Book Review: House of Earth and Blood

About the book

Title: House of Earth and Blood
Series: Crescent City #1
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Publication: March 2nd, 2021
Pages: 799
Read: July 2021

My Copy

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Edition: Paperback
Purchase Location: Book Depository

My Rating:

Goodreads Summary

Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party and Bryce is going to savour all the pleasures Lunathion - also known as Crescent City - has to offer. But then a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, and brings Bryce's world crashing down. Two years later, Bryce still haunts the city's most notorious nightclubs - but seeking only oblivion now. Then the murderer attacks again. And when an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can't forget any longer. As Bryce and Hunt fight to unravel the mystery, and their own dark pasts, the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents, and down to the deepest 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.

My Spoiler Free Review

Wow! I am so glad I brought this book into quarantine with me, because I could not put it down and read through most of this book in 2 days straight. I am absolutely impressed with how good this book was and genuinly surprised that I read so many disappointed reviews before reading it myself. So I'm gladly going to share my thoughts on this book and try and convince you to read it as well, if you haven't picked it up yet!

“Through love, all is possible.”

The story starts with a loooot of information, setting the time and place of Crescent City, an imaginary city in Lunathion. I think Sarah J. Maas did a great job with the world building in this one, even though it might come across like "info dumping" in the beginning. Some might say that the build up of the story takes way too much time and pages, but honestly, that's what's needed in a book like this. Otherwise you would not be able to follow the story and understand the setting at all. However, I have to admit that I had a bit of a hard time getting settled in this new urban fantasy world as it contains literally every paranormal being I've ever heard of and many more.

The rest of this review definitely contains spoilers!

Bryce Quinlan: our half-human-half-fae protagonist is a party girl and a very strong minded woman. Tragedy hits close to her when her best friend Danika, a wolf pack leader, and her entire pack gets killed in their appartment whilst she's out partying. Part of the group is Connor, a guy that has been trying to go on a date with Bryce for five years and finally got her to accept one. When Bryce discovers the murder scene at her appartment, an unknown creature runs away and she tries to follow and hunt it down, unsuccessfully. However, she finds it attacking and injuring an angel and tries to rescue him until help arrives. It's very clear that this tragedy traumatzes Bryce, and she only keeps up appearances of being a party girl to everyone else as a facade after these events. In truth she stops drinking and taking drugs and becomes very isolated. By taking a loan out of her salary to buy a chimera's freedom from her boss, it becomes clear that she also has a truly good heart. So, a party girl on the outside, but a softie with a golden heart on the inside. Just the kind of main character that I like!

“...There's nothing wrong with a party girl. I don't get why the world thinks there is...Its easier for me---when people assume the worst about what I am. It lets me see who they really are -- Bryce”

The build up between Bryce and Connor's possible relationship already made the first couple of chapters seem like such a good intro, because from the beginning I shipped them and I had a very bad feeling that Connor would die too early. Sarah J. Maas managed to break my heart in the first 10% of the book already. Cue Hunt Athalar. A worthy replacement for the love interest for Bryce. The Second Love trope starts to creep up on us, and I feel like all readers expect the unsurprising. Whilst Hunt and Bryce have to work together to try and figure out who murdered Danika, they slowly but surely develop sexual feelings for one another. And boooyyy did I ship them!

Bryce starts off as very closed off and being rude to Hunt whilst she tries and starts to investigate her best friend's murder. The angel Hunt becomes her shadow in order to protect her from any dangers that could arise, not knowing that she is perfectly able to defend herself as she also has a lot of friends in high places. More and more, Hunt discovers the different layers that make up Bryce and they start to like each other, and gradually develop more feelings. When those feelings are nearly at a peak, Hunt gets injured badly as his boss and owner (as Hunt became a slave after a failed rebellion of the angels) Micah cuts off his wings after they wrongly accuse Danika's mother Sabine, the Prime apparent of the wolves, of murdering Danika and things escalate.

Then, Hunt's betrayal (wanting to buy synth to overthrow his master Micah and knowing and keeping the drug details from Bryce) came as a bit of a shock to me. It was very surprising and out of the blue for me, even though I expected something to mess up his "perfect personality" and "boyfriend material" characteristics. Nonetheless, I am really glad that Sarah J. Maas decided against the endless-seeming moping around and feeling betrayed trope of her protagonist and actually made Bryce realize very quickly that she still wanted to save Hunt, when she finds out that he's been sold to his worst enemy.

“I see you, Quinlan, he silently conveyed to her. And I like all of it. Right back at you, her half smile seemed to say.”

This leads to the epic final 100-ish pages of the book, that everybody else has marked as the "redemption pages" of the book, if they did not enjoy the beginning and middle part of it. Action packed like nothing else and absolutely gripping, these pages are what made this book such a great read! Bryce and Hunt face their deaths multiple times in these chapters and every time all hope seems lost, but they power through it! Bryce turns out to be Heir to the Starborn Fae, just like her brother Ruhn, but she's even more powerful than him and their father, the King.

Ruhn Danaan: To be quite honest, I don't really care that much for this character! I know a lot of people like Ruhn, but so far I'm not very impressed. I'm glad he's a good brother and tries to take care of Bryce and doesn't care about their heritage and standing in the royal line. He's not intimitaded by Bryce after finding out just how powerful she truly is and I really like the dynamic between him and his friends Dylan and Flynn! But other than that I feel like his character still has to prove himself to me. Hopefully in the next book! I am rather looking forward to his "relationship" with the new witch queen Hypaxia, because I'm sure this will turn into something very interesting as she's already proven herself to be a very powerful character! She's the one who freed Hunt after all, so that's already all I need to know to make me appreciate her role!

Micah: The big baddie. Turns out, Micah was way worse than I initially thought. I did suspect that he had some dirt on himself, but for him to turn out to be the villain of the story, that I honestly did not see coming! One thing that I really don't like, is when a villain thinks of themselves as untouchable and just tells their entire plan and reasoning for their actions to their victims, who will obviously win against them in the end. This is just such a useless waste of time, but was necessary for Bryce to clear her and Danika's name in front of everybody else (as it was conveniently broadcasted to all the powerful people of the lands). I think Micah made for a great villain and the writing was superb!

Lehabah: This fire sprite was honestly one of the cutest character in the story. I don't know why, but she kind of reminded me of Tinker Bell...

“Then let the world know that my first act of freedom was to help my friends.”

Jesiba: I really don't know what to think of her. The most interesting chapter including her was the epilogue, and I'm guessing she will play a bigger role in the next book, but right now I don't really know if I like her. She always acted very indifferent towards Bryce, even though I think she should have cut her some slack? What I want to know is, if she knew about Bryce's true heritage all this time, or if she was surprised and found out at the same time as everybody else.

Aidas: I'm very excited to see more of Aidas in the next book, I think he's going to play a very big role! Somehow he knew about Bryce's heritage and has been appearing as "a friend" to her since she went to the Oracle as a child. I want to find out what his involvement with Jesiba is and how they know one another!

So all in all after writing this review, I will give this book a rating of 4.5 Stars even though I initially rated this a 5 star read.

I'd like to know

Have you read House of Earth and Blood or any other of Sarah J. Maas' books? Are you as much a fan as I am? I’d love to hear what you think! So please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Book Review: Miss Mayhem

About the book

Title: Miss Mayhem

Author: Rachel Hawkins

Series: Rebel Belle #2
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

Expected Publication: April 7th, 2015

Read: January 2017

My Copy

Publisher: Speak

Edition: Paperback

Purchase Location: Rome

My Rating:

Goodreads Summary

Life is almost back to normal for Harper Price. The Ephors have been silent after their deadly attack at Cotillion months ago, and her best friend, Bee, has returned after a mysterious disappearance. Now Harper can focus on the important things in life: school, canoodling with David (her nemesis-turned-ward-slash-boyfie), and even competing in the Miss Pine Grove pageant. Unfortunately, supernatural chores are never done. The Ephors have decided they’d rather train David than kill him. The catch: Harper has to come along for the ride, but she can’t stay David’s Paladin unless she undergoes an ancient trial that will either kill her . . . or make her more powerful than ever.

My Review

So … my first reading progress update on Goodreads says: "I'm not eyerolling as much as I did when reading the first book so I guess that's a good sign, right? :3". I think it’s safe to say that it was a good sign. I remember not enjoying the first book at all. I think the plot was just kind of weird to me, without any real subtext and I didn’t like the style too much. Which makes me even prouder to tell you that I picked up the second book anyways, and actually quite liked it.

This book was filled with a lot of suspense, turning events and a lot of tension. I’ve come to like (okay, maybe that’s a strong word, let’s go with appreciate) Harper’s character a little better. In Rebel Belle she annoyed me quite a bit which isn’t a good thing for a book, when you don’t like the protagonist. However, it seemed to me that she matured quite a bit and took things more serious. She feels like she has to have everything under control, although that’s clearly not possible and the plot put a lot of obstacles in her way.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews of my friends who feel like they’ve been disappointed, let down even. I’m happy to say that this book actually made the whole series more interesting and against my expectations actually surprised me in a good way. I’m definitely going to pick up the last book in the trilogy Lady Renegades, but I’ll have to wait until the paperback version from speak gets released.

Spoiler Alert! Proceed with caution.

I was so glad to see Bee return, however, I think Rachel Hawkins made it way too easy. I would have liked to see more about her background story. What happened to her exactly when she was away? How did she cope with things? How does she take in the world she’s come back to? I mean really, all the book told us was basically: Oh yeah Bee’s back. She didn’t like her Paladin training. But she’s stronger and better now than Harper. And she’s in love with Harper’s ex-boyfriend. But she doesn’t want to be a Paladin. I was a little disappointed with that turn of events. It was just a way too shallow description in my opinion.

The ending had me really upset. I need the next book to read on what happens. It didn’t make sense to me how David actually managed to leave, because it was clearly said that he couldn’t. I thought maybe he’d die trying or whatever, instead he “just walked over” the town line. I think this made for a pretty good cliffhanger, though! :)

Other books in the series

Rebel Belle #1 (My Review)

I'd like to know

Have you picked up the Rebel Belle series? What are your thoughts on the books so far? If you've read the third book, please don't spoil me! How do you go on with series where you didn't enjoy the first book all too much? I'd love to read your thoughts on this in the comments! :)

The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes

Welcome to the official (very spontanious) Shadowhunters Week here on my blog. To start of I'd like to share with you my review of City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2) which I finished rereading last week. This book does not count as part of my readathon, but should inspire me (and maybe you) to read more in the series.

About the novel

Title: City of Ashes

Series: The Mortal Instruments #2

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Supernatural, Romance, Magic

Published: March 25th 2008

Read: Reread: April 2016, Read first: 2014

My Rating: ★★★★

My Copy

Publisher: Walker Books

Cover: Paperback

Purchase Location: Can't remember :(

Goodreads Summary

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father. To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father? In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

Book Review: Lady Midnight

About the novel

Title: Lady Midnight

Series: The Dark Artifices #1

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Supernatural, Romance, Magic, Angels

Published: March 8th 2016

Read: March 2016

My Rating: ★★★★★

My Copy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Cover: Paperback

Purchase Location: Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses. Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions… Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark—who was captured by the faeries five years ago—has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind—and they need the Shadowhunters’ help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it? Glitz, glamours, and Shadowhunters abound in this heartrending opening to Cassandra Clare’s Dark Artifices series.

Book Review: Rebel Belle

Title: Rebel Belle
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Series: Rebel Belle #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Supernatural, Paranormal, Romance, Mythology
Published: March 3rd 2015
Read: February 2016
Rating: 3.5 ★

My Copy

Publisher: Speak
Cover: Paperback
Purchase Location: Kinokunyia, Singapore

Goodreads Summary: Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance imbues her with incredible abilities, Harper's destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She becomes a Paladin, one of an ancient line of guardians with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts. Just when life can't get any more disastrously crazy, Harper finds out who she's charged to protect: David Stark, school reporter, subject of a mysterious prophecy and possibly Harper's least favorite person. But things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him--and discovers that David's own fate could very well be to destroy Earth. With snappy banter, cotillion dresses, non-stop action and a touch of magic, this new young adult series from bestseller Rachel Hawkins is going to make y'all beg for more.

Other books in the series:

 

Miss Mayhem (#2) & Lady Renegades (#3)

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My Review

First of: this book was fun to read. It was fast-paced, interesting and you don't have to think a lot about possible plot twists because they'll happen without any foreshadowing. You get sucked directly into the plot from page one and it doesn't leave you any choice in the matter. Action from the very beginning and no end in sight. 

So this beauty queen gets involved in a life-and-death situation. Naturally she would scream, cry about her broken nails and run away, right? False. The protagonist Harper Price totally took me by surprise in acting very maturally in such a situation. Now this is the part I had the most problem comprehending. When you see your school janitor die in the girls bathroom and somehow manage to kill your history teacher in a matter of seconds, would you just go on with your life and think: Well, I guess I'm a superhero now. Gotta go and safe the world. Would you? I think not. But that's exactly what Harper did. Her whole coping with the situation seems very unbelievable about the story and bothered me throughout the entire book. Not even dystopian heroes think of themselves that highly and they have to worry about a lot worse enemies than another teenage girl with magic. 

This first book reminded me a lot of Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. Although it has nothing to do with Angels the female protagonist becomes the protector of a young boy and doesn't know what she has to do or what lies ahead in her path. And of course she falls in love with the wrong boy (but I have to admit I'm still not sure about which guy I prefer).

Now I'm a big fan of conspiracy theories and I couldn't stop myself thinking that maybe Harper's boyfriend was the bad guy (back when you didn't know who belonged to the good side and who to the bad). I even started suspecting Mary Beth, Harper's best friend. But luckily, the author didn't have that much of a deceitful treacherous touch in mind. The worst case scenario at the end of the first book though makes me wonder why I didn't see it coming. And then again I wasn't that surprised. 

The biggest reason why I gave this novel such a 'low' rating was Harper's reaction to the whole thing. I was just bothered to much by the whole I'm-going-to-save-the-world-because-I've-been-a-superhero-for-five-minutes-now attitude. Otherwhise I quite enjoyed reading this book and definitely recommend it if you want some light-female-butt-kicking-action. 

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Title: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural, Magic, Romance
Published: February 19th 2008
Read: February 2016
Rating: 4.5 ★ 


My Copy

Publisher: Walker Books
Cover: Paperback
Purchase Location: Can't remember

Goodreads Summary: When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder. Much less a murder commited by three teenagers covered with odd markings. This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons--and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in line. It's also her first meeting with gorgeous, golden-haired Jace. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in an ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know....

Other books in the series

   

 

City of Ashes (#2), City of Glass (#3), Ciy of Fallen Angels (#4), City of Lost Souls (#5) & City of Heavenly Fire (#6)

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My Review

Okay. So I've always loved the Shadowhunting world. I've read all books already years ago before even the movie came out. I fell in love with Cassandra Clare's fantasy world from the beginning I opened the cover of City of Bones. You might know that there is a new TV series now called Shadowhunters which I absolutely love! After a few episodes I decided that I just had to reread the books because it's been years and I want to remember all the small details. In February I started with City of Bones and I got hooked again from the first word on. Now, in this post I won't compare the book to the series because in my opinion you have to compare the series to the books (and yes, there is a difference in that). But that's going to have to wait for another post (which will probably come then, when the first season is over). 

Rereading this book was one of the best ideas I had had in a long time. I absolutely loved getting sucked back up in the shadowhunting world again and I can't think of anything negative about this book. I like all the characters (except Valentine, the bad guy in the whole story who wants to take over the world and destroy most of it). 

There are a lot of characters who play an important role in this book series and the first book serves to create some kind of bottom layer to later build up on. As I know already everybody's ending, it's still very interesting to go back to the beginning where certain relationships haven't taken up yet, where the family relationships aren't that complicated yet and where you can tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are (well, except one plot twist who was well unexpected (the first time) about a certain shadowhunter who only played the part of a good guy). 

I really enjoyed how complicated-free this first book was. Everything's understandable and you can read it in under 4 sittings (because it still has a lot of pages and you might actually want some sleep inbetween). I definitely recommend this book to everyone who hasn't set foot in the shadowhunter's world because it's absolutely great!

I read this book as part of the Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge 2016