are all distinct names, (i hate crazy fantasy naming, but Sarah really excels at giving characters unique but easy to pronounce names) Mostly it was just another thing to slug through in the already overly info dumping book.
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The editing was the most frustrating aspect of the book for me. It feels like she received a lesser editor this time around so the house could increase profits from her established audience.

The word said is hardly used. Everyone is padding, purring, adjective, whatever- it’s so distracting. Just use said. Makes more of an impact when the adjective is actually needed. So many sentences are started with And, or missing pro-nouns all together, it was really like reading a debut novel, with trying to read through the strange sentence structure.

I’ve read so many reviews that say the end is worth it, so I was going to try and push through, in hopes that it would all come together but I can’t.

Bryce’s character is so paper thin, I would honestly say Hunt is the main character of the book. He has a deep character arc, and growth track.

Bryce is played off as a party girl, then out of no where with no foreshadow at all she is actually a badass? Hello, YA stereotype. If half of the info dumping was cut, there could have been room to give Bryce a growth track.

I’ve been trying to read this book for a month, i know I am forgetting so much in this review, but I just need to call it. Trying to push through it has halted all my other reading, and I’m okay with the fact that this book just isn’t for me.

Sarah builds fantastic worlds. She has the makings to write an epic adult book, this just isn’t it. If you don’t like reading YA books, don’t read this book.

Read more reviews from Sabetha!