These first 5 chapters surprised me.
A lot of info dumps (which I disliked).
A lot of cussing and swearing (which I don't tolerate).
A lot of common places regarding party girls.

I am already a fan of Sarah J Maas, primarily because of her ACOTAR trilogy. I am excited to dive into a new world! The beginning chapters of House of Earth and Blood are good, but fall into the fantasy trap of being a little over-the-top descriptive and it feels like an information dump rather than "discovering" a new world. World-building is tough to do and I feel this has disappointed me just a bit. Otherwise, I can't wait to read more!

This book was a major freaking rollercoaster ride. And I don’t just mean emotionally. Parts of it I loved, parts of it I did not like at all. There were typical SJM things : repetitive overuse of words (alpha-hole), eluding to a gay character without ever getting anywhere with it, lots and lots of names no one can pronounce but I digress,

There were moments of shock that made the book worth it to me, when I thought I had things figured out, I turned out wrong. There was a moment where I wasn’t sure who was going to survive or die...no, there were several moments at the end. It left me on edge and totally invested.

There were plenty of moments where NOTHING was happening and if you’ve read it - you know exactly what I’m talking about. At the end of the day I’m left on the fence, I liked it more than I expected to but hope that SJM listens to her readers and fixes some problematic issues.

Unfortunately this first few chapters didn’t catch my attention. The characters developed slow and they seemed just stupid. I didn’t like the way book is written, too chaotic for me.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for a fair review.

This is seriously a very bad premise of a book. It seems there's no editing, there are huge gaps in the worldbuilding, the characters are so badly written...

This was a really awesome taste of the full story to come. I cant wait to see how the story turns out and fully explore Sarah j maas as an adult writer. I loved all the characters and I am very intrigued about the murder mystery plot. As usual sarah has an unnatural talent to make me love characters in a short period of time - and then crush my soul when she kills them.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing us with an excerpt of "House of Earth and Blood."

**

The beginning of HoEaB is slow. There is a lot of world-building and explanations. On top of that, some of the dialogue makes it feel that Maas is purposely trying too hard to make it known that this is a "new adult" book.

After you slog through the first couple chapters, the excerpt/story really starts to open up. ~~Especially that scene~~

I have yet to finish this book, but I'm excited to read again asap.

I love Sarah J. Maas and her world of Fae. This is a little bit different in that it is more of an urban fantasy. There is the typical magic and also cars, helicopters, and cell phones. There is a mix of modern medicine mixed with magical medicine. Bryce is a little hard to love with all of her flaws, but there are reasons to how she acts. I love Syrinx, and Lehabah sounds like a pyro Tinkerbell.

I haven't written a full review for this book yet. This was only the excerpt but it definitely had me hooked and I pre-ordered the finished novel. I can't wait to read the rest of this story. This was my first experience with Sarah J. Maas and I am definitely a fan.

I am absolutely so excited for this book!! The excerpt left me wanting more, as SJM always does. I love the world building and character formation already. The cover is beautiful and the premise is exciting ! This book is going to be hefty so set aside the time bc you will not want to do anything else!!!! Thank you Netgalley so much! 5 STARS

Thank you for this excerpt! I am so grateful to be able to sample a chapter before buying the book. I read Throne of Glass years ago so i wasnt sure if this would be for me or not but what i did read i LOVED so i will be purchasing this immediately and devouring it!

This was a great taste of what would be to come in the rest of this story. It did take a little while to get used to all the names and places since we were thrown into it in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it I easily wanted more.

Love everything about this book! This excerpt was a great start but I’m ready to finish the book. The characters are so unique and enjoyable so far. Can’t wait to learn more about them.

3.5 STARS

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this excerpt -- House of Earth and Blood is out March 3, 2020!

Being that this is a brand new fantasy series, the first five chapters include a LOT of exposition and world-building. There are so many magical creatures and political realms to keep straight -- what are Vanir? Where is the Hedron sea? Why are wolf shifters in charge? Who rules the Ataris? Angels? Fae? Sorcerers? Who belongs in which House? How do humans factor into all this?

The first two chapters spent a lot of time with this world-building, and slogged a bit. I was almost tempted to take notes to keep everything straight. Starting about the third or fourth chapter, the present-day action began to ramp up, and by the end of the excerpt, I was DYING for more. I can't wait to get ahold of this book in its entirety (yes, all 800 pages) to see what happens to Bryce and Crescent City.

This was an excerpt of the book House of Earth and Blood. Sarah J. Maas has created a world of magic; I loved the variety of characters, shifters, angels, fae, and characters I had no clue about. Humans are pretty much second class as the only ones without magic.

Bryce is half-fae, half-human, spending days working for an enchantress and nights having a wild time partying. The story starts with Bryce and her roommate, wolf shifter Danika. They have an extremely close friendship formed as friends in college. Life is good, until Bryce returns from a night on the town to find Danika and her pack slaughtered by a demon.

I received this excerpt from NetGalley and this is my honest review.

I feel like knocking a star off every 5 star book I've ever rated. Just so this one can sit on its own at the top.

I finished reading this book 60 seconds ago and I'm so full of emotion right now. The last twenty percent of this book had me crying every 10 minutes. I'm writing this review with mascara stains on my cheeks.
I don't think I've ever read anything so gods-damn perfect in my life. From the world building to the incredible secondary characters, who really didnt feel secondary at all. I know il be able to pick up book 2 (which feels like it's a million years aways from being released) and remember every single person instantly.

Seems impossible for me to add my weak words to a review and give justice to a book that read like a 'Game of Thrones' novel. I'm in awe of Sarah J maas once again. This book is the one I was waiting for. ❤️

Sarah J. Maas did not skimp on her writing magic with this one. She immediately drew in the reader with her lush details and characters. I was unsure exactly what was going on in the first chapter, but I very quickly only wanted more. Ms. Maas has proved her storytelling is rich and well worth the wait. I cannot wait to get my hands on this amazing series!

The great thing about this book is that is really does FEEL like SJM in an adult world. The beginning was admittedly a bit hard to get through, just because this world is SO BIG and there's so much information given to us all at once. The different houses and places are a bit confusing to keep in mind while reading. That said, I really do like Bryce. She's a bitch and honestly, that's my kind of girl. She's sexy and she knows it and she really doesn't care if you have an opinion on it. My only gripe is that I feel like SJM does her a bit of disservice by mentioning every other paragraph how skin tight whatever she's wearing it. It's cool SJM, we'll just assume whatever she's wearing is skin tight.

The plot is interesting, I love the addition of the angels, and I'm going to read the heck out of this series. Would recommend!

Thank you for the chance to read an excerpt of House of Earth and Blood. I heard this is the author's first foray into adult/urban fantasy. After reading the first few chapters, I think that basically equates to lots of swearing and descriptions of sex, drugs, and partying. It felt like the book was a teenager who drinks to excess, just because they can. There was a lot of world-building info to take in as well, but it is a new series so that's to be expected.

House of Earth and Blood went from one of my most anticipated reads for 2020, to "I'll just wait for it to be available to borrow from the library,' but then I got to the end of the excerpt and well, I had to go out and buy a copy for myself.

This review is based on an excerpt I received free of charge through NetGalley. This is also the first time I have read this author. I found the first few pages a little difficult to follow but once many of the characters had been introduced the story really flowed. There are lot of descriptions of violent scenes. If you don’t like that kind of thing, this book is probably not for you. Since I was reading an incomplete copy, I was greatly disappointed it ended just as I was getting to the part where I didn’t want to put it down. I am looking forward to reading the complete book.