Okay so I needed to stew over this for a few hours. As much as I wanted to give this a solid 5 star rating, I have to go with a 4.25 star which is still amazing. Firstly, it took me over a month to finish this book -- it was just too darn long for me. It could have been about 400-500 pages, but I still enjoyed the journey. I found myself reading a few pages and then not reading for days at a time before picking it back up again. Also some of the main "ideas" and "points" about the characters and the powers they had.

Bryce was an amazing protagonist for me. I did get annoyed with the constant reminder of her looks, but I loved her personality! She was bold and sassy on the outside, but on the inside she was a gem with an amazing heart. Bryce went through some major stuff and she came out on top in the end. Of all my favorite characters from Sarah J. Maas, she's second to Feyre at the moment. She was definitely kick butt.

Hunt was absolutely, painstakingly PHENOMENAL! I loved his character from start to finish. His bad boy demeanor was definitely evident, but seeing him soften up was amazing. Hunt is definitely my favorite SJM male character ever!

The romance was angsty as ever! I was prepared and yet still unprepared for how long (page wise) it took for those two to kiss. At least the chemistry and connection was there beyond a physical sense. I am swooning for them, especially after that ending -- they are one bad OTP.

Micah -- there are no words for how pissed off I was with him. Sabine was annoying she was the WORSE mother and the Autumn King was the WORSE father. They need some major parenting skills. Bryce's mother cracked me up. Ruhn was amazing!! Second favorite male to Hunt, but third favorite SJM male. The evil one who hurt my baby Hunt just needed to go and I was happy!

The truth of Danika and Bryce BLEW my mind. I was unprepared for those last 150 pages -- I cried, I got angry, I laughed and squealed. I am excited for the sequel to come out and can't wait to see SJM expands this series. The whole bright light and drop scene pissed me off and confused me, but not enough to make me dislike the book.

For her first adult fantasy and it being an urban fantasy I was impressed. I was expecting more as her YA fantasy is a bit off the charts, but this was such a mature read that wasn't saturated in sex. Great read and definitely will re-read it some day!

I just couldn't get into it. There is SO MUCH new world info hitting you as soon as you start reading. I could not understand what was going on. There was no ease into the world-building. You're hit over the head with it right away. I LOVE Maas' books but I just could not finish this excerpt. :(

Extremely slow to start, I feel as though it could have been tightened up a bit, but once I got past the first chapters it picked up and was hooked. I went and preordered it the second I finished the end of the sample. Once it released, I devoured the rest and it is simply, AHMAZING!

HELLO FELLOW BOOKLOVERS :)))

I think we ALL just became more excited after reading that excerpt of „House of Earth and Blood“. I literally couldnt wait after finishing that excerpt cause, well, lets be honest, WE ALL LOVE Books from Sarah j Maas. They just have this Thing that makes us addicted and I instantly loved Bryce and Danika (Theyre such a mood lmao). That book is the kind of book, where you already know that youre going to love it by just reading the first chapter. SO YOU GUYS ALL NEED TO READ IT!!!

So good right from the start! Can’t wait to dive in more to this one. The character development is already so strong. It doesn’t have as much pazzzaaaas as SJM usual reads but I have a feeling I am still going to love it!

I still cannot get over how much I enjoyed this book. As with all of Sarah J. Maas’s books, her character development is spot on. The friendship between Bryce and Danika is so raw and the implicit love and loyalty between the two is an example of the kind of friend we should all strive to be. It took me about 2 chapters to get into this book and once I was in, I was “in”. Maas has always done such an amazing job with her world building and character development and she did not disappoint. This is definitely a book for adults, and if you’re sensibilities are easily offended, you may want to be aware, but otherwise, prepare to be spellbound and have your heart torn to shreds. Maas has once again stolen a part of my life with her storytelling that I would happily give up again.

I think this could be my favourite world SJM has created so far, I already feel like she put more work in this first book to establish a more interesting world than her other books, it feels like there are so many more places to go in this series.

In this book I can see that SJM is making a lot of welcome changes and acknowledging some of her more problematic themes by having Bryce have not only parents but two good caring loving parents, also it was great to see the acknowledgement of the controlling alpha male love interest that she has in her past books i.e. the "alphahole", that makes my adult self very happy! Finally, we get to have couples that aren't all Heterosexual and mated!

One of my favourite things about SJM’s writing is the relationship and characters, I could talk for hours about these characters but I'll keep it short:
I love Bryce as the main character, I want to see her investigate more in the next few books
I need more of Ruhn’s character just generally!
Hunt’s okay… I’m not fully sold on him yet, I need to know more, I can see myself loving him a lot in future books.
I love everyone else Danika, Syrinx, Lehabah, Juniper and Fury

A great 5 star read, that I'll be rereading before the next one comes out

Sarah J Maas has once again created an enthralling world of magic and mayhem, with her signature sassy characters. The first few chapters immediately suck you in, and it's a wild ride until the end! I absolutely cannot wait for the next book in this series.

Reread 2: Yes, i am writing this after reading it for the third time.


Okay, so the most important thing for me was the fact that this book is builded on friendship. (Seriously people, just stop it with making everyone into the couples) I LOVE the fact tha Bryce and Danika are best friends, fucking soul sisters. We need more stories like that. That their friendship is stronger than any relationships. That they are two sisters that chose each other. Bryce gave away her place in Bone Quarter and Danika burned the last of her soul. Just 🤯

I think Sarah is an absolute genius because she made me care about Danika, Connor and the pack in 60 pages and I felt when they died as if they were with us for a while.

Connor is the best and it was like losing Sam all over again. But it's worse because we have Ethan, who by the end of the book gets his shit together, will always remind us of Connor.

Next, this is adult fantasy, it should be complex. Yes, the first 100 pages are TMI but once you get past that (or reading the book for a second and third time) that info is necessary and really one of the best set up for a new fantasy world. This world is so colorful and rich, I can't wait to see more. There are so many lairs to this society and I love to see more of how it works outside of the City. The passing of this book was perfect, the foreshadowing 👏🏻, and the mystery. I don’t think any of us saw Micah coming. Also, VACUUM 👏🏻

I loved seeing Sarah write in the modern world: phones, texting, pictures. I am soooo here for this. I loved that she wrote Bryce like a regular 20 something year old, we partying, and reading, and amazing friends. I loved that Bryce didn’t really decide what she wanted to do with her life even though she is out of college. It was definitely interesting to see her having a normal job. And I don’t have what you all say. I loved seeing Bryce go from a party girl to someone more. I loved that Sarah was brave enough to write a character so different from the others.

I loooooove the fact that Bryce has both parents and her mom and step dad are AMAZING! I love that her step dad taught her how to shoot!

Ruhn deserves the world. Loved him as a character and I can’t wait to see more of him. And his maybe relationship 👀

Lehabah DID NOT DESERVE TO DIE! She is just too precious to this world. Her saying “I am not afraid” brought tears to my eyes. But also, that last scene with her was absolutely incredible

The DROP! The FUCKING DROP! Read three times. Cried three times. The connection, the power, the love.

Also, I can’t not mention the fact that Bryce saved the whole city and the entire counsel watched on the fucking TV 😂

And at last, Hunt and Bryce are endgame. I loved how their relationship grew and progres. I loved that neither of them are perfect. I LOOOOVED the chemistry (I mean that shooting scene 🥵) but also the feelings for the shower scene. They have both and LOVE. Also for all of your jerks out there, none of Sarah’s couple had sex in book 1! So I don’t know why you’re surprised this is any different 😂

The last scene, with Bryce seeing everyone - This was literally the most amazing thing I could have asked for. It was an apology for Sam. I just know it.

Let’s not talk about the epilogue because TOO. MANY. QUESTIONS

Aidas, you jerk, I NEED YOUR BACK STORY

Reread edit: I just read this book three months ago and I’m obsessed all over. Sarah is the Queen and I’ll love everything she writes. THIS BOOK WAS FUCKING AMAZING. DEAL WITH IT

This is the best last book of the year I could ask for!

THIS BOOK SURPASSED EVERY SINGLE EXPECTATION I HAD, AND MY BAR WAS SET SKY-HIGH. Truly, I'm in awe right now. This review will be so scatterbrained, but one thing is for certain: Sarah J. Maas is THE QUEEN of my heart and I'm 100% ok with that.

I'll keep my review spoiler free since I know so many people have yet to read this, but let me just say this- Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood is absolutely SJM's best book TO DATE. It was everything I wanted and more.....TOG and ACOTAR who??? (kidding, but also serious).

Bryce Quinlan & Hunt Athalar are my favorite MC's SJM has written thus far, and that's coming from someone who loves TOG and ACOTAR. But Bryce & Hunt are everything to me. In all honesty though, every character (good and bad), I loved. I was so invested in these characters and time ceased to exist while reading this book. I lost track of the number of times I cried also, it was SO much more emotional than I ever thought!

My TBR is officially royally fucked. I have the biggest book hangover and I'm so sorry to the books I read after this. I can't wait to reread this and I most definitely will.

In short, there was seriously not one thing I didn't like or wish was different. I haven't been this excited about a series in AGES. I am obsessed, and I want everyone to know!

Original Goodreads Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2393424097?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Like with most Maas books, I may not always think that I will enjoy it; but happily am proven wrong. I look forward to finishing this new book,

Despite this, like every summer, there are perfect books to take to the beach and read under the umbrella, one of them is the new masterpiece of the great Sarah J. Maas, Crescent City: The house of earth and blood, a brick of well About 700 pages, the first real adult by this author, out on Tuesday 14 for Mondadori.

If you follow the blog you know how much I love Maas, I have read every book, collection, story written by her, even the story they started writing with Susan Dennard and never completed. Basically everything, and I read this book without even reading the plot, only on the author's trust and one thing I noticed in this reading is the author's change of style. There was an assortment of perhaps too frequent and confusing details at first that calmed down in the reading, and also a change of setting from the usual high fantasy. Crescent City has cars, cameras, cell phones, all technology possible and imaginable, with every mystical creature in existence, each belonging to a different house.

Though despite one or two cons of this book, Crescent City has been a constant pro. Despite the fantasy world with modern additions, Maas handled it beautifully. It is confusing only at the beginning but as soon as I enter in the story mood I no longer wanted to detach myself from the pages. And the volume of pages returned as it was in the last volumes of the other Maas sagas. But if the story is done right, as in this case, the pages don't matter.

As I said before, one of the two cons are the details that are too much. Details regarding houses, hierarchies, things that without a glossary one will never remember. But Sarah always makes up for it by creating sexy characters that make you forget the whole outline. We got a taste of Rhysand, Dorian, Chaol, Rowan and now we have Ruhn and Hunt, both of whom have key roles in society. The first is a prince and brother of Bryce, our protagonist, the second is a murderer, one could say, at the mercy of the governor following a rebellion that went wrong.

And then there is Bryce, our protagonist, who has nothing less than Aileen and Feyre. Tenacious, a real bad-ass who knows how to take care of herself, who knows how to assert herself and does not let herself get controlled by anyone. She too had a tragic past that is exposed in the first chapters of the book and then moves on to 22 months later when the situation takes a negative note again.

She, along with Ruhn and Hunt, must solve a mystery that puts their loved ones in danger. Killing that had stopped for 2 years and then suddenly resumed. Among the many characters, someone will be the culprit and it is up to Bryce and Hunt, with the help and collaboration of Ruhn, to find him.

With this saga Maas has touched as I said before the Adult genre so as to have now a complete literary career, communicated with the Young Adult, to then publish a New Adult trilogy, and finally this one. But what comes to mind right now is, if the first book had 700 pages, how many will the second have?

I NEED MORE!!!

Ugh, now I have to wait until I can get my hands on this to finish. Maas is amazing!

This was such a good book and based on Sarah J Maas’ previous works, I can tell this series will have a lot of potential! I loved the characters and I can tell that they will have more development later on. Can’t wait to see how this series continues.

Of course, author Sarah J. Maas always leaves you wanting more- and that is the case with this small snippet of her new novel House of Earth and Blood. It's just enough to make you desperate for more, and I will certainly be moving straight on to buying and finishing the rest of the novel!

House of Earth and Blood is Sarah J. Maas’ brand new world outside of her Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses universes. Unfortunately, it is due to the fact that it is entirely new that hinders this book rather than elevates it. The entire first portion of this book is filled with heavy exposition that you might need a journal to jot down notes to keep everything organized and memorable. The plot is at a standstill because of it and hurts the pace of the narrative. Hopefully, the full novel will be better.

This book had me hooked from the very beginning, I was sad for it to finish before all the good stuff happened! I will be purchasing the book because I need to figure out what happened and why what happened with Danika happened. I was not expecting that at all! So good

Sarah J. Maas has done it AGAIN!!

This peak into the start of the new Crescent City series was the perfect morsel to get her fans ready to be DESTROYED!!

I fully recommend anyone to ready House or Earth and Blood if they want to read about sassy strong red heads and avenging angels.

Ok, let me start this by saying I love Sarah J Maas. I would gladly give her babies and I don’t even want kids. That being said it should come as no surprise that I LOVED this excerpt. I have been waiting for a heroine like Bryce my whole life. She’s gorgeous, takes no crap, and loyal to a fault. I want to be her and also be her best friend. I loved this!

I love all of Sarah J Maas’ books! This except is included, and I cannot wait for the novel to be released so I can read it in its entirety! Maas’ writing is what introduced me to the fantasy realm, and I have loved every book she’s written thus far.