Reviews tagging 'War'

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

250 reviews

britwalsh16's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

I barely have any words! I am a very emotional person, & all the grief & loss in this book just tore me apart. BUT I loved every minute of it! I flew through this book, I could not put it down! 
Based on Sarah J Maas’ other books I kept expecting Hunt to flip a switch & become another Tamlin; but I am so glad that never happened! I love Bryce! & I love Hunt! I love Ruhn! & I loved Danika! And though I didn’t know him much, I loved Conner, & whenever Bryce talked about him, I always started tearing up! I teared up with Danika too. But something about the not knowing what could have been with Conner makes me super sad! Atleast with Danika she knew what they had, what they were. Conner never had that chance & it just kills me!

This book hit me in the feels sooo much, & I’m not fully healed from the last book I read either, so together, I’m just falling off a cliff! Thanks Romantasy books! 

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tguccione's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0


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mistyhearts's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-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

4.5


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selena13's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-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

I didn’t understand why people liked this book until I read it! I’ve read all of ToG and ACOTAR before starting this book and loved it more for it!

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mommanay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75


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ld_reads_things's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.5


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ciara_fs98's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

I love this book. The characters are amazing and well written. It pulls on the heart strings from the get go. I love that it's set in the "modern" world, it's refreshing from most fantasy books that lack technology. I found it much easier to picture their world. It deals with grief and loss. This book is a murder mystery and it's amazing. Once you think you've figured it out it does a 180 and you're just there like "What?!" 🤯 I cannot recommend this book enough to fantasy readers

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angelofthetardis's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The third of Sarah J Maas' fantasy series, Crescent City brings the world of Fae, angels, witches, werewolves and a host of other magical creatures into a modern setting. We follow Bryce Quinlan, a half-Fae twenty something who parties hard with her friends, hates her boss and is living a some what ordinary life, until a horrific murder changes her life forever. 

My first reaction was that it was an odd juxtaposition; people with various magical abilities driving cars, using mobile phones and enjoying Saturday night sport, and while the author of course makes it work, I wasn't as easily able to immerse myself in the world; the intrusion of the familiar made it harder to suspend my disbelief. Imagining an avenging angel slobbing out on the couch wearing a baseball cap and football jersey, wings and all, is brilliant, funny and certainly more relatable than a lot of the other males in Maas' writing (even if he does share the usual trait of the ultimate ripped body), but that's precisely the issue. I like my fantasy characters to be precisely that - fantasies. 

I enjoyed the characterisations of both the individuals and the different beings very much; there are a lot more shades of grey in here, which definitely makes the reading more interesting. However, there are a LOT of creatures to get to know, and at times I found it hard to keep track of everything. There's not much of an 'on ramp' with this world; you're dropped almost straight into the middle of it and left to fend for yourself, picking things up as you go. And where in her other series there have been some similarities that allow you to grasp basic concepts, again this setting is so different it's a lot harder to establish the ground rules. 

Similarly, understanding the structure and hierarchy of the world isn't exactly straightforward. I do like the Roman-inspired feel of the city as a whole, but it took me a while to get to grips with the angelic legions, the Aux and so on. It's just a lot to wrap your head around.

I would say that this story doesn't flow quite as well as her other works either. The story has certainly been well mapped out in the author's head, but the writing somehow just feels a bit clunky - the development of the relationship between Bryce and Hunt, while clearly inevitable, just seems to happen in the blink of an eye, rather than via the slow build which Maas is so good at. And some of the twists aren't so much shocking as head-scratchingly confusing. 

I'm thinking this one might be a 'soaker' - it just needs to marinade in my head for a while before I 'get' it in the same was as TOG and ACOTAR. Also wondering if the graphic audio version might help. I do want to see where the series goes and how we end up at the spoilers I've heard about the end of book 2, but I am hoping for better next time around...

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lannahreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.75

I just love this book so much.  The characters hold my whole heart. I love the true crime aspect and the twist at the end. So so so good. I do subtract .25 of a star for the incessant use of the word "preternatural" haha

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annamay1021's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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