Book Review: House of Earth and Blood

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

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.

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It’s safe to say that what Sarah J Maas thinks is sexy/romantic and what I think is sexy/romantic are not the same thing. 

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Cringey sex scenes and inner monologues about how much dirty sex one character wants to have with the other character aside, this is the best SJM book I’ve ever read. I personally found the writing of all of the ACOTAR books to be super lazy and admittedly only decided to give the Crescent City series a chance as a direct result of peer pressure, but I liked this more than expected.

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I should also clarify that this is four stars compared to other Sarah J Maas books I’ve read. If I had to rate it without overlooking the cringe level of the “romance” aspects and all the swearing for the sake of swearing, it would be a solid three stars for me. However, I am willing to add the extra star simply because I knew full well what I was getting myself into with a book written by Maas. She has yet to deviate from a very distinct formula - only the characters and settings seem to change, but the key elements of the story remain the same.

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I keep hearing that the second book in this series has an EPIC ending, so I’m definitely going to press on and read House of Sky and Breath soon. Also because Ruhn Danaan.

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Book Review: The Love That Split the World

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫3.5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves. 

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Quick and dirty review: I didn’t love this as much as I wanted to, but it wasn’t bad.

Emily Henry has become one of my favorite authors and this is her debut novel, published in 2016. The cover is probably the most beautiful book cover I’ve ever seen and the summary grabbed me by the collar - I’m a sucker for a good multiverse story!  My biggest issue with this one was that, in the end, I had no idea what actually happened to Natalie and Beau.

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I can’t say for sure if my need for answers is just a personal preference or if other readers would also be left with a feeling of “Say what?” as well. Nevertheless, it was a compelling story with relatable characters and supernatural elements that I quite enjoyed. I’ll be buying a physical copy for my shelf because that cover and would still recommend this as a good, if a little confusing, YA paranormal romance.