I recently read the first two books in the Crescent City series, House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas.

A brief summary

These books are set in a world where technology and magic are blended, humans live side by side with vampires, werewolves, fae and Angeles. They are all ruled over by the Asteri, powerful beings whose rule is absolute.

The first book opens with Bryce and Dannika and their life together, full of partying with their friends and Dannika’s pack. Bryce is half human, half fae, without much magic to her name but with Dannika and the pack she is living the high life. Until a strange demon attacks and kills all her closest friends, leaving her alone. Bryce believes the person responsible has been put behind bars until the similar murders begin happening again two years later. Bryce gets roped into the investigation alongside the infamous Hunt Athalar. As they delve into the dark under belly of Crescent City they discover how many secrets Dannika kept, and dark powers which threaten everything.

The second book takes on the aftermath of the events in the first, as well as discovering more of Dannika’s secrets and Bryce must decide on what side she’ll take in the coming war.

My thoughts

I really enjoyed these books! They didn’t quite suck me in the way other books by Sarah J Maas have but the story is great, the romance in it is so good, there a lots of twists and turns and the second books ends on a nail biting cliff hanger. For the first book, shit really kicks off in the last 300 pages and I fully sobbed for most of them. There is a lot of world building in the first book and my only critique of either of them is that they could have been shorter, there’s is loads of extra detail in both books, which usually I eat up but it does make reading them bit of a commitment (but then again, I happily read Throne of Glass, which was 8 books long, so what do I know).

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