Series: Crescent City

Synopsis:

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are trying to get back to normal―they may have saved Crescent City, but with so much upheaval in their lives lately, they mostly want a chance to relax. Slow down. Figure out what the future holds.

The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels’ plans, the choice becomes clear: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent.

In this sexy, action-packed sequel to the #1 bestseller House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas weaves a captivating story of a world about to explode―and the people who will do anything to save it.

“…I did that to him. With my lightning. With a blow a fraction of what I unleashed on the Starsword.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re the tough, smart male who knows best and I’m an impulsive female whose feelings get her in trouble—”
“For fuck’s sake, Quinlan.”

This is the farthest thing from an easy review to write, but that doesn’t make it any less important for me to purge the thoughts from my mind. To say I am shocked to be doing anything less than fangirling, anything less than screaming my love from the rooftops-from the mountains-anything less than cooking up theories with friends….is an understatement-yet here we are.

I literally won’t make this long, but I will say what didn’t work for me and what did. It’s only fair and the only way to get this thing off my chest. For one, I just am clearly not an SJM follower so I didn’t understand the assignment. I thought that, ya know, for once this story was just about Bryce and Hunt and that whoever surrounded them did just that…surrounded them. I was okay with other POVs, I mean who cares, but when they kind of began to overshadow what I really came here for-for my ship to sail and deal with their shit-it just struck me dumb.

That’s not to say I don’t like more of Ruhn. Ruhn is probably now my second favorite character only under HUNT [duh]…so to see him finding a thread to follow, it was refreshing. I like having more stakes, more to root for…more to lose. But that came at a price, in my opinion, when he and Tharion seemed to almost be doing more than Bryce and Hunt. I know that’s not the case, but it did feel as though we barely got any of Bryce and Hunt. I assume that’s the aftereffect of me assuming that the book would be centered around them.

So yeah…I was bummed to not get exclusive and unending Hunt content. That should come as a surprise to no one. That butt hurt aside, probably my second-or maybe first, if I’m being completely honest (or maybe it’s a tie in to the characters?)-issue is that I am a creature of habit and I do. Not. Like. Change. Book one was literally grit and action and desperation and loneliness and finding love through heartbreak and rising above betrayal and-most importantly for my psychotic ass-peril.

There just was something so unnerving about everything being the same yet different. Evolved yet not evolved. Hunt and Bryce ended in a tentative relationship and with the understanding they would lay low but of course they CANT lay low and then we enter book two and it all just…it seems so different than what I envisioned. And there, I suppose, inlays the problem: me. Well. I have always been my own worst enemy; overhyping, overthinking, overanalyzing, playing out what I want the end to be like, wanting only what I expect…

But I fear that, while yes, a lot of this rating has to do with lack of anything happening, it’s definitely not wholly my fault. Look, this is a long ass book . For conversations to be 80% of the story-that’s absurd. Well, at least to someone who doesn’t want a million new characters and threads to tug on. So I guess that leads to my third and final issue: Maas has always been too big, too grandiose, too all inclusive of her own worlds and ideas for me.

So why did you even read this series, then, you ask? Who the hell DOESN’T want to become apart of such a big fandom with your friends? I LOVED and adored book one and was SHOCKED at how amazing it was-truly. It was dead set on searing it’s own path and I blazed alongside Hunt, Bryce, and all involved. I was trash for it-still am. So to say I can’t look away from minor inconveniences and flaws and overlook past biases is both untrue and unjust. I simply just did not see eye to eye with the paths this story took. IE: Farther away from Bryce and Hunt and their tentative domestic bliss.

“Even if **** or **** told Emile it was safe to hide out, if I were a kid, I wouldn’t have come here.”
“You were a kid, like, a thousand years ago. Forgive me if my childhood is a little more relevant.”
“Two hundred years ago,” he muttered.
“Still old as fuck.”

Now here is where my positives start flowing in: Boy do I love Bryce and Hunt together. They are the epitome of one of my OTP couples. I will never not root for Hunt to find true peace and happiness-and I AM SO GLAD this was not a cakewalk for them. Bring on the pain. Bring on the hurt. Bring on any and every big bad that is trying to tear them apart. I. Am. Down. For. That. Maas wouldn’t and couldn’t and shouldn’t

make them an easy couple and that’s okay-divine even. Domestic bliss is boring and lack of tension after a couple gets together drives a book to Boring Town in less than 5 pages. So the fact that we all knew book two wouldn’t send our main lovers sailing into the sunset is a given-Maas certainly delivered. Perhaps a little too thoroughly. I’d say I have more on that alter, but I’m past being upset and negative and it holds no place among Maas fans so what is the point-I stand by the fact that this book was far from perfect but it had so many perfect elements laying within it that I cannot hate it. Will not. My heart may be shattered that this wasn’t a masterpiece in my eyes but that doesn’t blind me to the fact that Maas gives me so many things I crave.

“Not sexy enough.”
“Lover?”
“Does that come with a ruff and lute?”
He swept a wing over her bare thigh. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a pain in the ass?”
“Just ye olde lover.”

And then she can so easily taketh away: (view spoiler)[I hate the mate trope. Period. Almost always. (hide spoiler)] I thought we avoided that but clearly not. I didn’t say this to start down that path (though what long, winding, desolate road that would be), but to implement the fact that so many amazing elements were presented within it: Pain. Desperation (though a far tamer desperation than I wanted and needed which was delivered in book one). Longing. Loss. I love these moments above the rest, and to see them given to me in a different way I didn’t expect (though Arielle had mentioned this when I read it over a year ago as a possibility) was refreshing, though unwelcome at times.

All this being said, I am still in shock I even have to think about how I’m phrasing this and that I’m not 5 more paragraphs in blasting to the cosmos with how enraptured I am and that I am now forever an SJM fan, not lost in the throes of book slumpdom alongside my ride or die bitch, but I can’t be that person and I guess I never will. I would be remiss if I didn’t say that, of course I will still pine to know what happens in book three and I will still try with my whole heart to love book three, but am now far more unsure if that’s possible. Why bother, you’re probably asking, if you don’t like SJM. Well-what a sad world we’d live in if we gave up on our favorite characters and what will inevitably become them. What a sad world that I’d let a few things I don’t like kill the love and fire in my torch I have for Hunt and his journey for peace and happiness. My hope cannot be killed, no matter how little I felt for most of this novel. So onto three and wishing for nothing but the best in the final installment of a series I plan to die still loving.

****

Oh God the way I’m terrified to rate this candidly

Don’t tear apart my carcass please

RTC

****

ARIELLE. CASSIE. LET’S DO THIS THING.

View all my reviews

House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
by Sarah J. Maas
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

#1 ​New York Times 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.

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.

Lehabah drifted to her little couch. “Athie would talk to me about it.”
“Athie is a slave with little left to lose.”
“Don’t say such things, BB,” Lehabah hissed. “There is always something left to lose.”

I’ll admit it: I’m a total snob when it comes to Sarah J. Maas. That’s not to say I haven’t tried many times to immerse myself into her work. Newsflash: I have. It’s just hard for me, as the type of reader I am-deep down in my soul-to follow a lead who goes through not one, not two, but multiple romantic inquisitions. I’m sorry if some find this offensive (I don’t care, though), but not everyone enjoys getting their heart invested and then abruptly being flung onto a different flame where we are supposed to, again, invest our heart. Then…sometimes…have it torn out again.

I just am not that person, and I can’t/won’t/never will be. I like to have 1-2 love interests, up front (if it’s going to be a triangle), so all the cards are on the table for me to observe and to decide, on my own, who I like and who I want to root for. All these curveballs Maas throws? They just aren’t. My. Style.

Saying all this, of course, indicates I keep trying. The truth is, I swore this author off after the whole Tamlin/Rhys scenario. And have you SEEN the bloodshed over ships for this fandom? No thanks. I get my heart too into it, I become too Ride or Die, and my feelings get hurt, because people can say the meanest things… and they sting. Why bother? Well. Arielle seems to bother. Arielle bothered me a whole Hell of a lot.

Alas, here we are. My heart, as you can see, is wholly invested (again), two copies are on the way-one a special edition-andddd….I have a lot of trust, but, also, people are already worried if she’ll throw another male love interest in. Me? I am inclined to trust my Maas superfriend who has rarely (see: rarely. But she has led me astray before) taken me down a destructive path. And, truthfully, I know people like to speculate. Sure, why not. For one series, I was cracking up at the speculation after book one, cackling to myself about the idiots wanting the ‘bad guy’ to be the endgame love interest (effing really? Why?) And then I read book two…and I was the idiot. Never again. I will never be that fool again because it made me CRAZY. Also? That series can burn a fiery death and that author (who was manipulative as F*** on character development for the furtherment of her popularity among fans) is on my permanent do not read list. For-Ever.

She doesn’t even exist to me. Who? Jen, do you remember who that was?

Ha. Didn’t think so. We don’t know her.

But I digress. MY POINT WAS-Just because the fans’ hopes for certain love interests seem stupid at best, I’ve been taken on a stupider ride before. The thing is, though-I really really….trust this one. I have high hopes for it. Because the moment I met Hunt Athalar? I was done. Dead. I died. And I really haven’t stopped reading it since I started. I’m somewhere on my second immediate re-read, and I feel no less warm and fuzzy every single time he or Bryce are on the page. Or, better yet, when they are on the page together, bantering, supporting, fighting for one another.

(my personal favorite, period-)

Bryce whirled to face the elevator, that ponytail nearly whipping him in the face.
“Watch that thing,” Hunt snapped as the elevator finally emptied and they walked in. “You’ll take my eye out.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” Hunt’s turn to lift a brow. “What do you think I do with my spare time?”
“I don’t know. I assumed you cursed at the stars and brooded and plotted revenge on all your enemies.”

“This isn’t some crime-scene investigative drama, Quinlan. It’s not that easy.”
“No one likes a condescending asshole, Athalar.”

Hunt followed a step behind. Still shirtless.
“The soap is right there,” she said, pointing to the stack directly at his eye level. “And yet you took down a box from the highest shelf?”
She could have sworn color stained his cheeks. “I saw purple glitter.”
She blinked at him. “You thought it was a sex toy, didn’t you?” He said nothing.

And I think that’s the part that always bummed me out. Here was this author that had EVERYTHING I love in books: VERY likable female lead (well, okay, just Bryce…I didn’t like Feyre OR Aelin (Or whatever her name was??), personally), a guy that was new and interesting and I haven’t gotten to read about in a while because they’re always written poorly (See: Angel), a tense enemies to lovers (though I thought it was a bit light on the enemies tagline), a friendship between the leads that leads to mindblowing…er…chemistry, and, the belle of the ball-PERIL. I. Love. PERIL. And romantic peril at that? SIGN ME UP. Though, as I said, I could never read these books, because I couldn’t stand how many men this woman always wrote into existence. And then Arielle said-I think you’re wrong to not read this one. Angels. Enemies to lovers. Bryce. Hunt. DO IT. So, because it’s my girl I love more than anything in this world…I did.

She bit into the croissant. “Isn’t it exhausting to be an alphahole all the time? Do you guys have a handbook for it? Maybe secret support groups?”
“An alpha-what?”
“Alphahole. Possessive and aggressive.” She waved a hand at his bare torso. “You know—you males who rip your shirt off at the slightest provocation, who know how to kill people in twenty different ways, who have females falling over themselves to be with you; and when you finally bang one, you go full-on mating-frenzy with her, refusing to let another male look at or talk to her, deciding what and when she needs to eat, what she should wear, when she sees her friends—”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”

And, though I don’t know what the end result will be, I’m hooked. Despite my reservations and fragile heart, I’m hooked. And here it all comes down to this: This story was a trailblazer, a shooting star, and an absolute fucking delight. Bryce is someone I met and fell in love with almost immediately. Her loyalty. Her devotion. Her humanness. The mistakes and the fragility and the FIERCENESS. She is a girl I’d want to hang out with, and she is a girl that is fun to follow. And the way she holds someone accountable, but has the ability to look at the situation as someone else might have saw it, to work through that and forgive-to give all of herself? I love her. Absolutely adore her and am trash for her. And her relationship with Hunt? Amazing.

Bryce breathed, “If we summon a kristallos—”
“We don’t take that risk,” Hunt snarled. “We’ll figure out how to get the venom another way.”
“I can handle myself—”
“I can’t fucking handle myself, Quinlan. Not if you might be in danger.”

The complex layers that formed an alliance, then friendship, then love and trust…they captured my heart and made it hard to breathe. The subtlety of how deeply they felt for one another….it’s nothing short of a masterpiece. There’s a moment of emotional devastation that’s unparalleled to anything I’ve read in recent history, and it made my heart go crazy almost as much as actual strenuous and action sequences did/do. I can’t say what it is but…Hunt’s pain, his heartache, the dull ache of what could/is/will/can’t be, in a catastrophic and mind-numbing display of absolute torture-unreal. I LOVED IT. Though, I am a sick individual.

On that front: Man. The destruction in this book. The freaking….catastrophe of pain and hurt and world ending. Wow. I was trash for it. And let’s not belittle how she might have *mentioned* children but never said any die? Bravo because that shit is not cute and it does NOT add anything here. Merely mentioning they were running, etc.? Okay, I can deal. And I freaking APPRECIATE AND SEE YOU, MAAS. That’s not to say more isn’t coming, but, I was happy here. And the animal? (view spoiler)[THANK YOU FOR CREATING AN EPIC EPIC EPIIICCCC MOMENT WITHOUT SACRIFICING A PET. You proved just how unnecessary all that bullshit is because look how epic it was anyway. I might forgive you yet. (hide spoiler)] This is the type of writing I missed, that I have such a hard time finding. Not many authors *go there* for me. To that super dark moment that most people hate when one of the heroes gets hurt beyond comprehension but doesn’t give up, won’t leave someone behind, won’t stop fighting even though they have nothing left, etc. And I KNOW this is something she has always done but, alas, as I don’t read her books because *reasons* I miss out. And I’m okay with that, but now that I have found a book I truly am obsessed with…I hope she doesn’t screw the pooch. Lol. Literally.

Does she have the best writing style, adjectives, adverbs, names of characters, cheese level? No. Not all of it is my style. I don’t necessarily love the way she writes…but more what she writes. I can deal with her writing because she can lead me places not many authors can, and for that we are equals and I can hope and pray she keeps things going as they seem to be going *ahem* HUNT.

Speaking of the handsome devil [angel], I just…I love him? He was funny, sarcastic, witty, loyal AF, dedicated, and never once forgot his first love, but knew he was falling in love all the same. It was honestly beautiful to watch, and he is-quite frankly-Bryce’s equal. He would do anything for her. Anything; Just as she would for him. I am obsessed with that-how rare is it that not one, but two are self-sacrificing in a relationship. Both as friends and more. The way they risk their safety time and again to defend and honor one another, it’s groundbreaking to me and, in turn, cracked the tough exterior covering my heart where this author is concerned. The way he longed to be her friend, saw how loyal she was and just ached and yearned to have a friend like that-I might have become a ridiculous pile of goo. And the way he felt honored when they DID become friends, beaming with pride. It obliterated my crusty exterior, seriously.

“No, no, and no,” Bryce cut her off. “Jesiba is having me do a classified job, and Hunt was assigned to protect me.”
“Is being shirtless in your house part of that assignment?”
“You know how these Vanir males are. They live to show off their muscles.”
Hunt rolled his eyes as Juniper laughed.
“I’m shocked you’re even letting him stay here, B.”
“I didn’t really have a choice.”
“Hmmm.”
A thump of bare feet on the ground. “You know he’s listening, right? His feathers are probably so puffed up he won’t be able to fit through the door.”

And the steam level? I LOVE IT. Just that slow build, the relationship building felt so REAL, so palpable, which made it all the more addicting. And the way she leaves us yearning for more? I cannot. Literally. Not over the top (yet) and just enough to suck you in and hook you…I was a fan of what she did here and I am shocked there wasn’t more. And, honestly, pleasantly surprised .

It sucked. This stupid fucking world they lived in. It sucked, and it was full of awful people. And the good ones always paid for it.

And, finally (I think), the way betrayal was explored. That trust you put in friends. In your family. In the horrible little world you put yourself in…Maas excelled here. Both in fun shock (to me), and the ultimate betrayal of long-time friends. Of not knowing the truth and being spoon-fed lies but still persevering, seeking the light of truth that will help you get past your hurt. And then, ultimately, just deciding that, no matter the circumstance or consequences, you don’t care. All the people surrounding you who hurt you-some out of love, others just because- they love you and care for you and you love them and care for them. So damn it all and move on. This is the most important reason I love Bryce-and why she is so relatable to me.

Ruhn said to her, “I asked you to come. Not him.”
Bryce linked her arm through Athalar’s, the portrait they painted laughable: Bryce in her fancy work dress and heels, the angel in his black battle-suit.
“We’re joined at the hip now, unfortunately for you. Best, best friends.”
“The best,” Hunt echoed, his grin unfading.

I am not lying when I say that I could go on for days about everything to do with this book. Do I like paranormal normally, with shifters and animals and worlds mixed in all this? No. I hate them actually. And that’s the reason when, in September when this first came out, I started it and one page in I was like, yeah, no, peace out, when it began talking about a wolf friend. But, again, at Arielle’s urging, I tried it again and couldn’t be happier I did. This world, these characters, the utter FIGHT they have in them…it’s mesmerizing, and I found my perilous effed up world I have so been craving. Thank you to my friends for making me read something I never thought I’d like. And a big [preemptive] thanks to Maas for finally getting to the effing point and choosing a ‘worthy’ flawed dude that stole most of our hearts right off the bat. I cannot wait until the next book comes out. I am so excited, so ready, and am elated I get to read it together with some of my best friends.

Loyal unto death and beyond.