House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, 1)

this was genuinely entertaining throughout and i also thought incredibly heartfelt


My only critique is that i feel like we didn’t need the FMC to become an all powerful being i think she was a strong character regardless of that

I also thought the through love, all is possible thing was a bit corny and also like a direct regurgitation of amarantha’s riddle in ACOTAR

This was an interesting read. Was it as good as the 4th wing series? No. Did it take a looooong time to ramp up and get me to the point where I constantly wanted to read? Yes.

There was a LOT of world building in the first few hundred pages. I found myself wanting to google certain concepts (ie the world order, the houses, the terminology, etc.) but I was worried about spoiling things for myself. I thought I could get away with some googling now that I've finished it but came across a mini spoiler sooooo guess I can't really dive in until I'm done. Because of this though, I found myself not necessarily confused but not really grasping and encapsulating the full story. But some Qs have been answered since finishing the book but I feel like I'd benefit reading through a wiki or something that explains more of the world.

I also had trouble visualizing the characters. Unlike 4th wing where I had a pretty good sense of what everyone looks like (though I did realize I was visualizing wrong due to skin tone, etc.), I really couldn't envision what people in this world looked like due to the fantasy/sci/half human nature of all the creatures.

Besides the slow start, lack of true understanding of the world, and the inability to visualize the characters, once I got past page 300/400, I was invested. I couldn't put the book down. I let myself not see the plot twists (unlike 4th Wing where I saw the plot a mile away but enjoyed it for every minute), like I was genuinely surprised by certain things that occurred in the book. I also found myself teary-eyed on multiple occasions in those last 100 pages. I'm not usually one to get sentimental but something about Bryce's determination and the love she had for others and them for her, idk it just got to me.

Anyways, I'm surprised with how quickly I got through those 800 pages. Time to go pick up the 2nd one!

Audiobook listen. I enjoyed the world building and the Urban Fantasy elements of this book. A little different than I was expecting after reading ACOTAR, but I liked it. If you read this, be prepared to have your heart ripped out though. I came into this series blind, and directly after ACOTAR. I didn’t even read the synopsis so I had no idea it had elements of murder mystery. I think it was done really well.

This book is wonderful, magic and modern technology intertwined? All species of magical creatures in one book?
I loved the way she introduced her world building, bits and pieces at a time. I know people hated the “information overload”, but personally I didn’t feel any once of apprehension of the details she give us through the book. This story and it’s character and world and magic systems were carefully crafted and it shows!

Unreal. Almost a ten but took a bit off because that first 100 pages are so hard to get through but freaking loved every other second of this!!!!