House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J. Maas
Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. By day, she works for an antiquities dealer, selling barely legal magical artifacts, and by night, she parties with her friends, savoring every pleasure Lunathion—otherwise known as Crescent City—has to offer. But it all comes crumbling down when a ruthless murder shakes the very foundations of the city—and Bryce’s world.
Two years later, her job has become a dead end, and she now seeks only blissful oblivion in the city’s most notorious nightclubs. But when the murderer attacks again, Bryce finds herself dragged into the investigation and paired with an infamous Fallen angel whose own brutal past haunts his every step.
Hunt Athalar, personal assassin for the Archangels, wants nothing to do with Bryce Quinlan, despite being ordered to protect her. She stands for everything he once rebelled against and seems more interested in partying than solving the murder, no matter how close to home it might hit. But Hunt soon realizes there’s far more to Bryce than meets the eye—and that he’s going to have to find a way to work with her if they want to solve this case.
As Bryce and Hunt race to untangle the mystery, they have no way of knowing the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents, and down to the darkest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir…
With unforgettable characters 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.
Review: Half-fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan has a great life working for an antiquities dealer and partying at night with her friends. But her world as a carefree party girl comes crumbling down when her friends are all viciously murdered, and she is left wounded. Two years later, she is still struggling to move on from the terrible night when she lost her best friend Danika. And now, the murderer is at work again. Bryce finds herself pulled into the investigation and paired with an infamous fallen angel named Hunt Athalar who works as a personal assassin for the Archangels. Despite wanting nothing to do with each other, spending time with one another not only brings them closer to uncovering the truth behind the murders but helps them realize there is more to each other and the connection between them than they originally assumed.
Wow. Sarah J. Maas truly spared no expense with her imagination with this one. I knew I was in for a doozy when one of the first images in the book is a female werewolf with magenta nails, who ends up being Bryce's best friend Danika. There is truly no end to the mythical creatures in this book from mermen, demons, angels, witches, and even enchanted books. Set far in the future in 15035, it had a very different feel than her other series. In this mythical world, the fae have diminished power than in the past but they can text and zip away in their cars. This world was just a lot to take in. There are few characters who are just straightforward humans. A bouncer at a club, isn't just a bouncer, he's a "half-wolf, half-daemonaki bouncer" (256). Hunt doesn't just walk/fly down the street, he observes "witches on brooms soared down the streets, some close enough to touch the roofs of the cars they passed. So different from the angels, Hunt included, who always kept above the buildings when flying" (254). And then sometimes it was straight up comical, like there talk of summoning demons from 'Hel:' "Many demons had numbers associated with them, like some sort of ancient email address" (467). It just felt like a bit much at times.
And yet! And yet. After a slow start and difficulty processing the insane and otherworldly setting this book plunges its reader into, it grew on me. The tension between Bryce and Hunt was top tier. (As an aside, why does every fantasy book assign a very specific and equally crazy scene to the male lead. In Hunt's case he is described as having a "cedar-and-rain scent" (720). The novel also did a great job building tension as the pair work to uncover the secrets behind the murder of Bryce's friends and the ongoing murders happening throughout the city. The novel did a great job of concluding some elements while still leaving others plot points on a cliffhanger for the next installment in the series.
Stars: 4
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