It seems impossible for Sarah J. Maas to have a bad story idea, and this introduction to The Crescent City series proves once again that she is an incredible author, with a brilliant imagination.
While it took the first few chapters to truly get into, once your in this book, it is impossible to put down. Maas throws us into a world with complexities which outdo all of her previous novels, which is saying something for The Throne Of Glass author, and treats us to a main character who is addictive to read.
This book legitimately has it all; magic, supernatural experiences, spirituality, action, fighting, drama, romance, sex appeal, loss, plot twists; the damned lot. Every chapter is a roller coaster to excitement. You don't want to stop reading it yet you also never want it to end. The characters motives feel real, their actions and reactions believable within the universe, they're personalities tangible as a friend. The universe itself speaks of a hidden background we don't yet fully know or understand. It feels as if Maas were describing a real place to us, somewhere like Rome, embedded in history and yet thrumming with modern civilization.
Aside from taking a little while to get into there is nothing in this book that isn't exquisite. The end itself is a triumph, the action playing out so majestically and powerfully that we are literally on the edges of our seats, gripping the book in both hands, knuckles white, our eyes beginning to strain from the speed at which we're reading.
Maas's descriptions of this world are so crisp that after reading to reflect back on this book is like reflecting back on a fantastic movie over a fantastic piece of literature. I can remember how things looked over how they were described; this novel truly draws you in and lets you live in this world, as this character, for the run of it's near 800 pages, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
With little more to do than gush about how brilliant it is I will leave you with the blurb:
'Bound by blood. Tempted by desire. Unleashed by destiny.
'Bryce Quinlan used to light up Crescent City, partying all night in the clubs where the strict classes of angel, shifter, human and Fae merge into a sea of beautiful bodies.
'And then a demon murdered her closest friends.
'Two years later, when the supposed killer is behind bars but the crimes start up again, the city's leaders command Bryce to help investigate. They assign an enslaved fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, to make sure she does. But as Bryce fights to uncover the truth; and resist her attraction to the brooding angel who shadows her every step; she finds herself following a trail that leads deep into her own dark past.'
We cannot wait for the next Crescent City novel, and in the meantime you'll find us rereading House of Earth and Blood.
We Give House of Earth and Blood Five Stars (obviously)
ISBN - 978-1-4088-8441-6 Hardback cover price - £16.99
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