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

 

Fantasy, romance and a crime mystery as well what’s not to love.

“She peered up at him when his arms remained around her waist. 

Hunt couldn’t help the thumb he swept over her ribs. Couldn’t stop himself from doing it a second time.”

Bryce is a half fae half human woman living I Crescent city. When her best friend Danika and her entire pack are killed, Bryce throws herself into her work, and how to live without her friends and the love she lost. Until the archangel Micha comes to find her with an opportunity to find the killer and get revenge.

Hunt a fallen angel, punished for helping his lover rebel against the archangels, is tapped to help and protect the party girl he believes Bryce to be. They are thrown into a mystery of who killed Danika and others in the city, and who isa trying to destroy everything.

““It’s another of the Fae’s countless inane prophecies,” Bryce muttered. “When knife and sword are reunited, so shall our people be.””

As a fantasy romance it fits perfectly into the genre, it has a storyline set in another world, otherworldly creatures like fae, shifters, vampires, mer people angels and demons. There is a magical object and a baddy that threatens the existence of everyone on the planet.

““Find the Horn, Ruhn. If war comes to these shores, our people will need it in more ways than one.””

I love the way Sarah J Maas builds her worlds, and this one is no exception. Its build in a way that you ar unsure if it’s a futuristic version of this one, another planet or an alternat realty and it gives something extra to the story, the familiar feeling of the objects but still foreign enough surroundings.  

““My—my history teacher said the Gates were originally communication devices.””

Bryce has a chip on her shoulder a mile wide and you can understand and forgiver her in the beginning for her missteps, she parties hard and unapologetically and even though she is making all kinds of mistakes, I cant help but liking her, because we feel that there is something beneath all this.

After Danika’s death, Bryce turns over a new leaf, and has put her partying ways behind her, she isn’t even sure she would be “making the drop” that will allow her to live longer than a human lifespan, she doesn’t really want to live without Danika, she hates herself for all the mistakes she has ever made, and she is not allowed to forget them, being the perpetual punching bag from other members of the magical society. But still Bryce keeps up a façade of being unfaced and badass even when the word hit their mark.

Hunt is your typical brooding tall, dark and handsome. And then again. Hunt is still different form the rest of them, he has his own chip on his shoulder, that’s not the different part, but with that chip comes his own agenda and fears and that does makes him different from other heroes. He is an “alphahole” as Bryce likes to refer him as and he is also un apologetic about it, but he’s not an alphahole in the was she thinks, and fears. I loved hunt and I hated hunt, it came and it went, but I always knew that I liked him more than I hated him.

““His teeth flashed. “I don’t care what you call me, Quinlan, so long as you do what you’re told.”
Fucking alphahole.

“Immortality is a long time to have a giant stick up your ass.” Bryce put her hands on her hips. Never mind that she was completely undermined by Syrinx dancing at her feet, prancing in place.”

Well the plot is good, its classic save the world, type of deal, but still with a level of originality that sets it apart. There are no plot holes to keep you aggravated and irritated, and the theme is well thought.

The pacing is good, it’s a long book and it has many details, and a lot of plot twists that keeps you engaged and guessing from start to finish.

I loved the book and was happy I chose to read it over my long weekend because I couldn’t put it down. I had an extremely hard time not plunging headfirst into the next book. And I hate the fact that I don’t know when the third book will be out and how many books there’ll be in the series.

Okay I hope you can already guess that I warmly recommend the book and I intend to read the entire series again and again, and again. I feel like this is probably going to be one of my favorites.

5 out of 5 stars from me.