House of Earth and Blood – Sarah J Maas (ARC Extract Review)

Spoiler Free

Sarah J Maas’ first instalment in her new adult urban fantasy series, Crescent City, is almost upon us, and I’m worried. It’s been two years since her last publication of the final book in the Throne of Glass series, and we are finally getting a new SJM book. I was kindly gifted an E-Arc of the first five chapters of House of Earth and Blood, and this is going to be brutally honest.

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House of Earth and Blood

Crescent City #1

Publishing 3rd March 2020

Adult | Urban Fantasy

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 #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.

GoodReads

Anyone who has read one of my blog posts before, or has heard me talk about books for even 5 seconds, would know that I’m straight up Sarah J Maas trash. She is my all time favourite author and I reread the A Court of Thorns and Roses series every year. But when I heard this was going to be an urban fantasy – I was worried. I don’t enjoy them. I’d much rather a high fantasy than anything trying to blur the modern (or future) world into that. So despite being a massive fan, I was sceptical.

The first chapter is a straight up, long ass info-dump. I actually put down the book for a day or two and had thought about DNFing the extract at just that. It comes off as an entire chapter full of only names, places, types of creatures, which pack they belong to, which house they belong in, and all this yadda yadda. It was boring, I didn’t care for it, and I didn’t really retain much of that information because there was way too much. As it spans out in the rest of the chapters, I did find figuring out the structures of all the creatures a little bit difficult and whether this is something that becomes easier to remember or if an info-graphic becomes released – I’d greatly appreciate it.

However, half way through the second chapter the book really starts to leave all that heavy listing of god knows what and we finally start getting somewhere. It was during this that I really started to finally become a little emerged within the story and began to enjoy it. We have this cool female main character, Bryce, who just seems like a total badass despite the fact most of the society looks down on her because she’s half Fae. Her best friend is leader of this killer wolf pack, she has another friend who is an assassin, and another who is a faun Ballerina.

Sarah J Maas has once again included her own made up ways of swearing, this time referencing “Hel”. (I would say take a drink everytime it’s mentioned, but your liver would be broke by the middle of the second chapter) And we also have incredibly hot guys, with one of my favourite moments when Bryce is in her kitchen and looks at her Hottest Bachelors of Crescent City: Clothing Optional Calendar.

And then that ending. I swear I need answers and I need them stat. For someone who halfway through the first chapter decided I wasn’t going to buy this book – I need it in my hands right now. As always, Maas decides to just rip your entire heart out and create scenes that will just tear you up. Oh, and I still haven’t forgiven her for those scenes (to name a few) with; Nehemiah, the end of Empire of Storms, Rhysand, the Suriel, The Thirteen. And now this.

Overall, I’m still utter trash for SJM and her works. I need to order this immediately, and I’ll be reading as soon as I can get my hands on it. I’m really interested to see where the rest of the book goes and how things develop. Whilst I’m not too keen on the urban fantasy aspect of it, I’ve still enjoyed what I read so far.

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Is House of Earth and Blood on your TBR? Let me know!

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