Review by essie__reads - House of Earth and Blood

essie__reads 's review for:

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

5.0

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I screamed. I cried. I gasped. I fell in love with these characters and their relationships with one another. If there's one thing SJM can do it is portray loyal, loving friendships. This book had some heavy topics surrounding grief and loss (see CWs) but they were handled so well. The world building took me a bit to get into but then I was hooked after the first 100 pages haha. This might be one of my favorite SJM books now (having read all but CC2 at this point). It wasn't as romance heavy as the ACOTAR series but the flirting, banter and the beginning of relationships was all present (hopefully some of these will continue in CC2). There was still some smut present and this is definitely not a YA book. I thought the pacing of this book flowed smoother than ACOTAR or TOG making it easier to digest. The plot is basically a murder mystery and I didn't find any of the major plot points to be predictable. I highly recommend this book!!

Content Warnings