House of Earth and Blood Book Review

House of Earth and Blood is the first book in the Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas.

BLURB

Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. By day, she works for an antiquities dealer, selling barely legal magical artifacts, and by night, she parties with her friends, savoring every pleasure Lunathion—otherwise known as Crescent City—has to offer. But it all comes crumbling down when a ruthless murder shakes the very foundations of the city—and Bryce’s world.

Two years later, her job has become a dead end, and she now seeks only blissful oblivion in the city’s most notorious nightclubs. But when the murderer attacks again, Bryce finds herself dragged into the investigation and paired with an infamous Fallen angel whose own brutal past haunts his every step.

Hunt Athalar, personal assassin for the Archangels, wants nothing to do with Bryce Quinlan, despite being ordered to protect her. She stands for everything he once rebelled against and seems more interested in partying than solving the murder, no matter how close to home it might hit. But Hunt soon realizes there’s far more to Bryce than meets the eye—and that he’s going to have to find a way to work with her if they want to solve this case.

As Bryce and Hunt race to untangle the mystery, they have no way of knowing the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents, and down to the darkest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir.

REVIEW

Maas has created another world with such rich characters and mixes the humans with the supernatural of wolf shifter, angels, fae, witches and so much more.

Bryce Quinlan is thrown into a spin as her best friend dies, swallowed by the dark side of Crescent City. Crescent City is the place where all forms of magic and technology intersect into one. And like all cities, the dark side is full of drugs and many other things. Two years later, the same thing is happening again and Bryce is now helping to solve the mystery.

Hunt Athalar is a fallen angel is tasked to solve the mystery with Bryce. Everything isn’t what it seems and romance is built between Bryce and Hunt.

I truely enjoyed seeing Bryce grow as character and delve into her past with the lost of her best friend Danika. The moments where she proves to Hunt she isn’t a party girl is perfect and I really enjoyed the chemistry between them. Their dynamic throughout the book worked really well and loved how in the end love prevailed.

Bryce’s relationship with Rhun changes as they work together to find the missing Luna Horn together. I enjoyed their interaction and his full belief that she will survive the drop.

Bryce is a very strong protagonist and a true “wolf” as she protects children who are in danger at the end, even doing the drop with no anchor and scaring Hunt.

My favourite line of Bryce is “light it up” as she shows just how much light she has. I truely recommend this book to those who enjoyed the Folk of the Air series. I will be reading this book again and I’m looking forward to the second book.

5/5 stars