Well Bookies, we know it’s been a long time coming but we are finally back. What can we say? Sometimes life gets a little messy and we get consumed by mundane things like work and other adulting life tasks. However when a book stumbles across your lap and is by far one of your all time favorite authors, how can you not read? How could we not blog?
Welcome back to our blog! Thank you for sticking around with us! We are so excited to be once again doing what we love! So today we will be discussing the newest book by Sarah J. Maas: Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood.
We both agree that this book has made it to our top 5 favorite series list. Guys it is seriously that amazing! We could not put it down. This post is going to be a long one, the book is literally 799 pages so there was no way to make this any shorter, so get ready to strap in for the long haul. So with that being said, if you haven’t already read it stop and go read it now because…
This was the first adult book by our beloved S. J. Maas and she did not let us down, especially when it comes to her characters and world building. This book is sort of a mix of Fantasy, Mythology, and Science Fiction. From our understanding there are different Planets and Dimensions that each species is from. The book is set on Earth but it is known as Midgard. Each species is sorted into different houses. The House of Earth and Blood contains “shifters, humans, witches, ordinary animals, and many others to whom Cthona calls, as well as some chosen by Luna.” The House of Sky and Breath contains “Malakim (angels), Fae, elementals, sprites, and those who are blessed by Solas, along with some favored by Luna.” The House of Many Waters contains “river-spirits, mer, water beasts, nymphs, kelpies, nokks, and others watched over by Ogenas.” And finally, The House of Flame and Shadow contains “daemonaki, reapers, wraiths, vampyrs, draki, dragons, necromancers, and many wicked and unnamed things that even Urd herself cannot see.” Maas breaks this book up into four parts so that is how we will be breaking up this post.
Part I – The Hollow
Art by Lauregal and found on Pinterest
So we of course read the synopsis before beginning the book, and knew beforehand that her friends were going to be murdered; however that did nothing to prepare us for the utter devastation of finding out that her friends were massacred while she was out celebrating. What hurts even worse is the fact that she finally admitted her feelings for Connor, just for him to die mere hours later ( yes we were already obsessed with Connor, what can we say we are suckers for alphahole male paranormals).
Even though this part is a major heartbreaker, we do get to see the amazing badass that Bryce is at the end. I mean this girl, while still under the influence I might add, hurls after this demon that killed her friends ( her family) with a broken piece of furniture deadpan on killing the thing. She then ends up suffering from a wound to her leg and still finds the strength to save an angel who was getting mauled by said demon. Enter hunky Hunt (we still weren’t over Conner but trust us you can’t not love Hunt 2 seconds after meeting him). He is everyone’s favorite broody Angel! What can we say we have a thing for dark, broody, and misunderstood.
Art by faeriereverie and found on Pinterest
The end to this part is pretty tragic and devastating but we were definitely pumped to find out what happened next, because if this was only the beginning what could be in store for us throughout the rest of this book??
Part II – The Trench
It has been 22 months since that devastating night. Bryce is just coasting through life not really living. She is just going through the motions. She doesn’t party, drink, dance, or enjoy life anymore. She has become a shell of the person she once was. What is also truly heart wrenching is the fact that she will not allow herself to be happy, or to move on from what occurred almost two years ago. She saved her messages between Danika and Connor and re-reads them to basically torture herself and remind her of all that she has lost. Not to mention that she never went to a medwitch for her leg that is a constant pain to her, all because she thinks that if she erases it then she is erasing that night completely. Bryce has a tendency to hold onto things of the past including a fight she had with her half-brother, Ruhn.
Art by faeriereverie and found on Pinterest
Bryce is nevertheless forced to return to the past, when she is assigned by the archangel Micah and Governor of Midgard, to investigate Danika’s murder, alongside his personal assasin the Umbra Mortis: Hunt Athalar. Similar murders have been popping up around the city and Micah needs them to figure out who the murderer is before the Summit happens. Neither Bryce nor Hunt like each other at first and it makes for some excellent back-and-forth dynamics.
Sarah: I loved the alternating POVs! There isn’t anything I love more than hearing both sides. This is what her other books needed in my opinion.
Jennifer: YES Sarah!! I absolutely love the banter between these two! The sass and the absolute savagery they unleash on each other is just priceless! Here is one example for your reading pleasure: “Hunt’s eyes practically glowed as he said, in full view of those cowering along the street; ‘I am going to kill you’ “ (199). “‘I’m sorry,’ she seethed, ‘if your fragile ego can’t handle that I know what I’m fucking doing’”(201).
Not only are they trying to find the murderer but the Horn has gone missing. The Horn is an ancient Fae relic that opens portals to other dimensions, one of those being Hel. It isn’t high on their to do list at the beginning because it is cracked and the magic in it no longer works. It does continuously come up throughout their investigation but we will bring that up later.
What is amazing to watch throughout this part of the novel is the changing dynamic between Bryce and Hunt. At first, as we mentioned previously, the two were not that fond of each other. However over time we see Hunt becoming more humane in the fact that he is not so ruthless and actually seems to care about her wellbeing outside of his assigned role of protector. He is the reason her leg is so scarred, as it was he who stapled it close on the scene: “His stomach twisted at the sight of what he’d done to her”. We also come to the realization that Bryce is not the only one suffering from things of the past. Hunt was a general in the uprising and is now imprisoned through a witch inked spell that rests across his brow in the form of a halo. He alongside the rest of the 33rd are forever bound to the will of the archangel Micah. However Hunt’s deal is special in the fact that he must match a death with a death, to buy his freedom. This does not just include the lives he took that day on Mt. Hermon, but the lives his entire battalion ended: thousands of lives. So with this new assignment: to find who summoned the demon which murdered the Pack of Devils, comes with a twist. If he finds the murderer by the Summit, his death bargain will be reduced to 10 lives. So at first he is solely focused on his mission, but over time his allegiance changes. The same could be said of Bryce, who for once looks to him as someone who is also suffering: “‘ you ever want to talk about it, Athalar, I’m here’” (293).
Once they start to open up towards each other, you see a shift in both of them. “A faint ray of light entering her eyes,” (279) up until this point she hasn’t found true happiness. Hunt brings this out in her. He is slowly bringing her back to life and in turn she brings him back. They are so good for each other because they understand one another, they are mirrors of each other. Of course at this time they don’t yet realize this about themselves. “I see you, Quinlan, he silently conveyed to her. And I like all of it. Right back at you, her half smile seemed to say” (353). They see both the good and bad in each other and neither one shys away from the other.
Sarah: S.J. Maas does this in her other series and I gotta say that I am here for it every single time! It is something I will never get tired of reading, those moments are just too good.
Jennifer: I agree Sarah! I love the fact that in all of her books, the heroine is not this fragile girl in need of being rescued all the time, but is instead someone who finds the will and the strength to save herself (sometimes with some nudging from other characters) I love the fact that they save each other, that they understand the darkest parts of each other and accept the other person regardless. It is so amazing to read and I will never tire of it.
By the end of part II, their investigation is getting closer, they have figured out that someone swapped the audio the night the Horn was stolen. And from the looks of it, that person was Sabine Fendyr – Danika’s mother.
Part III – The Canyon
Bryce and Hunt go to investigate their lead on Sabine. When they confront her she is livid but they get exactly what they want from her, they catch her in a lie. This to them is even more proof that she is the one who stole the Horn and Bryce believes that Danika found out and that Sabine killed her own daughter to keep her from telling the truth. After this visit things are getting a bit steamy between Hunt and Bryce. But their moment is interrupted by Sabine. She is there to both threaten them and reveal the truth, that Danika is the one who stole the Horn and that is why Sabine switched out the audio. *Que mind blown emoji* With this new revelation, Bryce is fed up with the entire investigation. Everything she thought she knew about her friend is being put into question and after days of again mindlessly going through the motions, she finally has enough and starts to take matters into her own hands. She discovers, based on a tip from Tharion, that it wasn’t the kristallos demon that killed the pack, but something else entirely. To find out what exactly, she uses the insane amount of obsidian salt she purchased at the meat market ( to lure out the Viper Queen to question) to summon a demon. Not just any demon though, but a prince of Hel.
Sarah: I have to say that this part was pretty hilarious because Hunt at first is like I don’t like this but ok whatever fine. And when one of the princes of Hel shows up he is like Hel no! And then the prince says something along the lines of you have grown up since the last time I saw you and Hunt was like there was a first time??? Omg I laughed way too hard at that part!!
Jennifer: Same girl same! One of the best lines in that whole ordeal, comes right after Hunt realizes what she intends to do: “ She’d lost her fucking mind. He would kill her for this–if they weren’t both killed in the next few seconds” (467). Bryce is fearless and he is slowly realizing this.
Adias, the prince of Hel, isn’t all that helpful. So after his visit they are no further in their investigation. But this gives them more time to get to know one another and there are some seriously cute moments between them during this time.
Sarah: I just need to mention that I love how she keeps taking his phone and snapping pictures of normal everyday moments. The moment she found out that all he had on his phone were pictures of crime scenes she immediately took a picture of herself and this happens throughout the book. She will also take pictures of him being all normal and adorable and send the pictures to herself. Hunt even starts taking pictures of her! It was cuteness overload and I loved it every time it happened! “Grinning, eyes full of light in a way she’d never seen before, he sat beside her. Then he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of her” (533).
Jennifer: Yes!! So cute! It is shortly after the summoning when Micah sends Hunt for a mission and he returns lost in himself…hating what he has bargained to do: end lives. Bryce is the only one who has ever cared enough to see him through this time of darkness and grief “She’d taken care of him. Washed and clothed and soothed him. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had done that” (504). What was also so beautiful about this moment was that his first thought when waking up was I’m home: “It smelled like paradise. Like home, and eternity and like exactly where he was meant to be.” (503).
They are both falling for each other but neither one realizes just how much they have fallen. You can see how much Hunt cares for her in the scene where Bryce was celebrating Danika’s Birthday. Every year on Danika’s Birthday they celebrate by eating chocolate croissants, and Bryce still upholds this tradition. However, this time someone has written “trash” in chocolate on one of the croissants. Hunt is absolutely furious and in his rage goes after Ami33ele, who is obviously the culprit. He finds her in a bar and uses his power to threaten her, even giving her a few zaps for good measure. He does all this knowing that he will be punished by Micah. Bryce isn’t even mad at him for going all alphahole on Amiele. She is upset because she knows that Micah will punish him and she fears for him.
Sarah: I knew he would be punished and I knew it would be bad but I did not expect it to be so brutal! Micah summoned both Hunt and Bryce to his office to discuss what happened with Amiele. Both Sabine and Amiele are there as well and Sabine actually asks for Micah to kill Hunt. Micah tells her he isn’t going to kill him but he will give him an angel’s death which means he is going to cut off his flipping wings!! And he does it right in front of Bryce!! This was so brutal and I definitely did not see it coming. Even with knowing that his wings would grow back it was still devastating to read!
Jennifer: This scene was so hard to swallow. I couldn’t believe the brutality and the absolute horror of it all! What sickens me the most, is the fact that they viewed this as mercy, as Micah had every right to kill Hunt according to the law. Bryce has lost so many people she loves, and to see right before her eyes, Hunt being tortured into unconsciousness, is too much for her to bear as she swears vengeance to those who were involved including Micah and the wolf pack (especially Sabine, Amiele, and Ithan). What is surprising about this scene is Amiele’s reluctance, she didn’t want Hunt to lose his wings, but had to follow Sabine’s orders to report him.
Bryce again is there right at Hunt’s side taking care of him. During this time she ends up finding a flash drive that Danika had hidden inside her jacket. Danika had found out that the company she worked for, Redner, had been experimenting on what the effects of a new drug, Synth, had on a person. It gave them unbelievable strength and power but it also drove them crazy. They could rip people apart with their bare hands but would get so frenzied that they would turn on themselves. Bryce races home to tell Hunt what she has found but he doesn’t seem too fazed about it. He believes they need to not jump to conclusions again and take this slower than they did with the accusation against Sabine. Things start getting a little steamy but he is too injured for anything to truly happen and ends up passing out from exhaustion. Bryce gets a tip from Tharion that there is a Synth deal going down on the river. She decides not to tell Hunt or her brother because she knows they will stop her. When she gets there, what she sees turns her world (and ours) upside down. Hunt and his team are on the boat buying Synth.Hunt, Vik, and Justinian want the synth to finish what they started all those years ago, they are tired of their chains and want to overturn the hierarchy existing in Midgard and Pangera. Once she discovers him, all hell breaks loose.
Jennifer: This scene was like a slap in the face! I literally had to put the book down for a moment to make sense of it all. I felt everything Bryce was feeling: shock, betrayal, hurt. I mean what the heck Hunt?! He starts telling her that the only reason that he was there was to stop the buy, since he watched the video clips with her and witnessed firsthand the destruction that comes with taking synth. However that apology means nothing, when he has lied to her and makes her question everything about their relationship, and his intentions. Did he really care for her, or was she just a means to his end goal? I seriously was so mad at this scene and just overall so frustrated with Hunt! Like geez dude, you done messed up!
Sarah: Omg Jen yes! I was freaking out but I was also trying to think of ways that justified why he was there! At first I thought maybe he had gotten a similar call just like her and raced down there to stop it and find out who was dealing Synth. But then Micah showed up and things got worse and it was revealed that he had been hoping to use it because he has actually known about it for a week. Then I thought maybe Micah had set him up but nope he didn’t. Then I was just as devastated as Bryce. Why couldn’t she have been enough? She thought he was starting to think of her in that way but his actions proved that his mission to destroy the Empire and free himself from slavery was stronger than his hope for a better future. Also, I just have to add that when I got to this point you still hadn’t and I was freaking out and needed someone to talk to so I had to force my sister to listen to me rant about how awful this entire scene was!!!
Jennifer: I’m sorry!!! But I’m here now and we can rant together!
Part IV – The Ravine
For anyone who has read this part, or is going to read this part, let us warn you that it is so devastating in certain areas that literal tears were brought to my (Jen) eyes! So be warned!
Hunt is now locked up and finds out that his punishment isn’t going to be crucifixion like Justinian, or left at the bottom of the ocean like Viktoria. Instead he was sold back to Sandriel which is so much worse! She both mocks him and tortures him by showing him a slide show of all the pictures on his phone. It doesn’t sound all that bad but it truly is. This is when he realizes that he cared for Bryce, most likely also the moment he realized that he loves her, and that he could have had a normal life with her. All his life he has wanted to live and have a normal life and he was so blind in his revenge that he didn’t even see that it had already happened. By the time he realizes it, it’s too late. “His stomach twisted. The photos were torture, he realized. To remind him of the life he might have had. What he’d tasted on the couch with Bryce the other night. What he’d pissed away” (626).
Meanwhile Bryce is visited by Fury and she informs her of the Hunt’s transfer to Sandriel. Although Bryce is angry with Hunt, and devastated by the knowledge that he lied to her, she still loves him ( even though she has not admitted to it out loud). She will do anything to save him from that fate, because she knows of the torture Hunt endured, during those years under Sandriel’s ownership. She is willing to set aside her own feelings and do the two things she can to save him. So she adds to her debt with Jesiba and tries to buy Hunt’s freedom with Jesiba’s money as well as her amulet. Sandriel scoffs at the money and then melts her amulet, so Bryce offers herself in his place ( much to Hunt’s horror). Sandriel takes delight in this, regardless of her status of being a half-breed, because she will be gaining the only daughter of the Autumn King. Ruhn then steps up and forbids Bryce from bargaining with the archangel, as she is a female of his household and has lordship over her.
Jennifer: This part was so intense! I had so many mixed emotions. I wanted Hunt to be freed but not at the expense of Bryce! Then Hunt tries to pull the whole “I never cared for you” bit, so that she would leave and not try to save him. Then you have Bryce telling Ruhn that she will never forgive him for intervening. Then to top it all off, she gets attacked minutes later by the kristallos!
Sarah: This entire part is one crazy thing after another! I love that even after this, Bryce still won’t accept that Hunt might be lost to her forever. She is still researching the law and trying to find ways to get Hunt freed when Micah pays her a visit and oh boy this is when things really start to get hype!
Artist unknown and found on Pinterest
The Summit has finally begun and it is just a bunch of politics day after day. Then one day Micah doesn’t show. Sandriel says he had a meeting he could not miss (weird considering the Summit is such a big deal). Then it cuts to Bryce and we find out that Micah has paid her a visit, she is apparently his so-called “meeting”. She knows she is in trouble when he shows up at her place of business and is quick to get Jesiba on the phone and ask her to live stream what is happening. Micah reveals that he has figured out that Bryce is the Horn (crazy I know and it just gets crazier from here). The night Danika convinced Bryce to get a tattoo together, Danika had ground the Horn up and put it into the ink that now covers Bryce’s entire back. He attacks her and injects her with Synth to fix the Horn so that Micah could then use the Horn through Bryce to open a portal. He reveals that he is the one who killed Danika and the Pack of Devils. He injected Danika with Synth and let her tear apart her pack and then herself. Bryce is able to temporarily detain Micah with the help of LeLe, her fire sprite friend. LeLe ends up sacrificing herself so that Bryce can get to the gun locked in Jesiba’s office. Bryce makes it to the gun (and the antidote) just as Micah escapes from downstairs. She is able to trick him and he doesn’t realize what she is about to do until it’s too late. She fires the only gun able to kill an archangel and shoots him right in the head. She then proceeds to cut him up, burn his body, and then she flipping vacuums up his ashes! She is a complete badass! And I might add that this is all happening while she is live at the Summit so everyone in attendance is watching this happen!
Jennifer: This was so crazy!!! I was in a state of shock the whole time! I knew that Micah was corrupt, but I had no idea that he was behind everything! And then it was revealed that Bryce has the Horn inked into her back?! Wow. This was a page turning couple of chapters and I couldn’t stop reading even if I tried! What was hard to read, was everyone’s reactions watching the live stream. Especially that of Hunt, who thought he was going to have to witness her death. Not to mention the death of Lele!! I about lost it!!
Sarah: It was definitely brutal to read his POV during these events! I definitely knew that Micah had something to do with it but I never would have thought that he was behind the entire thing! I just figured he was corrupt and covering something up! It was so crazy!
After killing Micah, Bryce realizes ( along with the rest of those attending the Summit) that Micah’s experiment with the Horn actually worked and opened all of the city’s gates with portals to Hel. Bryce runs into battle armed and is the only one that is working to save the defenseless humans in the Meadows. After what seems like a lifetime, Ithan and his pack make their way to help Bryce, and Hunt calls in a favor with the Viper Queen to send some of her personal guards. Bryce, the pack, and the guards are able to buy people time to run to the shelter, however the doors begin to close and Bryce shoves Ithan into the shelter at the last second, leaving herself alone. She then races to the Old Square and after a gut wrenching goodbye to Hunt and everyone she loves, reveals her Starborn power as she uses the light to shut the gate. Meanwhile Sandriel has informed the Asteri of the open portals, and they send in reinforcements to take out the demons and Bryce. Learning of this, Hypaxia uses her magic to dissolve the halo from Hunt and his full power is unleashed. He then kills Sandriel and races to help Bryce, who is pinned under rubble from one of the bombs unleashed by the Asteri army. Hunt then flies down to where she is and covers her from another bombing, leaving him fatally wounded in the process. Bryce in panic decides to make the Drop, in hopes that the firstlight produced would heal Hunt. However she has no anchor. She rushes to the gate and places her hand on the disk urging someone to help her, when she hears Danika’s voice. Danika used the last of her soul to come and help Bryce during the Drop so that she can start making her ascent back to life ( Let us also mention that it is here where we find out that Bryce has more power than her father the King of the fae). Hunt, having been healed, starts compressions on Bryce and urges her to come back to him, challenging her to say those three words she whispered in his ear ( as he lay dying) to his face. She does return to him and the city is healed. She later gets a phone call from a member of the Asteri warning her not to use her Starborn gifts to utilize the Horn, and to ensure that she does not, they free Hunt from his slavery to the Republic.
There is just so much to say about this amazing book and we couldn’t include everything we wanted to say above so now we will be talking about some of our favorite parts, our most devastating parts, and the theories we had throughout the book.
Favorite Parts:
- Getting to read Hunt’s POV
- Hunt getting bit on the ass by Bryce’s Chimera
- “Her pet Chimera just appeared to me at dawn, bit me in the ass then vanished again – right back into the apartment. Just as Quinlan came out of her bedroom and opened the curtains to see me grabbing my own ass like a fucking idiot” (172)
- The totally mundane and adorably cute moments of Hunt and Bryce sprinkled throughout the book
- Hypaxia taking his halo tattoo off
- Finding out that Hunt didn’t die
- The Asteri removing his slave tattoo
- Knowing that Hunt and Bryce can finally be together
Devastating Parts:
- Discovering the Pack of Devils is dead
- Learning that Bryce was so depressed/distraught she considered jumping off her roof
- Finding out that Hunt betrayed Bryce when he went to buy Synth from the Viper Queen
- Lele’s death…like seriously that was hard! Especially after learning that she was free
- The entire phone call Bryce makes to Hunt when she says: “‘Tell Fury I’m sorry I lied. That I would have told her the truth eventually.’.. ‘Tell Juniper…’ ‘Tell her thank you–for that night on the roof.’ ‘Tell her that I know now why she stopped me from jumping. It was so I could get here–to help today’ ‘Tell Ruhn I forgive him’ ‘I forgave him a long time ago, I just didn’t know how to tell him. Tell him I’m sorry I hid the truth, and that I only did it because I love him and didn’t want to take anything away from him. He’ll always be the better one of us.’ ‘Hunt’ ‘I was waiting for you’” (735).
- Thinking that Hunt is dead
- Thinking that Bryce can’t make the ascent and now she too is dead
Theories:
- Micah wasn’t as good as he seemed to be, that he actually had something to do with the murders – Right
- The Viper Queen told Bryce to look where it hurts the most, I (Sarah) thought it was possibly Fury who killed Danika – Wrong
- That Sabine was involved in her daughter’s death and planned the murders – Wrong
- I (Jennifer) thought that the medwitch who was talking about Synth with Ruhn (who never gave us her name) was the new Queen of the witches – Right
- That Bryce had her father’s power and was also the Starborn heir – ½ right, it still hasn’t been revealed if she has her father’s powers but we still think she does!
Until next time, keep on reading! – S&J
(Disclaimer: All pictures were found on Google/Pinterest and do not belong to us)
S & J Reads 