Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - House of Earth and Blood

Concept is 5 stars, characters are 4 stars, execution is 2 stars. Someone should have edited the first 500 pages down to around half that for all they hold - if the first half had been anything like the last, it would’ve been at least a 4.5 star read. Also…why was the word “fuck” mentioned ten times per page? People don’t talk like that in real life

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my_corner_of_the_library's review against another edition

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DNF @ 25%

I'd like to give my reasons for DNFing, but this is not an official review, which is why there is no star rating...

1. Slut Shaming: There is so much slut shaming in this book, that it started to become uncomfortable to read. I feel like SJM was trying to make a point of writing a girly main character by having a character who enjoyed showing off her body and was regularly concerned with her hair, makeup, and nails. This wasn't my problem, in a way it was refreshing, however...every guy in this book goes out of their way to let the reader know how disgusted they are by everything she wears and the way she is concerned with her hair. While it didn't feel necessary at any point, eventually it became down right irritating.

2. Lazy Writing: I am not a stickler for swearing in books, in fact, there's quite a bit of swearing in ACOSF and I didn't mind it at all. In CC, though, the f-bomb was dropped multiple times on EACH PAGE in a way that simply felt incredibly lazy. It was hardly even in dialogue. It was used in a way to emphasize whatever we were talking about, but instead of effectively emphasizing something, it was so overused that it just started to feel lazy. As if SJM simply didn't want to write apt descriptions of things and instead opted to use fuck as a way to get her point across.

3. Mafia Romance/Murder Mystery: I guess this one may be my fault, though I'll explain a little more. I went into this book knowing that it was quite different from her other books, and that it followed a murder mystery (which generally isn't my thing), but given that it was SJM and I generally enjoy her stuff I was excited anyway. However, this really didn't hit right. It genuinely felt as though SJM really wanted to write a mafia romance with the plot of a murder mystery but was scared to leave her fantasy world, so combined the two. If done properly, this wouldn't be a bad thing, but I really didn't enjoy it in this instance. Which leads me to my next point...

4. No Magic in a Magical World: At 25% of the way this intensely magical world failed to play any role in the plot of this book. If you replaced the houses and different races of creatures with different mafia gangs and the demon with a hitman this book would not be affected in the least. This is what really killed things for me. I was excited to explore this new world and all the different magic types that came with it, and instead we were regularly TOLD about how powerful everyone was, but we never SAW it. Not once in those 200 pages.

Content Warnings

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

As someone who loved TOG but ACOTAR left me feeling a little underwhelmed, I was hesitant to read this book. I also had a friend who rated it 2 stars so it didn't give me high hopes. Holy Hel was I wrong and the emotional rollercoaster this book sent me on when reading it!! I loved every second of this book and had to restrain myself from screaming about it. This book in equal parts made me smile and broke my heart.

I loved the overall plot and the mystery it held. It kept me going with all of the twists and turns. I gasped, I regretted what happened, I loved what happen and by the end, I sat there with the book staring at the wall whispering "What the fuck. What the fuck." As I had to comprehend how everything ended and went down. I also thought "Thank the gods that book two is out now and I don't have to wait a couple of years.". I also liked that all the plot points from the start of the book were resolved and because they were resolved, there are now new plot points for the next book due to consequences. In a book that is 803 pages long, I would have been really annoyed that one of the plots points was not resolved for 'reasons'.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. There was a fun range of them and I also enjoyed jumping to different characters. Ruhn was one that I really enjoyed reading and watching interact with everyone. I found a lot of the characters in this book felt really well rounded and had their own lives, issues, and priorities. Granted not all were as all fleshed as others, it also comes down to how much they are written in the book and at what times. I am very excited to see who returns in the next book, and no doubt the new characters that Bryce and Hunt will work with and against.

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naomi_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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psydneigh's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a re-read for me.
I really enjoy this book. I was still crying and feeling all the emotions even though I’ve already read it and knew all the twists and turns. Cant wait for the second one!
My biggest issue with the book is stupid, but a lot of sentences that should have ended in a question mark, ended with a period. I don’t really understand what that was trying to convey and it just pissed me off.

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