Reviews tagging 'War'

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

249 reviews

kayanoelle's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Interesting.

I liked the premise of the story, the writing style and the characters. Bryce is one fierce lady!!

This book was too loooong. The only good thing about that was that the relationship between Bryce and Hunt had time to blossom, they’re so lovely.

The plot was too predictable but maybe that’s just a me problem💀 I feel like when you read a lot of books, you get very good at predicting where the storyline is headed because there’s only so many plot devices you can use, so it’s understandable.

Another thing I tend not to like about fantasy books (including this one) is that everything works out too well.

Yes, there are high stakes and yes we fear for the characters safety and such but we always know that the protagonists are going to survive the first book. I know for sure that if I were part of this world I would’ve been attacked by one of the demons and it would’ve been over for me.

But this is fantasy and our protagonists are special so it’s okay✨✨

The epilogue left us with a lot to chew on so I am excited for the next book!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cursing, Classism, Blood, Murder, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Death, Alcohol, Animal death, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

reasek's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, and Slavery

bowedbookshelves's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Alcohol, Grief, Physical abuse, War, Suicidal thoughts, and Cursing

jdromsky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Sarah J Maas outdoes herself yet again with fantastic world building! And while

Hunt and Bryce’s relationship

is crucial to the story, I loved that Bryce and Danika’s friendship was the crux.  Their literally undying friendship

saved not only the city, but most importantly Bryce’s life

. It is very VERY rare I think to find a “romantasy” book where the focal “romance” is between platonic friends. We need more of this in not only the fantasy genre, but in life in general, and I’m 110% here for it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, War, Death, and Drug use

kelseydear's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

This book will put you through the wringer. There are so many unexpected twists and turns; I felt as though I was constantly on the edge of my seat! It’s not overly spicy. There are only a few moments of tension between characters and one intimate scene, nothing too scandalous, however. Looking forward to the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Grief, War, Suicide attempt, Murder, Slavery, Medical trauma, Death, Gun violence, Drug use, and Sexual content

rchulin1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, War, Medical content, Physical abuse, Addiction, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Grief, Gun violence, Blood, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Alcohol, Cursing, Mental illness, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Gore, Classism, Death, Hate crime, and Murder

euleau's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gore, Death, Abandonment, and War

amateur_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense 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? Yes

5.0

Genre: Fantasy, romantasy, fiction 

My summary: Bryce Quinlan is a half-fae half-human party girl living in Crescent City. Her roommate and best friend since college is Danika Fendyr, a powerful wolf shifter that will someday lead her pack. The two are inseparable, as well as with Danika’s pack, until gruesome murders occur that rock Bryce’s world to her core. Two years later, when another similar murder occurs, Bryce finds herself pulled into the investigation to try to find the killer and avenge the deaths of those closest to her. Bryce is saddled with Hunt Athalar, the Shadow of Death, a fallen angel and a slave to the Archangels, in the investigation. In a world ruled by the Asteri and governed by the Archangels, the constant war between the Vanir and the humans set a backdrop of Bryce and Hunt trying to save Crescent City in their quest for vengeance. 

My thoughts: Wow. Just….. wow. I really don’t know why I waited so long to read this one. I absolutely loved Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series. But then I really didn’t enjoy her Throne of Glass series so I just put off starting Crescent City, figuring I’d wait until closer to the third book coming out in January 2024. I was worried the hype around this series was too much, but, no, no, so far the first book is as fantastic as everyone said it was. This is some serious fantasy. I’m generally not too much of a fantasy reader and the world building in this is A LOT. I knew on page 20 (out of 799 pages) that I would definitely have to re-read this again to even begin to really understand all of it, which feels really daunting at that point of a book this long. I had literally no idea what was happening through the first third of the book. If you find yourself in the same boat, just keep pushing through and it is so, so worth it. The last of the book is so intense and I literally cannot wait to start on the next one in the series to keep going with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Slavery, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Cursing, Death, and Murder

Moderate: War, Alcohol, Trafficking, Sexual content, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Confinement

kelceyreads's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I don’t read a lot of fantasy and I found the world building for the first 100 or so pages to be pretty difficult to get through. HOWEVER… it was worth it. I very much enjoyed the rest of the book. I loved the crime solving, the friendships, the building romance, the internal struggles of the main character, the hot angels (!). There were lots of twists and turns I did not see coming. I also don’t tend to like split POVs (controversial I know) but this one flipped between the two main characters quickly and I actually really enjoyed the pacing and mixed view points. Very excited to read the next books now that I’m fully immersed in the world. Gave less stars since I felt that the fantasy aspects and parts of the world could have been made less confusing and provided a better opening to the series (I almost did not make it past the beginning of the book) but this may not be a problem for avid fantasy reads/fans. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Drug use, Gore, Torture, Gun violence, War, Sexual content, and Violence

ksilvio's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, War, and Violence

Moderate: Slavery, Addiction, Murder, Drug use, Classism, and Gore

Minor: Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment