Crescent City #1

House of Earth & Blood

Specs:

What The Vibes Are

What It’s About

Number one global bestselling author Sarah J. Maas launches her brand-new CRESCENT CITY series with House of Earth and Blood: the story of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a contemporary fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance.

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 number one global best-selling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom – and the power of love.

Progress Thoughts & Rants

Chapter 79 wrecked me. My heart is broken. Why is this so close to the end? No time to recover.

But the VENGANCE???!!!

The last 200 pages are the most action-packed as well as the most heartwrenching and breaking experience of the entire book. I am not okay.

Fuck this book and Fuck SJM. My feelings are hurt.

What I thought about it

***MASSIVE Spoilers below

This was a 799-page story, so I will not be breaking everything down. God lord.

Okay. Let’s begin.

Twenty-three-year-old Bryce Quinlan was an art dealer’s assistant with a healthy party and sex life. While out with some of her friends, Bryce’s roommates were brutally murdered, and she found them when she returned home from the club. She was drunk and high.

When she saw her roommates and best friends, in pieces, she confronted the lingering demon responsible and chased it as it attacked someone else in an alley. While fighting off the demon, angel soldiers aided her and then took Bryce in for questioning once the demon was destroyed.

Her roommates, Danika and Connor, were found ripped apart but with no trace of any other creature being in the apartment. The case became widespread due to Danika having been the Alpha Wolf of the Pack of Devils shifter pack and daughter to the Prime Apparent of the Valbaran wolves. Connor was Danika’s second. The rest of the pack was also wiped out in the attack.

Danika’s mother, Sabine, blamed Bryce for the attack and profusely accused her of stealing The Sword, a weapon and relic belonging to Sabine that Danika stole before she died.

With no physical evidence, the trail ran cold, and we were launched twenty-two months into the future when a similar murder occurred.

Hunt Athalar was tasked to find The Horn, a magical relic, as well as solve the murders and find what killed the victims. Initially, Hunt circled back to Bryce, hoping to gather anything new she may have remembered since her first statement.

As they searched for the killer and the ancient, powerful relics, Hunt and Bryce’s romance blossomed as SJM built the world around them. Evidence eventually led them to a secret lab where Synth was being made. Synth was a drug developed for this world that contained synthetic magic, hence the name “synth.” It gave non-magical beings powers for an hour and gave magical beings a high. The downside of it was that it caused the latter to then tear apart anything in sight and then themselves. Unfortunately, this was what happened to the Pack of Devils

The Conspiracy and twist of the plot was that one of the governors, Archangel Micah, was responsible for the drug outbreak and the murders of Danika and Connor, along with the rest of the Pack of Devils. This was in retaliation for Danika having footage of the lab’s trials and stealing the drug. A power move. How original. Because what else would a political man want? UGH.

Bryce, being the badass she was, filmed Micah’s entire confession live and then proceeded to murder the governor on live feed. She looked the camera lens dead in the eye as she lit Micah’s body ablaze.

During this live stream, Bryce also revealed her power. While she didn’t have “actual” powers, she possessed the power of a Star, even more powerful than the Star power that Ruhn possessed. This revealed her as a Starborn, CC’s version of a chosen one.

Sometime before this, Bryce was also revealed to be the illegitimate daughter of the Autumn King of the Fae and the younger sister to Prince Ruhn. So poor, His Royal Highness, was shocked and embarrassed to learn the depth of her power. It was quite beautiful since he was such a prick.

Before Bryce was able to kill Micah, he had succeeded in his plan to open a rift in the world with no care for the demons the process might have unleashed. Using her starlight to keep the demons at bay, Bryce went through with the Drop and came into her full powers, which by the way exceeded the power of even the Autumn King himself. Beautiful.

Bryce’s Drop was one of the most heartwrenching, bittersweet moments. The Drop was when a character’s energy, or soul, would leave their mortal body, and they’d need a living anchor to bring them back, or their body would die. Bryce’s anchor was Danika, which shouldn’t have been possible since she was dead, but it was. Danika’s soul used its last bit of energy to somehow anchor Bryce and push her back up to her body before time ran out. Danika’s soul ceased to exist after that. No heaven, no hell, just gone. Typing this out still wrenches at my heart. I sobbed when I read that scene.

“Through Love, All Is Possible.”

The story started to taper off after that as the government regrouped and Bryce and Hunt tried to piece their lives back together.

Character Thoughts:

 Bryce Quinlan:

Bryce was born to a human mother who fell in love with the Autumn King. Her mother, Ember, fled when the King hurt her so badly that he left a scar on her face. Soon after she fled, she discovered she was pregnant and stayed on the run. Eventually, Ember remarried, and Bryce was raised by her and her sweet new husband. When she was thirteen, Ember forced Bryce to go to an oracle as a way to connect with her Vanir heritage. What the oracle saw blinded them, and they cast Bryce out of her storefront. When Bryce returned to her father’s home, she found her bags on the sidewalk outside the gate. Thrown away like trash.

Through many issues of self-image and bullying, Bryce filled the void with s3x, dr*gs, and b**ze. Her best friend, Danika, and she were partners in crime and always got themselves into trouble. When she found Danika’s remains, she stopped drinking and doing drugs. It was interesting to read how grief, in a way, helped her. Even if the change came from a place of guilt.

Bryce’s wit and inability to take sh!t made her character so fun to read! She gave back as much as she got and sometimes more. I loved her confidence. Bryce is my new idol – or dare I say, book girlfriend?

Hunt Athlar:

A 233-year-old angel who was part of the rebellion that led to his enslavement. Bond to Micah, an archangel and governor, Hunt was made to pay for each life taken in the rebellion by killing anyone Master wanted. With that having been Micah at the time, Hunt was forced to protect and follow Bryce Quinnlan while he tried to find The Horn and solve the murders.

Because of his assassin status, Hunt was nicknamed the Umbra Mortis, “The Shadow of Death.” His personality was stoic and dry. Your average grumpy MMC. For most of the book, he was fighting his attraction to and intrigue with Bryce while also pining for a lost love who died in the Rebellion. Part of his punishment was an enchanted tattoo of barbed wire across his forehead just below his hairline. In the end, he was free of both this curse and his enslavement by the new Queen of Witches for his help in unmasking Governor Micah.

Conclusion

I honestly wish I read this sooner! I will say I was definitely happy I bought the audiobook for this and listened because it was quite slow in the beginning, but that was only due to the need to explain the government and build the world. I already bought the audiobook for House of Sky and Breath, and I can’t wait to read it!

The plot was fantastic, I loved the world, and I can’t wait to see what SJM does with the little sneak peek of the multiverse she gave.

If you’ve read House of Earth and Blood, leave a comment with your thoughts! If you haven’t, you must add it to your TBR shelf.

♡ G&P