Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

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.

~~~~~

Note: This review may contain small spoilers. I discuss characterization and relationships and how I felt throughout the story but there is no discussion of major plot points or events.

This book is a red herring. I went into it expecting to be wow’d and because of that, I felt like the “wow” factor wouldn’t be all that surprising and therefore not as great…. I was wrong. Maas spends the first half of this book setting up this very intricate world. It’s fascinating but very slow paced. If you start off a new series with very unlikeable characters and a slow plot then you have the reader asking “THIS is what the hype was about? Pass” But I stuck with it and O.M.G. I’m so glad that I did. I find the second half of this book to be on par with Kingdom of Ash in the amount of insanity, heartbreak, and excitement that rips your world apart. Once I finished this book, I sat there in shock, awe, and horror for a good half hour before I could move on with my day. I was very hesitant to even compare this series to her other ones because those books have a special place in my heart but…. the way she developed these characters AND the plot in such amazing ways in just the first book alone… I think it has the potential to be her best series yet.

I will not lie, I did not like Bryce Quinlan one little bit for a good chunk of this book. And one thing with me, you’ll have noticed if you’ve been around this blog for a while, is I LOATHE books with unlikeable narrators. I spent so long complaining to my friend that Bryce sucked that it was extremely embarrassing to admit she’d eventually won me over. However, there are still things about her earlier characterization I found unnecessary and problematic. Bryce, like Aelin, was very abrasive and not at all like me so, personally, I felt very disconnected. I should have known that those types of characters eventually win you over in a Maas book. I understand the party persona and the “devil may care” attitude is meant to be there to represent those that are misunderstood. The girls who are taken to be vain or mean or brainless just because they enjoy a good time. I had no problem with that representation. In fact, I think we need more of it. There are too many “good girl” Mary Sue-type characters as leads in fantasy and having a character that has many more faults is so much more relatable to a wider audience. However, some of Bryce’s actions didn’t seem to fit in with the personality we got to know in the first few chapters so it felt strange to me.

One of the main reasons I didn’t like Bryce at the start is she seemed very similar to Rolfe from TOG. I find that SJM does a very poor job respectfully representing the topic of the enslaved. By minimizing the experience in this book and making a former slave trader in TOG a “likeable” character, she shows she doesn’t have much understanding for the actual horrors of that topic and needs to stop representing it in her books. Bryce’s supposed disregard for both Lehabah and Hunt’s current enslaved status made me really dislike her but I will say, stick with it, there’s a reason for this behaviour that isn’t at all what it seems. Does that mean I think this attitude was necessary? Absolutely not. But it was a relief to know that her character wasn’t as hate-able as the first 400 pages made her seem.

I loved that this book was multi-POV. In both TOG and ACOTAR we don’t get that until well into the series after having met and fallen in love with the supporting cast of characters. I liked that from the start of this we could see into the minds of other characters. I found Ruhn’s chapters to be the thing that pulled me through the first half of the book as his characterization was intriguing and likeable from the start. I liked knowing more of Hunt’s character outside of just Bryce’s viewpoint as it gave him more depth and made him easier to sympathize with. It was interesting to see his and Bryce’s initial perceptions of each other and then see how wrong both of them were while being in the alternate perspective. I wish we’d had more of this with Rhys in ACOTAR as I think it builds the relationship on a sturdier foundation as well, knowing there isn’t any deception happening ;)

One thing Maas does that continues to wow me is her action sequences. When she write a battle I can see so clearly in my mind what is happening. She can ensnare you with even the smallest of scenes in the midst of the climax of the book. She can shock you when you think there’s nothing left to be shocked over. She can make you bawl your eyes out on one page and jump with happiness on the next. It is an absolute rollercoaster of emotions and I love every minute of it. There’s just some type of high that her books can give you in those instances that is so addictive. I couldn’t believe the amount of action AND ANSWERS we got in this book seeing as it was the first in the series. I have high hopes for the rest of this series and by the end I was definitely converted into a Bryce fan.

I truly ended up enjoying this book way more than I thought possible and even after a few days I hold by my 5 star rating of that ending. If you like Maas’ work but are skeptical of a more “urban” set fantasy (like I was), don’t worry, she handles it so well. Even the histories of this world relate well to our Earth while tying in elements from her other beloved stories… and throwing in a touch of Norse mythology for good measure. It was a great read and I can’t wait to dive into book 2.